To those who contacted Him or followed Him, the Lord not only showed them their inner needs but also led them to contact Him and have dealings with Him inwardly. He showed Nicodemus that He is the One who is able to regenerate man, and then He led him to receive Him by exercising his faith inwardly. Previously, Nicodemus outwardly regarded Him only as a teacher who came from God; he did not know that in Him was the Spirit of God and the life of God. Therefore, he contacted the Lord outwardly merely according to his outward knowledge of Him. But the Lord showed Nicodemus that He had the Spirit of God and the life of God in Him and that if he would like to receive the divine Spirit and the divine life, then he must receive Him from within by exercising his faith. It seemed that He was saying to Nicodemus, “You are contacting Me outwardly to receive My teachings, but I don’t want to teach you outwardly. You only see what is outside of Me, but you don’t know what is inside of Me. I have the Spirit of God and the life of God within Me. I want to come into you that you may have the Spirit of God and the life of God. It is not good enough that you merely contact Me outwardly according to your sight. You still need to contact Me and receive Me within by faith; then you will receive the regeneration of the Holy Spirit and the life of God in your spirit. As the Spirit I will enter into your spirit. You must not only contact Me outwardly with your body, but you must contact Me with your spirit within. If you receive Me within by faith and contact Me with your spirit, I will enter into you as the Spirit that your spirit may receive the life of God.”
Those who came to the Lord for healing only contacted the Lord with their body outwardly, but they did not contact Him inwardly with their spirit. Therefore, they could not please Him or be entrusted by Him. No one who merely contacts the Lord outwardly will be able to please Him and be entrusted by Him. Only by contacting Him with the spirit and receiving Him with the heart can one allow Him to accomplish what He wants to do in him, that is, to give him the life of God.
Those who came to Him to eat bread and be filled also contacted the Lord only outwardly with their body. But He showed them that it is in His words that He would impart the Spirit and life into man. If man wants to receive the Spirit and life, he must receive His words by exercising his faith within. The Lord is now the Spirit of life in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words for man to receive. But how can man receive His words? Man cannot use outward things to receive them; he can only use his faith within. Our words, which come from within us, are expressions of our inner being. The Lord’s words are expressions of what He is within. He is Spirit and life within; hence, His words as His expressions are spirit and life. When man receives His words by faith within, man receives the Spirit and life. Therefore, in order to receive the Spirit and life, man must not merely contact Him outwardly; rather, man must contact Him inwardly. Although man cannot see the Spirit or life outwardly, he can believe His words inwardly. His words are spirit and are life. Therefore, when man receives His words inwardly by faith, the Spirit enters into man and touches the spirit of man, enlivening the spirit of man and causing man to have the life of God within.
Man knows only to contact the Lord outwardly and not inwardly. Not to mention others, even the disciples who followed Him in those days were also like this. They just wanted to see and touch Him outwardly. They knew only His outward doings and not His inward being. One day, one of the disciples, Philip, asked Him to show God to them. He was surprised and said to him, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father;...I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (John 14:8-11). They did not know what He was inwardly; they did not know that inwardly He was God. Therefore, He made known to them that God was in Him, that within He was God, and that they should not just know Him and contact Him according to what He was outwardly but even the more according to what He is inwardly, thereby touching God, who is in Him.
Furthermore, He told them later that He was going to ask God to send the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit would come, He (the Lord) would enter into them as the Spirit to be with them. He said that He was not leaving them as orphans and that He was going away, but He was coming to them (vv. 16-20). How did He go? He went to die on the cross. How did He come? Through death and resurrection He became the Spirit, and as the Spirit He entered into them. Therefore, on the evening of the day of His resurrection He came into their midst and breathed into them that they might receive the Spirit. At that time they knew that He was in God, they were in Him, and He was in them. Because He entered into them as the Spirit, they then knew that He was in union with God, they were in union with Him, and He was also in union with them.
