In the Bible there are two spirits—the divine Spirit and the human spirit. Three verses tell us that there are two different spirits. John 3:6b says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The human spirit is born of the divine Spirit. The King James Version even indicates the difference by capitalizing the first Spirit in this verse. Then in John 4:24, the Lord says, “God is Spirit [the divine Spirit]; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit [the human spirit].” God is Spirit, and we have a spirit within us as an organ for us to worship God, contact God, commune with God, receive God, and contain God.
The third verse is Romans 8:16 which says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” These two spirits are working together. The Holy Spirit works together with our spirit to testify that we are the children of God. This one verse proves that now the divine Spirit is one with our human spirit, and our human spirit is one with the divine Spirit. Hence, 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Today Christ is the life-giving Spirit. When the Bible says, “The Lord be with your spirit,” it means that Christ as the life-giving Spirit is with our spirit. This is why 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Hallelujah! We have the divine Spirit, and we have the human spirit. Eventually these two spirits are mingled as one.
In many verses in the New Testament the word spirit is used to denote not merely the Holy Spirit nor simply the human spirit, but the human spirit mingled with the divine Spirit. Romans 8:4 says, “Walk according to...spirit.” The spirit here is the mingled spirit. Surely it denotes our human spirit, but in Romans 8:4 our human spirit is not merely the human spirit. Our human spirit has become mingled with the divine Spirit. This is just like tea. It was pure water, but once tea gets into the water, we have two elements mingled together as one drink. We even call this drink tea. Actually, this is not merely tea; it is tea mingled with water. Two things have been mingled together as one entity. Today the spirit within us is a mingled spirit. As Christians, if we are honest and faithful to the Lord, we have to walk according to this mingled spirit in everything every day. We must walk according to spirit, not according to religion, doctrine, or any opinion. Then we will fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. It is here, in this mingled spirit, that the holy apostles received the revelation of the mystery of God (Eph. 3:5). The mystery of God could be revealed only in such a mingled spirit.
Ephesians 2:22 tells us that God’s dwelling place is the church. Today the church is to be built up into a dwelling place of God in spirit. It is in our spirit that the church is built up to be God’s dwelling place. We are here for the Lord’s recovery, and the Lord’s recovery is focused on the church which is the mystery of Christ. This church is built up as God’s dwelling place in our spirit. So in the last book of the Bible, the Apostle John tells us that in spirit he saw the vision of the local churches with Christ walking among them (Rev. 1:10-13). It was also in his spirit that John saw the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:10). It is altogether a matter of the human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit. God dispenses Himself as the Spirit into our human spirit first by the way of regeneration (John 3:6). We all have to realize that we have been regenerated. We have the second birth, a rebirth. Now we have to learn how to worship the Spirit in our spirit, learn how to contact Him, learn how to fellowship with Him. To worship God implies to contact Him, to fellowship with Him, to commune with Him, to receive Him, to take Him in, to contain Him, and even to assimilate Him. We have God within us. We have to digest Him into our very organic tissues. This all transpires not in our mentality, or in our will, or in our emotion. It is altogether accomplished in our spirit. Our God is the Triune God, and the Triune God is the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit as the ultimate expression of the Triune God has entered into our human spirit to make Himself one with our spirit. Now we and He are just one spirit. It is here that we have been reborn. It is here that we contact Him, receive Him, contain Him, assimilate Him, and take Him in. It is here that we have the church built up which is the focus of the mystery. How crucial and how important is our spirit!
(The Two Great Mysteries in God's Economy, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)