Please turn to Isaiah 57:15.
For thus saith the high and lofty One
That inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, as we remain in Thy presence, we pray that the light of Thy countenance will shine upon our hearts. We pray that Thy word may become life and spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Father, we commit this time into Thy hands. We want Thee to be glorified and Thy work to be done. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Spiritual life is life in the spirit. It is life of the spirit. Therefore, it is of tremendous importance for us to know the spirit—not only to know the Holy Spirit, but also to know our human spirit.
You remember, the word of God says:
He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
It means that our spirit, our human spirit, is joined to the Spirit of the Lord. And that is union with Christ.
All our knowledge of God comes in the spirit. That is the reason why you find the Apostle Paul praying for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God.
All our knowledge of ourselves comes in the spirit, because in 1 Corinthians 2 we are told, “Who knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him?”
Even our knowledge of other people has to come through the spirit, because we know no longer anything according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
So I think it is very clear to us that spiritual life is primarily a life in the spirit and of the spirit.
But, you know, it is very unfortunate to find among God’s people that not very many people know about the spirit. Now, this morning we are not talking about the Holy Spirit. I do hope we know more of the Holy Spirit. That is so basic, so important—most important to us.
But this morning, we would like to dwell upon this matter of our human spirit. Among God’s people, some people do not even know that they have a spirit.
Many people think that spirit is part of our soul. In other words, they think that we are composed of soul and body, and the spirit is merely a part of the soul. Because of our lack of knowledge concerning our spirit, no wonder we find that our spiritual life is greatly hindered.
Now we find in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:
And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly;
And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I think even with this one verse it should be clear to us that, so far as God looks upon us, He considers us as a composite of three things: spirit, soul, and body. He wants to sanctify us wholly—our whole spirit, our whole soul, and our whole body—to be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When God created man, we know that He used the red earth to form the human body. But then He breathed the breath of life into that form. That breath of life, which came directly from God, became our spirit.
When the breath of life came in touch with the clay, then man became a living soul. Our God is Spirit, and He created us according to Himself. He created us with a spirit.
This spirit that He created is to be His dwelling place. Through this physical body, we are conscious of the world around us. By the soul, we are conscious of our own self. But with our spirit, we have God-consciousness.
The spirit that God has created in us is the organ for God. It is created for God—to communicate with God and to be indwelt by God. It is in the spirit that we come into union with God.
Proverbs tells us:
The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord,
Searching all his innermost parts.
So we find that a man’s spirit is the lamp of the Lord. It is there that the Lord reveals Himself to us.
You know, in the Garden of Eden, as God created man and put man in that beautiful garden, He must have had communion with man in that garden, because man had a spirit. With that spirit, he was able to communicate with God.
But, of course, in the Garden of Eden man did not yet have the life of God in him. That awaited until he ate of the tree of life. Then the spirit would not only have been able to communicate with God, but would have been able to receive God into it, that there might be union there.
But, of course, we know unfortunately what happened. The word of God is, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Now we know that Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but they lived on for many, many years. As a matter of fact, Adam lived until he was 930 years old. They begat sons and daughters. In other words, they were very much alive physically and soulically.
But the word of God is true. On the day that they ate, their spirit died. It is symbolized by their being driven out of the Garden of Eden. Their communication with God was cut off.
Their spirit, as an organ, still existed, but it had ceased to function toward God. This was considered spiritual death.
So, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember one thing: everyone who is born of Adam is dead in the sight of God. We were dead in sins and trespasses. The Lord Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their own dead.”
We were all spiritually dead. We could not talk about spiritual life, because there was no spiritual life. Our spirit was dead toward God. Man became flesh—soul and body.
But thank God, something has happened when we believe in the Lord Jesus. Now, brothers and sisters, what happens at new birth? What is new birth?
John 3:6 says:
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
In other words, our spirit was dead in sins and trespasses. But when we believe in the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God touches our dead spirit, quickens it, restores it to life, and even to newness of life.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 says:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you;
And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,
And ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them.
In other words, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, something happens in our spirit. That spirit which had no communication with God whatsoever is suddenly raised in resurrection. Immediately, you find, our spirit cries out, “Abba, Father.” The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Our spirit is quickened into life. The life of God comes into our spirit, and the Holy Spirit comes and takes up His dwelling in our spirit. It is there that our spiritual life begins.
Because of this new spirit, and because the Holy Spirit indwells our new spirit, our communication with God is restored. We can commune with God. As we draw near to God, He draws near to us.
