THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST BEING THE REALITY OF RESURRECTION
My words today are mainly warnings. I want you to know that today there is confusion. Winds are blowing from all directions. When you go out to work, there is only one place which is your best sheltering harbor. This place is your spirit. You have to turn to your spirit. Whatever you hear, you have to turn to your spirit. You have to listen in spirit, and you have to consider in your spirit. If you would practice this, it will become a habit to you, and you will not want to speak, move, or say anything apart from the spirit. When you turn to the spirit, you will be delivered from your natural being and will enter into resurrection. The light of the New Testament shows us that the reality of resurrection is the Spirit of Christ. Romans 1 says that according to the flesh, the Lord Jesus came out of the seed of David, but that according to the Spirit of holiness, He was designated the Son of God in power out of the resurrection of the dead (vv. 3-4). Paul said that according to the nature of the Spirit within the Lord, He was designated in resurrection. This resurrection is the result of the operation of the Spirit. Resurrection is the expression of the Spirit’s operation within you. Any expression which does not result from the operation of the Spirit is not resurrection but rather is natural.
For us who fear the Lord and are genuinely learning to follow Him, nothing is a misfortune. Even misfortunes are turned into blessings. Brother Nee always said that all we have to fear is the loss of the blessing of the Lord. When the blessing of the Lord is not there, even the things that are most right are wrong. But when the blessing of the Lord is there, even the wrong things become right. Fortune and misfortune lie in God’s sovereign hands. When you go out to the villages next January, without God’s sovereign permission, no wrong will befall you. To accept a seemingly wrong arrangement is something that the natural man cannot do. Then you have to pray. The more you pray, the more you will be delivered from the natural being into the spirit. In the end, the spirit will operate, and you will be moved immediately from the natural being into resurrection. Resurrection will become your power. The power of death is known to be unconquerable. When death comes, no one can resist its visit. But resurrection is able to overcome death. All that Satan can use is death. But today we are in resurrection. Resurrection can destroy death. Resurrection has the power to counter the poison of death. When you go out to preach the gospel, you must not be in the natural realm. If you are in the natural realm, you are in the death realm of Satan. If you are not in the natural realm, you will be in spirit. Once you are in spirit, you will be in resurrection. Resurrection vanquishes all death.
A good gospel booklet or a suitable gospel tract is not what saves people. When you go out to preach the gospel, you have to depend on your spirit. You must preach the gospel with your spirit. If you preach the gospel in spirit, your preaching will be in reality and in resurrection. Resurrection is the spirit, and the spirit is the reality of resurrection. The Pentecostal Christians claim that they have received power. Actually, they have not yet truly come into the reality of the indwelling Spirit. True spiritual power lies in the life-giving Spirit who is the consummation of the Triune God. Today this life-giving Spirit is fully in resurrection. The light of the New Testament shows us that even God Himself is processed. Before God was processed, God had no humanity. He had not passed through death and had not yet come through death into resurrection. Strictly speaking, God cannot die; He is immortal (1 Tim. 6:16). God had no humanity; He was not qualified to die. But in order to accomplish redemption, He put on humanity, entered death, and came out of death to be consummated as the life-giving Spirit. Without the Spirit, there is no resurrection. Resurrection is in your spirit. Today, the Spirit of Christ is in resurrection. We should have a proper understanding of this.
(Messages in Preparation for the Spread of the Gospel, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
