Holding to Truth

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The Secret of the Christian Life—Living in the Mingled Spirit

The mingled spirit - the Spirit and our spirit becoming one spirit

Whether you’ve received the Lord recently or have been a Christian for many years, it’s crucial to realize the secret to living the Christian life. Unfortunately, the spiritual progress of many sincere believers has been frustrated or seriously delayed because of a lack of enlightenment concerning this secret.

So let’s consider this secret of the Christian life—living in the mingled spirit, a living of the Lord’s Spirit with our spirit mingled as one spirit.

Three verses reveal two spirits—God’s Spirit and our spirit.

That which is born of the Spirit is spirit—John 3:6.

First, John 3:6 says,

“That which is born of the flesh is the flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

The Christian life begins with such a birth, the human spirit (the small “s” spirit) being born of the divine Spirit (the big “S” Spirit). If even once in your life you called on the name of the Lord Jesus, praying to receive Him, you possess such a mingled spirit.

This is divine birth is the intrinsic meaning of being “born-again.” It’s not just a conversion to the Christian faith, but the beginning of an organic union of the Lord’s Spirit with your spirit.

If you have never done so, take a moment to pray,

“Lord Jesus! Thank you for dying for my sins. Lord, I believe that you rose from the dead so that as the Spirit You could regenerate my spirit to make me a child of God. Lord, come into my spirit and  mingle Your Spirit with mine.”

The Spirit witnesses with our spirit—Rom. 8:16.

Second, Romans 8:16 says,

“The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.”

Once you’ve prayed to receive Christ, believing into His name, you are a child of God (John 1:12). Not only does the Bible assure you of this fact, but the Spirit Himself, the Spirit of God, witnesses with your spirit, that you are a child of God. Such a witnessing begins from the moment you receive Christ.

However, if you do not open your mouth to confess the Lord’s name, you give the Spirit nothing to “witness with.” So do not be a silent Christian, open your mouth and confess,

“I am a believer in Christ; Jesus is my Lord. Christ lives in me.”

I can guarantee you, according to this verse, that the Spirit will witness with your spirit.

Our spirit worships God’s Spirit—John 4:24.

Third, John 4:24 says,

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”

Once you’ve received the Lord, having God’s Spirit joined to your spirit, you have the proper organ to render God the true worship He’s seeking (John 4:23).

The spirit of man, contacting and being mingled with the Spirit of God is the fundamental matter of all true worship and service to God.

This is a most crucial lesson for us to apply in all of our Christian living and service!

These two spirits become one mingled spirit—1 Cor. 6:17.

First Corinthians 6:17 says,

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”

These two spirits become one mingled spirit—the Lord as the Spirit mingles with our spirit. How these two spirits are united together to become one spirit is the deepest mystery in the Bible.

So to be a proper Christian, we need to see that the Lord Jesus as the embodiment of the entire Triune God (Col. 2:9) became a life-giving Spirit through the processes of His death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45). Now, as the Spirit, He comes to us to indwell our spirit and to be mingled with our spirit to become one spirit with us (2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9-10; 1 Cor. 6:17).

All our spiritual experiences are in this mingled spirit

Now that we have seen that such a mingled spirit—the divine Spirit indwelling and mingling with our human spirit is the secret of the Christian life, we need to learn to apply this secret, to live in the mingled spirit, in everything we do.

We need to realize that every aspect of our Christian life—our fellowship with the Lord, our prayer to Him, our receiving of God’s word, and our abiding in Christ and serving the Lord are all in this mingled spirit:

First, to have real fellowship with the Lord we need to be in this mingled spirit—John 4:24; 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil 2:1.

Second, to pray to the Lord we must also be in the spirit. We need to practice to exercise our mingled spirit whenever we pray—Eph. 6:18.

Third, to receive God’s word we must be in the mingled spirit. We can only receive the life supply contained in God’s word by contacting the Spirit as the essence of the Scripture with our mingled spirit—Eph. 6:17-18; cf. John 6:63.

Fourth, to abide in the Lord we need to practice being one spirit with the Lord. That is, we need to remain in our mingled spirit in order to abide in Him—John 15:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17.

Fifth,  to serve God in a living, fresh, and acceptable way, we must do it in our mingled spirit—Rom. 1:9; 7:6.