There, in our spirit, we come to know God in an altogether changed way. Formerly, when we talked about God, He was so objective, so distant, so academic. But after we are born again, we begin to know God in a real way.
In other words, intuitively and directly, we know down in our spirit that God is. We know Him. We have seen Him, heard Him, and touched Him. An intuitive knowledge of God becomes our portion.
Because we have this new spirit, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in it, our conscience begins to work in a new way. We can serve God with a conscience void of offense.
It is in our spirit that God begins to reveal Himself. The Holy Spirit begins to do His work of transformation in us. It is with the spirit that we worship God and serve Him. So, in other words, spiritual life is a matter of the spirit.
So, brothers and sisters, it is very important that we know we have a spirit. It is very important for us to know that we have a new spirit. It is very important for us to know that the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit. This is where spiritual life begins.
Now, this spirit that we have is indwelt by the Spirit of God. This spirit of ours is supposed to be ruled by the Holy Spirit. That is what it should be.
But unfortunately, so far as our experience goes, sometimes our spirit seems to be under the control of the Spirit of God, and sometimes it is not under His control. On the contrary, we find that something has invaded our spirit and taken over, perhaps temporarily, its control.
You know, it is a half-truth when we hear people say, “We shall live by the spirit. The spirit shall rule over our life.” Now, that is true so far as God’s ordained order is concerned.
Our spirit has the most prominent place in our whole being. It is through our spirit that God rules over us. So, in one sense, it is true that our spirit should rule over our soul and our body.
But this is not exactly true. Why? Because it is the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in our spirit, Who rules over our whole being.
The reason why I say this is because there is a kind of misconception among God’s people. In one sense, it is partially true: we need to learn to live by the spirit. Everything that comes out of the spirit is right; everything that comes out of the soul is wrong.
Now, we know that is not wholly true. When the word of God comes to us as a two-edged sword, it does divide the spirit and the soul—what is of the spirit and what is of the soul. That is true. We should not live according to the soul or according to the flesh; we should live according to the spirit.
But we have to remember that this does not mean everything that comes from our spirit is good, dependable, and something that we should follow. Not so.
Why? Because our human spirit is just an organ. It is true, it is an organ for God. It is made for God. It is to be the home of God. But so far as our spirit itself is concerned, its nature is neutral.
In other words, it can be controlled by God. If it is under God’s control, then whatever comes from our spirit is pleasing to God. But you must remember that our spirit can also be under the rule of the flesh.
Our soul—ourselves—can intrude upon our spirit and take over control. When that happens, you cannot say that whatever comes from our spirit is bound to be right. It is not right.
It is for this reason that we find in Scripture, in 2 Corinthians 7:1, that we should cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness.
In other words, not only can our flesh be polluted and defiled, but even our spirit can be defiled. If our spirit is defiled, then we have to purify it in order to perfect holiness.
When the human spirit is invaded by the flesh or oppressed by evil spirits, then our spirit becomes a spirit of bondage.
There is the spirit of fear, the spirit of jealousy, a wounded spirit, a perverse spirit, and a spirit of error. All these can become conditions of our human spirit. When such things happen, you know your spirit needs to be purified.
You remember, once our Lord Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. He was in Galilee, and He passed through the villages of Samaria.
He usually sent His disciples before Him to prepare His way. But the people in Samaria refused to receive our Lord Jesus. Why? Because His face was toward Jerusalem.
I believe the reason was the prejudice that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Jews looked upon the Samaritans as a mixed people. They looked down upon them and despised them because they were not pure.
Because of this, the Samaritans responded with hatred. There was no communication between the Jews and the Samaritans. Usually, when the Jews traveled from the north to the south, they tried to bypass Samaria by crossing the Jordan to the east side, traveling there, and then crossing back into Judea.
But our Lord Jesus passed through Samaria, and the people refused to receive Him. That is recorded in Luke 9.
When the disciples found that the Samaritans refused to receive our Lord Jesus, the two sons of Zebedee came to the Lord and said, “Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?”
You remember what the Lord Jesus said to them:
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
When our Lord Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem, what kind of spirit was in Him? He had the spirit of the Lamb. He traveled to Jerusalem in order to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
It was a gentle, meek spirit—the spirit of the Lamb. But the two disciples had a different spirit. Their spirit was a spirit of revenge, a spirit of anger, a spirit of hatred. It was opposite to the Spirit of Christ. They did not know what kind of spirit they had.
Now, brothers and sisters, do we know what kind of spirit we have? Do we know what kind of spirit God is looking for in His people?
