Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:4; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17; 12:12-13, 27; Eph. 2:22; 4:16, 23
Ⅰ
God's unique purpose is to mingle Himself with us so that He becomes our life, our nature, and our content, and we become His expression— John 14:20; 15:4-5; Eph. 3:16-21; 4:4-6:
A
In His economy God mingles Himself with us to become one entity with us— 1 Cor. 6:17.
B
We may be saved to the extent that we and God are completely mingled as one, having one life and one living—John 15:4-5; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.
Ⅱ
The Body of Christ is the enlargement of Christ, the God-man, the One who is the mingling of God and man—Luke 1:31-35; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16:
A
We need to understand the Body of Christ from the perspective of the mingling of God and man.
B
In the Gospels the mingling of God and man produced the Head; in Acts the enlargement of the mingling of God and man produced the Body of Christ— 1:22-23; 4:15-16.
C
In Ephesians 4:4-6 four persons—the Body, the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father—are actively mingled together:
１
The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is mingled with the believers.
２
This mingling is the constitution of the Body of Christ.
D
The processed and consummated Triune God mingles Himself with His chosen people in their humanity, and the mingling is the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ—v. 3; John 17:21-23.
E
The church as the Body of Christ is a group of people who allow God to be mingled with them and who are mingled with God—Eph. 3:16-21.
F
The reality of the Body of Christ is a living by the God-men, who are united, mingled, and constituted together with God by the mingling of humanity with divinity and divinity with humanity—4:1-6, 15-16.
Ⅲ
The Body of Christ is absolutely a matter in the mingled spirit; thus, to be in the reality of the Body of Christ is to live in the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:4; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17; 12:12-13, 27; Eph. 2:22; 4:16, 23:
A
The union of God and man is a union of the two spirits, the Spirit of God and the spirit of man (1 Cor. 2:11-16); the union of these two spirits is the deepest mystery in the Bible.
B
The focus of God's economy is the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with the human spirit; whatever God intends to do or accomplish is related to this focus—Eph. 3:9, 5; 1:17; 2:22; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18.
C
The implications of 1 Corinthians 6:17 are marvelous and far-reaching:
１
To be one spirit with the Lord implies that we are in Him and that He is in us—John 15:4-5.
２
We and He have been organically mingled, blended, to become one in life; we and Christ are one wonderful, living entity—1 Cor. 12:12.
３
We, the complete and entire person—our entire being—and the Lord are one spirit.
D
The mingled spirit is both the Spirit of the Lord and our spirit—Rom. 8:4; 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
E
The mingled spirit is a spirit that is one spirit with God and that is the same as God in His life and nature but not in His Godhead—1 John 5:11; 2 Pet. 1:4:
１
The divine Spirit and the human spirit are mingled as one within us so that we can live the life of a God-man, a life that is God yet man and man yet God—Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.
２
The God-man living is the living of the two spirits, the Spirit of God and the spirit of man, joined and mingled together as one.
F
To be proper Christians, we must know that the Lord Jesus today, as the embodiment of the Triune God, is the Spirit indwelling our spirit and is min-gled with our spirit as one spirit—2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
G
All genuine spiritual experiences are in the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:4.
H
By being one spirit with the Lord, we can experience Christ as the all-inclusive One and take Him as everything—1 Cor. 1:2, 24, 30; 2:8, 10; 3:11; 5:7-8; 10:3-4; 11:3; 12:12; 15:20, 45, 47.
I
For anyone who is one spirit with the Lord, the supply is inexhaustible—Phil. 1:19; 4:23.
J
Ultimately, the Bible requires only one thing of us—that we walk according to the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:4:
１
The key to everything is found in the wonderful Spirit who is in our regenerated spirit and who has become one spirit with our spirit.
２
To live in the spirit is to let Christ fill and saturate us until He permeates our whole being and is thereby expressed through us—Eph. 2:22; 3:16-21.
３
The mutual abiding in John 15:4-5 is the practice of being one spirit with the Lord.
４
The best way to silence Satan is to live in the spirit—Rev. 12:11:
ａ
Whether or not we are under Satan's authority is not determined by the things we do; rather, it is determined by whether we are in the spirit or in the flesh—Gal. 5:16-17.
ｂ
As long as we remain in the mingled spirit, we will be kept, and Satan will have no way with us—1 John 5:4, 18-21.
K
We need to exercise the spirit of faith—the Spirit mingled with our spirit—to believe and speak what we have experienced of the Lord—2 Cor. 4:13.
L
We enter into the reality of the Body of Christ by walking according to the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:4.