In the last message we saw that the proper walk according to spirit must be that we ourselves are according to spirit. Our walking must be according to our being, and our being is according to spirit. Just to walk according to spirit is a kind of occasional activity. For example, I am going to talk to my wife or to buy something or to speak to some of the saints, so I have to remind myself that I need to speak according to spirit. These walkings, these doings, are activities. Surely this is not adequate. This is not so right because the law of the Spirit of life works within us not by activities. Today the Triune God who has become the law of the Spirit of life works within us not by activity but by law. With the law there is an automatic function, and that automatic function is just the principle of the law. So today the Lord works within us not by activities but by the principle of Himself being the law within us. Since He does not work by activity, so we should not live by activity. We should live by our being, by what we are. Just to do things according to spirit and to walk according to spirit is not adequate. Even it is not right. We have to be a kind of person who is according to spirit. We must be a people whose being is according to spirit. Not only our activities and doings are according to spirit, but our being is according to spirit.
I would repeat again and again that we all have to see that God, the Triune God, the processed God, now works within us not by activities but by law. According to the traditional Christian concepts, when we pray to God for certain things, then God comes in to do something as an activity. But according to Romans 8, in God’s New Testament economy, He doesn’t work that way. That was the Old Testament economy. In the Old Testament God had never gotten into man, nor had God ever gotten processed. He was a Spirit, but not the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. So in the Old Testament what He did with man or for man was by activities. In the Old Testament sometimes He came in to do something for His people, and many times He answered His people’s prayers. His acting and His doing for them was by activities. But in the New Testament, especially in Paul’s Epistles, it is difficult for us to find such a thing. Rather, in the Epistles written by the Apostle Paul, you could see the implication that today God as the Triune God has been processed to be the indwelling, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. And the Spirit today, according to Romans 8, is a law. This means it is the spontaneous automatic principle of the processed Triune God working within us. In the New Testament economy, God works for His redeemed people not by activities but by the automatic principle. We all can testify to this by our experiences. Many times I prayed to God, but God didn’t do anything for me. Yet at other times, although I did not pray, something worked within me.
Once again I would illustrate with the husband and wife. All the husbands are sick of the same kind of disease. As husbands we realize that we are fallen men. According to God’s Word we should be nice and loving all the time toward our wives. We want to be a wonderful husband. Even we have prayed many times concerning these matters. But we all have discovered that it is so easy for us to lose our temper. And it is so easy for us to exercise our headship. Actually, the headship exercised by us becomes a hardship to our wives. So eventually we did not exercise headship but hardship. Although we may have prayed much concerning this matter, we rarely got an answer. Instead of answering our long prayers, God did a lot within us, not by activity, but by the law of the Spirit of life. Not only in our daily life, but even in the ministry of the Word, all the brothers must learn not to ask the Lord to do something by activity. The Lord is always doing things with and for the ministers of His Word not by activity but by law. Some Christians, especially those who have been ministering the Word, may have prayed for inspiration, for revelation, and for light. But we who have been ministering the Word for years can testify that very few times would the Lord give us revelation, inspiration, and light by the way of activity. But many times, although we didn’t pray or we didn’t ask, while we were speaking or even while we were resting, something automatically, spontaneously came up within us. Light was there; revelation was there. Many times while we were speaking, we were not expecting light and revelation, but light and revelation rose up from within us. This is the Lord’s doing by law not by activities. If you only know the Lord by His activities and not by His law, you are just ignorant of the New Testament economy. What you know is the Old Testament economy.
Many Christians today don’t know that the Lord is the indwelling, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. They think the Spirit is in the air or in the heavens. They think that they have to fast and to pray and to cry so that eventually something would come down from the heavens upon them in a sudden way. That is a big activity. They may consider that as a miracle. But the New Testament economy is not in that way. By reading 1 Corinthians 11, 12, 13, and 14, we can see that Paul is altogether not for this kind of activity. Rather, he is for the automatic, spontaneous, functioning, and working law within us. We do have such a law within us. We have such a law, and even this strengthens our belief that God is real. If God were not real, how could we have such a law within us? A spontaneous, automatic law is working in us by its principles and not by activities. As God is no more working by activities, but by His principle, His law, what should we do? Neither should we be according to the spirit by activities. We should be according to the spirit by our being. To walk according to the spirit is not just to have certain matters according to the spirit by activities. That is not adequate. We must have certain matters according to spirit by our being. We must be according to the spirit. It is not that we only walk and act and do things according to the spirit by activities. Actually, if you are not a person whose being is according to the spirit, yet you try to act and to do things, walking according to spirit, it is very hard. If you are not a person according to spirit and you go shopping, it will be difficult for you to shop according to spirit. You have gotten into the wrong boat already. Once you get into the wrong boat and want to take the right boat, it is too late. If you have already sailed on boat A, it is too late to get on boat B. Because you are not a person according to spirit, it is difficult for you to do something according to spirit.
Romans 8:4 begins with the word “that.” Of course you understand that the word “that” means to continue. It means there is an issue coming out. The issue is that “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.”
Verse 5 begins with “for,” indicating that verse 5 is the definition of what it is to walk according to spirit. “For those who are according to flesh mind the things of the flesh; but those who are according to spirit, the things of the Spirit.” This gives us a strong definition, and according to Paul’s usage, to walk according to spirit is to be according to spirit. To Paul there was no difference between to walk and to be. To be means to walk. Of course, even according to the Greek language, the word for walk also means to have our being. To walk according to spirit means to be according to spirit. But in our reading and understanding of the Bible we think to walk is just to act and to do things.
I’m afraid, though, that the situation with most Christians is not like this. Mostly, they are not according to spirit. So when they go to buy something, they are reminded that they should walk according to spirit, so they pray that the Lord would help them to buy something that is not according to the fashion of the world. But when they get to the store, the fashion becomes so strong that they forget what they prayed. They are seeking Christians, but still they buy something according to the modern fashion. This is because they are not persons according to spirit. They simply prayed for a certain activity to be according to the spirit. A few times it may be that God would answer, but most of the time they didn’t get an answer. We must realize that to walk according to spirit is just to be such a person. Your being must be according to spirit.