God is the Spirit, and today this Spirit is the Spirit of resurrection and the Spirit of ascension. In this Spirit is all that God is, has, has done, has passed through, and has attained. This Spirit dwells right inside of us. Romans 8:9 and 11 in the Chinese Union Version say that the Holy Spirit dwells in our heart. This is not correct. These two verses in Greek say that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. In Greek, the Bible rarely says that the Holy Spirit dwells in our heart (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 4:6). More often it says that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, that is, in our spirit.
Romans 8:16 in the Chinese Union Version reads, “The Holy Spirit Himself witnesses with our heart that we are children of God.” Here the correct translation of the word heart is spirit. This proves that the Holy Spirit who lives in us is with our spirit, because the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Since we have been joined to the Lord as one spirit, the Lord surely dwells in our spirit.
What is the difference between our spirit and our mind, emotion, and will? Furthermore, how do we discern between them? Perhaps when you want to read a book, there may be a feeling in you telling you not to read it. When you want to go somewhere, there may be a forbidding in you. When you have a grudge against a certain brother or sister, there may be something in you demanding that you be at peace with him or her. This is our daily experience in our Christian living. Our mind, emotion, and will are always taking the initiative to love or to hate, but deep within us we often have a feeling that is contrary to our mind, emotion, and will. What we like, He does not agree with, and what we dislike, He demands us to like. For example, we may dislike a certain brother, but inwardly we may feel that we should love him, contact him, and fellowship with him. This feeling, which is contrary to our mind, emotion, and will, is the feeling of our spirit. It is the feeling that comes from the Holy Spirit joined to our spirit as one spirit. When our mind, emotion, and will cooperate with and walk according to the feeling of the spirit, our mind, emotion, and will are brought under the ruling and direction of the spirit. As a result, we live in the spirit and in resurrection. This is resurrection.
When we live in resurrection in this way, we will sense the presence of God, and we will sense that we have touched God. God is the God of the living, and He can be the God of man and be touched by man only in resurrection. The fact that we can touch God proves that we are in resurrection. Moreover, when we live in resurrection, we will have the clear sense that we are heavenly and that we are in the heavenly realm. We will have a heavenly feeling.
Every time we have an inward feeling—whether it is a forbidding or a charging—and obey it, we will immediately sense resurrection and touch the heavenly sphere. For example, suppose we do not like one brother, but we like another brother. When we see the second brother, we have a beaming smile, but when we see the first brother, we have a frown. Although this is our reaction, inwardly we have the feeling that we should love the first brother and have more fellowship with him and that we should keep a distance from the second brother. If we submit to this feeling, we will immediately sense the presence of God and enjoy the taste of heaven, and we will also sense that we are in the spirit and have touched God and the heavenly sphere. Then in the Lord’s table meeting, we will spontaneously render to God our thanks and praises.
However, suppose we sense inwardly that we should have more fellowship with the first brother and reduce our contact with the second brother, but instead we allow our emotions to prefer the second brother and be unhappy when we see the first brother. If we do this, when we come to the Lord’s table meeting, we will not be able to open our mouths. Our spirit will not be strong but deflated because we are not living in resurrection. There is no resurrection in us. Rather, there is death, and we are people in death. Therefore, in this kind of situation, God cannot be our God because God is not the God of the dead but of the living.
Every time we live in our spirit, we touch resurrection and the realm of resurrection. When we touch the realm of resurrection, we touch the spiritual realm. Where there is the Holy Spirit, there is resurrection, and where there is the Holy Spirit, there is God and the taste of heaven. God as Spirit comes into our spirit. This Spirit in the New Testament includes everything. All that God is, has, has done, has passed through, and has attained are included in this Spirit. Today this Spirit is in our spirit.
If all the responsible brothers in the different churches would learn to live in the spirit, they would absolutely be in one accord. In most of the churches nine out of ten responsible brothers are not in the one accord. They may have many inward offenses that are not manifested. Why do they lack the one accord? It is because they have not been living in resurrection and in the spirit. It is impossible to have the one accord in the mind, emotion, and will. When the brothers are in the mind, emotion, and will, the best they can do is to refrain from quarreling or talking to one another. Once they speak up, however, they will become furious, which does not help the situation. After a meeting, some brothers may shake their heads and say, “I disagree one hundred percent, but I did not want to say it.” This is not the one accord. The genuine one accord is when everyone is in spirit, has learned the lesson, and has been enlightened to see the revelation and vision that the Lord is in resurrection and that He is the God of the living. Resurrection is in the spirit. To live in resurrection is to live in the spirit.