Hymns 594

Scripture Reading:

1 John 2:27       And as for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.

2 Tim. 1:7       For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.

Christ as life causes us to have the sense of life, the anointing and moving of the Holy Spirit causes us to be taught by the Spirit, and our being mingled with the Spirit of the Lord’s life into one spirit causes us to walk in our spirit according to the sense of the Lord’s life, which comes from the moving of the Spirit of life.

THE SPIRIT BEING THE MINGLING OF TWO SPIRITS INTO ONE

The New Testament clearly and emphatically reveals to us that we, who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit to have God’s Spirit of life indwelling our regenerated sprit, are one spirit with the Lord. …(1 Cor. 6:17). …The Apostle Paul was full of the experiences of this mingled sprit. Thus, he told us to walk according to this mingled spirit. This is not merely to walk according to the Spirit of God but to walk by following our regenerated spirit, which is indwelt by the Spirit of God’s life.

THE FEELING OF THE SPIRIT NEEDING A STRONG AND SOBER MIND

The feeling of the spirit needs to be matched by a strong, sober mind. If you want to be strong in your spirit, you must have a strong will. And if you want to have a sober spirit, you must have a sober mind. When your will is strong and your mind is sober, your spirit will be calm. If you are an indecisive person, like a ship without a rudder drifting without direction according to the wind, your feeling of the spirit will not be accurate. If you wander all the time in your imagination, your mind will not be sober and your feeling of the spirit will not be keen. You will be like a piece of glass which, though it should be transparent, has lost its transparency because all kinds of paint have been put upon it. Therefore, the feeling of the spirit needs a strong and sober mind.

TO FOLLOW THE FEELING OF THE SPIRIT BEING
TO OBEY THE ANOINTING OF THE SPIRIT

Not only does the feeling of the spirit come from the operation of the law of life; actually the feeling of the spirit is the anointing of the Spirit. The Spirit Himself is an ointment which anoints us within. This anointing produces the feeling of the spirit. If we obey the anointing of the Spirit, we are following the feeling of the spirit. When we follow the feeling of the spirit, we are walking according to the spirit.

SUDDEN FEELINGS REQUIRING WAITING AND OBSERVING,
AND SUSTAINED FEELING BEING MORE RELIABLE

Sudden feelings within us are not reliable and require waiting. You may have a sudden thought during your prayer that you can surely perform a miracle, that you can pray for and lay hands on a certain sick one and he will be healed. Or the thought may come that tonight when you go out to knock on doors, in the first house you visit the whole household will be baptized. These kinds of sudden thoughts can be frequent and can come to you during prayer, while you sleep, or during the day. Some Christians are not clear about these situations and are manipulated by these sudden thoughts, doing things without consideration. Such thought is not of God, but of the evil one, who tempts people. He tried to tempt the Lord Jesus to turn stones into bread and to jump from the top of the temple (Matt. 4:3-9). We who live in the spirit should follow the feeling of the spirit. When we do, we will not trust in the sudden feelings. These sudden feelings are usually from the imaginations of the flesh or from the fiery darts of Satan. Therefore, we should wait and observe these sudden feelings. The real feeling of the spirit is surely lasting, and only the lasting feeling can be reliable.

IDLE BABBLING, MURMURING, AND CONTENTIOUS WORDS
NULLIFYING THE FEELING OF THE SPIRIT

James 3:2 says, “If anyone does not stumble in word, this is a perfect man.” Also, Proverbs 10:19 says, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.” These verses show us how important our talk is. Idle words, babbling, murmuring, and reasonings will annul the feeling of the spirit. Therefore, the Apostle Paul says, “Do all things without murmurings and reasonings” (Phil. 2:14). Murmurings are from the emotions, and reasonings are from the mind. Generally speaking, murmurings are more with the sisters, and reasonings are more with the brothers. Whether from the emotions or from the mind, they are from the soul. When a person is not living in the spirit, he is living in the soul and will murmur and reason. In the church life, if we want to nullify all these negative things, we have to follow the feeling of the spirit. I wish that there would be no murmurings and reasonings among us, but only the feeling of the spirit and our following of the feeling of the spirit. (Words of Life from the 1988 Full-Time Training, pp. 24-25)

THE LIVING AND WALK WHICH THE BELIEVERS SHOULD HAVE

According to the desire of the Triune God, who mingled Himself with us, our living as believers is not only a living that is scriptural, nor merely a living that is “sanctified” and “victorious,” but a living that is a walk according to the spirit in us, which spirit is the mingling of two spirits as one (Rom. 8:4). Such a living causes our flesh, our self, our soul, and our natural life to lose their position and function, and allows the processed Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, to gain the full ground in us in order that He may reach the goal of mingling Himself with our tripartite being, the spirit, the soul, and the body, that is, that we may be fully occupied by Him and filled and saturated with Him, taking Him as our life, our person, and our everything, that we may be completely one with Him to be His full expression.

Reference: Life Lessons, vol. 3, lsn. 34; Words of Life, ch. 1; Words of Life from the 1988 Full-Time Training, msg. 2