Scripture Reading: John 16:13; 1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18

Ⅰ　

The Spirit of reality dwelling in our human spirit and mingled together as one spirit is the secret of living in the reality of the Body of Christ— John 16:13; 1 John 5:6; John 3:6; 4:24; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 2:11; 2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17; Ezek. 36:26-27; Hymns, #745 and stanza 7 of #491:

A　

This Spirit of reality mingled with our spirit makes the reality in Jesus, the human living of Jesus in the Gospels, the corporate living of the Body of Christ as the new man—John 16:13-15; Acts 16:7; Phil. 1:19; Rom. 8:2; Eph. 4:20-24.

B　

Our mingled spirit is the secret place of the Most High, the secret of enjoying Christ as our secret of sufficiency in the "secret society" of the Body of Christ— Psa. 91:1; Phil. 4:11-13; Matt. 6:6.

C　

Our mingled spirit is the corporate spirit of the Body, the oneness of the Spirit mingled with our spirit, that is, "our spirit" (Rom. 8:16), joining us to the spirits of all the members of the Body—Eph. 4:3-4a; John 4:23-24; 1 Cor. 5:4.

D　

The uniting bars of the boards of the tabernacle, especially the middle bar, sig-nify the uniting Spirit mingled with our human spirit, the mingled spirit; the mingled spirit passing through us to join us to other believers is also the "crossing spirit"—Exo. 26:27-29; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:13; John 12:24; Gal. 2:20.

Ⅱ　

Ephesians reveals that the building up of the Body of Christ is absolutely in our mingled spirit—the divine Spirit dwelling in our human spirit and mingled together as one spirit—1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18:

A　

We need a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ as the Head of the Body, as the Body of the Head, and as our unsearchably rich trea-sure—1:17; 3:5; Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16; 2 Cor. 4:7:

１　

We must exercise our spirit of faith (v. 13) in order to see and know Christ as the hope of our calling (Eph. 1:18a; Col. 1:27; Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; Phil. 3:21; 2 Cor. 5:4; 1 John 3:1-2) and as the wealth of the Triune God, the riches of God's inheritance, in the saints (Eph. 1:18b; 3:8).

２　

We must exercise our spirit of faith (2 Cor. 4:13) to see and know Christ as the resurrecting, ascending, transcending, and heading-up power "to" the church—Eph. 1:19-23; 3:20; 2 Cor. 12:7-10; Phil. 4:13, 23.

B　

We are "being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit"—Eph. 2:22:

１　

Because our spirit is the dwelling place of God, the house of God, it is today's Bethel, the gate of heaven; in our spirit Christ is our indwelling ladder, joining us to heaven and bringing heaven to us, ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power to sustain us to live a heavenly life on earth—Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51; Col. 3:1-2; Rom. 8:10, 34.

２　

As long as we stay outside of the spirit, we are divisive and individualistic; if we stay in the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, we keep the oneness of the Spirit for the building up of the one Body—John 4:24; Eph. 4:3-4a; 1 Cor. 2:9-15; 3:1, 3; Jude 19; cf. 2 Cor. 11:2-3.

C　

We must pray "to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man" so that Christ may make His home in our hearts—Eph. 3:16-17a:

１　

Our inner man is our new person, our new spirit, our new man; the reality of the Body of Christ is the sum total of all the new persons within us, issu-ing in one great corporate person, one great God-man, the Body of Christ as the new man, consummating in the New Jerusalem as the masterpiece of the Triune God—Heb. 12:9b; 2 Cor. 4:16; Ezek. 36:26; Rom. 1:9; 6:4; 7:6; Eph. 2:10, 15; Col. 3:10-11; Rev. 21:2.

２　

Being strengthened with power into the inner man causes us to be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the unlimited dimensions of Christ as the breadth, length, height, and depth—Eph. 3:18; Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20; Rev. 21:16.

D　

We must be renewed in the spirit of our mind, allowing our mingled spirit to spread into our mind so that our mind is governed, possessed, occupied, taken over, controlled, and subdued by our mingled spirit—Eph. 4:23:

１　

To be renewed in the spirit of our mind is to get rid of all the old concepts concerning the things of the human life and be made new again by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit— Luke 24:45; Eph. 1:18a; Psa. 119:9, 11, 15, 18; Josh. 1:7-8; 2 Tim. 3:16.

２　

To be renewed in the spirit of our mind, we must set our mind on the spirit, paying attention to our spirit so that we are dominated, governed, led, con-trolled, and directed by our mingled spirit in order to be Christ's captives in His triumphal procession—Rom. 8:6; 1 Cor. 2:15; 2 Cor. 2:13-14.

E　

We must be filled in our spirit with Christ as the Spirit unto all the fullness of God—Eph. 5:18-21; 3:19:

１　

To be filled with the Spirit in our spirit, we must not grieve or quench the Spirit—4:29-32; 1 Thes. 5:17-19; Phil. 2:13; cf. Hymns, #880.

２　

The issue of our being filled in spirit is that we will have spirit-filled ethical relationships for the expression of the Body in the normal church life— Eph. 5:22—6:9.

F　

We must receive the word of God by means of all prayer, "praying at every time in spirit"—vv. 17-18:

１　

When we exercise our spirit to pray over and with God's word, His word as the sanctifying Spirit beautifies us to be His bride—5:26-27.

２　

When we exercise our spirit to pray over and with God's word, His word slays the adversary in us, killing the negative elements within us, especially the self, the enemy of the Body—6:17-18.

Ⅲ　

We look to the Lord for His mercy that we may always care for our mingled spirit and the Body; to be in our spirit and in the unique oneness of the Body is to be kept in the Lord's recovery—John 4:24; Eph. 4:3-4a.