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If Job and his friends had taken the time to seek God in a spirit of humility and by exercising their spirit in prayer (Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Col. 4:2), God could have shown them that a regenerated, transformed, and glorified saint in Christ has nothing to do with the natural man and does not need to build up himself with the natural virtues.
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This heavenly vision would have saved them from the time- wasting, pain-increasing, and vain debates in thirty-five chapters as a record of a group of blind persons groping in darkness; they talked about God and also referred to their spirit (Job 32:8), but they exercised their mind in three rounds of long debates instead of exercising their spirit to pray for Job and to fellowship with one another so that all of them could touch God and receive God as their life, light, and spiritual supply:
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If we are going to have vital groups, we must be warned by these talks in the book of Job; the group we see in the book of Job affords us a negative example; it is the kind of group meeting we should not have in the church life today; the first thing that we must do when we come together is to exercise our spirit to pray; the vital groups are groups of vital prayer—cf. Acts 12:5, 11-12; Heb. 10:24-25; 3:13.
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The groups are vital in these two spirits—vital in our human spirit and vital in God’s divine Spirit; the Christian life is a life of the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God dwelling in and mingled with our regenerated spirit to be one spirit—John 4:24; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 3:14; 6:18.
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We need to learn to touch the divine Spirit in our spirit; this is the intrinsic significance of the Christian life and work; this is the move of God in man and the move of man in God to fulfill His economy, His plan, to dispense Himself in Christ as the Spirit into man in order to build up His Body and prepare His bride to consummate the New Jerusalem—2 Cor. 2:13; Phil. 3:3; Rom. 1:9.
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Paul stresses in the book of Romans that whatever we are (2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (vv. 10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (1:9; 7:6; 8:4; 12:11) must be in our spirit; we must be perfected and built up to be persons in the spirit; there is no other way to be a lover of God, to be a seeker of Christ, or to be an overcomer than to be in the spirit (Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10).
Morning Nourishment
Isa. 57:15 …I will dwell in the high and holy place, and with the contrite and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.Rom. 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son…
Rev. 1:10 I was in spirit on the Lord’s Day and heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.
Job was suffering, and his three friends came to comfort him. Elihu was also there to help the situation. However, these godly people did not pray for Job nor did they fellowship with one another by exercising their spirit that all of them might receive a certain amount of spiritual supply. That would have helped them find out the real purpose of God’s dealing with Job. They talked about God, and they also referred to their spirit, but in all their debates there is no hint that they were exercising their spirit. Rather, they were exercising their mind, searching for words from the heavens, from the air, from the birds in the air, from the beasts on the earth, and from the fish in the sea, to compose their poetry. (Life-study of Job, p. 149)
Today’s Reading
If we would have vital groups today, we need to be warned by these talks. The group we see in the book of Job affords us a negative example, an example of the kind of group meeting we should not have in the church life today.When we come together in the vital groups, the first thing we must do is to pray. The vital groups are groups of vital prayer. In the vital groups, learn not to pray old prayers with old terms, prayers according to your tradition. Learn always to pray new and fresh prayers. Try to exercise your spirit, because the very God, our present God, our God today, is right in our spirit with all His bountiful supply. Thus, when you come to the vital groups, you should remain in your spirit and exercise your spirit. In your spirit you will pick up some new terms and new expressions. You can do this because you have the Triune God as the consummated Spirit in your spirit.
The groups are vital in these two spirits…. Acts through Revelation [cover] the matter of the divine Spirit who is now in our spirit to become one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17)….God moves in man and man moves in God in these two spirits. Therefore, when you come to the vital groups, you should turn to the spirit, remain in the spirit, and exercise the spirit.
Do not come to the vital groups to talk naturally yet quite intimately. That kills the groups. Instead, exercise your spirit to praise God or to sing a stanza or a few lines of a hymn. This kind of praising and singing stirs up the spirits of those in the vital group. Then everyone will follow to pray.
After…prayer, we should fellowship…in our spirit by exercising our spirit. Our speaking concerning a saint who is sick should not be in ordinary words but in words from the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit….Try to bring the group into the two spirits. This will make a great difference, and…will help to lay the foundation for the vital group to move in the two spirits. Furthermore, when you visit others, at your home, in their home, or in the meeting hall, exercise your spirit.
Learn to touch the divine Spirit in your spirit. This is the Christian life, and this should also be the Christian work. This is the move of God in man and the move of man in God to fulfill God’s economy, His plan concerning Christ with His Body. We are here on earth for this, and for this we should live by the two spirits, follow the two spirits, and do everything according to the two spirits.
The way to be such a person is very simple—the way is to be in our spirit….We all need to learn of John to be in our spirit [cf. Rev. 1:10, 12] to see the vision and to enjoy the Lord, to enjoy the Body, and to enjoy the speaking of the Spirit to the churches. (Life-study of Job, pp. 149-151, 146)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1967, vol. 2, “An Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit,” ch. 2; CWWL, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” ch. 6