In the previous messages we covered regeneration, shepherding, sanctification, renewing, transformation, and building up. Regeneration is to have God’s life put into us in addition to our own life. After regeneration, we still need God’s shepherding in life. Furthermore, we need to be sanctified in our disposition by allowing God to change our peculiar being with His holy nature as the element. The man created by God was upright, honest, and not crooked, but after the fall, man became deceitful, dishonest, and strange. Among us there are many couples who have been married for many years, but are there a husband and wife who have never lied to each other? The husbands always claim that they are faithful and honest to their wives, but God knows that they often deal with their wives deceitfully so that they themselves may gain some advantage and their wives may suffer loss. We fallen people are corrupt by birth. Hence, we need God’s sanctifying work to change us dispositionally.

Furthermore, we need renewing. The renewing referred to in the Scriptures is to have the divine essence added into our being. Renewing is altogether a matter of changing our mind. In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul said that the old covenant was of the letter and had no life in it, but we, as ministers of the new covenant, are ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit (v. 6). The Jews regarded the Mosaic law according to the letter, so their heart turned away from God. When they thus turned away from God to live and walk according to the Mosaic law in letter, layer after layer of veils were put on their heart. The Jews had received the traditional teachings from their forefathers through generations, so their mind was fixed, shaped, and difficult to alter. The same is true with the old Christians in Christianity today. Their heart must turn to the Lord so that the veils covering them may be taken away. Hence, in 2 Corinthians 3:16 Paul said, “But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

When our heart turns away from the Lord to other things, those things become layers of veils covering us. Today the different schools of theology have their preconceptions. There is only one Bible, yet everyone’s reading is different. For example, in general, those who teach concerning the Trinity in theology consider that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit. In their concept, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are separated. Many insist on the traditional concept, so they are not able to see the pure truth in the Bible. Another example is concerning the human spirit. Many people have never seen that man has a spirit. However, there are at least three portions in the Scriptures that refer to both the Spirit of God and the spirit of man. First, John 4:24 says that God is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship in spirit (the human spirit). Second, John 3:6 says that that which is born of the Spirit (the Spirit of God) is spirit (the spirit of man). Third, Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. If we have a renewed mind, we can see clearly from these three passages that within us we have a human spirit.

I am afraid that after listening to the messages for three or four days, some of you who are here still have the veils within you. The Bible says that renewing is in the spirit of your mind (Eph. 4:23). Only when your spirit becomes the spirit of your mind can you be renewed. This means that your mind can be renewed only when it has the spirit spread into it. If your mind is filled with yourself, you cannot be renewed. First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” This verse clearly refers to Christ as the Spirit, yet if you insist on not believing, there is no help for you. You need to put aside what you insist on and open yourself to the Lord. The Lord will say to you, “Child, My word says that I am Spirit, so you should also say that I am Spirit.” If you receive the Lord’s word in this way, your mind will be renewed.

We need to be not only renewed but also transformed. Transformation is altogether a matter of the divine life working metabolically in us that we may be transformed not only in our inward disposition but also in our outward image, that is, to be transformed into the same image as the Lord. After transformation, we still need to be built up. We need to be joined and knit together in the divine life for the building up of the Body of Christ which will consummate the building of the New Jerusalem.
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