A Christian is one who has God mingled with him. Hence, the normal Christian living is not a living that is independent or outside of God. It is a living that submits to the ruling of God, is under the direction of God, and is mingled with God.
How can man live a life that is mingled with God? God is Spirit, and when we are saved, God as the Spirit enters into our spirit, interacts with our spirit, and is joined to our spirit as one spirit. Hence, whenever we turn to our spirit and are in our spirit, we meet Him because He has been mingled with our spirit to become one spirit. When we turn to our spirit, we actually turn to Him as the Spirit. Our entire Christian living should be one that is lived out from the spirit. In our Christian living, the question is not whether we should or should not do certain things. Rather, the question is whether we do them from our soul or from our spirit.
The center of the Christian living is not a matter of doing the right thing but a matter of who is doing it. It is not a matter of what we do but a matter of who is doing it. In other words, is it our soul that does things or our spirit? Do we do things in our soul, or does God do them in our spirit? Our Christian living is not a matter of what to do but of how to do things. Is it our soul that does things, or is it our spirit? Almost every Christian who desires to learn to live before the Lord prays, “Lord, what is the right thing for me to do? What is pleasing to You for me to do?” The fact is that this kind of prayer does not match the spiritual reality because the key is not what we do but whether or not we have God in what we do. Is God doing a certain thing with us, or are we doing it by ourselves? Are we doing it by being mingled with God, or are we doing it on our own? Are we doing it from our soul, or are we doing it from our spirit? If we do something from our soul, we are doing it on our own, but if we do something from our spirit, we are doing it by being mingled with God.
For example, if a certain locality invites you to go to their meeting, you should kneel down before the Lord and say, “O Lord, are You going?” Please note that you should not ask, “O Lord, do You want me to go? Should I go?” Rather, you should say, “O Lord, if You go, I will follow You. If You go, You have to go by putting me on.” Suppose you had a suit that could speak. If you were about to go to the meeting, it would bother you, saying, “Are you going to the meeting?” You would say, “Yes, I am going.” Then the suit would say, “Please put me on.” Then you would put the suit on. Thus, when you move, the suit moves. When you stand, the suit stands, and when you bend, the suit bends. The suit is “mingled” with you, and you are moving with the suit. Hence, wherever we go and whatever we do, if we do not have the inward assurance that it is the Lord who is going to a certain place or doing a certain thing by putting us on, then we know that we should not go there or do that thing. We should not ask the Lord whether or not we should do a particular thing but whether or not He is doing it.
In the church life we find that there are some people who attend every meeting, who pray in every meeting, and who pray long prayers every time they pray. But the strange thing is that year after year they do not appear to make any spiritual turns or spiritual progress. This is because they still take themselves as the center in their living and do not pay attention to the sense in their spirit. They work by themselves and do not allow the Spirit to work. This should be a warning to us. Every time before we go to a meeting, we first must ask the Lord, “O Lord, are You going to the meeting? Are You going to the meeting with me? Lord, are You wearing me to the meeting? If so, I will go with You.” Then when we get to the meeting, we do not need to consider whether or not we should pray or how we should pray. Rather, we should ask the Lord silently, “O Lord, do You want to pray? Are You putting me on to pray? If so, I will pray with You.” Outwardly it may seem that we are the ones who are praying, but actually we are cooperating with the Lord in prayer.
Our entire living, not just our prayer, should be like this. Consider loving the brothers for example. We should not ask the Lord whether or not we should love a certain brother. Rather, we should ask, “O Lord, do You love this brother? Will You put me on to love him? Will You love Him with me?” We must hold tightly to this principle—the principle of not asking what to do but how to do it. Do we do things independently, or does the Lord wear us to do them? Do we do things from our soul, or do we do them from our spirit? It is wrong to teach people to pay attention to what they should or should not do. What we need to ask constantly is, “O Lord, this matter may be right, but are You doing it? Are You wearing me to do this? Are You doing this with me? O Lord, are You in me while I am doing this? Are You doing this with me?” If this were the situation, our Christian life would have a great turn.