Please turn to Isaiah chapter 57, the book
of Isaiah chapter 57, verse 15.
Isaiah chapter 57, verse 15.
For thus says the high and lofty one
that inhabited eternity, and whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and with him that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of
the contrite ones.
I'll repeat.
For thus says the high and lofty one
that inhabited eternity, and whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and with him that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of
the contrite ones.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, as we remain in Thy
presence, we just pray that the light of
Thy countenance will shine upon our hearts.
We pray that Thy word may become life
and spirit to us by the power of
the Holy Spirit.
Our Father, we just commit this time into
Thy hands, and 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.
Do you remember the word of God says,
He that is joined to 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 prays, for the spirit of wisdom
and revelation to be given in the full
knowledge.
All our knowledge of ourselves comes in the
spirit.
Because in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 we are
told, Who knows the things of man except
the spirit of man?
And even our knowledge of other people has
to come through the spirit, because we know
no longer any man 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 very not many
people know about the spirit.
Now this morning we are not talking about
the Holy Spirit.
I do hope that 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 own spirit.
You know among God's people some people even
do not know that they have a spirit.
Many people think that spirit is part of
our soul.
In other words, we think that we are
composed of soul and body, and the spirit
is just a part of our soul.
And because of our lack of knowledge, of
knowing our spirit, no wonder we find our
spiritual life is greatly hindered.
Now we find in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5
verse 23 it says, May the God of
peace sanctify your holy, your whole spirit and
soul and body.
Be preserved, blameless 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 and
soul and body.
And He wants to sanctify us wholly, our
whole spirit, our whole soul and our whole
body, be preserved blameless at the coming of
our Lord Jesus.
When God created man, we know He used
the red earth to form the human body.
But then He breathed the breath of life
into that form.
And that breath of life that came directly
from God becomes our spirit.
And when the breath of life came in
touch with the flame, then you'll find man
becomes a living soul.
Our God is a spirit.
And He created us according to His image.
He created us with a spirit.
And 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.
Because the spirit that God has created in
us is the organ for God.
It is created for God, to communicate with
God.
And to being dwelt by God.
And it is in the spirit that we
come into union with God.
Proverbs tells us, a man's spirit is the
lamp of Jehovah, searching all the inner parts
of the body.
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, after
God created man, and put man in that
beautiful garden, he must have communion with man
in that garden.
Because man had a spirit.
And with that spirit he was able to
communicate with God.
But of course in the Garden of Eden,
man did not have the life of God
in him yet.
That awaited until he ate the tree of
life.
Then you'll find that the spirit was not
only able to communicate with God, but the
spirit was able to receive God into it.
That there might be a union there.
But of course we know, unfortunately, man sinned.
The Word of God is, On the day
that you shall eat that forbidden tree, you
shall surely die.
Now we know that Adam and Eve, they
ate 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.
And 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.
In other words, you'll find it is symbolized
by their being driven out of the Garden
of Eden.
Their communication with God was cut.
Their spirit as an organ still existed.
But it had ceased to function towards God.
And this was considered a spiritual death.
So dear brothers and sisters, let us remember
one thing.
That everyone that is born of Adam is
dead in the sight.
We were dead in sins and transgressions.
The Lord Jesus said, let the dead bury
the dead.
We were all spiritually dead.
We couldn't talk about spiritual life.
There wasn't any spiritual life.
Because our spirit was dead towards God.
Man became flesh, soul and body.
But thank God, something happened when we believed
in the Lord Jesus.
Now brothers and sisters, what happened at new
birth?
What is new birth?
John 3, 6 says, He that is born
of the Spirit is spirit.
In other words, our spirit was dead in
sins and transgressions.
But when we believe in the Lord Jesus,
then you'll find the Spirit of God touch
our dead spirit, quicken it, restore it to
life, and even to newness of life.
In Ezekiel 36, 26, 27, God said, I
will give you a new spirit.
And I will put my spirit in your
spirit to cause you to walk in all
my statues and to keep my ordinances, and
thou shalt do them.
In other words, when we believed in the
Lord Jesus, something happened in our spirit.
That dead spirit, that had no communication with
God whatsoever, suddenly was raised in resurrection.
And immediately you'll find our spirit cry out.
The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God.
