“There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience...For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart...Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for timely help” (Heb. 4:9, 11-12, 16).
“And after the second veil, a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, Having a golden altar and the ark of the covenant covered round in every part with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant” (Heb. 9:3-4). These verses tell us that within the veil are the golden altar, which is the altar of incense, and the ark.
Then let us read Hebrews 10:19-20: “Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which He dedicated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.”
Now we must read Revelation 5:8-10: “And when He (Christ the Lamb) took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. (The relative pronoun “which” does not refer to the incense, but to the bowls. The bowls are the prayers of the saints.) And they sing a new song, saying: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain and did purchase to God by Your blood men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And made them to our God a kingdom and priests, and they shall reign on the earth.” In these verses, we have the bowls, which are the prayers of the saints who are the priests.
Let us go on to read Revelation 8:3-5: “And another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and much incense was given to Him that He should add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints out of the hand of the Angel before God. And the Angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it to the earth; and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake.” These verses tell us that the incense and the prayers of the saints are two different things.
Finally, let us read Ephesians 6:18: “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.”
We have seen that the priests must pass through three kinds of dealings: the dealing with sins, the dealing with the world, and the dealing with the flesh or self. After all these dealings, the priests are spontaneously in the Holy of Holies. In this chapter, we must see clearly that today, practically speaking, the Holy of Holies is within us. Today the Holy of Holies is our human spirit. As we have pointed out several times, Hebrews 10:19 tells us that we must enter the Holy of Holies today. If the Holy of Holies mentioned in Hebrews 10 is in the heavens, how could we enter it today? Therefore, we must realize that the present Holy of Holies mentioned in this verse must be our spirit. This makes it easy for us to enter.
This is why, in the whole New Testament, there is one verse telling us that we must discern the spirit from the soul (Heb. 4:12). If we read the context of this verse, we will realize that the spirit, divided from the soul, is the very Holy of Holies where God’s throne of grace is today. Our spirit, divided from our soul, is the place of rest, the land of Canaan. When we are in the soul, we are just like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. A Christian in the soul is a wandering person. There is no rest for him until he enters into the spirit. The rest is not in our soul, but in our spirit, and Christ today as the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit. It is only in our spirit that we meet Christ and enjoy Him as the rich land of Canaan.
But we must see the way to enter the Holy of Holies. In other words, how can we enter into our spirit? We have talked much about this matter in the past, but I still doubt whether many brothers and sisters have been brought into the reality of entering into the spirit. Let me ask this question: how long have you been in your spirit today? One thing is definite—it is very easy for us to be outside our spirit. Sometimes we are in the flesh, but most of the time we are in the soul.
Perhaps you may ask what it means to be in the soul. We are in the soul when we are thinking, considering, excited, decisive, or indecisive. According to this measure we can see how long we have been in the spirit throughout the whole day. I am afraid most Christians spend the whole day exercising their minds to consider this thing or that. Sometimes their minds jump over to one brother; the next hour they jump over to another brother. All the time they exercise their minds to think and to consider. All day they are just in the mind, traveling, visiting, and even talking with people. Sometimes they are excited, sometimes sorrowful, and sometimes they are just wondering whether to do this or that.
After eight hours of sleep, we have sixteen hours in which we are awake. But in those sixteen hours, how long are we outside the soul? I fear that most Christians are not outside the soul for even five minutes. In other words, throughout the whole day they are only in the spirit about five minutes. And some of us are not in the spirit for even thirty seconds! It is so easy for us to be in the soul and so hard to be in the spirit. Just get involved in a little thinking and we are outside the spirit. Just touch a little excitement and we are outside the spirit. Just exchange a little bit of conversation and we are in the soul.
Therefore, the book of Hebrews tells us that we must press on to enter the land of rest. Where is that rest? That rest is in the regenerated human spirit. All the spiritual blessings and all the riches of Christ are in the spirit. But it is so easy for us to be spontaneously outside the spirit and in the soul. This is why the Bible, especially in the New Testament Epistles, tells us that we must walk in spirit, live in spirit, and pray in spirit. Everything must be done in the spirit. We must learn to exercise ourselves to be in the spirit.