u/MadeManifestbyLight

I’ve been around the Local Churches for a while, and one phrase I constantly hear is “exercise your spirit.”

People say:

“You need to exercise your spirit.”

“Don’t stay in your mind, exercise your spirit.”

“Call on the Lord and exercise your spirit.”

But lately I’ve been honestly asking myself… what does that actually mean?

Is it:

a feeling? an emotion? being loud? crying? raising your hands? praying harder? getting out of your thoughts? speaking more during meetings? doing what you think you should?

At one point I began to ask the Lord, “You need to show me what my spirit is.” Because I realized I could repeat the phrases over and over without actually understanding what Scripture means by it.

I do see verses about: praying in spirit, worshiping in spirit, fervent in spirit, the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit, walk by the spirit ect... But I’m struggling to understand what the actual experience is biblically.

How do you distinguish:

human emotion vs spirit? psychological excitement vs spirit? silence vs passivity? loudness vs genuine spiritual reality? doing what you think you should beacuse of pressure?

Does the Bible actually command believers to “exercise the spirit” in the way it’s often taught in Local Church - Just say Amen, Oh Lord Jesus, Hallelujah.

Would love thoughtful Scripture-based responses, especially from people familiar with Nee/Lee teachings or from those who’ve wrestled with this question themselves.

Jesus is Lord

I’ve been around the Local Churches for a while, and one phrase I constantly hear is “exercise your spirit.”

People say:

“You need to exercise your spirit.”

“Don’t stay in your mind, exercise your spirit.”

“Call on the Lord and exercise your spirit.”

But lately I’ve been honestly asking myself… what does that actually mean?

Is it:

a feeling? an emotion? being loud? crying? raising your hands? praying harder? getting out of your thoughts? speaking more during meetings? doing what you think you should?

At one point I began to ask the Lord, “You need to show me what my spirit is.” Because I realized I could repeat the phrases over and over without actually understanding what Scripture means by it.

I do see verses about: praying in spirit, worshiping in spirit, fervent in spirit, the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit, walk by the spirit ect... But I’m struggling to understand what the actual experience is biblically.

How do you distinguish:

human emotion vs spirit? psychological excitement vs spirit? silence vs passivity? loudness vs genuine spiritual reality? doing what you think you should beacuse of pressure?

Does the Bible actually command believers to “exercise the spirit” in the way it’s often taught in Local Church - Just say Amen, Oh Lord Jesus, Hallelujah.

Would love thoughtful Scripture-based responses, especially from people familiar with Nee/Lee teachings or from those who’ve wrestled with this question themselves.

Jesus is Lord

I’ve been reading through a message from Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (Witness Lee), and I hit something that doesn’t sit right with me.

The message starts out solid—Christ being the First and the Last, resurrection, Christ living in us—all that lines up. But then it shifts and starts saying things like there’s an “abyss deep within the being of each of us,” and even calls it “our abyss,” like it’s something inside every believer.

It describes it as the deepest part of us that we can’t even reach. But then it goes further and says that’s where the enemy is, where demons are, and even connects it to where the Antichrist comes from. That’s where I started getting concerned.

From there it says Christ needs access to go down into these depths in order to make His home in our heart (Eph 3:17), and that we need to open this deepest part of our being to Him.

I’m just not seeing that in Scripture.

From what I understand in Colossians 1:13 says we’ve been rescued from the domain of darkness. 1 John 4:4 says greater is He who is in you. 2 Corinthians 6:16 says what agreement does the temple of God have with idols. Romans 8 says Christ is already in us.

And when Scripture talks about our ongoing issue, it points to things like renewing the mind (Rom 12:2) and putting off the flesh (Col 3), not uncovering some hidden inner abyss where demons are.

It feels like the teaching starts with a real biblical thing (the abyss as a place of demons), then kind of redefines it as something inside of us, and then builds a whole experience around that.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m trying to stay grounded in Scripture and not go beyond what’s written.

Has anyone else come across this? Is there actually a biblical basis for this kind of teaching, or is this more of an interpretation of man that goes too far?

Can someone explain how demons are in the deepest part of us that we can’t even reach?

Not trying to be negative this is just so confusing, and I really can't bring this up in our home meeting. Two brothers that meet with us have started to talk about Ron Kangas as the new Witness Lee. Ron said this, Ron said that ect...