From that time—the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection—the Lord led His disciples to know and appreciate His presence within them. Previously He came into their midst in his flesh to be with them outwardly. Now He wanted to come into them as the Spirit to be with them inwardly. Previously His presence with them was at specific moments, was limited by time and space, and was visible. Now His presence with them would be at every moment, would not be limited by time or space, and would be invisible. Therefore, since the evening of the day of His resurrection, every time He came into their midst it was puzzling to them. The doors of the room they were in were all shut tight, but suddenly He came and stood in their midst. Then He went away without their knowing how it happened. It seemed that His coming and going were untraceable. It was always like this in all His dealings with them during the forty days after His resurrection. Once on the road to Emmaus, He drew near to the two disciples in a mysterious way and walked with them for a distance, but they did not recognize Him. It was not until they came to the village, entered into a house, and reclined at the table with Him that they recognized Him. But when they recognized Him, He suddenly disappeared again. It seemed that He came suddenly and went suddenly. In fact, it was not so; rather, it was that His presence with them was sometimes manifested and sometimes hidden. He dealt with them in this way to let them know that His presence with them now was different from before. His intention was to lead them to know that He was with them inwardly as the Spirit. He also wanted to train them to inwardly enjoy His constant presence, which is not limited by time and space, and thus learn to deal with Him and contact Him inwardly not by sight but by faith.
From the time of His resurrection, the Lord entered into His disciples as the Spirit to be with them. Although He later ascended to the heavens, He was still the Spirit indwelling His disciples to be with them. To this day it is still like this, and until He comes again it will be like this. Today He is sitting in the heavens, yet on the earth as the Spirit He enters into all those who contact Him by faith in spirit that He may be with them. This presence is not visible outwardly, but it can be sensed within. Today He cannot be seen outwardly, but He can be contacted in the spirit. When a person contacts Him by faith in the spirit, immediately he touches Him. Once a person receives Him within, immediately by His Spirit He enters into him, not into his mind, emotion, or will, but into his spirit.
Once He enters into the spirit of man, He makes it alive. A person is saved when the Lord enters into him as the Spirit imparting His life—the life of God—into him and thus enlivening his deadened spirit. This is what man needs today, and this is also what the Lord wants to do today. The spirit within man has been deadened, and man has fallen into the soul and the flesh. Now what man needs is for the spirit within him to be made alive. This cannot be accomplished by outward teachings and improvements. No matter how you try to teach his soul or improve his flesh outwardly, you cannot cause the spirit within him to be made alive. This is just like the electric fan. If it is short of electricity within, any repair or assistance you render outwardly is useless. The so-called sages all taught people how to cultivate and reform themselves outwardly. Their outward teachings and improvements cannot cause the spirit within man to be made alive, just as the repairs done outwardly to an electric fan that is short of electricity cannot cause the fan to be supplied with electricity within. No outward method, be it ethics, education, or even religion, can be of help to the deadened spirit within man. Only the Lord of life, the One in whom is life and in whom is resurrection, who enters into man as the Spirit can cause the deadened spirit to have life and be made alive.
The way of the Lord’s salvation does not start from the outside. It does not correct and control man outwardly as ethical teachings and educational instructions do. The way of the Lord’s salvation starts from within man, from the deepest part of man, which is the spirit within man, by imparting His life to it and making it alive. As the Spirit He enters into man’s spirit and thus causes it to be saved. When the Spirit enters into man and contacts the spirit of man, the spirit of man is made alive. When the spirit of man is made alive, man is able to know God and to serve God. Furthermore, when the spirit of man is made alive, man delights in serving and worshipping God. Once our spirit is made alive due to the entrance of the Lord as the Spirit, it then has the nature of knowing God, serving God, and worshipping God, and it has the desire and the ability to know God, serve God, and worship God. Previously, because our spirit was deadened and we lived according to our soul and our flesh, we were neither willing nor able to serve God. Now since our spirit has been made alive, we live according to the spirit and therefore we are willing and able to serve God.