This dead spirit was quickened into life.
The life of God has come into our
spirit.
And the Holy Spirit comes and takes up
His dwelling in our spirit.
And it is there we find our spiritual
life begins.
Because of this spirit, new spirit, and the
Holy Spirit in dwell in our new spirit,
therefore you'll find our communication with God is
restored.
We can commune with God.
As we draw near to God, He draws
near to us.
And there you'll find in our spirit, we
come to know God in an intuitive way.
Formerly, when we talked about God, He was
so objective, so distant, or so academic.
But then, we find, after we are born
again, we begin to know God in a
real way.
In other words, intuitively, directly, we know deep
down in our spirit that God is.
We know Him.
We have seen Him.
We have heard Him.
We have touched Him.
And intuitive knowledge of God becomes our portion.
And because we have this new spirit, with
the Holy Spirit in dwell in it, therefore
you'll find our conscience begins to work in
a new way.
We can serve God with a conscience void
of offense.
And it is in our spirit that you'll
find God begins to reveal Himself.
The Holy Spirit begins to do His work
of transformation in us.
And it is with the spirit that we
worship God and we serve Him.
So, in other words, you'll find spiritual life
is a matter of...
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.
And this is where spiritual life, now
the spirit that we have, is indwelt by
the Spirit of God.
And this spirit of ours is supposed to
be ruled by the Holy Spirit.
That is what it should be.
But unfortunately you'll find so far as our
experience goes, you'll find sometimes our spirit seems
to be under the control of the Spirit
of God.
But sometimes you'll find our spirit is not
under His control.
On the contrary, we find something has invaded
our spirit and takes over maybe temporarily its
control.
You know, it is a half-truth.
We often hear people say we should live
by the Spirit.
The Spirit should rule over our life.
Now that is true.
So far as God's ordained order is concerned,
our spirit has the most prominent place of
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 that rules over our whole
being.
Now the reason why I say this is
because there is a kind of misconception going
on among God's people.
And in one sense it is partially true.
And that is 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 in one sense that is true.
When the Word of God comes to us
as a two-edged sword, it does divide
the spirit and the soul.
That which of the spirit and that which
is of the soul.
Now that's true.
And we should not live according to the
soul, to the flesh.
But we should live according to the Spirit.
But, we have to remember when we are
saying this it doesn't mean that everything that
comes from our spirit is good, is dependable.
It's 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.
That is true.
But, so far as our spirit is concerned,
its nature is neutral.
In other words, it can be dwelt by
God.
And if it is dwelt by God, then
whatever comes from our spirit under God's control
is pleasing to God.
But, you must remember that our spirit can
also be under the rule of our soul.
Our souls can intrude upon our spirit and
takes over control.
And when that happens, then you cannot say
whatever comes of our spirit is bound to
be right.
It is not right.
And it is for this reason you find
in the scripture.
In 2 Timothy chapter 7, verse 1, it
is said that we should purify our
spirit and flesh.
That we may perfect holiness.
In other words, not only our flesh is
polluted, is defiled, but even our spirit can
be defiled.
And if our spirit is defiled, then we
have to purify it in order to perfect
holiness.
And that's the reason why you find in
the Word of God, when a spirit is
defiled, that is when the human spirit is
invaded by the flesh, by the world, or
oppressed by the evil spirit, then you'll find
our spirit becomes a spirit of bondage.
There is the spirit of fear, the spirit
of jealousy, a wounded spirit, a perverse spirit,
a spirit of error.
All these can become the conditions of our
human spirit.
And when this thing should happen, that you
know, your spirit needs to be purified.
You remember once when our Lord Jesus was
on His way to Jerusalem.
He was in Galilee.
And He was on His way to Jerusalem.
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 He was facing Jerusalem.
And I believe you know the reason why.
Because there was such a prejudice that existed
between the Jews and the Samaritans.
The Jews look upon the Samaritans as a
mixed people.
Look down upon them.
Despise them.
Because they were not pure.
And because of this the Samaritans, they responded
with hatred.
There was no communication between the Jews and
the Samaritans.
And usually the Jews in traveling from the
north to the south, they try to bypass
Samaria by crossing the river Jordan to the
east side, travel on the east side of
the river Jordan, and then cross back into
Judea.
