The reality of the church life happens in the Spirit. A person will never know the true church life if they don’t have the proper spiritual condition—if they themselves are not in their spirit. The testimony of the church life is our condition, and the true and proper testimony is the Spirit in our spirit. If we are truly saved, we will feel joyful constantly in the Lord, for we are in one Spirit with the Lord. Why do we constantly feel guilty and sorrowful? Because sin is still so powerful in our being, accusing us and binding us. If we are in our spirit, we will be free to be saved, to move on, and to have ownership of our own life.
The Galatians entered into faith by the Spirit, yet they didn’t continue on the path of the divine life; instead, they still believed the flesh could fulfill the demand of the law. How foolish! Whenever we find ourselves in fear, condemnation, pretension, sorrow, and numbness toward the Lord, these are all signs that we don’t have the true reality and freedom in the Spirit, and we are still trying to fulfill the law by our flesh. 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬, 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐢𝐟 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭. 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭. Our spirit is a place so clean and righteous. Our spirit is where we have everything we need. Only in Spirit can a person fulfill what they couldn’t fulfill in themselves, coming out of their cycle of failures, out of bondage, and settling in joy and freedom. Paul declares joyfully, “There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:1). Without the Spirit, we have nothing—no capacity, no righteousness, no goodness. But every time we go to the Lord, we go to that clean and righteous place. There, the Lord’s presence explains and justifies everything. There, logic, reasoning or debating can never coexist with His presence. There, He is free to speak, cleanse and overcome any obstacle in us. There, we can joyfully live in the Lord’s redemption and divine life without being accused day and night by the enemy. In the Spirit, when the Lord shines on us and our sinful nature, we can joyfully shout, “Hallelujah, Lord, I condemn sin in one Spirit with you. I am free!”
The busy, modern lifestyle has deprived us from owning the normal sense of life found in the Spirit. Since everything is convenient, easy, and cheap, no one has to ask the deeper questions or touch the deeper part of their being. The world operates by the very basic principle of sin, which yields insecurity. This condition drove Cain, when he left the face of Jehovah, to labor and toil to supply and build for himself. The resulting, fallen system does a good job to keep us full of worry and anxiety, and to strive to survive by our own strength. This operation according to sin, or the sense of sins, occupies and prevents us from knowing the meaning of life. Even the good things of the world can cause us to lose our time in busyness. This is Satan’s ploy to occupy our being and prevent us from knowing the truth of our human purpose—that there is a life of freedom to live by the Lord in our spirit, the true source of strength in a human being, rather than by our own efforts to satisfy worldly and religious demands.
We cannot enjoy a pure human life without the freedom of the Spirit that overcomes in us. If we don’t have this freedom, we won’t have the church life in reality. Every time we come together as the church, we celebrate the victory of our Lord in our humanity. We are joined in Spirit to the one source of human life: our Lord. This is where we have the reality of human life. This is where we have truth about who we are in humanity. This is where we have the joy and the fruit of our own salvation. Nobody can take that away from us. The church life is the one new man, the true corporate Adam. We are living the original human life in the Spirit; we rebuke all other sources, concepts, and ways not in the Spirit. In the Spirit is a very strong, powerful humanity. God needs this humanity in the corporate living to fulfill His purpose. God wants us to be mingled with Him—to own Him, live Him, represent Him, and operate in Him. And that’s the church life. Victory is ours when we are living by the Spirit of reality!
(𝐴𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎 𝑔𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 8/9/2020, 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟.)