When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received another life. To receive another life means to be regenerated. We had one life already-our human life, and now we get another life into us-the divine life. This divine life comes into our spirit. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6b). We were in the trash can, but one day God took us out of the trash can. God redeemed us. At the same time, He put Himself into us as the divine Spirit. Then we had the divine life. Then we were born of the Spirit. Praise the Lord! We have regeneration. We have another life. Another Spirit has come into us, which is really something new. Now we have a new spirit, which is the fulfillment of Ezekiel 11:19, 18:31, and 36:26. God promised to give us a new spirit, and He did this by regenerating us with Himself as the Spirit. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, when we called upon His name as our Savior, when we received Him into us, the divine Spirit came into us to be our life, and we were regenerated. We were renewed, and our spirit was made new. Our spirit became a new spirit.
Ephesians 2:1 tells us that we were dead in sins. That doesn’t mean we were dead in our body. Physically speaking, we were still quite living and active. That doesn’t mean we were dead in our mind, in our soul, or in our emotions. In our soul we were still quite living, but due to the fall our spirit was dead.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, came into our spirit to quicken it and to make it alive again. Not only did God make our dead spirit alive, but He also put Himself into our spirit. Now the divine Spirit is in our human spirit and these two have become one (1 Cor. 6:17). This is not just a quickening, but also a regenerating. God doesn’t just quicken the dead, but also regenerates the existing ones. Now our spirit has a new start.
The Gospel of John tells us that after the new birth, we have to learn how to worship God. God is Spirit. When we worship Him, we must worship in spirit-not in the Holy Spirit, but in our spirit. “God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit” (John 4:24). The matter of worship includes all spiritual things. Worship in the Bible means to serve God, to pray to Him, to praise Him, to give Him thanks, and to fellowship one with another in the presence of God. Whatever we do to God, with God, and in God, must be done in our spirit. This is a fixed principle, but some of us still don’t know how to use our spirit. Even so many Christians don’t know that they have a spirit. In doctrine, they may know that there is something which is called the human spirit, but in practice they don’t know how to use the spirit. This is the poor situation today, but for the recovery of the church life, there is the need for the recovery of the human spirit.
If we are not in our human spirit, all we have is doctrine. If you have some spiritual reality, that is something in your spirit. We need to have the experience, the realization of the divine Spirit in our human spirit. God has regenerated our spirit. Our spirit is no longer a dead spirit. Our spirit has been made alive and our spirit has been regenerated. Now we have the divine Spirit dwelling in our human spirit.
There are three steps in this matter of regeneration. First, the divine Spirit comes into our spirit to quicken our dead spirit. Then at the same time the divine Spirit imparts Christ, God, into our spirit. This is the regenerating. Following this and at the same time, the Holy Spirit starts to dwell within us. This is the indwelling. By regeneration we have not only the quickening, and not just the regenerating, but also the indwelling.
We not only have the power of the Spirit, but also the life. We not only have the life, but also the presence, the Spirit Himself. His life power quickens us, His life itself regenerates us, and His presence indwells us. We have the quickening Spirit, the regenerating Spirit, and the indwelling Spirit within our spirit. Now we have to serve the Lord, we have to worship God, we have to do His work, we have to fellowship with Him, we have to fellowship in Him one with another, we have to help others, and we have to preach the gospel with the Spirit in our spirit.
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