We must be clear and remember that God is Spirit and that only the spirit can touch and contact the Spirit. Therefore, if we want to contact and touch God in any matter, we must use our spirit. Apart from our spirit, we cannot touch God in any spiritual matter. A certain matter may be very spiritual, but if we do not use our spirit to contact God in that matter, we simply cannot touch God. A spiritual matter in itself still cannot enable us to touch God. We still must use our spirit to contact God in that spiritual matter; only then can we touch God.
When a person believes in the Lord, it is not enough that he receives the truth of the gospel merely with his mind. He must also receive the Lord with his spirit. Man’s mind can only contact the truth; it cannot contact the Lord. If a person merely touches the truth and does not contact the Lord, he cannot be saved. He can receive the Lord’s salvation only by contacting the Lord. However, in order to contact the Lord he must use his spirit. He has to go beyond and deeper than his mind and get into the spirit deep within him to be enlightened and moved by the Holy Spirit, to be conscious of his sins, to confess that he is a sinner, and to receive the crucified and resurrected Christ, the ever-living Savior, not a dead doctrine. Only then can he touch the Spirit of the Lord, that is, contact the Lord Himself and receive the Lord’s salvation.
This is very different from someone who receives the doctrine of the gospel merely in his mind. One person who understands and comprehends with his mind takes doctrine as his goal, whereas another person who is moved and who receives salvation in his spirit takes Christ as his object. In the former case, someone may understand and receive many doctrines in his mind without touching Christ. In the latter case, the other person can contact Christ in his spirit without knowing many doctrines. In the former case, he may receive a doctrinal teaching and obtain some doctrinal knowledge, but his spirit may not be saved by Christ with His life. In the latter case, this one is enlightened by the Holy Spirit and is regenerated in his spirit, even though he may not understand many of the gospel truths or obtain a great deal of gospel knowledge.
A person may know many doctrines but may not receive the Lord’s salvation. He may have the knowledge of sin in his mind but not have the consciousness of sin in his spirit. In his mind he knows he is sinful, but in his spirit he does not feel so. He may have understood and comprehended Christ in his mind, but in his spirit he has not yet contacted or touched Christ. The reason for this is that he uses his mind to study the doctrines about Christ instead of using his spirit to contact Christ Himself. If he is willing to contact Christ with his spirit, and if he is willing to be moved by the Holy Spirit in his spirit to contact Christ and receive Christ, he will be able to touch Christ and gain Christ in his spirit. Thus, he will be able to receive Christ’s salvation of life and experience a change from within his spirit to his outward being.
When a person listens to a message, he must also go beyond and deeper than the mind, emotion, and will of his soul and get into his spirit to be inspired by God and to contact Christ Himself. If he merely uses his mind, emotion, and will to listen to the message, he can only understand its meaning in his mind, receive its inspiration in his emotion, and make a decision because of it in his will. He can only contact the message itself by the mind, emotion, and will; he cannot touch the Christ in the message. The message itself, which is merely letter and knowledge, cannot afford man the salvation of life or the spiritual supply. Only Christ in the message is life and Spirit, and only He can give life and spiritual reality to man. Man may contact the message itself with his mind, emotion, and will, but to contact the Christ in the message he has to seek Christ, look to Christ, draw nigh to Christ, and worship Christ with his spirit. In this way he can contact Him and have fellowship with Him.
When a person reads the Bible, he must use his concentrated and focused mind to study and meditate, but even the more he must use a quiet and eager spirit to seek God and His revelation through the word of God—the holy Bible—and thus receive His enlightenment and supply. The mind can only understand the letters of the Bible and comprehend its doctrines; the mind cannot contact the God revealed in it or receive the life spoken of therein. Only the spirit can contact God and receive life through understanding the Bible and comprehending the truths by the mind. Therefore, when we read the Scriptures, we must draw near to God, contact God, and have fellowship with God in our spirit through His word. Only then will we be able to touch and gain Him and to receive spiritual enlightenment and life supply.
When a person prays, even the more he needs to use the spirit and to be in the spirit. Although the Bible says that we should pray also with the understanding (the mind), it does not mean that we pray only with the understanding. Rather, it means that we should use the understanding to comprehend the burden and feeling in the spirit and then pray with words from the understanding to express the burden and feeling in the spirit. If we pray only with the understanding, with the mind, with the intellect, we can neither receive inspiration nor sense God’s presence. We must pray with the spirit and in the spirit, and we must have the burden and the sense in the spirit. Then we must use the understanding to pray and express the burden and the sense in the spirit. Only then can we touch God and His presence and receive the watering and supply of the Spirit.
