THE DIVINE SPIRIT
AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT
In Colossians 2:5 Paul says, "For though indeed I am absent in the flesh, yet in the spirit I am with you, rejoicing and seeing your order and the firmness of your faith in Christ." This verse indicates that Paul was a person who lived in the spirit. When he wrote this word to the Colossians, he was far away from them. Nevertheless, he could say that he was with them in spirit, rejoicing and seeing their order and the firmness of their faith in Christ. In his spirit Paul had a heavenly telescope through which he could see the situation of the saints in Colosse. He knew that they were in order and that their faith was firm.
In Colossians Paul speaks of the divine Spirit (1:8) and the human spirit (2:5). This indicates that in order to experience Christ, we need these two spirits. As we have pointed out, we also need to persevere in prayer. The secret of experiencing Christ has much to do with the Word, the Spirit, faith, the human spirit, and prayer.
RELEASING THE EXPERIENCE OF CHRIST
TO THE BODY
In the book of Colossians Paul covers not only the secret of experiencing Christ, the Head, but also the secret of experiencing the church, the Body. We need to know the secret of experiencing the Head for the Body. In 1:24 Paul says, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church." The fact that Paul suffered for the Body indicates that whatever we experience of Christ must be for the Body. If we do not supply the Body with our experience of Christ, our experience will be terminated. Consider your physical body: every member of your body enjoys the circulation of the blood. However, if the blood flowed into your arm and stayed there, not continuing to circulate through the rest of the body, that would be a sign of serious trouble. Your whole body would be in great danger. This illustration shows that we should not keep our experience of Christ for ourselves, but use it to supply the Body. The ultimate issue of our experience of Christ must be for the Body.
During my years in Christianity, I did not hear anything about the experience of Christ. Neither was I told that we need to receive grace from the Lord and then transmit this grace to other members of the Body. We definitely need to exercise our spirit by prayer to receive the Word so that we may have the Spirit and faith to experience Christ and enjoy Him. But what we receive of Christ must then be released to the Body. We should not hold it for ourselves. Our spiritual blood vessels need to be enlarged to allow the life supply to pass through us to others. Do not keep the supply for yourself. If you do this, you will have serious difficulties. Come to the church meetings and release your experience of Christ.
The more we release, the more supply we shall have. This is why I am not exhausted by ministering the Word. On the contrary, speaking always supplies me with more spiritual riches. As the flow goes out, more comes in. In fact, the inflow depends on the outflow. The more we release, the more we are able to take in. The more we release for the Body, the more supply we shall receive for the Body. The Word, the Spirit, faith, our spirit, and our prayer must all be for the Body. Release Christ and release the spirit for the Body. Do not come to the meetings to sit in silence, but come to release your experience of Christ to the Body.
(The Secret of Experiencing Christ, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee)