But our Lord Jesus passed through Samaria.
And these people refused to receive Him.
That's recorded in Luke chapter 9.
And when the disciples found out that the
Samaritans refused to receive our Lord Jesus, you
know, the two sons of Zebedee, the two
sons of Thunder, they came to the Lord
and said, Now Lord, do you want us
to call fire down from heaven to burn
these people up?
Because they refused to receive You.
And you remember what the Lord Jesus said
to them?
The Lord said, You do not know what
kind of spirit.
You know, when our Lord Jesus was traveling
to Jerusalem, what kind of spirit was in
Him?
It was the spirit of the land.
He traveled to Jerusalem in order to offer
Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of
the world.
A gentle, meek spirit of the land.
But the two disciples, their spirit was a
different spirit.
Their spirit was a spirit of revenge, a
spirit of danger, a spirit of vengeance, a
spirit of hatred.
It was opposite to the spirit of Christ.
They do not know what kind of the
spirit they have.
Now, brothers and sisters, do we know what
kind of the spirit we have?
Do we know what kind of a 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
our spirit.
What is the condition of our spirit?
Whether our spirit is really under the control
of the Holy Spirit, or whether our spirit
is being defiled by something that came coming
from outside.
This is our responsibility.
You know, in the book of Proverbs, we
find it is said, I think it's Proverbs,
well, anyway, I can quote it.
In Proverbs, we are told that he that
has no rule over his spirit is like
a city without walls.
He that rules over his spirit is better
than he that takes the city.
In other words, here you find in the
word of God that God expects us to
rule over our spirit.
You know, oftentimes we think that it is
the spirit that rules us.
We are to be ruled by the spirit.
For the word of God said, we are
to rule over our spirit.
If we do not rule over our spirit,
we are like a city without wall.
And you know, a city without wall is
open to attack, open to invasion.
But one who can rule over his spirit,
he is stronger, better than taking a city.
Now the question is, do we rule over
our spirit?
Is it that in our spiritual life, we
have the misconception that it is the spirit
that 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 spirit of the prophets obey 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.
And we have a responsibility to see that
we do not allow anything else to take
over the rule of our spirit.
This is where our responsibility lies.
And I do not know, dear brothers and
sisters, whether we know we have this responsibility,
or whether we really have taken up such
responsibility.
You know, one of the fruits of the
Holy Spirit is self-control.
Self-control actually is spirit control.
But it means that we need, with our
will, to surrender, or to put our spirit
under the rule of the Holy Spirit.
That is our responsibility.
And it is a responsibility that we must
seriously take up.
Otherwise, you'll find 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?
Perverse?
Or is our spirit spirit of love?
Of courage?
Of sound mind?
Spirit of wisdom?
Understanding?
A humble spirit?
A broken spirit?
A gentle spirit?
A spirit of adoption?
A spirit of rapture?
Now, what kind of a spirit do we
have?
And what is the kind of spirit that
God is looking for in us?
So here you'll find in Isaiah, chapter 57,
verse 15.
For thus saith the high and lofty one
that inhabited eternity, and whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and with him that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of
the contrite one.
Now, our God is one who dwells in
the high and holy place.
He is the lofty one.
His name is holy.
And yet, he said, he dwells with people
who are of a contrite and humble spirit.
To revive the spirit of the humble, and
to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
That is to say, God is looking for
a certain kind of spirit in us.
And this kind of spirit is a humble
spirit.
Now, the word humble in the original means
low lying.
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.
And I would like to read to you
some of what he said.
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 has been
too little apprehended.
It is not a something which we bring
to God.
Or He bestows it.
Now, I want to underline it.
Humility is not something which we bring to
God.
Now, that's what we usually think.
But it is not.
Nor is it something that God bestows upon
us.
God does not give us humility.
Then what it is?
It is simply the sense of entire 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.
And 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 His
chief characteristics, the root and essence of all
His character as our Redeemer.
In other words, He tries to call us
to consider Christ.
What is the characteristic of Christ that really
characterizes Him as our Redeemer?
He said this can be but one answer.
It is His humility.
What is His incarnation but His heavenly humility
and His emptying Himself and becoming man?
What is His life on earth but humility?
His taking the form of a servant.
And what is the atonement but humility?
