In Ephesians 1, the main thing the Apostle Paul prayed for is for us to be given a spirit of wisdom and revelation. This spirit is not the Holy Spirit but our human spirit. For centuries, Christianity has missed the mark of God’s economy (1 Tim. 1:4-6) simply because they have neglected this basic matter-the human spirit. Some may speak often of the Holy Spirit, yet they do so in an objective way as if the Spirit were something far away from us. The Apostle Paul knew that the problem is not with the Holy Spirit but with the neglect of the human spirit. Today many neglect their spirit, and some do not even realize that they have a human spirit.
Let me illustrate in this way. Suppose you know all about ice cream, yet you do not realize that you have a mouth. There is no problem with the ice cream. The problem is that you do not realize you have a mouth with which you can receive and enjoy the ice cream. This may seem like a childish illustration, but this is the situation in Christianity today. They may talk a lot about the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but they do not realize the organ with which we must contact and receive the Holy Spirit. If we are going to receive the air, we need to use our lungs. If we are going to listen to something, we have to use our ears. We must use the right organ. God purposely created only one organ to receive and contact Him-our spirit (John 4:24; Rom. 1:9).
We may know about our spirit, but we may still not be so clear that we need to exercise our spirit. We may exercise our mentality too much and neglect our spirit. When some hear the young people shouting and calling on the name of the Lord, they may be bothered. They may think, “I don’t like this kind of church.” Eventually, they will be kept away from the meetings by their reasoning mind. We must realize, however, that the church is a matter in our spirit, not in our mind. Only by exercising our spirit can we discern matters clearly in the church.
Although the church is a great subject in the Bible, the Apostle Paul’s Epistle concerning the church is very short with only six chapters. If we are going to know the church, the main thing is not to exercise our mind to know the teachings, but to exercise our spirit. Thus, Paul prayed for all of us, that God, the Father of glory, may give to us a spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:17). For the church, we need such a spirit, and we all have a spirit, but we have to exercise our spirit. We need to use our spirit. If you are in your mind, you could never be clear about the church. The mind is the wrong organ with which to realize the church. However, if you exercise to enter into your spirit and stay there, you will see the church. The church is absolutely something in the spirit.
A sister once told me that I talked too much about the church life and asked if I ever spoke about the family life. When she said this, I realized deep within that she was just in her mind. Because she was in the mind, the family life was everything to her. If she would have changed her position by turning herself from the mind to the spirit, she would have contacted the Lord Jesus. She would have seen the church life. The church life is not in our mind. We should not exercise our mind to understand the church. The church life is in our spirit. We need a spirit of wisdom and revelation, not to merely understand the church, but to see the church.
Some Christians have asked me: “Why don’t you agree with the denominations? Does this mean that only you are right and all the others are wrong?” We in the Lord’s recovery should never be so foolish as to argue with people. We may encourage them to turn to their spirit and wait in the presence of the Lord and see what the Lord would speak to them in their spirit. Simply help them to turn to their spirit. To know something about the church and to see something of the church, we have to be in the spirit. It is only by our spirit that we can realize the church.
Home | First | Prev | Next