ONE SPIRIT WITH THE LORD
We can experience Christ and take Christ as everything because we have become one spirit with Him. This is a deep mystery, yet it is a sure fact which each of us who has believed into Christ and is joined to Him in His divine life must believe, confess, and practice.
I. GOD BEING SPIRIT
1) “God is Spirit” (John 4:24).
This speaks of the nature of God. As far as the divine essence is concerned, God, the complete Triune God, is Spirit.
II. THE ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF THE TRIUNE GOD BEING THE SPIRIT
1) “...baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).
The Triune God is three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is the source, the Son is the expression of the Father, and the Spirit is the realization of the Son. Hence, the Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God.
III. CHRIST BECOMING THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT
1) “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45b).
The last Adam is the incarnated Christ, who through death and resurrection was transfigured to become the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of life (2 Cor. 3:6, 17) as God’s ultimate expression.
IV. OUR CENTER ALSO BEING THE SPIRIT
1) “May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete” (1 Thes. 5:23).
This verse clearly and definitely reveals to us that our complete person is of three parts—spirit, soul, and body. The body is our outermost part, by which we act and walk, and by which we contact the material things. The soul is the part between our body and our spirit as our personality and self, by which we contact the psychological things. The spirit is our innermost part by which we know and worship God, and by which we contact the spiritual things. Thus, the spirit is the center of our being and is crucial to God, more crucial than even the heavens and the earth (Zech. 12:1).
V. GOD RENEWING OUR SPIRIT AND PUTTING HIS SPIRIT IN US
1) “A new spirit will I [Jehovah God, who is related to man] put within you...I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:26-27).
These verses refer to what God did when He saved us, the sinners. On the one hand, He renewed our spirit to make it a new spirit, and on the other hand, He put His Spirit within our renewed spirit, causing the two to be joined together as one.
VI. THE SPIRIT OF GOD REGENERATING OUR SPIRIT
1) “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit...You must be born anew” (John 3:6-7).
When God saved us, He put His Spirit into our renewed spirit, and then His Spirit imparted His life into our spirit, regenerating it, that is, regenerating us to make us His children (John 1:12-13).
VII. THE SPIRIT OF GOD WITNESSING WITH OUR SPIRIT
1) “The Spirit [the Holy Spirit of God] Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16).
After the Spirit of God regenerates our spirit, He remains in our spirit, witnessing with our spirit that we are the children of God.
VIII. OUR SPIRIT WORSHIPPING THE SPIRIT, WHO IS GOD
1) “God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit...” (John 4:24).
To worship the Spirit, who is God, in spirit is to worship Him with our spirit. To worship God is to contact God, which includes such things as drawing near to God, praying to God, trusting in God, and thanking God.
IX. THE SPIRIT, WHO IS THE LORD, DWELLING IN OUR SPIRIT
1) “...His [God’s] Spirit who indwells you” (Rom. 8:11); “...the Spirit...witnesses with our spirit” (Rom. 8:16).
Combining these two verses, we see that the Spirit, the Spirit of God, is the Spirit who indwells us and who is joined to us as one.
X. JOINED TO THE LORD AS ONE SPIRIT
1) “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17).
Based upon the various facts revealed in the foregoing verses, we may say that since we are joined to the Lord, we are one spirit with the Lord. This means that the spirit, which is the mingling of our spirit and the Lord’s Spirit, is both the Spirit of the Lord and our spirit; it is the Lord’s Spirit mingled with our spirit and our spirit mingled with the Lord’s Spirit. The New Testament, in verses such as Romans 8:4-6 and Galatians 5:16 and 25, often uses this word, the spirit, which is the mingled spirit, to speak concerning what the Lord is to us and concerning our experience of the Lord. All our spiritual experiences after we are saved, such as our fellowship with the Lord, our prayer to Him, our living with Him, and our obedience to Him, are in this spirit, the Lord’s Spirit and our spirit mingled into one.
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