Today we're going to
read a long excerpt from 'The Spiritual Man' by Watchman Nee. Afterwards or rather over the next few days
or however long it takes, by the grace of God we will study it more indepth and
apply all we learn to our true guide- the Bible, God's Holy Word. May the Holy
Spirit help us, all through Jesus Christ our Lord.
*******
EXCERPT--
'Communion
We Communicate with the material world through
the body. We communicate with the spiritual world through the spirit. This
communication with the spiritual is not carried on by means of the mind or
emotion but through the spirit or its intuitive faculty. It is easy for us to
understand the nature of the communion between God and man if we have seen the
operation of our intuition. In order to worship and fellowship with God man
must possess a nature similar to His. “God is spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4.24).
There can be no
communication between different natures; hence both the unregenerate whose
spirit obviously has not been quickened and the regenerate who does not use his
spirit to worship are equally unqualified to have genuine fellowship with God.
Lofty sentiments and
noble feelings do not bring people into spiritual reality nor do they forge
personal communion with God.
Our fellowship with
Him is experienced in the deepest place of our entire being, deeper than our
thought, feeling and will, even in the intuition of our spirit. A close
scrutiny of 1 Corinthians 2.9-3.2 can provide a very clear view of how man
communes with God and how man knows the realities of God through the spirit’s
intuition.
1Co 2:8 Which
none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9 But as
it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10 But
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:11 For
what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now
we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God;
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which
things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
1Co 2:15 But
he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man.
1Co 2:16 For
who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the
mind of Christ.
1Co 3:1 And I,
brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even
as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have
fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able.
The Heart of Man
“What no eye has
seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for
those who love him” (v.9). The larger context of this one verse speaks of God
and the things of God. What He has prepared can neither be seen or heard by
man’s outward body nor conceived by his inward heart. The “heart of man”
includes among other facets man’s understanding, mind and intellect. Man’s
thought cannot envisage God’s work, for the latter transcends the former. It is
therefore evident that he who desires to know and commune with God cannot
depend solely upon his thought.
The Holy Spirit
“God has revealed to
us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything; even the depths of
God” (v.10). This verse sets forth the fact that the Holy Spirit searches
everything and not that our mind conceives all. Only the Holy Spirit knows the
depths of God. He knows what man does not know. By His intuition the Spirit
searches everything. God is thus able to reveal through Him what our heart has
never conceived. This “revealing” is not acquired after much thinking, for our
heart cannot even conceive it. It is a revelation; it does not require the help
of our thought. The next two verses tell us how God reveals Himself.
The Spirit of Man
“For what person
knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no
one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have
received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we
might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God” (vv.11 and 12). No one knows
man’s thoughts except the spirit of man; likewise, no one knows the things of
God but the Holy Spirit. Man’s spirit as well as God’s Spirit apprehend things
directly, not by deducing or searching. They perceive through the faculty of
intuition. Since the Holy Spirit alone knows the things of God, we must receive
the Holy Spirit if we also would know those things. The spirit of the world is
cut off from communication with God. It is a dead spirit: it cannot effect
communion with Him. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, comprehends the things
of God; therefore, by receiving in our intuition what the Holy Spirit knows, we
too shall understand the realities of God. “We have received . . . the Spirit
which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.”
How then do we know? Verse 11 tells us man knows by his spirit. The Holy Spirit
unfolds to our spirit what He knows intuitively so that we too may know intuitively.
When the Holy Spirit
discloses the matters pertaining to God He does so not to our mind nor to any
other organ but to our spirit.
God knows this is
the sole place in man which can apprehend man’s things as well as His things.
The mind is not the place for knowing these things. While it is true that the
mind can think and conceive many matters, it nonetheless cannot know them. From
this we can appreciate how highly God esteems the regenerated spirit of man.
Before new birth
man’s spirit was dead. God had no way of unfolding His mind to such a man. The
cleverest brain fails to know the mind of God.
Both God’s
fellowship with man and man’s worship of God are contingent upon the
regenerated spirit of man.
Without this
revitalized component God and man are hopelessly separated—neither can come or
go to the other. The first step towards communion between God and man must be
this quickening of man’s spirit.
Because man enjoys a
free will he has authority to decide his own matters. That explains why he
continues to encounter many temptations following new birth. Due to his
foolishness or perhaps his prejudice he may not yield the rightful position to
his spirit and its intuition. God accepts this spirit as the one place where He
will commune with man and man with Him. But the believer still walks by his
mind or emotion. How many times he completely ignores the voice of intuition.
