Another important verse is 1 Corinthians 6:17, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” We are not only one with the Lord, we are one spirit with the Lord. The Lord today is the life-giving Spirit, and we have a human spirit purposely created by God that we may take Christ as the life-giving Spirit into us. Now these two spirits have become one. This is wonderful! Our spirit is one with the Lord, because as the life-giving Spirit He indwells our spirit. But the Lord in our spirit is not like a drop of oil in water, never mingling with the water. He mingles with us in our spirit as tea mingles with water. This is why many times it is difficult to distinguish whether it is we or the Lord doing things. We have some burden, yet it seems the Lord wants to do it. It is because we are one with the Lord in our spirit. After tea is put into water, it is difficult to separate the tea from the water. That is why I call it tea-water. It is both tea and water. The two mingle as one. In the same way, the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit mingles with our spirit as one. He is in us, and we are in Him. It seems that a brother is speaking, but while he is speaking, the Lord is also speaking. He speaks within that brother. His speaking is the brother’s speaking, and the brother’s speaking is His speaking. Eventually, a mingled one is speaking. Praise the Lord! We are really one spirit with the Lord.
Now we must come to 2 Timothy 4:22. “The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.” Most Christians have never realized that there is such a verse in the Bible, telling us that the Lord Jesus is with our spirit. The most they have heard is that He is in their heart. But Christ first of all does not come into our heart, but into our spirit. When I come to visit you, I do not come into your bedroom first, but into your living room. The Lord first of all comes into our spirit. That is our living room. Our heart is the bedroom, the closet, and all the other rooms. He will get into all those parts only with our consent. If we do not agree, He will never go there. Praise the Lord that He has come into our spirit!
Then Romans 8:9-10 tells us that this Christ in our spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness.” The indwelling Christ is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is just the Spirit of God. Praise the Lord, they all are one. By these verses we can see that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is just Christ Himself. The Spirit of God dwells in us, so we have the Spirit of Christ. Then if we have the Spirit of Christ in us, Christ Himself is in us. This proves that the very Christ that indwells our spirit is the Spirit of God.
Paul tells us in Galatians 1:15-16 that it pleased God to reveal Christ in us. “But when it pleased God...to reveal his Son in me.” Then in chapter two he tells us that Christ lives in us. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Furthermore, the Christ that lives in us must be formed in us: “...until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). This can be illustrated by putting a hand into a glove. Sometimes the hand may be in the glove, but not fully formed. The fingers of the hand may not be all the way into the fingers of the glove. The hand is in the glove, but not in a good shape. It is not formed in the glove. Gradually the fingers of the hand get into the fingers of the glove, and finally the hand is fully formed in the glove. Praise the Lord that Christ is within us, but He must be formed within us. Paul travailed that Christ would be formed in the Galatian Christians. Christ should not only be revealed in us and living in us, but also formed in us.
Ephesians 3:17 says that Christ must “make his home in your hearts by faith.” First of all He is in our spirit; then gradually He will spread into every part of our heart until He has fully made His home there. Now He is not only formed, but completely settled in our whole being. This is why Paul could say in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ.” Paul says that regardless of what kind of circumstance or situation he is in, for him to live is Christ. Do you realize how much work is needed in us in order to say this? Yet Paul could say that his living was Christ. Then one day the Christ within us will become the glory. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Today Christ is within us as the hope of glory. But while we are living out Christ, we are waiting for the day when this indwelling Christ will become our outward glory. Praise the Lord! This is the indwelling Christ.
We were made with a spirit, a soul, and a body. The parts of the soul are the mind, emotion, and will. These three parts combined with the conscience part of the spirit constitute the heart. We have seen that Christ as the life-giving Spirit has come into our spirit; but He needs to spread from our spirit into all the parts of our heart that He may make His home in our heart. This is why Paul prays in Ephesians 3:16 that our inner man will be strengthened that Christ may make His home in our heart. The inner man is just our regenerated spirit. This part of our being needs to be strengthened that Christ may spread into our heart. From our spirit He will spread into our mind, our emotion, and our will. This is a gradual work. It could never be done overnight or even over one year. Gradually Christ spreads Himself from our spirit into every part of our being. This takes much time and much dealing by the Lord. So many of us must confess that although Christ is within us, He does not have much ground within us. We have opened our spirit to Him, but we have closed our mind, our emotion, and our will to Him. In the meetings we shout “Amen,” but when we get home we will not let the Lord touch us. However, He does not give up. Gradually, little by little, we open our inward parts to Him. It is in this way that Christ will make His home in us. Then our very living will become the manifestation of Christ, and we will be waiting for His coming to become our outward glory.