- >CHAPTER ONE
THE SPIRIT, THE WORD, AND THE GIFTS TO CONVEY CHRIST TO THE CHURCH
Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:15a, 16a; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30; 2:2; 10:3-4; Matt. 25:14-15; Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:11, 16
According to the revelation of the Word, the Lord’s central thought and intention is to have the church as His Body to express Himself. Therefore, the church is for nothing other than Christ, and Christ is the very life, the very content, of the church. This must be very clear to us. The church is the Body of Christ. A body is something which contains the life of the head and expresses what the head is. The body is the expression of the life of the head, so the head is the life and the very content of the body. In the same way, the first and most important matter in the church life is that Christ is the Head, and this Head is the life, content, and everything in the church. The church is not merely a meeting; the church is not for a kind of activity; the church is not for a kind of service or for anything else. The church is absolutely to express Christ.
Galatians 1:15a and 16a say, “When it pleased God...to reveal His Son in me.” We need to see how Christ can be realized by, revealed to, and worked into the church. According to the Bible and all the experiences of the saints, Christ is wrought into us by three things. The first is the Holy Spirit. Christ is wrought into us through the Holy Spirit because Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the very reality of Christ (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). If we have the Holy Spirit, we have Christ. If we do not have the Holy Spirit, we do not have Christ. The second way is by the Word, which contains many teachings, and the third way is by the gifts. It is through the Holy Spirit that Christ is revealed, wrought, and woven into us. But how does the Holy Spirit work this out? It is either by the Word or through the gifts.
TEACHINGS AND GIFTS BEING FOR CHRIST
- 1">THE ORDINARY GIFTS BEING MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE EXTRAORDINARY ONES
- >CHAPTER TWO
THE ECONOMY OF GOD AND THE MARK OF GOD’S ECONOMY
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 4:3-7; Gen. 1:26-27; Isa. 9:6; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 1:1, 14; 20:22
Second Corinthians 4:3 and 4 say, “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those who are perishing, in whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine on them.” According to verse 4, the gospel of the glory of Christ shines. The enemy is afraid of this shining, so he has blinded the minds of the unbelievers in order that the shining of the gospel of the glory of Christ will not get through. Verses 5 and 6 continue, “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The gospel of the glory of Christ in verse 4 corresponds with the knowledge of the glory of God in verse 6. Verse 7 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.” The treasure in the weak earthen vessels is the very God in Christ shined into us.
THE ECONOMY OF GOD BEING TO WORK HIMSELF INTO US
- 1">THE MARK OF GOD’S ECONOMY CONCERNING THE PARTS OF MAN
- 1">THE SOUL HAVING THREE PARTS
- 1">BEING ABLE TO DO NOTHING APART FROM CHRIST
- 2">Godliness Being Manifested in Different Persons in Different Ways
- 1">THE MANIFESTATION OF GIFTS
- 1">REGENERATION BEING DISTINCT FROM THE BREATH OF LIFE IN GENESIS 2:7
- 1">WHAT HAPPENS TO US IN REGENERATION
- >CHAPTER NINE
DIFFERENTIATING THE SPIRIT FROM THE SOUL
Scripture Reading: Heb. 4:12; 1 Thes. 5:23; Matt. 16:24-26; Luke 9:23-25; Rom. 8:6; 2 Cor. 3:17
We have seen clearly what the condition and the function of the spirit are. Now we must learn how to differentiate the spirit from the soul. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Joints are the bones, and marrow is within the bone. Just as we differentiate these two things, we have to differentiate the spirit from the soul.
It is difficult to differentiate the spirit from the soul. This is because we are fallen people. As we have seen, the spirit of fallen man was deadened, and it lost its function. This means that the human spirit within fallen man did not function. From our youth, even from the day of our birth, we did not exercise our spirit. If we do not exercise any organ of our being for a certain time, it becomes useless. An expert once told me that if we do not use our eyes for three months, they will lose the function of sight, and it will take a long time to recover our vision. As fallen people, our spirit was deadened, and for a long time we did not use it. However, we were very accustomed to using our body and our soul. Therefore, after the fall of man, the human mind became overdeveloped. Now the mind is always too active. Even after we are saved and our spirit is made alive and renewed, we still are not used to exercising the spirit.
Today’s psychology does not even recognize that there is a spirit in man. The science of psychology only recognizes the body and the psyche, that is, the soul. The Bible, however, reveals to us that we have a third part, not only a body and a soul but also a spirit. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Our soul comprises the mind as the leading part and the emotion and the will. Our spirit, which was deadened, is made alive, regenerated, and renewed. However, we are still not used to the exercise of the spirit.
More than twenty years ago we lived in a small town in northern China. Like other homes in that town, ours had no electricity, so we used an oil lamp for a long time. One day electricity was installed in our home. At that time I visited people almost every day beginning early in the morning, and I came back in the evening. Whenever I came back home, the first thing I did was to put away my bicycle and pick up a match to light the lamp, even after electric lights had been installed. When I did this, our children would laugh at me. When I saw them laughing, I said to myself, “Foolish man, throw the match away.” Then I went to the switch to turn on the lights. For many years I was used to picking up a match to light the lamp. Now electricity had been installed, but I was not used to it. Today the heavenly “electricity” has been installed in our spirit, but we are not used to exercising this part. We are still used to “picking up the match” in our soul.
DENYING THE SELF BY DENYING THE NATURAL MIND, EMOTION, AND WILL
- 1">MEETING BY DENYING OUR SELF AND EXERCISING OUR SPIRIT