LESSON FOUR – EXERCISING THE SPIRIT

2 Tim. 1:6-7 — For which cause I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.

EXERCISING OUR HUMAN SPIRIT

Today whatever we do positively in our spirit is a kind of exercise. The word in Greek for exercise is the basis of the English word gymnastics. To participate in gymnastics, one must use all his energy to exercise his whole physical being. We must exercise our spirit in the same way. The whole environment around us does not help us to exercise. It has an intention to keep us down. The whole situation does not help us to go on to labor. It helps us to be lazy; it helps us to be backsliding. It is a downhill current. The downhill current helps us go down. Actually, the current carries you. But if you go uphill, you have to exercise, and you have to struggle. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 1, “Basic Lessons on Life,” p. 598)

EXERCISING UNTO GODLINESS BY EXERCISING OUR SPIRIT WITH WHICH THE LORD IS

First Timothy 4:7 says to “exercise yourself unto godliness.” Second Timothy 1:7 tells us, “God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.” Then 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” When we put all these verses together, we can see that the exercise unto godliness depends on the exercise of the spirit, where the Lord is. If you are going to exercise yourself unto godliness, you have to know how to exercise your spirit because the very God is in your spirit. These verses are the scriptural ground for the exercise of the spirit. (CWWL, 1965, vol. 3, “Our Human Spirit,” p. 273).

THE WAY TO EXERCISE THE SPIRIT

By Calling on the Name of the Lord

One of the secrets of exercising our spirit is to call on the name of the Lord. We may consider calling on the name of the Lord as the best secret of exercising our spirit.…Perhaps when you first start to pray, you are in your mind; but after much practice in praying, you will gradually be in spirit. After further practice, you will reach a point that whenever you pray, you pray in your spirit and with your spirit. Prayer is not just for petitioning God but even more for contacting and fellowshipping with God. Therefore, the best way to pray is to call on the name of the Lord. The Bible even tells us to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17). The only way to pray unceasingly is to call on the name of the Lord. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 1, “The Four Crucial Elements—Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church,” p. 200)

By Pray-reading the Word of God

To read the Word with prayer and by prayer, to pray-read the Word, is the best way to read the Word. Mere reading needs only our eyes and our understanding, our mentality. But to receive God’s word into the depths of our being, our spirit is needed, and the prevailing way to exercise our spirit is by praying. Whenever we pray, we spontaneously exercise our spirit. Then what we read with our eyes and understand in our mentality will go into our spirit through our prayer. Every word in the Bible needs our pray-reading. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 2, “The God-ordained Way to Practice the New Testament Economy,” p. 375)

Exercising the Spirit by Praying

We have to start to exercise our spirit by praying, because to pray, in principle, is something in the spirit (Eph. 6:18). If we are going to exercise our eyes, we have to see. If we are going to exercise our feet, we have to walk. The more we walk, the more we exercise our feet. In like manner, the best way for us to exercise our spirit is to learn to pray. (CWWL, 1965, vol. 3, “Our Human Spirit,” p. 275)

References: CWWL, 1979, vol. 1, “Basic Lessons on Life,” ch. 18; CWWL, 1965, vol. 3, “Our Human Spirit,” ch. 10; CWWL, 1984, vol. 1, “The Four Crucial Elements—Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church,” ch. 7; CWWL, 1987, vol. 2, “The God-ordained Way to Practice the New Testament Economy,” ch. 8

EXERCISE THE  SPIRIT (PRAYER)

Prayer—Exercising  the Spirit – 781

• Exercise the spirit,
  Pray in every way!
  I have prayed too little,
  Keen my spirit, nay.
  Even when I prayed, my
  Spirit seldom proved
  Even just to follow
  As Thy Spirit moved.

• Now I’d pray in spirit
  As Thy Spirit groans;
  Pray by the anointing,
  Not as memory owns.
  Not the mind applying,
  But with spirit pray,
  Praising or beseeching,
  Spirit-led alway.

• Not just by myself my
  Spirit exercise,
  But with others praying
  I would do likewise;
  Praying in the spirit,
  As the spirit wants,
  For ’tis in the inmost
  Spirits have response.

• When we serve together,
  We thru prayer would move,
  Fellowship in spirit,
  Not in word to prove.
  Never pray together,
  Shouting, crying much,
  Yet the fellowship in
  Spirit never touch.

• Exercise the spirit
  Here and everywhere,
  Few or many present,
  Caring not who’s there.
  Not a place or person
  Will influence me,
  In all kinds of meetings
  I’ll my spirit free.

• Thus my spirit lifted
  Gives the Lord His way;
  Thus, my spirit strengthened,
  I’ll be used each day.
  In the spirit’s flowing
  Living water see;
  Thus the saints are mingled,
  Built the church will be.