Ephesians 1:17 says, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” To know God, to know Christ, and to know the church needs a spirit of wisdom and revelation. This could only be possible if we are willing to exercise our spirit.
There are four verses in Ephesians with the little phrase “in spirit”: 2:22; 3:5; 5:18; and 6:18. In chapter two, “in spirit” is for God’s building. In chapter three, “in spirit” is for seeing the revelation of the mystery of Christ. Then in chapter five you have the infilling of the indwelling Spirit in your spirit: “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled in spirit” (5:18). In spirit we have the filling-not the outpouring, not the outward filling, but the inward filling of the Holy Spirit in your spirit.
Just as the drunken people are filled with wine in their body, we have to be filled with God in our spirit. Their body becomes a container of wine, and our spirit, in the same way, becomes the container of God. God is our divine, spiritual wine (John 2:10; Matt. 9:17; Psa. 104:15). We contain this wine with our spirit, so we have to be filled with God in spirit. Ephesians 6:18 charges us to pray “at every time in spirit.” The church life is absolutely a matter in our spirit. God’s habitation, the church, is in our spirit (Eph. 2:22). To see God’s mystery about the church, the Body of Christ, is in spirit. To be filled with God in His economy is in spirit and to pray to God is in spirit. The church life is absolutely a matter in our spirit, so we all have to learn how to be in spirit.
If we would take care of our spirit we would not argue, but we would be one in the church. If six brothers came together and forgot about their spirit, right away they would fight. The southerners would fight against the northerners, and the older would fight against the younger. But, praise the Lord, we have a place to go! We have the means to use. When we get into our spirit and exercise our spirit we all will be one. Unity is in our spirit. The church life is in our spirit.
Ephesians 4:23 tells us that we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Usually with the worldly people, their mind is absolutely separate from their spirit. In Ephesians 4:23, however, the spirit is one with the mind and becomes the spirit of the mind. When our spirit is one with our mind, when our mind is subject to our spirit, our spirit becomes a renewing spirit. We are being renewed day by day in such a spirit that is one with our mind.
Home | First | Prev | Next