It is not enough just to have a spirit. It is not enough just to have a new spirit. Thank God for the new spirit that is in us. But we need, as God’s people, to know ourselves. What is the condition of our spirit?
Is our spirit really under the control of the Holy Spirit, or is our spirit being defiled by something that came from outside? This is our responsibility.
You know, in the book of Proverbs we are told:
He that hath no rule over his own spirit
Is like a city that is broken down and without walls.
And again:
He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city.
In other words, here you find in the word of God that God expects us to rule over our spirit. Oftentimes, we think that in the spiritual life we are to be ruled by the spirit. But the word of God says that we are to rule over our spirit.
If we do not rule over our spirit, we are like a city without walls. A city without walls is open to attack and open to invasion. But one who can rule over his spirit is stronger, better, than one who takes a city.
Now, the question is: do we rule over our spirit? Is it that in our spiritual life we have a misconception that it is the spirit which rules, and we do not take up our responsibility of ruling over our spirit?
Now, it is true: to the Holy Spirit we have to obey. But the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
In other words, we have a responsibility to see that our spirit is under the rule of the Holy Spirit. That is ruling over our spirit. We also have a responsibility to see that we do not allow anything else to take over the rule of our spirit.
This is our responsibility. I do not know, dear brothers and sisters, whether we know we have this responsibility, or whether we have really taken up such responsibility.
One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control. Self-control actually means spirit-control. It means that we need, with our will, to surrender and put our spirit under the rule of the Holy Spirit. That is our responsibility.
It is a responsibility that we must seriously take up. Otherwise, you will find that the enemy will be able to intrude into our spirit and defile it.
What is the condition of our spirit? Is our spirit in bitterness? Is our spirit an unforgiving spirit? Is our spirit full of jealousy? Is our spirit under bondage or wounded? Is our spirit in error or perverse?
Or is our spirit a spirit of love, of courage, and of a sound mind? Is it a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a humble spirit, a broken spirit, a gentle spirit, a spirit of adoption, a spirit of life? What kind of spirit do we have today?
Here you find Isaiah 57:15 again:
For thus saith the high and lofty One
That inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite.
Our God is One Who dwells in the high and holy place. He is the lofty One. His name is holy. Yet He says that He dwells with people who are of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite.
That is to say, God is looking for a certain kind of spirit in us. This kind of spirit is a humble spirit.
Now, the word humble in the original means lowly—lying very low.
I would like to read to you some quotations from Andrew Murray. He has a booklet called Humility: The Beauty of Holiness. I hope you will listen very carefully.
The call to humility has been too little regarded in the church, because its true nature and importance have been too little apprehended. It is not something which we bring to God, or He bestows upon us.
I want to underline this: humility is not something which we bring to God. That is what we usually think, but it is not. Nor is it something that God bestows upon us. God does not simply give us humility.
Then what is it?
It is simply the sense of utter nothingness which comes when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all.
Humility is simply a sense of utter nothingness. This nothingness comes from the realization that God is all, and we make way for Him to be all. That is humility.
In the life of earnest Christians, of those who pursue and profess holiness, humility ought to be the chief mark of their uprightness.
We should have right thoughts of what Christ is, of what really constitutes Him the Christ, and especially of what may be counted as the chief characteristic, the root and essence, of all His character as our Redeemer.
In other words, he is trying to call us to consider Christ. What is the characteristic that really characterizes Him?
He says, “This can be but one answer: it is His humility.”
What is His incarnation but His heavenly humility, His emptying Himself and becoming man?
What is His life on earth but humility, His taking the form of a servant?
What is His atonement but humility? He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.
What is His ascension and His glory but humility exalted to the throne and crowned with glory?
His birth, His life, His death, and His sitting on the throne—it is all, it is nothing but humility.
Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature.
I like that: Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature. Oh, in His meekness and gentleness, He came to serve and save us. So He is still, in the midst of the throne, the meek and lowly Lamb.
This life of utter self-negation, of absolute submission and dependence upon the Father’s will, Christ found to be one of perfect peace and joy. He lost nothing by giving all to God. His humility was simply the surrender of Himself to God, to allow Him to do in Him what He pleased.
It is this state of mind, this spirit and disposition, that gives the redemption of Christ its virtue and efficacy. It is to bring us to this disposition that we are made partakers of Christ.
Oh, brothers and sisters, the very nature of all atonement is humility. It is to bring us into humility that we may become partakers of His divine nature.
And he continues:
Brethren, this is the path to the higher life: down, lower down. Seek not, ask not, for exaltation; that is God’s work. Look for it that you choose to humble yourself and take no place before God or man. This is your work. Let it be your one purpose and prayer. God is faithful.
