Colossians 1:9-10 reveals that when you have such a renewing spirit in your mind, you do have the spiritual understanding. Understanding is the function of our mind. Our understanding needs to be spiritual. Some of the brothers who are students may have the understanding of mathematics, physics, or a certain science, but not the spiritual understanding. We could only have spiritual understanding by having our mind subject to our spirit. If your mind is independent, separate from the spirit, it is impossible to have spiritual understanding. When your mind is subject to the spirit, under the control of your spirit, one with your spirit, right away the understanding of your mind will be renewed to be a spiritual understanding. You will have the ability to understand things in a spiritual way.
The issue of being “filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9) is “to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing” (Col. 1:10). Because you have the spiritual understanding, you can please God. You can know His will. To know God’s will is a matter of spiritual understanding. If your mentality is still so worldly without anything related to the spirit, it is rather hard for you to understand God’s will because God’s will is always revealed to your spirit. Without my two eyes, I couldn’t see things in the physical realm. In like manner, without spiritual understanding, I couldn’t know God’s will.
In Philippians 2:1 there is the “fellowship of spirit.” Our fellowship in the local church among the brothers and sisters is something of the spirit. When you are not in the spirit it is rather hard for anyone to fellowship with you. If I am outside of my spirit and you come to fellowship with me, it is just like coming to talk to a cow. You can’t fellowship. To fellowship one with another we all need to be in the spirit. When we are in the spirit, it is marvelous. In 1968 many saints went to the Far East. Sometimes they were frustrated with the different language, but sometimes when those brothers from the Far East came to them, even without understanding one another’s language, there was a certain kind of flow within them and between them. This is the fellowship of spirit. Christian fellowship is a matter in our Christian spirit.
Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of a sober mind.” Our spirit is the center of our being. Then we have our soul, with three parts, surrounding our spirit: our mind, emotion, and will. God has given us a spirit of power. Power is a matter in the will. He has also given us a spirit of love, a matter in the emotion, and a spirit of a sober mind. Three aspects are mentioned about the spirit because the spirit is surrounded with the soul in three aspects. God has given us such a spirit-so powerful in our will, so loving in our emotion, and so sober in our mind.
We should never forget 2 Timothy 4:22: “The Lord be with your spirit.” If the Lord Jesus is here in our spirit, what should we do? We have to remain in our spirit all the time. We can join the Lord because He is right in our spirit. Praise the Lord! Now we can localize the Lord Jesus. Where is the Lord? Hallelujah, He is in my spirit! The Lord Jesus is in our spirit!
Hebrews 12:9 says that God is “the Father of spirits.” In the margin of the American Standard Version, it says “our spirits.” God is the Father of our spirit. Our body was not born of Him but our spirit. Our spirit was born of God (John 3:6). This is why Galatians 4:6 and Romans 8:15 reveal that if we are going to call Him “Abba, Father,” we have to do this in spirit because He is the Father of our spirit. Revelation 22:6 says the Lord is “the God of the spirits of the prophets,” and Numbers 16:22 and 27:16 say the Lord is “the God of the spirits of all flesh.” All these verses tell us that God is the God, the Lord, and the Father of our spirit. So we have to know our spirit and we have to know how to exercise our spirit, how to use our spirit. Otherwise, we just could not contact God.
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