Tuesday

Related Verses
Rom. 8:9-10, 13-15
9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.
10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
13 For if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery bringing you into fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!

John 15:4
4 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

Gal. 5:16-17
16 But I say, Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these oppose each other that you would not do the things that you desire.

Eph. 3:17
17 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Related Reading
In Romans 8:9-10 we read that we are not in the flesh. This shows how much we have been cheated by the enemy. So many Christians are continually bemoaning the fact that they are so fleshly. But this is a lie! We are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. This is the word of Romans 8:9…The Bible says that we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. So we must believe the word of the Bible. Our word is nothing. Only the word of the Bible is reality. Let us forget about our word and take the word of the Bible. We are no more in the flesh, but in the spirit. We know this because of the word of the Bible. Hallelujah! We are no longer in the flesh, because the Spirit of God dwells in us. This is the indwelling of Christ. It is only the indwelling Christ that causes us to be no more in the flesh.

We can realize from these verses that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is simply Christ Himself. So eventually we have these words: “If Christ is in you.”…We all have to shout, “Hallelujah! Christ is in us.” Is this not wonderful? We have such a wonderful person in us, and this person is Christ. (CWWL, 1973–1974, vol. 1, “The Indwelling Christ in the Canon of the New Testament,” pp. 573-574)

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Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” This verse indicates that the righteous requirement of the law is not consciously kept by us through our outward endeavoring but is spontaneously and unconsciously fulfilled in us by the inward working of the Spirit of life. In ourselves we are not able to keep the requirement of the law; hence, rather than trying to keep it by the efforts of the flesh, we should walk according to the spirit. Such a walk, in which the righteous requirement of the law is spontaneously fulfilled in us, comes only from the indwelling Spirit of the Triune God.

Romans 8:9 speaks concerning the indwelling Spirit: “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” The Greek word translated “dwells” is not the same Greek word for abide (John 15:4). It has the same root as the word for house and may be translated “resides” or “makes home”; it conveys the thought not of staying in a place temporarily but of making one’s home in a place, of settling down there. We need to allow the Spirit of the Triune God to make His home in us so that in our experience we may be in the spirit and not in the flesh.

The focus of Romans 8 is that in Christ, the Triune God has passed through a process and has accomplished, obtained, and attained everything for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose so that He might become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Today the processed Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit, who includes all His processes, accomplishments, obtainments, and attainments, is in the believers. We should allow this Spirit of the Triune God to make His home in us, that is, to settle Himself in us with adequate room, so that He may take full possession of our inner being. Although the Spirit of the Triune God is in us, if the Spirit does not make His home in us, we may be very much in the flesh. But if the Spirit makes His home in us and takes full possession of our inner being, we will be in the spirit.

The Spirit of God is in us, yet if we do not give Him the liberty to make His home in us, He will be unable to dwell in us. If the Spirit of God can make His home in us, settling Himself in us with adequate room, then in our experience we will be in the spirit. (CWWL, 1982, vol. 1, pp. 25-26)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1973–1974, vol. 1, “The Indwelling Christ in the Canon of the New Testament,” ch. 7