We should not seek for exaltation. We should seek for humility. Exaltation is God’s work; humility is ours.
As water ever seeks and fills the lowest places, so the moment God finds the creature abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.
It is only by the indwelling of Christ in His divine humility that we become truly humble. We have our pride from another, from Adam; we must now have our humility from Another too. Pride is ours and rules us with such terrible power because it is ourselves, our very nature. Humility must be ours in the same way. It must be our very self, our very nature.
Humility comes by the indwelling of Christ in His divine humility. Do you get the words? Where does pride come from? Pride is in us. It comes from Adam. We inherit it. It becomes so natural to us. It is our very nature, our very self.
In other words, we cannot help but be proud, even though we have nothing to be proud of, because that is what we are. We cannot help it.
But thank God, in the same manner we find that in Christ there is humility. Humility can become a nature in us, so that we cannot help but be humble. It becomes our very nature.
The one infallible test of all holiness will be the humility before God and man which marks us. Humility is the bloom and beauty of holiness. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility.
I cannot put it in better words. That is the reason why I read it to you, because I do find that this is what God is looking for in us. God is looking for a humble spirit.
I quote another passage, from Watchman Nee in The Spiritual Man:
God is interested in our spirit. It is there that the new life dwells; there that His Spirit works; there that we fellowship with Him; there that we know His will; there that we receive the revelation of the Holy Spirit; there that we are trained; there that we mature; there that we resist the attacks of the enemy; there that we receive authority to overcome the devil and his army; and there that we secure the power of service.
It is by the resurrection life in the spirit that our body eventually shall be changed into a resurrection one. As the condition of our spirit is, so is the condition of our spiritual life. How essential it is to preserve our spirit in its normal state.
I want to underline this sentence: “As the condition of our spirit is, so is the condition of our spiritual life.”
Oh, brothers and sisters, we are all supposed to live a spiritual life. But how do we live the spiritual life? What kind of life are we living today? It depends upon the condition of our spirit.
If our spirit is normal—that is, under the rule of the Holy Spirit—and it comes only when we rule over our own spirit and say, “We want the Holy Spirit to rule over us,” then our spiritual life is normal.
But if our spirit is abnormal, how can we live a normal spiritual life? It is impossible.
So the question is: do we know our spirit? Do we know what condition our spirit is in? Do we have a normal spirit?
God is with him that has a humble spirit. Now, what is a humble spirit? I think there are several ways to describe a humble spirit.
A humble spirit is a contrite spirit. In Isaiah 57:15, we read that God is with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. He will revive the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite.
Now, we often think that we need to have a contrite spirit only when we sin. In other words, when do we need to repent? We think we need to repent only when we have done something wrong.
If we have done something wrong, then we need to repent and have a contrite spirit. But, dear brothers and sisters, this is not so.
Even though we do repent when we sin, what God looks for is a spirit—an attitude, an inward attitude—that is in continuous repentance.
Do you get the word? There is a spirit in us that is always alert, sensitive, and ready to confess and repent from anything that does not please God. This is the kind of spirit that the Bible calls a humble spirit.
Now, a humble spirit is a broken spirit. You find that in Psalm 51. I think we are all familiar with that psalm—David’s psalm.
Psalm 51:17 says:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
You know, a broken spirit is different from a wounded spirit. Sometimes we feel that our spirit is wounded. A wounded spirit is not a right spirit, but a broken spirit is what God is looking for—a spirit that has been broken.
Just as any animal that is to be trained has to be broken first, so our spirit needs to be broken. In other words, the resistance, the hardness, and the rebellion against God must be broken.
Then our spirit becomes tender, broken up, and soft before God. With such a broken spirit, you find that God considers it as a sacrifice.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. In other words, it is something that we can offer to God.
A humble spirit is also a lowly spirit.
In Proverbs 16:18-19, we read:
Pride goeth before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Better it is to be of a lowly spirit with the poor,
Than to divide the spoil with the proud.
And Proverbs 29:23 says:
A man’s pride shall bring him low;
But he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honor.
A humble spirit is a lowly spirit. Now, what does it mean to have a lowly spirit? It does not mean that you look down upon yourself or think little about yourself. It means that you do not think about yourself at all.
That is a lowly spirit. A lowly spirit shall receive honor from God. On the contrary, a haughty spirit goes before destruction.