Someone may ask, What is it to pray with the mind, and what is it to pray with the spirit? To pray with the mind is to pray according to what the mind remembers and thinks, without any feeling in the spirit. Many times we first decide on what to pray and then we exercise our memory to pray with our mind according to what we have already decided. Sometimes we may have decided what to pray, but when we pray, we always use our mind to think, and even contemplate, about what to pray, and then we pray according to what we have thought and contemplated. We often have a list of things or a set form of prayer which we pray by reciting. Also, we often merely pray according to a record or report of the items for prayer by repeating the items once. All such prayers are prayers by the mind and not by the spirit. These kinds of prayers are merely from our mind and come out through our mouth without any inspiration. Such prayers not only are unable to move God and others, but they cannot even move ourselves, because they are not the living inspiration from the spirit but the dead knowledge from the mind.
Praying with the spirit is different. Although praying with the spirit also requires using the mind, the mind is not the source of prayer but merely a faculty through which prayer passes. When a person prays by using the spirit, his prayer does not originate from the mind. Rather, it originates from the spirit and passes through the mind. Instead of praying according to what he remembers and considers in the mind, he prays according to the sense and burden in the spirit. However, he uses the mind to understand the sense and burden in the spirit and expresses such understanding in prayer. Since sometimes there is first the knowledge and memory in the mind and then prayer, it seems that the prayer is according to what the mind knows and remembers. Actually, however, the knowledge and memory in the mind have already become the feeling and burden in the spirit. One must first have the feeling and burden in the spirit, and then he uses his mind, his understanding, to express in prayer the feeling and burden of the spirit. This is to pray with the spirit. This kind of prayer requires a person to go beyond, go deeper than, his mind, emotion, and will that he may contact the Spirit of God in his spirit to receive the sense and burden of the spirit. This kind of prayer is according to divine inspiration and not according to a set form. It is fresh and not stale. It enables the praying one to touch God and sense His presence, and at the same time it also causes the praying one himself as well as those who hear him to be moved, watered, and supplied by the Spirit.
Very often this kind of praying in the spirit was not in one’s original consideration. For example, someone originally intended to pray for his job, his health, or his family, including his children. But when he comes to the presence of God, the Spirit of God touches his spirit and causes him to feel that he is full of shortcomings before God. At this moment the feeling and burden in his spirit are his shortcomings. Therefore, he no longer cares to pray for his job, his health, or his family. Instead, he just follows the feeling in his spirit to confess to God all his shortcomings before Him in order to relieve the burden in his spirit. This kind of prayer enables him to touch God, to enter deeper into God, to have fellowship with God, to be more filled by God, and to receive the sweet nourishing and rich supply of God. If he would be willing to disregard the matters which he has remembered and has prepared to pray, and instead would just pay attention to the feeling in his spirit and keep on praying according to that feeling, then within him he will receive the unlimited spiritual blessing of God. He will feel joyful, peaceful, at ease, satisfied, fresh, shining, living, and strong. After praying, not only he himself feels that he is full of the presence of God, but even those who contact him will feel that there is an unexplainable condition and power upon him.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, when we pray, we must first have the sense and burden from God by contacting Him with our spirit and touching Him in our spirit, and then we must use our understanding, our mind, to express the sense and burden in our spirit with words of prayer. When we pray, we must first reject the memory and thoughts in our mind and then draw near to God in our spirit to touch His feeling and receive His burden. This does not mean that we should not bring the things in our memory before God in prayer. What it means is that all the matters for which we intend to pray must first become the feeling and burden we have from God in our spirit, and then they can become the prayers that we ought to have before God. Therefore, when we bring a certain matter before God in prayer, instead of praying at once for that matter from our mind, we should first contact God in the spirit to touch His feeling. If that matter becomes the feeling in our spirit before God, then we may pray for it. Otherwise, we should not pray for it even though we have already decided to pray for it originally. If, without any feeling in our spirit, we still pray for it, then we are praying according to our mind and with our mind. Thus, we surely will not be able to touch God and His presence, because we are in our mind uttering a prayer of the mind. Only when we pray for a certain matter that has become the feeling and burden in our spirit can we touch the presence of God and be watered by Him.
