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Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
Isn't the spirit of sonship the same as is declared in Galatians 4:6, "And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!'"? And then the sister verses in Romans 8:15-16 "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God." And isn't sonship the same as in Galatians 4:9, "My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you . . ."? And also in Galatians 1:15-16 , "But when God . . . was pleased to reveal His Son in me"? And where is the unseen Spirit of sonship? First Corinthians 6:17 tells us it is joined to our spirit.
So this is a real spirit bro, not just a turn of a phrase!
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I don't think OBW said it wasn't real, just that it mightn't be parsed as neatly as some wish it were. A "spirit of camaraderie" might be as real as you are, more real, even (if 'you' includes temporary bone and flesh). Reducing reality via axioms to a manipulatable objective "thing" is the problem. Watchman Nee may have reduced the human being to a set of concentric rings, which made him BMOC in some Christian gatherings. But I doubt he added anything of value, beyond elevating himself above the flock. Rather, by giving us the-Spirit-in-a-box he tricked us into thinking we could control the Spirit, like Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four, saying "Flame on".
Now, I know that the Bible says to fan into flame our human spirit, but are we always so sure what we're fanning? Nee and Lee the (supposedly) Great Men died, and their graves are with us today. So how sure are you that they sussed the very contents of reality? I'm not, at all. When one sees the fruit of their human living, it's doubtful they knew the 'real' human spirit at all. So what were they fanning, there?
Another point: if you "know your human spirit" do you likewise "know your angel" as well? The people said, "It is his angel" to Rhoda in Acts 12, regarding Peter - how much do we know of Peter's angel, versus his spirit, especially since an angel's called a ministering spirit? I sense that people usually ignore verses that don't help them make neat Venn diagrams. And Jesus talked about "their angels" in Matthew 18, referencing the angels of small children. But do you think 2 brief verses allow us to understand, fully, what was meant? And if we don't understand, then why all the confident assertions as though we did?
I personally don't know "my angel" so I don't really know "my spirit" either, even if it is joined to the Holy Spirit, which it may well be. But I do know that God loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son. I know that Jesus died for my sins, and rose to glory. I do know that love shown is real love, and love contemplated is merely a ruse, or an abstraction at best.
So I don't really know much at all, since I struggle to show love. But it's good to realize that you don't know much... that's a good place to start. (and I referenced "his angel" randomly; I could have referenced 20 different things in NT to show how little we really understand the sacred writings. But I notice that we ignore a lot in the NT, in a vain attempt to prove to ourselves that we understand it. That was Lee's error [among others])