What is a humble spirit? A humble spirit is poor in spirit. You remember Matthew 5:3:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Now, poor in spirit does not mean that one’s spirit is poor, as though there is nothing there—poverty. Our spirits should not be in poverty. Our spirits should know the riches of Christ.
But poor in spirit simply means that, even though the spirit may know something of the riches of Christ, it empties itself. It sees that there is so much more that it does not know. Because of this, there is that poverty of spirit.
It is not a self-contented, self-satisfied, or self-sufficient spirit. It is a spirit that knows that it knows nothing. It really knows nothing. That is poor in spirit. That is the kind of spirit God is looking for.
Of course, a humble spirit is a gentle spirit. You find that in Galatians 6:1—a gentle spirit, a spirit that will do no harm to anyone, a spirit that is tender toward God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, for our spiritual life to be really on the right path, we need to consider the condition of our spirit. We need to humble ourselves before God.
God gives grace to the humble; He resists the proud. If we want to receive grace from God, we need to have a humble spirit. We need to humble ourselves before God. That is the only way to spiritual fullness.
Again, how can we have humility? First of all, I think we need to remember that humility is not in us. We do not have it.
I think it is a recognition that is very humbling. We often think that we are humble, or that we can be humble, but we need to see that true humility is really not in us. Humility is Christ.
It is only by the indwelling of Christ with His humility that we are able to be humble.
So how can we have a humble spirit? First of all, we need to see Christ.
Brothers and sisters, if God will give us a revelation of His Christ, there shall be no problem for us to be humble. Every time you find in Scripture that God reveals Himself and His glory to a person, you find invariably that person falls down before God. He cannot stand up.
What we need is a revelation of Christ. We need to see Christ. We need to see God. We need to see that He is all. Only when we see Him will we be delivered from ourselves.
So I think the first thing that is needed is a revelation of Christ. Oh, how we need to ask the Lord to continually reveal Himself to us. Only by such revelation are we able to enter into a humble spirit.
Number two: after we have seen Christ, the next thing we need to do is surrender ourselves. We need to surrender ourselves completely to Him and give ourselves wholly to Him.
As a matter of fact, if we really see Him, there shall be no problem in giving ourselves up to Him. The problem, when we talk about surrender, is that we do not see Him. Therefore, we find it difficult to surrender.
But once we see Him, I think it is very natural. It follows that we surrender ourselves to Him completely.
Then the third thing is this: we ask the Holy Spirit to fill us and take up His rule over us.
You know, Ephesians 5 says, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” To be filled with the Holy Spirit simply means to be ruled by the Holy Spirit.
We have the Holy Spirit in us, in our spirit, but we need to let the Holy Spirit rule over our spirit. When we surrender ourselves, this is to give the Holy Spirit the authority to rule over our spirit.
When the Holy Spirit not only dwells in our spirit but rules over our spirit, then you find that the Spirit of Christ becomes the character of our spirit. It is the spirit of the Lamb. It is a humble spirit.
So, dear brothers and sisters, in view of the conference before us, how can we really receive grace from God?
Oftentimes, we can go to a conference. At the conference, we may listen to message after message. But do we really receive grace from God?
Sometimes, if our spirit is not right, we find that we cannot receive anything. But if our spirit is right, dear brothers and sisters, I do believe that if our spirit is right, no matter how poor the conference may be, we will receive grace.
So I feel that it is right for us to consider this matter of a humble spirit before the conference begins. Oh, that we would really ask the Lord to create in us a right spirit.
You know, David prayed that God would create in him a steadfast spirit. A steadfast spirit means a right spirit. May we ask the Lord to create in us a right spirit as we enter into the conference time.
God gives grace to the humble. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee because Thou hast not only created us with a spirit, but Thou hast given us a new spirit, and Thy Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit to teach and to transform us into Thy beloved Son.
Our Father, we pray that Thou wouldst enable us to examine ourselves—the condition of our spirit before Thee and in Thy light. As Thou hast said, “In Thy light shall we see light.”
So we bring ourselves to Thee this morning and ask Thee to shine upon us, to reveal to us what kind of spirit we have now.
Lord, if our spirit is defiled, we look to the cleansing of the precious blood. Lord, we pray that Thou wouldst create in us a right spirit.
We pray that the spirit of the Lamb, the Spirit of Christ, may become our spirit, that we may be humble before Thee—broken, contrite, gentle, lowly, and poor.
Lord, may we be in a condition that Thou canst bless, that Thou canst fill, and that Thou canst work with.
So, our Father, we pray that we may not enter into this time of conference unprepared, but that our spirit may be prepared for Thee to bless and to work.
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus and for His glory. Amen.