Finally, by living in the mingled spirit, we let Christ fill us and saturate us until we are permeated with Him and He is expresses through us—Eph. 3:16-20.

The unique requirement of the Bible—to walk according to this mingled spirit

You may ask, “How can we say that the Bible only requires one thing of us—to walk according to the mingled spirit? Aren’t there hundreds, if not thousands of commandments, ordinances, exhortations and teachings in the Bible?” In response, let’s read Romans 8:4 which says,

“That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.”

By practicing the simple secret of living in the mingled spirit, in the union of God’s Spirit with our spirit, we are one with Him in everything that we do. All of God’s righteous requirements are fulfilled NOT BY us, but IN us. We’re no longer trying to please God. We’re simply one with Him in the mingled spirit and fulfill His requirements spontaneously. What a release! What a secret to the Christian life!

“Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for opening Your word to show us the secret of the Christian life. Praise you that as the embodiment of God, You became the Spirit so that we could receive You. Thank you also for creating us with a human spirit so that we can contact You, receive You, be indwelt by You, and even be mingled with You. Praise you, that by believing into You, we now have such an organic union with You in our mingled spirit. Lord, now remind us all the time to fellowship with You in this spirit, to pray in this spirit, to read Your word in this spirit and to serve You in this spirit. Praise you, that we are one spirit with You!”

This post was inspired by Message Four of a conference on the Focus of the Lord’s Recovery. You can obtain a excellent presentation of this topic in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on this subject. You can also read more on this topic in Living in the Spirit by Witness Lee, also available on ministrybooks.org.  A fellow blogger has also covered this topic in a similar post at: agodman.com. Photo Credit: by pippalou at morguefile.

 

About Tom Smith

Hi. My name is Tom Smith. I'm the writer behind Holding to Truth in Love, and I love the Lord Jesus and His life-giving Word. Please feel free to send me an e-mail through the contact page if you have any questions. I hope you'd take a moment to subscribe to the Holding to Truth blog. Then you'll be sure not to miss a post. Thanks!

15 Replies

  1. Raquel

    I appreciate that the Bible requires one thing of us – to walk according to the mingled spirit. This takes care of the negative and the positive! When we are in the mingled spirit, we are freed from Satan and his authority, and the evil one has no way to touch us. On the positive side, we are brought into the experiences and enjoyment of our Triune God, and can experience Christ being everything to us.

    1. How wonderful that living in the mingled spirit fulfills God’s purpose both negatively and positively! It frees us from Satan, and his authority negatively an it brings us us into the experiences and enjoyment of the Triune God and enables us to experience Christ being everything to us, positively. Thanks for such an enlightening comment!

  2. This is most encouraging and enlightening. I’m impressed that it all boils down to walking according to our mingled spirit. This is easier said than done, but it’s great to know this key to our Christian walk. May every day be spent learning to walk according to our mingled spirit in oneness with our dear Lord Jesus that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in – not by – us.

  3. Jon Lum

    He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Amen.

  4. There is no other way, brother. This really is THE SECRET! Our mingled spirit – the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit – is the key to our Christian life. The whole Christian life is a life in spirit. We don’t need to strive or struggle to fulfill the law as good Christians or “law-abiding citizens” – we simply need to live and walk according to our mingled spirit. While in spirit, the law is fulfilled in us spontaneously!

    How encouraging to be reminded again and again…

  5. Thanks so much for this post, Tom. I found it when preparing share the last lesson on The Two Spirits for the summer school of truth. May the new believers learn to know their mingled spirit!

    1. Tom Smith

      Amen! May the lesson of knowing the mingled spirit be one that we learn early in the Christian life and continue to practice every day until we meet the Lord.

  6. Very rich and profound. As one who has experienced a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit subsequent to salvation, I believe that asking to be filled, or baptized, with the Spirit most certainly facilitates the mingled life that you speak of. “We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things freely given to us by God.”

    1. Tom Smith

      Since we are now joined to the Lord to be one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17), this mingled spirit–God’s Spirit with our human spirit–becomes our source of supply to live the Christian life (Rom. 8:4). If we see this, we will no longer try to live the Christian life by ourselves. Instead we will cooperate with Him by keeping the “switch on” so His divine transmission can flow through us. When we call on the Lord Jesus, pray to Him, sing, thank or praise Him with our spirit, especially using His Word in the Bible we stay in this mingled spirit and enjoy His supply.

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