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

Have you discovered the secret to living the Christian life? It’s living in the mingled spirit.

Whether we have been a Christian for many years or recently received the Lord, our need is the same. Unfortunately, the spiritual progress of many genuine 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.

What is the mingled spirit? It is the Lord’s Spirit mingled with our spirit

There are three verses that reveal the two spirits—the Lord’s Spirit with our spirit.

1. 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 a divine 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 have called on the name of the Lord Jesus, praying to receive Him, you possess such a mingled spirit.

This 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. Come into my spirit and  mingle Your Spirit with my spirit.”

2. 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 Holy Spirit of God, witnesses with your spirit, that you are His child. 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.

3. 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 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).

We need to learn how to apply the secret of living in the 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 how to apply this secret, to live in the mingled spirit, in everything we do.

In every aspect of our Christian life—our fellowship with the Lord, our prayer to Him, our receiving of God’s word, our abiding in Christ, and serving the Lord, we need to practice to do it in this mingled spirit:

6 ways to practice living in the mingled spirit

First, call on the name of the Lord Jesus from deep within.

When we cal we’re in His Spirit, who is now mingled with our spirit. First Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” From my experience,  I found calling on the Lord to be the simplest way to enter into our mingled spirit.

Second, continue to speak to the Lord all the time.

By opening our heart to Him, we enter into real fellowship with the Lord in our mingled spirit—John 4:24; 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil 2:1.

Third, practice to pray from your mingled spirit.

Genuine prayer to the Lord is in this mingled spirit. We need to practice, exercising our mingled spirit, our deepest part, whenever we pray. In this way, we pray ourselves out of our own thoughts and into the prayer of the Spirit in our spirit—Eph. 6:18.

Fourth, receive God’s word with the exercise of your spirit.

Receiving God’s word requires the exercise of our mingled spirit. By practicing to pray-read the word, we’ll receive real nourishment from God’s word, contacting the Spirit as the essence of the Scripture with our mingled spirit—Eph. 6:17-18; cf. John 6:63.

Fifth, abide in the Lord by remaining in your mingled spirit.

Real abiding in the Lord is a matter of practicing to remain in one spirit with the Lord. We need to remain in our mingled spirit in order to abide in the Lord—John 15:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17.

Sixth, serve the Lord with your mingled spirit.

Serving God in a living, fresh, and acceptable way, depends on our using our mingled spirit in all our service—Rom. 1:9; 7:6; 12:11.

Finally, by living in the mingled spirit, Christ fills us and saturates us more and more until we are permeated with Him and express Him in our Christian life and church life—Eph. 3:16-20.

Walking according to the mingled spirit—God’s unique requirement in the New Testament

You may ask, “How can we say that the Bible requires only 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.”

Practice this simple secret of living in the mingled spirit—in the union of God’s Spirit with your spirit in everything that you do.

In this way all of God’s righteous requirements are fulfilled NOT BY you, but IN you. You are no longer trying to please God. You are 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 me the secret of the Christian life. Praise you that as the embodiment of God, You became the Spirit so that I could receive You. Thank you also for creating me with a human spirit so that I can contact You, receive You, be indwelt by You, and even be mingled with You. Praise you, that by believing into You, I now have such an organic union with You in my mingled spirit. Lord, now remind me 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 I are one spirit with You!”

If you have enjoyed this post, please take a moment to share your appreciation in a short comment.

References and Further Reading:

• 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.
• This post is an updated version of one I previously published.