It is one thing to enter into the church, but it is another thing to have the living of the church. Not only do we need to enter into the church; we also need to have the church life. Knowing the church enables us to enter into the church, but we need to advance to living the church life. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 is related to our need to be in the church life. Paul’s second prayer is related to having the church life. God desires to be glorified in the church, and being glorified is a matter of expression. When we all have the living of the church, God will be expressed through us. This is what it means for God to be glorified in the church.
Having the living of the church is higher and deeper than entering into the church. In Paul’s first prayer we see our need for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in order to enter into the church and to know the church (1:17). Our spirit is the organ for us to know and enter into the church. However, the prayer for us to remain in the church and have the living of the church involves a further step in which our spirit becomes our inner man. Thus, our spirit must become our person, rather than just an organ.
We must differentiate between an organ and a person. The Bible tells us clearly that man is of three parts: spirit and soul and body (1 Thes. 5:23). Our body is on the outside, our soul is in between, and our spirit is our innermost part. Our body enables us to contact the physical world, and our soul enables us to contact the psychological world, but our spirit enables us to contact God. God created our spirit as an organ for us to contact Him, but is our person related to our body, our soul, or our spirit? When a person dies, we often say that he has gone, even though his body is still present. This indicates that our person is not defined by our body; our body is but an organ. In contrast, the Bible speaks of our soul when it speaks of persons. For example, Exodus 1:5 says, “All the persons who came forth from the loins of Jacob were seventy persons.” Persons in Hebrew literally means “souls.” Thus, our soul is equivalent to our person. Genesis 2:7 says, “Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Hence, every man is a soul with a body and a spirit as organs. The soul is the person of every man. However, when a man believes in the Lord and receives Him, the Lord becomes life to him in his spirit. Before believing, man’s spirit did not have life; it was merely an organ. However, once the Lord Jesus enters into a man’s spirit as life, his spirit is no longer merely an organ but also an inner man.
Hence, there are two persons in every believer. Before a believer is saved, his person is in his soul, but after being saved, there is another person in his spirit. Hence, there are two persons in every believer. We need to ask if it is good to have two persons in us. When we are a guest in someone’s home, we all prefer to be in a room alone rather than to share it with another person. We do not like to share a room with another person, because when there are two persons, there will be two opinions. Even in small matters such as opening or closing a window, it is not easy for two people to be in agreement with each other.
When we receive the Lord, it is a blessing, but it is also troublesome. For example, before we received the Lord Jesus, we could go to a movie whenever we wanted; there was no one in us expressing a different opinion. However, now that the Lord Jesus is in us, He does not always agree with our choices. While we are watching a movie, He will trouble us inwardly and give us no peace.
According to the Bible, one of the persons within us has been crucified and must be denied. Romans 6:6 says that our old man, that is, the person in our soul, has been crucified with Christ. The old man with his life in our soul has been crucified, and we should not allow him to live. If he lives, he will do great harm to us and be quite troublesome. Even though the person of our soul has been crucified and must be denied, the function of our soul has been preserved. This means that the life of the soul needs to be killed, but the faculties of our soul—the mind, emotion, and will—have to be renewed. Being crucified with Christ does not mean that we no longer use our mind or that we no longer express any emotion. Rather, it means that the corrupted life in our soul, our old man, has been crucified in order for the faculties of the soul to be renewed.
Formerly, our soul was our person, and our spirit was an organ. Now our spirit must become our person, and our soul must become an organ. When we call, “O Lord,” we can deny our soul-life and utilize it as an organ to express our renewed mind, emotion, and will.
Husbands and wives often argue with each other. These arguments come from the soul. Hence, we must call, “O Lord.” Calling on the name of the Lord keeps our old man in the tomb so that it cannot come out. When we call on the Lord, we do not have to listen to or live by our soul. Rather, we can live by our spirit through our continual denial of our old man.
The Chinese word for soul is composed of two radicals. The first radical means “devil,” and the second radical means “speak.” Thus, the Chinese word for soul literally means “devil speaking.” We should not listen to the opinions of our soul. As soon as an opinion rises up in our soul, we should say, “Devil, stop talking!” This is not a laughing matter. Our fallen soul is actually linked to the devil. When we deny our soul, we are denying the devil.
We must be clear concerning this matter. Formerly, our soul was our person, but today our spirit is our person. Formerly, the spirit was an organ, but now the soul is an organ. We should not let our soul voice its opinions or take the lead. This is to deny the expression of our soul as our person. However, when we need to remember certain things, we can utilize the faculty of our mind as an organ related to memory. Thus, our soul is no longer our person but merely an organ. Our spirit is our person today.