The Holy Spirit Himself is our spiritual life. When we touch the Holy Spirit inwardly and experience the Holy Spirit, He becomes our spiritual life and our spiritual living. The spiritual life is spiritual reality. All spiritual reality is the issue of the Spirit of God touching our spirit. The resulting expression is love, humility, work, power, wisdom, brightness, revelation, and vision. Hence, the entire Christian living and work is an expression of spiritual reality.
Spiritual reality is the Spirit of God touching our spirit and being our life in our spirit. Such a life produces various kinds of expressions. These expressions are our spiritual living and even our spiritual work.
What is the expression of the spiritual life? Suppose there is a brother who is humble and meek. Suppose another brother admires the way he lives such a life of humility and meekness and resolves to make himself live in the same way, being humble and meek in all things. He even prays to the Lord that he would live a life of humility and meekness. He has morning watch, reads the Bible, prays, acts carefully and cautiously, and does not get puffed up or irritated. Thus, by receiving the supply and help from that humble and meek brother, he also becomes humble and meek. In other words, because he is close to the humble and meek brother, he also becomes a humble and meek person.
This, however, is not spiritual reality or a genuine spiritual living. This is merely an imitation. Although humanly speaking this kind of behavior seems precious, normal, and proper, in terms of spiritual reality, it is not spiritual, and it is not the expression of the living out of the Lord’s life. Instead, it comes entirely from man’s own effort of self-cultivation. Only when the Spirit of God touches our spirit is something genuine produced—spiritual reality, the expression of life, and a genuine spiritual living.
Suppose there is a saint who decides that he will open his mouth to pray in the prayer meeting. Thus, before the meeting he remembers to prepare himself well and to ask the Lord for strength. Then when he comes to the meeting, in his heart he is thinking all the time that he has to pray. After the first hymn, due to his nervousness and considerations, all the opportunities for prayer are taken away. Then after the second hymn, because too many people are touched to pray, when he stands up and is about to open his mouth, other people are already giving thanks and praising. So he sits down again and waits for another opportunity. Then before the end of the last hymn, he suddenly stands up to pray using nice phrases in a loud and clear voice. When the people hear this, they echo with loud amens. However, such a prayer is not the expression of life or the living of spiritual reality. Rather, it is the result of human effort.
There are some people who are always thinking of other brothers and sisters and who want to have more fellowship with them. They fellowship with someone one day and talk with another one the next day. They never stop fellowshipping and talking with people day after day. For others, visiting people is a burden, but for them, visiting people is not a burden at all. For others, it is inconvenient to go to visit people, but for them it is miserable to be unable to go to visit people. Others are reluctant to visit people, but they spontaneously visit people. They sympathize with those who are weak, those who have stumbled, and those who have difficulties. Thus, they fellowship with one person one day and comfort another one the next day. They talk to one person in the morning and speak to another one in the afternoon. They are always diligently visiting and fellowshipping with the brothers and sisters. The responsible brothers may even praise them for their zeal. However, this is neither spiritual reality nor the expression of genuine spiritual living. Rather, it is the zeal of the flesh. This kind of zeal and diligence is of the flesh. It is not produced from being touched by the Spirit of God, nor is it the expression of the spiritual life.
Perhaps some people may turn around and say that if humility and meekness are not spiritual reality but only cultivated behavior, then we should not be humble or meek. Although this kind of living would eliminate cultivated behavior, it would result in an unruly kind of living, which would be even worse. Perhaps some people may think that if deciding to open our mouths and pray in the meeting is only human effort, then we should not pray in the meeting. Instead, we should neglect our responsibility and just sit there comfortably, fully at ease without opening our mouth. While this would eliminate human effort, it would bring in human looseness. In response to this fellowship, we should not say that we are merely criticizing everything we do, saying that we are wrong whether we move or do not move. On the one hand, if we fellowship with people and visit them wherever they are, others will say that this is the zeal of the flesh. On the other hand, if we stop all our activities and do none of these things, others will say that we are loose. How then should we live and work?