Recently when I was in Manila, a brother asked me, “What is a prayer of the mind? And what is a prayer of the spirit?” Although I felt it is not easy to explain, I was able to answer him with a simple sentence. A prayer of the mind comes out of thinking, whereas a prayer of the spirit comes out of feeling. Any prayer that comes out of our thought is a prayer of the mind because it comes out of the mind. Any prayer that is uttered out of the feeling deep within us is a prayer of the spirit because it comes out of the spirit. We should pray for many matters, but we should not pray merely according to what we remember and consider in our mind. Every matter for prayer must first become the feeling and burden in our spirit before God. We must pray only according to the feeling in our spirit and for the burden in our spirit because we can only pray by contacting God in our spirit. We may bring many things before God, but we must see whether God makes them the feelings and burdens in our spirit before we decide whether we should pray for them. We can pray only for the matters with which we have been inspired; we can pray only by touching God in our inspiration; and we can pray only in our inspiration the prayers that touch God.
In our prayers we should follow the feeling in our spirit not only when we petition God but even when we praise and thank God. We should not praise and thank God merely according to the doctrines, knowledge, or sentiments concerning some outward things. Otherwise, although our praises and thanksgivings are toward God, they are of the letter, formal, outward, of the mind, not in the spirit, and without the Spirit. Only the praises and thanksgivings which are according to the feeling in our spirit can enable us to touch God and to have the confirmation of God’s acceptance, the feeling of the presence of God which He gives us in our spirit. This is because this kind of prayer is in the spirit and is full of the Spirit.
When one leads a meeting, whether he chooses a hymn, prays, speaks, or testifies, he should be in the spirit and act according to the feeling in the spirit. In many instances, the activities in the meeting are carried out merely according to rules, common sense, or certain needs. These activities are all done according to one’s mind or emotion, instead of being done in one’s spirit according to the sense in the spirit. Therefore, they are ritualistic, formal, intellectual, rational, and emotional. They cannot cause people to sense the presence of God or receive the supply of God. In the meeting, before one does anything, he must open his spirit to God to contact God and have fellowship with God in his spirit that he may receive inspiration from God. Then what he does will enable others to sense God’s presence and receive God’s supply. All the activities in the meeting must be initiated in the spirit in this way. For example, when a person chooses a hymn in the meeting, he must not choose one just at the right time, for the right situation, and with the right subject merely according to his knowledge of the hymns or according to his understanding of which kind of hymn is needed for which kind of meeting. Rather, he must also use his spirit to sense the spirit of the meeting and to receive inspiration from God concerning a certain point, and then select a hymn that can express, release, and touch that inspiration. As another example, when one speaks or testifies in the meeting, he must also not do it merely according to the outward situation and need by speaking a word that fits the situation or giving a testimony that meets the need. Rather, he still must use his spirit to touch God’s feeling concerning that situation and need and to receive inspiration from God, and then express something according to the sense in his spirit. It is not enough merely to have the knowledge about meetings in the mind. There is still the need to touch the feeling of God and receive His inspiration by fellowshipping and contacting Him in the spirit. Only in this way can others sense life and reality in their spirit. Otherwise, they can only sense death and vanity.
It is the same when a person preaches the word. He must not preach a word that fits the situation and meets the need merely based upon his doctrinal knowledge and according to the outward situation and need. If he does this, the word he preaches is merely of the knowledge, of the letter, of the mind, and not in the spirit. To preach the word in the spirit, a person must be in his spirit and touch the feeling of God to receive the inspiration from God concerning that particular situation and that particular need. Then he can release the feeling in his spirit with the appropriate doctrine and word. Only by such preaching can the speaker himself touch God’s presence and receive God’s supply and the listeners also receive the edification in life and obtain the spiritual help.
Even when we go to visit others, we must contact them in our spirit and according to the feeling in our spirit. We must not speak to them merely according to the doctrines which we have understood and remembered in our mind or according to their outward condition and needs. Otherwise, we will not be able to bring him to God, nor will we be able to impart God to him to supply the need in his spirit or deal with the problem in his spirit. When we touch God in our spirit and contact others out of the sense of God’s presence, we enable others to touch God and gain God, and we also enable them to receive the spiritual enlightenment and comfort, as well as the supply of life and edification, in their spirit. Only by contacting others in the spirit with the presence of God can we touch the Spirit of God and also touch the spirit of others. Moreover, only by this can others touch the Spirit of God with their spirit and receive the supply and help from the Spirit of God in their spirit.
Therefore, in our service to God, regardless of what we do, we must always use our spirit and be in our spirit. Only then can we touch God. This is a great law in the universe. This law is that man must use his human spirit and be in his human spirit to contact God. To contact God, man must do it according to this law and by fulfilling this law. Anyone who contacts God not according to this law violates God’s ordination and therefore cannot touch God. Because God is Spirit, anyone who wants to contact Him must use his spirit and be in his spirit. Only the spirit can touch the Spirit; therefore, only the spirit can touch God.