INDWELT BY THE SPIRIT
AND DRINKING THE SPIRIT
After believing and being baptized, we are indwelt by the Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 11; 1 Cor. 6:19). As He indwells us, we are drinking. The drinking fountain is right in our spirit (John 4:14, 24). We must turn to our spirit and drink by calling on the name of the Lord (1 Cor. 12:3, 13b).
We have the Spirit as the aggregate of the Triune God indwelling us. In 1936 when I saw that God was living in me, I was beside myself. I wanted to go outside, get up on the roof or run into the street, and shout to people, "Do not touch me; I have God in me!"
The Triune God is in us. He indwells us, and we are drinking of Him. He is our drinking fountain; this fountain is not in the heavens but in our spirit.
LIVING AND WALKING IN THE MINGLED SPIRIT
Now we must live and walk in the mingled spirit. Romans 8:4 and Galatians 5:16 and 25 refer to this mingled spirit. J. N. Darby points out the difficulty of putting a large or small S on spirit in Romans 8. Though he does not use the word mingled, he surely conveys the thought that these two spirits are considered as one.
In Galatians 5:16 the Greek word for walk is to have our being, to move, and to act. Here is the consummate charge of the New Testament: to live, to have our being, to walk, to move, and to act according to the mingled spirit. All we do must be according to our spirit indwelt and mingled with the compound Spirit, not according to ethical teachings or moral regulations. To walk according to the Spirit is much higher than to walk according to ethical teachings or moral regulations.
The moving of the Spirit is called the anointing. In 1 John 2:20 and 27 we see that we all have received an anointing from the Holy One. This anointing within us is true; it teaches us to abide in the Lord. The anointing which John talks about in 1 John 2 refers to the ointment in Exodus 30. The tabernacle and all its utensils were anointed with that compound ointment (Exo. 30:26-29).
Today the compound ointment, the Spirit, is within our spirit anointing us, moving within us, all day. Even when we are arguing or when we are about to argue, the anointing within moves in us not to continue, but to go to our bedroom and pray. One day a sister went shopping, but whenever she picked up an item to consider buying it, the anointing within told her to put it down. Everything she picked up she had to put back. Finally she decided she had better go home. As she obeyed the inner anointing and went back to her car to drive home, she felt excited and happy. If we do not take heed to the inner anointing, we offend the Spirit. We must live and walk according to this Spirit who is mingled with our spirit.
(The Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
