Ephesians 1:17 says, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” To know God, to know Christ, and to know the church, we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation. This can only be possible if we are willing to exercise our spirit.
There are four verses in Ephesians with the little phrase in spirit: 2:22; 3:5; 5:18; and 6:18. In chapter 2 in spirit is for God’s building. In chapter 3 in spirit is for seeing the revelation of the mystery of Christ. Then in chapter 5 we have the infilling of the indwelling Spirit in our spirit: “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit” (v. 18). In spirit we have the filling—not the outpouring, not the outward filling, but the inward filling of the Holy Spirit in our spirit.
Just as the drunken people are filled with wine in their body, we have to be filled with God in our spirit. Their body becomes a container of wine, and our spirit, in the same way, becomes the container of God. God is our divine, spiritual wine (John 2:10; Matt. 9:17; Psa. 104:15). We contain this wine with our spirit, so we have to be filled with God in spirit. Ephesians 6:18 charges us to pray “at every time in spirit.” The church life is absolutely a matter in our spirit. God’s dwelling place, the church, is in our spirit (2:22). To see God’s mystery about the church, the Body of Christ, is in spirit. To be filled with God in His economy is in spirit, and to pray to God is in spirit. The church life is absolutely a matter in our spirit, so we all have to learn how to be in spirit.
If we would take care of our spirit, we would not argue, but we would be one in the church. If six brothers came together and forgot about their spirit, right away they would fight. The southerners would fight against the northerners, and the older would fight against the younger. But, praise the Lord, we have a place to go! We have the means to use. When we get into our spirit and exercise our spirit, we all will be one. Oneness is in our spirit. The church life is in our spirit.
Ephesians 4:23 tells us that we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Usually with the worldly people, their mind is absolutely separate from their spirit. In Ephesians 4:23, however, the spirit is one with the mind and becomes the spirit of the mind. When our spirit is one with our mind, when our mind is subject to our spirit, our spirit becomes a renewing spirit. We are being renewed day by day in such a spirit that is one with our mind.
Colossians 1:9-10 reveals that when we have such a renewing spirit in our mind, we have spiritual understanding. Understanding is the function of our mind. Our understanding needs to be spiritual. Some of the brothers who are students may have the understanding of mathematics, physics, or a certain science, but not the spiritual understanding. We can only have spiritual understanding by having our mind subject to our spirit. If our mind is independent, separate from the spirit, it is impossible to have spiritual understanding. When our mind is subject to the spirit, under the control of our spirit, one with our spirit, right away the understanding of our mind will be renewed to be a spiritual understanding. We will have the ability to understand things in a spiritual way.
The issue of being “filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (v. 9) is “to walk worthily of the Lord to please Him in all things” (v. 10). Because you have the spiritual understanding, you can please God. You can know His will. To know God’s will is a matter of spiritual understanding. If your mentality is still so worldly without anything related to the spirit, it is rather hard for you to understand God’s will because God’s will is always revealed to your spirit. Without my two eyes I could not see things in the physical realm. In like manner, without spiritual understanding I could not know God’s will.
(Our Human Spirit, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)