In 2 Corinthians 3:16-17 Paul says, “But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Paul says here that whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Who is the Lord? Who are we actually turning to when we turn to the Lord? Paul tells us in verse 17, “And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Verse 18 continues to say, “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”
According to the Bible our spirit is the lamp of God (Prov. 20:27), and our soul is a vessel for God (Matt. 25:3-4). When we were saved, the Spirit of God as the oil entered into our spirit. Now God’s desire is to have His Spirit worked more and more into the different parts of our soul. When every part of our soul is filled up with the Spirit of God, then we will be mature in the spiritual life. The maturity in spiritual life depends on our being inwardly filled up with God’s element. God’s unique goal for us and His unique work on us are to work Himself and to mingle Himself into our being. Although God has done many things in us to which He wants us to take heed, His unique, central, and primary task in us is to cause our being to be filled up with God’s element, that is, to be filled up with God Himself.
The first step of God’s work is that when we are saved, His Spirit enters into our spirit. From that time onward, His intention is that His Spirit, which is His element, would spread from our spirit to the various parts of our being. When He has completely worked Himself into every part of our being, then we will be mature in the spiritual life. Then we can meet the Lord with boldness because by then whatever the Lord is, we also will be (1 John 3:2). Just as the Lord is God mingled with humanity and humanity brought into God, we also have God being mingled with us and are being mingled into God. Inwardly and outwardly, the condition of our entire being will match and be in harmony with the Lord’s. At that time, we will be able to meet and dwell with the Lord in glory.
It is the work of God’s free grace that the Spirit enters into our spirit. This work does not require us to do anything, nor do we need to pay a price for it. As long as we confess in our heart that we are sinners and open ourselves to receive Him as our Savior, the Spirit of God will enter into our spirit without any cost to us. However, from that time on, in order for the Spirit to work Himself into the various parts of our soul, we need to cooperate and pay the price. Why is it necessary for us to pay the price? It is necessary because various parts of our soul have been fully occupied by all kinds of people, matters, and things. The mind, emotion, and will of our soul are full of our natural concepts, thoughts, preferences, and choices. We love our reputations, positions, and money. We love our wives, our children, and ourselves. Our hearts have been filled up with our own desires. This makes it difficult for the Spirit to work Himself into our soul.
How can the Spirit work Himself into our mind if we are not willing to lay down the thoughts in our mind? How can the Spirit work Himself into our emotion if we are not willing to give up what we desire in our emotion? Likewise, if we are not willing to surrender our own choices in our will, there is no way for the Spirit to be wrought into our will. We know that our soul is a vessel composed of three parts—the mind, emotion, and will. Each of these three parts is itself a small vessel. The vessel of our emotion should be filled with the Holy Spirit, yet we allow other things to occupy our emotion. Even before the Spirit enters into our emotion, our emotion has already been filled up with so many other things. What our emotion loves are the things and matters that our emotion is filled with and occupied with. Consider the following questions. We are saved, but how many things other than the Lord are still in our emotion? If these things that are apart from the Lord have filled up our emotion and are occupying it, do you think that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to fill up our emotion?
In order for the Spirit to spread from our spirit to our emotion, we have to pour out all that is occupying our emotion. This pouring out is the paying of the price. For example, a glass may be used to illustrate our emotion. The grape juice that fills the glass symbolizes the desires that fill our emotion. If we want to fill up this glass with air, the only way to do this would be to pour out the grape juice. The more the grape juice is poured out, the more the air can fill the glass. Further pouring out of the grape juice will allow further filling up of the air. When the grape juice is completely poured out from the glass, the air will fill up the entire glass. Therefore, the problem is not that the air is not filling up the glass but that other things are occupying the glass. The Spirit is like the air. Only when we empty ourselves completely can the Spirit fill up our entire being.