Book Description

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains Messages 17 through 24 given during the spring 2022 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California, as the continuation of the general subject "Chapters Five through Eight of Romans--the Kernel of the Bible." The sixteen messages in this term emphasize Romans 7 and especially chapter 8. The general subject of this series of messages is derived from footnote 1 on Romans 5:14, which says that chapters 5 through 8 of Romans "can be called the kernel of the Bible." The footnote also points out that life and death form two contrasting lines through these chapters and that man is in the middle between the line of life, which represents God, and the line of death, which represents Satan. Life and death are the intrinsic essence of the kernel of the Bible. In Romans 7 and 8 we see that Paul discovered four laws--four spontaneous, automatic, effortless, and unconscious universal principles, or functions. In particular, there are three lives and four laws revealed in these chapters. The first law, the law of God, is the moral and objective law. The second law is the law of good in man's soul, especially the mind, which corresponds to the created human life and which desires to carry out the law of God. The third law is the law of sin and of death, which derives from the evil satanic life in our flesh; this law is stronger than the law of good within and thus seizes man's desire to do good and turns it into an opportunity to sin. The fourth law is the law of the Spirit of life, which is higher than and overcomes the law of sin and of death; this law derives from the uncreated divine life that is now in our regenerated human spirit. We need to see these three lives and four laws in order to experience the indwelling Christ as the law of the Spirit of life. We also need to see what the flesh is. The flesh denotes the totality of the fallen old man, our entire fallen being; man is totally flesh because the fallen being today is under the dominion of the fallen flesh. The flesh is enmity against God, the flesh is not subject to God's law, the flesh is not able to subject itself to the law of God, and the flesh can never please God. Every aspect of our flesh, whether good or evil, is an enemy of God's authority. Whatever is of the flesh is against God's throne; it will be used by Satan, the subtle one, the enemy of God, to hinder God's purpose. The flesh is the "meeting hall" and the compound of sin, death, and Satan; the flesh is a hopeless case and can never be improved. However, in His wisdom and sovereignty God uses our flesh as a compelling force that causes us to turn to our spirit. We are either in the spirit or in the flesh; there is no third place for us to be. The believer is a miniature garden of Eden--with God as the tree of life in his spirit, Satan as the tree of knowledge in his flesh, and his mind in between. In Romans 8 the mind is neutral, being between the regenerated, mingled spirit and the fallen body, the flesh. Setting the mind on the spirit is the key to death or life. Because both Satan and God are in us, our mind has become a battlefield between God and Satan. Whether we are one with Satan or one with God depends upon where we set our mind. In order to fight the battle against the enemy, we must know that the mind is the battlefield and that the way to protect and cover our mind is to turn it to the Lord all the time. The Bible requires only one thing of us--that we walk according to the mingled spirit, which is to live, move, act, behave, have our being, and do everything in the mingled spirit. While we remain in the touch with the Lord, staying in contact with Him in our spirit, the law of the Spirit of life works automatically, spontaneously, and effortlessly within us. By the working, the spreading, of the law of the Spirit of life within us, God makes us the same as He is in life, nature, and expression. We are conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God by the working of the law of the Spirit of life. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.