REFRESHED IN OUR SPIRIT
In 2 Corinthians 7:13 Paul said, "We rejoiced more abundantly over the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you." Here we have a number of lessons to learn.
First, you have to refresh others’ spirits. Many times when you are with a certain brother or sister, after a while you feel the refreshment in your spirit. Someone else may be able to make you happy in your emotion but not refreshed in your spirit. Sometimes your emotional feeling may be hurt, yet your spirit is refreshed. To make people happy in the emotion is one thing. To make people refreshed in the spirit is another thing. So we all have to learn the lesson of refreshing others’ spirits.
Second, you also need to learn to be refreshed in your spirit. Sometimes you do not care for this refreshment in the spirit. Instead, you care for people’s sympathy. If you are in a certain kind of trouble or trial, someone may sympathize with you and say something good to you. You may like this. But if someone would do something to refresh your spirit, you would not receive it. You have no willingness to have your spirit refreshed by someone. You have to learn to be refreshed in your spirit. You should not care for people’s sympathizing with you or saying something good to you. You should care only for your spirit being refreshed by others.
Third, we have to learn to be joyful in others’ refreshment. Paul was joyful in the refreshment of Titus’s spirit. Sometimes we do not care for others’ refreshment. We need to refresh others’ spirits; we need to have our own spirit refreshed by others; and we need to be joyful in others’ refreshment.
WALKING IN THE SAME SPIRIT
In 2 Corinthians 12:18 Paul said that he and Titus walked in the same spirit and in the same steps. The spirit here is our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This spirit governs, rules, directs, regulates, and leads us in our Christian walk (Rom. 8:4). The apostles walked in such a spirit. Paul did not say that they walked in the same doctrine, but in the same spirit. To walk includes speaking, thinking, talking, fellowshipping, and doing anything. We have to walk in the same spirit and in the same steps in a corporate way.
(The Experience of Christ as Life for the Building Up of the Church, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee)
