WALKING ACCORDING TO SPIRIT
Paul tells us in Romans 8:4 that we need to walk according to spirit. Do not walk according to your mind, your emotion, or your will. Simply walk according to spirit, because the Lord and His grace are in your spirit. If you call upon Him and open up yourself to Him to enjoy His riches and to walk according to spirit, the Lord will gain more ground within you. Then He will make your inner man with all your inward parts His home. He will make His home in your heart to occupy your entire being (Eph. 3:16-17a) and thus become your full enjoyment. In yourself you cannot overcome your lust, your sins. When the indwelling Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit who is Christ Himself, occupies you and makes His home in your heart, filling you with Himself, you will crucify your flesh (Gal. 5:24) and put to death the practices of your lustful body (Rom. 8:13). By yourself you do not have the energy or the ability to deal with your flesh. But when Christ occupies you, making His home in your whole being, filling you up with Himself, you will be filled with energy and strength to crucify your lustful body, the flesh, to put your body to death to overcome all kinds of lustful things and sins. Actually this is not you, but Christ who lives in you.
As you are living Christ, the all-inclusive Spirit who indwells your spirit will dispense life into you all the time. When the switch to an electric fan is turned on, the electricity is being dispensed into the fan. As long as the fan turns and moves, the electricity is being dispensed into it. God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself into our being. He desires to do this every day and every minute. When we live Christ by walking according to the indwelling, all-inclusive Spirit, this Spirit gives life into our being, dispensing the Triune God as the all-inclusive life supply into us for us to enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This enjoyment is our drinking of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). While the electricity is being dispensed into the electric fan and while the fan is moving and turning, the fan is "drinking" of the electricity. As the fan "drinks" and "enjoys" the electricity, it spontaneously turns. As we enjoy the "divine electricity" of the Spirit, we spontaneously walk according to the spirit. This is not religion but God’s economy—the enjoyment of the Triune God embodied in the all-inclusive Spirit. This is absolutely different from today’s religious system centered on ethical teachings.
THE LIVING TRIUNE GOD AS THE FOUNTAIN,
THE SPRING, AND THE WATER OF LIFE
The living Triune God, passing through all the processes, has become compounded into one all-inclusive Spirit. He is not only all-inclusive, compounded, and processed, but He is also intensified sevenfold. In the four Gospels the Son with the Father by the Spirit is revealed. In the twenty-two books from Acts through Jude is the Spirit as the Son with the Father, the all-inclusive, compound, processed, life-giving Spirit. In the final book of the Bible, Revelation, the all-inclusive Spirit is intensified sevenfold.
Revelation 22:17 says, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! Let him who hears also say, Come! Let him who is thirsty also come; he who wills, let him take the water of life freely." The water of life is the sevenfold intensified, all-inclusive, compound, processed, life-giving Spirit. Revelation 21:6 indicates that our Triune God will give us to drink of the spring of the water of life for eternity. The Spirit is the water of life, and the spring of the water of life is the Son. The Son with the Father by the Spirit is the spring. The Father is the fountain of life (Psa. 36:9). Therefore, the Father is the fountain, the Son is the spring, and the Spirit is the river of water of life. When you drink of the water, you also drink of the spring and of the fountain. Do not forget that the Spirit is sent as the Son with the Father, so the water of life flows as the spring with the fountain. When the water comes, the spring and the fountain both come. This is the Triune God for our enjoyment. Praise the Lord for the water of life (the Spirit) as the spring (the Son) with the fountain (the Father).
When we drink the water of life as the spring with the fountain we are enjoying the Triune God. The fountain, the spring, and the water of life are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Triune God consummated in the all-inclusive Spirit is flowing within us as the spring with the fountain. We are drinking the water of life. The Triune God, with the Father as the source of life, the Son as the supply and the course of life, and the Spirit as the flow of life, is our life and our enjoyment. He is the substance of our service, our worship, our preaching of the gospel, our family life, our marriage life, our daily life, and our church life. The Christian life and the church life are a life of drinking of the fountain, the spring, and the water of life—the wonderful, all-inclusive, and glorious Triune God.
(The Divine Economy, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee)
