Zechariah 12:1 says, “Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.” This verse reveals that the heavens are for the earth and that the earth is for man. Man is the center of the universe, and within man there is a human spirit. Thus, the human spirit is the focus of the entire universe. All human beings know that they have a physical body and a soul. Regrettably, however, very few know that they have a spirit. Even many Christians have not seen that they have a spirit. Without the human spirit, man and the universe have no center and become empty and meaningless. The focus of the entire universe is the human spirit.
God’s intention is to make man His expression. The only way for man to express God is for God to come into man. Thus, God coming into man is the focal point in the Bible. God coming into us is not a doctrinal matter or a theological thought but something very experiential. In order to come into us, God must be Spirit, and we must have a spirit. God as the Spirit can come into our spirit. Several verses in the New Testament tell us about these two spirits. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” This verse indicates that that which is born of the Spirit of God is the human spirit. John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” To worship God, who is Spirit, we must worship in our spirit. Romans 8:16 also mentions the two spirits.
First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” We and the Lord are made one. In order for this to occur, the Lord must be the Spirit, and we must have a human spirit. Our human spirit is made one with the Lord as the Spirit, and the two spirits become one spirit. It is meaningful that 1 Corinthians 6:17 does not say that we become one but that we become one spirit. A group of people can say that they are one, but they cannot say that they are one man. We need to realize that our spirit now is one spirit with the Lord as the Spirit.
God, who is Spirit, is also triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). These divine titles are very meaningful. A father is a source. To be a father, one must produce a child, thus becoming a source. A son is the second generation, which is the continuation and expression of the first generation. We can often guess who the father of a young man is by observing the similarities between them. The Father is the source, the Son is the expression of the Father, and the Spirit is the application (2 Cor. 13:14). In order for the Son to come into us with the Father, He must be the Spirit. Thus, the application of God to our being is the Spirit. When the Spirit comes into us, the Son and the Father come also. The Spirit being the application of the Triune God is difficult to explain, but like our physical food, it is not necessary to fully explain it in order to enjoy it.
God is Spirit, and the application of the Triune God is the Spirit. Furthermore, after Christ, the Son, accomplished redemption on the cross, in resurrection He became the Spirit so that He could be applied to our being (1 Cor. 15:45b). Therefore, in our experience God is altogether the Spirit, and the Spirit is the totality of the Triune God.
The title the Spirit of God denotes that the Spirit and God are distinct and that the Spirit belongs to God. However, the title the Spirit indicates that the God whom we believers are experiencing and enjoying is the Spirit. As the Spirit, the entire Triune God is able to enter into our spirit for our enjoyment. By such a wonderful process, the Spirit has become one with our spirit. Furthermore, the Spirit always witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God, born of God to possess the divine life. By our first birth, we are born of Adam and are fallen, sinful, and under God’s condemnation. But in regeneration, we are born of God to possess the divine life, and the Spirit comes into our spirit, making us one spirit with Him. We have thus become another kind of people—children of God with the divine life and with a mingled spirit.
The divine life and the mingled spirit produce a bride, the church. Genesis 1:1-2 mentions God creating the heavens and the earth and the Spirit of God brooding upon the surface of the waters. Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” At the beginning of the Bible it was the Spirit of God brooding, but at the end of the Bible it is the Spirit and the bride as one. Between these two ends of the Bible, Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” This witnessing is the process that we are in today, which will bring us to the goal in Revelation 22:17. Thus, experientially speaking, the Spirit with our spirit is the focal point of the Bible.
Once we see that the Spirit with our spirit is the focal point of the Bible, we must begin to participate in it and practice it. God as the Spirit has come into our spirit and is one spirit with our regenerated spirit. The Spirit is constantly witnessing with our spirit that we are born of God, possessing God’s divine life, in order that we would live this life by the two spirits. Therefore, Romans 8:4 says that we need to walk according to the spirit. We need to have a daily walk and living that is always according to the mingled spirit.
We often do not walk according to the mingled spirit because of our nature, culture, ethics, religion, and habit. We were each born with a particular nature. Then we were raised according to a culture. Moreover, we have all been influenced by ethical thought and by religion. Eventually, we also become habitual. We live by nature, culture, ethics, religion, and habit. Actually, this is the best kind of human living apart from the mingled spirit. The worst kind of living is to commit gross sins. By the Lord’s mercy and through His redemption, we are through with such sins. However, we may be ethical, moral, proper, righteous, just, and good yet not live and walk according to the mingled spirit.
God does not want us to live in sin, nor does He want us to be ethical, moral, proper, righteous, just, and good persons. Instead, God wants us to be persons who live according to the mingled spirit at every time and in every place. Whether we are at home, work, or school, with our spouse, children, schoolmates, colleagues, neighbors, or relatives, God wants us to have a daily living according to the mingled spirit twenty-four hours a day. We should not care for whether we are right or wrong, just or unjust; instead, we should care only for whether we are continually living according to the mingled spirit. We need to pay our full attention to this one thing. This is sufficient.
Within our being, the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God, born of God to possess His life. Now God wants us to live a life and have a daily walk that are absolutely according to the mingled spirit. Whatever we say and do should be according to the mingled spirit. The issue of such a living will be the proper church life, and this church life will produce the bride. Eventually, the Triune God as the Spirit will marry the tripartite man as His bride, and these two will become one (Rev. 22:17). According to the principle in the Bible, the wife comes out of the husband (Gen. 2:22; John 19:34; Eph. 5:25-27), and the husband and the wife become one entity (Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31). The church as the wife of God comes out of God and returns to God to become one with God for eternity.