He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.
And what is the ascension and His glory
but humility exalted to the throne and crowned
with glory?
In heaven where He was with the Father,
in His birth, in His life, in His
death, in His sitting on the throne, it
is all, it is nothing but humility.
Christ is the humility of God embodied in
human nature.
Christ is the humility of God embodied in
human nature.
In the God of meekness and gentleness, to
wean and serve and save us.
And so He is still in the midst
of the throne, the meek and lowly land.
This life of 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, in this
spirit and disposition, that the redemption of Christ
has its virtue and efficacy.
It is to bring us to this disposition
that we are made partakers.
Now, brothers and sisters, the very value, the
very nature of atonement is humility.
And it is to bring us into humility
that we may become partakers of His divine
nature.
And He continues on.
Brethren, this is the path to a higher
life.
Down.
Lower down.
Seek not, ask not for exaltation.
That is God's work.
Look to it that you choose to humble
yourself and take no place before God and
man for that of servant.
This is your work.
Let that be your one purpose and prayer.
God is faithful.
We should not seek for exaltation.
We should seek.
Exaltation is God's work.
Humility is ours.
And He continues on.
As water ever seeks and fills the lowest
places, so the moment God finds the creature
abased and empty, His glory and power flows
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 losing us with such terrible power because
it is our self, 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.
In other words, where does pride come from?
The pride 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 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, and
humility can become a nature in us that
we cannot but be humble.
It becomes our very nature.
The one infallible test of our holiness will
be the humility before God and man, which
mocks us.
Humility is the bloom and the beauty of
holiness.
The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its
lack of humility.
I cannot put it in better words.
That's 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.
And I quote another place from Watchman In
the Spiritual Man.
God is interested in our spirit.
It is there the new life doth, 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 light 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 for us to preserve our spirit
is normal.
Now I want to underline this sentence.
As the condition of our spirit is, so
is the condition of our spiritual life.
Now brothers and sisters, we are all supposed
to live a spiritual life.
But how do we live spiritual life?
What kind of a 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.
Instead, we want the Holy Spirit to rule
over us.
If our spirit is normal, then our spiritual
life is normal.
But if our spirit is abnormal, how can
we live a normal spiritual life?
It's impossible.
So the question is, do we know our
spirit?
Do we know what condition our spirit is
in?
Do we have a humble God is with,
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, verse 15, we already 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 only need to repent when we have
done something wrong.
If we have done something wrong, then we
need to repent.
We need to have a contrite spirit.
But dear brothers and sisters, this is not
so.
Even though we do repent when we sin,
but what God looks for is a spirit,
an attitude, an inward attitude that is in
a continuous repentance.
In other words, there is a spirit in
us that is always alert, sensitive, ready to
confess, to repent from anything that does not
please God.
This is the kind of spirit that the
Bible calls a humble.
Is our spirit in such a kind?
Now, a humble spirit is a broken spirit.
You find that in Psalm 51?
I think we are all familiar with that
Psalm.
Psalm 51.
David's Psalm.
Verse 17.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou
will not despise.
You know, a broken spirit is different from
a wounded spirit.
You know, sometimes we feel our spirit is
wounded.
And a wounded spirit is not a right
spirit.
But a broken spirit is what God is
looking for.
A spirit that has been broken.
You know, just like any animal
that is to be tamed.
You have to broken it first.
To break it first.
You know, our spirit needs to be broken.
In other words, the resistance, the hardness, the
rebelling against God is being broken.
So that our spirit is tender, is broken
up, is soft before God.
And with such a broken spirit, you'll find
God considering it as the sacrifice.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.
In other words, it is something that we
can offer to God.
And a humble spirit is also a lowly
spirit.
A lowly spirit.
You know, in Proverbs, we have two different
verses.
One is in Proverbs, verse, chapter, verse, chapter
16, verse 19.
Proverbs 16, verse 19.
Verse 18.
Pride goes before destruction.
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Then again in Proverbs 29, 23.
A man's pride brings him low, but the
humble or lowly in spirit shall obtain.
A humble spirit is a lowly spirit.
Now, what does it mean by a lowly
spirit?
It doesn't mean that you look down upon
yourself.
You, you think little about yourself.
It means that you do not think about
yourself at all.
