A number of years ago Brother Witness Lee was having dinner with a couple in their home and fellowshipping with them. I don’t remember in his writings where he told this story, but it went something like this:

The couple appreciated his ministry, but the wife, in particular, was very bothered by the fact that in their fellowship he kept stressing the difference between our spirit and our soul, and our need to contact the Lord and receive Him into us by means of our human spirit.

She said “Why do we have to stress our human spirit so much? Surely it’s enough that we have the Holy Spirit and love the Lord with all our heart!”

“I see,” Brother Lee said.

Eventually it came time for dessert, and the wife brought out an apple pie. Brother Lee said he would help her serve it, and then he took a piece and offered it to the husband. “Do you love apple pie?” he asked.

”Yes, I do, it’s delicious!”

So Brother Lee gave the piece of pie to him—but instead of putting it in the brother’s hand, he brought it right in front of his heart, as though he were trying to put it directly into the brother’s heart.

“What are you doing? I’d like to eat the pie! Please give it to me,” the brother said, holding out his hand.

“But, why do you need to take the pie in your hand to put it in your mouth and eat it?,” he replied. “Isn’t it enough that you love the pie with your heart? Surely that’s all that’s really needed.”

No doubt, at this point the couple understood the point Brother Lee was making. That is, we love our food with our heart because we enjoy it by tasting and eating it with our mouth. In the same way, what causes us to truly love God—and not just appreciate Him—with our soul, is that we first receive Him and His divine life into us through our human spirit, so that we become one with Him spiritually, just as the food we eat becomes one with us physically (John 6:57, 1 Cor. 6:17, 2 Pet. 1:4).

That is the basic difference in function between these two distinct (1 Thess. 5:23, Heb. 4:12) parts of our being: our human spirit enables us to receive God’s divine life, while our soul loves the Lord and magnifies Him (John 3:6, Luke 1:46-47). To go on with the Lord in the best way, we must be clear about this difference, so we know how to properly exercise the different parts of our being in our walk with the Lord. And so we will continue to consider this matter in the next few Notes in this series.

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— 28 March 2026 —