Furthermore, the Lord said that He would put His Spirit into their spirit (36:27). Not only would He give them a new heart and a new human spirit, He would put His own Spirit within them. Hallelujah! This is marvelous! We should not neglect our spirit because our spirit is the vessel which contains the divine Spirit. Today, when people hear the word "spirit," they usually think of the Holy Spirit. They seldom consider that they have a human spirit. Certainly, we need the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is now in our regenerated human spirit. "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit" (Rom. 8:16). We have a new heart, a new spirit, and we have the Holy Spirit within our spirit strengthening us all the time. This enables us to keep God's commandments because His commandments are according to His nature. We have the nature of God within us because we have His Spirit within us. Something within us corresponds to God's law. Now it is easy for us to keep the law of God because we have His nature. Formerly, it was very difficult for us to love people, but now it is difficult for us to hate people. Formerly, it may have been easy to steal something, but now it is difficult to steal something. We have a new nature within us. God's Spirit within us contains God's nature, and His nature corresponds to His law.
In 36:34-36, the Lord promised that the desolate and waste places would become like the garden of Eden. There the plant of renown, Christ as the tree of life, would be their rich supply. The local churches must reach such a high condition that they are like the garden of Eden. Even today, many times in the meetings, we have the sensation that we are in the garden of Eden.
In the last part of Ezekiel 36 the Lord promised that He would flock people in, but that we need to inquire of Him. In other words we need to pray for the increase. "O Lord, flock people in. You promised this to us." In the past, whenever we prayed for an increase in number, the Lord answered. I feel we need to pray more. The Lord promised, yet He needs our inquiring. He promised that He will increase our number by flocks of men, but we must pray for this and ask Him to do it. In all the local churches, I hope that you will pray definitely and specifically for the increase of numbers. Never be content with the number that you have at the present time. We all should aspire to be doubled within a period of time. We all must pray, "Lord, flock people in!"
In 1963 in Los Angeles, we had only 20 to 30 people. But after we prayed for six months, the number was very much increased. In Elden Hall we also prayed that the Lord would flock people in. We prayed, "Lord, bring flocks of men to us." The Lord really heard that prayer, and I feel that today we need to pray even more. We need to stand upon and claim this last part of Ezekiel 36 concerning the increase of numbers. Do not say we care nothing for numbers. I beg you never to say this again. If you say this, I will fight against it. I will read to you that in the Acts on one day 3,000 were brought in, and on another day 5,000 were brought in (2:41; 4:4). Several times Acts says that "many believed" or that "the believers were multiplied" (9:42; 11:21; 14:1; 17:12; 18:8). In Acts 21:20 James could tell Paul that tens of thousands have believed (lit.). Do not say that numbers mean nothing. That is an excuse. Do not comfort yourself in your failure. If you have failed regarding the increase, do not be comforted. Rather, you have to be condemned. You must awaken to the fact that you have been in your city for years and still have only a handful of people. That is a shame. We need the increase. Even to be doubled within one year is not too glorious. Pray about this. Claim this. Some would say that we do not care for quantity; we only care for quality. But you must realize that quality cannot come out of nothing. The quality will come out of the quantity. Thus, we must pray for the Lord to give us the increase and to bring in flocks of men.