To be according to spirit is to mind the things of the Spirit. First, we need to consider what are the things of the spirit. Many items are included in the things of the spirit: God, Christ, the Spirit, the Triune God, all the processes that the Triune God went through, the church, all the things the Triune God has accomplished, all your Christian experiences. Eventually, you have to bring in the Bible with sixty-six books. You have to mind all these things. If you were to mind all these things minute after minute, when you go shopping you surely would not buy clothes that are according to the fashion of this world. Your entire being would be renewed and inoculated with God, with Christ, with the Spirit, with the Triune God and all the processes He went through, with all the accomplishments He made, with the church, with your spiritual experiences, and with the entire Bible. If you are minding all these things of the spirit, you become a person according to spirit. You need to be fully occupied with minding all the things of the spirit. Even you need to mind all the books and all the life-messages put out. To mind the things of the spirit must become a matter of a law within us. To mind the things of the spirit is still a matter of activities to you. But to mind the things of the flesh is a law to you. After you wake up in the morning, you don’t mind the things of the spirit. Rather, you mind the things of a better car or new clothes or other things. It is no wonder that we cannot live Christ, because we are not people who mind the things of the spirit. Thirty years ago in my early ministry I learned a lot by minding the things of the Scriptures. I learned a lot by minding the things of the spirit, by minding all the attainments, all the achievements, all the accomplishments done by Christ.
Chapter eight of Romans is too profound. Every verse has some crucial point. Verse 5 has two points: let those who are according to spirit mind the things of the spirit. These are two crucial points. You must be a person according to the spirit, and to be such a person, you must mind the things of the spirit. Verse 6 reads, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” To set your mind on the spirit is an even stronger expression than minding the things of the spirit. It may seem that these two things are one, but the expression is a little stronger. It is not just a matter of minding the things of the spirit, but of setting your mind on the spirit. This means that your spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit, and now your mind is attached to your spirit; it is not detached. The law of the Spirit of life only works by its principle when your mind is attached to the spirit. The spirit to which your mind is attached is the mingled spirit. This means that you have your mind attached to the law of the Spirit of life. In such a situation, no wonder this law works within you! The attaching of your mind to this law is just your switching on. It is to get that part attached to the working “electricity.” When you switch off, it detaches it from the working “electricity.” Your mind is the switch. When you set your mind on the spirit, you switch on. Then the Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life works within by His principle, not by activities. He only works as such a law when we have our mind attached to this law. This is to set our mind on the spirit.
I would like to impress you with this point: You must be a person minding the things of the spirit. Don’t take Confucius’ way. Don’t take any way of religion. Don’t even take the way of many Christians to make up your mind to be victorious or to be nice or to love your wife. Don’t make up your mind to do anything, but set your mind on the spirit. Forget about loving your wife. Forget about submitting to your husband. Forget about all these things and just mind the things of the spirit. If you mind the things of the spirit, spontaneously and automatically you will pray. You will fellowship with the Lord, and you will read the Bible.
To read the Bible, to recite the verses of the Bible, to fellowship with the Lord, to pray, and to fellowship with the saints around the Bible or about the spiritual things helps you to mind the things of the Spirit. Some may say they don’t like to attend the meetings because the meetings don’t help them. I would answer that electricity is powerful, but electricity cannot help you if you are a detached one. If you are detached, how can the meeting help you? If you are detached, how can the ministry help you? Those who keep themselves attached to the spirit receive help from every kind of meeting. Every time I come to the meeting I am helped because I am attached to the law of the Spirit of life. When I come to the meeting, I am minding the things of the spirit. While I am minding the things of the spirit, the law of the Spirit of life works by its principle, not by any activity. When you are detached from the indwelling One, you get nothing from the meeting. You may get some material for your gossip or some vain knowledge. But when you are minding the things of the spirit, when you have yourself attached to the law of the Spirit, you are helped by the meeting and by the ministry. Actually, it is not the meeting nor the ministry that helps you, but the very law of the Spirit of life working in you automatically by its principle. So we have to walk according to spirit and even be according to spirit by minding the things of the spirit.