That is a lowly spirit.
And a lowly spirit shall receive honor.
And on the contrary, a haughty spirit before.
Now, what is a humble spirit?
A humble spirit is poor in spirit.
You remember in Matthew chapter 5, verse 3,
he said, Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
Now, poor in spirit doesn't mean that his
spirit is poor.
In other words, there's nothing there.
Poverty.
You know, our spirit should not be in
poverty.
Our spirit should know the richness of Christ.
But poor in spirit simply means that even
though the spirit may know something of the
richness of Christ, and yet it empties himself.
Yet it sees that there's so much more
that he does not know.
And because of this, you find there is
that poor in spirit.
It is not a spirit that is self
-contented, satisfied, Laodician spirit, but it is a
spirit that knows that he knows nothing.
He really knows nothing.
And that is poor in spirit.
That is the kind of spirit that God
is looking at.
And, of course, a humble spirit is a
gentle spirit.
You find that in Galatians chapter 6, verse
1.
A gentle spirit.
A spirit that will do no harm to
anyone.
A spirit that is tender towards 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.
Because the Bible said, God gives grace to
the humble.
He resists.
If we want to receive grace from God,
we need to have a humble...
We need to humble ourselves before God.
And that is the only way to spiritual
fullness.
How can we have it?
First of all, I think we need to
remember that humility is...
I think it is a...
a recognition that is very humble.
We often think that we are humble.
We can humble.
Be humble.
But we need to see that true humility
is really not in us.
Humility is Christ.
So 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 the Scripture, when God
reveals Himself, His glory to a man, to
a woman, to a person, you find invariably
that person falls down.
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.
And only when we see that, when we
see Him, we will be delivered from ourselves.
So I think the first thing that is
needed is a revelation of Christ.
How we need to ask the Lord to
continually reveal Himself to us.
And only by such revelation we are able
to enter into a humble spirit.
And number two, after we have seen Christ,
then the next thing we need to do
is to surrender ourselves.
We need to surrender ourselves completely to Him.
Give ourselves up.
As a matter of fact, if we really
see Him, there should be no problem of
giving ourselves up to Him.
See, the problem when we talk about surrender
is because we do not see Him.
So we find it so difficult to surrender.
But once we see Him, I think it
is very natural, it follows that we surrender
ourselves to Him completely.
And then the third thing is the Holy
Spirit to fill us and take up.
You know, in Ephesians chapter 5 it says,
be filled with the Holy Spirit.
That word, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
simply means 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.
So when we surrender ourselves, this is to
give the Holy Spirit the authority to rule
over our spirit.
And when the Holy Spirit not only dwells
in our spirit, but rules over our spirit,
then you'll find the Spirit of Christ becomes
a character.
And it is the Spirit of the Lamb.
It is.
So dear brothers and sisters, in view of
the conference before us, how can we really
receive grace from God?
You know, often times we can go to
conference after conference.
We may listen to message after message.
But do we really receive grace?
I'm sure.
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 bad the
conference is, we will receive grace.
So I feel probably it is right for
us to consider this matter of a humble
spirit before the conference begins.
Oh, that we really ask the Lord to
create in us a right spirit.
You know, David prayed that God would create
in him a steadfast spirit.
The word steadfast means right.
A right spirit.
That we will ask the Lord to create
in us a right spirit as we enter
into the conference.
God give grace.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank
Thee because Thou has not only created us
with a spirit, but Thou has given us
a new spirit.
And Thy Holy Spirit dwells in us to
teach and to transform.
Our Father, we just pray that Thou will
enable us to really examine ourselves, the condition
of our spirit before Thee in Thy light.
As God has said, in Thy light shall
we see light.
So we just bring ourselves to Thee this
morning and ask Thee to shine upon us,
to reveal to us what kind of a
spirit do we have.
Lord, if our spirit is divine, we look
to the cleansing of the precious blood.
Lord, we pray that Thou will 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, poor.
Lord, that we may be in a condition
that Thou can bless, that Thou can feel,
and Thou can work with.
So our Father, we just pray that we
may not enter into this time of conference
unprepared, but we ask that our spirit will
be prepared for Thee to bless and to
work.
And we ask it in the name of
our Lord Jesus and for His glory.
Amen.