His principle of living is to adhere to what he himself considers reasonable,
beautiful, delightful, or interesting. Even should he have a heart to do God’s
will, he usually will take either his impulsive idea or his more logical
thought as the mind of God, not realizing that what he ought to follow is the
thought expressed by the Holy Spirit in his intuition. He sometimes may be
willing to hear the voice of intuition, but failing to keep his feelings quiet
he finds that voice blurred and confused.
Walking after the
spirit consequently becomes an occasional affair instead of forming a daily
continuous experience in the Christian’s life.
If the initial
knowing of God’s will is so difficult, who can wonder at the lack of further
and more profound revelation? How then can we ever truly know in our spirit
God’s plan for the end of this age, the reality of spiritual warfare, and the
deeper truths of the Bible? For our worship merely corresponds to what we think
is best or what we feel on the spur of the moment. And to commune with the Lord
in our intuition naturally becomes an unheard of phenomenon.
A believer must
recognize that the Holy Spirit alone comprehends the things of God—and that
intuitively. He is the one Person Who can convey this knowledge to man. But for
anyone to obtain such knowledge he must appropriate it through the proper
means; namely, he must receive with his intuition what the Holy Spirit
intuitively knows.
The conjunction of
these two intuitions enables man to apprehend the mind of God. “And we impart
this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting
spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit” (v.13).
How are we going to
impart to others the things of God which we have discerned in our spirit’s
intuition? Having come to know the realities of God, our responsibility now is
to proclaim them. The Apostle Paul declares he does not transmit them in terms
taught by human wisdom. That wisdom belongs to a man’s mind and is the product
of man’s brain. Paul categorically asserts that he does not employ the words
which come from the mind to communicate what his spirit knows concerning the
things of God. Paul in himself possesses great wisdom. He is perfectly able to
formulate many new and wonderful phrases and to deliver his message eloquently
with good organization and illustrative parables. He knows how to make his
audience understand what he means to say. He nevertheless refuses to use the
terminology taught by human wisdom.
This declaration and
attitude of the Apostle Paul indicate that man’s mind is not only useless in
knowing the things of God but is also secondary in imparting spiritual
knowledge. The Apostle articulates God’s realities in phraseology taught by the
Spirit. In his intuition he receives His instruction. Nothing in the life of a
Christian is of any value save that which is in his spirit. Even in relating
spiritual knowledge he needs to employ spiritual words. Intuition appropriates
not only the thing which the Holy Spirit unfolds but also the words taught by
the same Spirit, in order to explain to others what has been revealed.
How often a believer
tries to impart to others what has been revealed so clearly to him by God; yet
try as he may, he finds no words to convey the fundamental meaning of what has
been disclosed. Why? Because he has not received words in his spirit.
At other times, as
he waits before the Lord, the believer senses something rising in the center of
his being—perhaps but a few words. With those few words, however, he is able to
communicate adequately at a meeting what has been revealed to him. He comes to
realize how God actually uses him to testify for the Lord. Such experiences
attest the importance of the “utterance” given by the Holy Spirit. There are
two kinds of utterance, the natural and the Spirit-given. The type of utterance
recorded in Acts 2.4 is indispensable in spiritual service. However eloquent
our natural utterance, it remains powerless to truly communicate the things of
God. We may view ourselves as having spoken quite well; yet we have not
succeeded in expressing the thought of the Spirit.
Spiritual words,
that is, terminology received in the spirit, can alone articulate spiritual
knowledge. If we are burdened with the message of the Lord in our spirit, as
though a fire were burning within, and yet have not the means to discharge that
burden, we should wait for the “utterance” to be given by the Spirit so that we
may proclaim the message of our spirit and discharge that burden. Should we
inadvertently employ language taught by human wisdom instead of waiting for the
words bestowed intuitively by the Holy Spirit, we shall find our spiritual
effectiveness comes to nought. Speech merely grounded in earthly wisdom can
only move people to say that the theory advanced is indeed good.
Sometimes we enjoy
many spiritual experiences, but we are at a loss how to articulate them until
other believers unlock them with a word. This is because until the moment we
heard others uttering our experience in simple terms, we still had not received
in our spirit explicit words from the Lord. Spiritual truths must be explained
with spiritual phrases. We must employ spiritual means to reach spiritual ends.
This is what the
Lord especially wishes to teach us today. Spiritual goals need to be perfected
through corresponding spiritual processes. The fleshly as fleshly will never
become spiritual. If we hope to arrive at our spiritual objectives with our
minds and emotions, we as it were are expecting sweet water to pour forth from
fountains of bitter water. All matters pertaining to God—such as seeking His
will, obeying His commandments, proclaiming His message—are effective only if
they arise out of fellowship with God in the spirit. Whatever is performed
through our thoughts, talents or methods is accounted by God as dead.'
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