LIFE IS IN THE SPIRIT
If we want to engage ourselves in effective works, we have to have a basic acknowledgment of one thing at least once: “It is the Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63). If we do not settle this issue this year,we will have to settle it next year. If we do not settle it the first day we believe in the Lord, we will have to settle it sooner or later, even if it is ten years later. Many people have to be brought to the end of themselves and realize the vanity of their work before they see the futility of their many thoughts and feelings. No matter how many people can be gained through our thoughts and feelings, the result is vain. Sooner or later we have to confess, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” Only the Spirit can give life.
Even our best thoughts and feelings cannot give life. A man can have life only through the Spirit. The Lord’s word is always true. What gives life is the Spirit. Many workers of the Lord have to go through many pains and failures before they see this fact. Since the Spirit alone gives life, it is only as the spirit is released that sinners are regenerated and believers are built up. Regeneration is a matter of transmission of life resulting in others receiving life, while building up is also a matter of the transmission of life resulting in believers being built up. Without the Spirit there can be no regeneration, and there can be no building up.
The interesting thing is that God has no intention to separate His Spirit from our spirit. In many places in the Bible it is impossible to say whether the spirit being spoken of refers to the human spirit or God’s Spirit. Even many Greek experts cannot tell the difference. Throughout the ages Bible translators, from Luther in Germany to the translators of the King James Version, have been unable to ascertain which of the many references to the spirit in the New Testament denote the human spirit and which denote God’s Spirit.
Romans 8 is perhaps the chapter with the most references to the word spirit. Who can tell which words refer to the human spirit and which refer to God’s Spirit? When Bible translators come to Romans 8, they leave the readers to decide for themselves which spirit refers to the human spirit and which refers to God’s Spirit. When the English versions come to the word pneuma, some use an upper-case Spirit,and others use a lower-case spirit. All versions differ in this respect, and no one person’s view is authoritative. The truth is that it is impossible to differentiate between the Holy Spirit and man’s spirit.
When we received a new spirit, we received God’s Spirit at the same time. When our human spirit was revived from its deadened state, we received the Holy Spirit at the same time. The Holy Spirit resides in our spirit, but it is difficult to tell which is the Holy Spirit and which is our spirit. There is a distinction between the Holy Spirit and our spirit, but the two are not separate. Hence, the release of the spirit is not merely a release of man’s spirit but a release of the Holy Spirit through man’s spirit, because the two spirits are one. We can differentiate the two spirits as terms but not in fact.
The release of the spirit is the release of the human spirit. It is also the release of the Holy Spirit. When others touch our spirit, they are touching the Holy Spirit at the same time. If we can provide others the opportunity to touch our spirit, we should thank the Lord because they are being provided with an opportunity to touch God’s Spirit at the same time. In fact, our spirit brings God’s Spirit to men.
When God’s Spirit operates, He has to operate through the human spirit. This is similar to electricity that runs household appliances; it cannot travel like the lightning in the air. It travels through the electrical wires. Today we not only have electrical power but electrical wires. The wire bears the electricity. In physics there is such a thing as an electrical charge. To be charged is to bear a burden. If we are to carry electricity, we have to carry the charge by means of electrical wires. This same principle holds true for God’s Spirit. He needs the human spirit as a medium to bear His Spirit.
Through the human spirit the Holy Spirit is conveyed and carried to men.After a man is saved, the Holy Spirit resides in his spirit. Whether or not a man can be used by the Lord depends more on his outer man than on his spirit. The problem with some people is that their outer man has never been broken. There is not a blood-stained pathway; there is no wound, no scar. The result is that God’s Spirit is locked up within their spirit and cannot be released. Sometimes the outer man moves, but the inner man does not respond. The outer man is released, but the inner man is still bound.