Death is not an independent process but must be experienced in resurrection. Ascension is also not an independent process but must be experienced in resurrection. Some people do not know resurrection, yet all the time they ask for death. Ultimately, they are not able to die, because there is no experience of death apart from resurrection. Only when we are in resurrection can we experience death. The death in Romans 6 can only be experienced in Romans 8. The death in chapter six is merely a fact. By itself, it cannot become our experience in Christ. It is in chapter eight that death becomes our experience in the Holy Spirit and in resurrection. In the same way, we can experience ascension only in resurrection. We cannot pursue the experience of ascension outside of resurrection.
Hence, the experience of death is in resurrection, and the experience of ascension is also in resurrection. Resurrection is the totality of all the Christian experiences. Paul said that he wanted to know the resurrection of Christ (Phil. 3:10), but he did not say that he wanted to know Christ’s death or ascension. Rather, he said that he wanted to know the power of His resurrection. If he knew resurrection, he would be conformed to the Lord’s death. As long as he knew resurrection, he would be able to experience death and ascension, because death and ascension are in resurrection. Where is resurrection? Resurrection is in the Holy Spirit. Where is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is in our spirit. Where is our spirit? Our spirit is in the innermost part of our entire being, deeper even than our soul.
There was once a brother who heard the doctrine of dying and ascending with Christ and was deeply touched. After he went home, he was unable to eat anything, so he knelt down to fast and pray. He cried with sorrow and said, “I have been a Christian for so many years. Why do I not have any experience of death or the heavens?” After he wept, he rose up to read the Bible and looked for all the portions that speak of the heavens and death, and he tried his best to comprehend and understand them. Then he knelt down to pray again, “O Lord, please grant me the taste of death and the taste of the heavens.” Do you think this way would work?
This may be likened to listening to lovely music from another person’s radio and then going back home to cry and plead for the music again. Will the music come out automatically? Some people said that after the brother in the story above went home to cry and plead, the Spirit came to him. We cannot say that such a thing did not happen, but this is not the proper way that is revealed in the Bible. In another story, a brother testified that from the time he was saved, he became a completely different person in the Holy Spirit. Then another brother admired him, wishing that he could also become a completely different person. So he went to pray and pursue after this. Later he changed himself by talking in a softer voice and doing things in a slower way, seemingly becoming a different person. However, his effort lasted only for three days, and on the fourth day he became exhausted. Eventually, on the fifth day he failed. Some people, after reading spiritual publications and listening to spiritual doctrines, have a desire to practice accordingly and therefore go to pray. However, this is useless. Even the prayer of confession, if it is not in the spirit, may not be profitable, because many times it is the soul that is functioning. We may repent, confess, pursue, and admire merely in our soul. It may be merely the soul that cries, pleads, thinks, and loves. Hence, what matters is not how a certain thing is done but whether we do it in our spirit or in our soul.
We should stop many of our prayers and thoughts because they may be the activities of our soul. Many people who are used to using their soul have no way to cease from their soul. They are very zealous, they attend every meeting, and they pray long prayers in every meeting, but they cannot touch their spirit. Therefore, those who are zealous should not be too zealous, and those who are not zealous should be more zealous. We must learn not to be carried away in excitement. Rather, we must learn to cease from our emotion, from all the imaginary thoughts in our mind, and from all our high thoughts about ourselves. If we can cease from our soul, this will be a great deliverance. We have to learn to be silent and to turn to our spirit. There we will be able to touch the Holy Spirit and experience all the spiritual reality.
Spiritual experience does not depend on our effort or our running but on our turning to the spirit. This is our unique responsibility. Today God is in our spirit. If we want to contact and touch God, the only way is by turning to our spirit. We do not need to spend an enormous amount of effort to stop our mind, emotion, and will. As long as we turn to our spirit, we will spontaneously touch the Spirit. When we touch the Spirit, that is, when we touch God, we will obey the sense within us. If we always obey the sense, we will live in the spirit and in resurrection. Then the experiences of both death and ascension will be ours, and we will have all the spiritual reality.