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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:2; Judg. 6:34; Luke 1:15, 35; Matt. 1:20; John 7:39; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 8:2; Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49; 2 Kings 2:9, 13-15; Exo. 30:23-29; 2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19b-21a; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; 22:17
In this message we come to the crucial point of the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the essence of all the messages given in this conference, and He is the means to bring all the realities of God’s economy into our being.
God’s redemption cleanses us from all our sins, and the cross eliminates all the negative things, but how can God be dispensed into man? If it is only that we are cleansed and all the negative things are removed, there is nothing for God’s testimony. The Triune God has a way through the life-giving Spirit to dispense the all-inclusive Christ into all the members of His Body for the expression of the Triune God.
Without the life-giving Spirit, there could be no recovery, no local churches, and no Body of Christ. There could be only an organization with a label “the Body of Christ.” But through the life-giving Spirit, who brings all the divine elements into us, the Body of Christ is a reality. Without the life-giving Spirit, there is no reality of oneness. But the more we receive the life-giving Spirit in His dispensing of Himself into us, the stronger the oneness of all the local churches will become. Today through the Spirit’s dispensing, all the local churches on the whole earth are one not in the isolated way of locality but in the universal way of the Body of Christ. This is not an organizational oneness but a oneness that is the result of our contacting the life-giving Spirit.
Furthermore, without the life-giving Spirit there could be no testimony of Jesus. Without the Spirit there would be nothing more than religion on the earth today. However, the Lord’s recovery is not a religion; it is the testimony of Jesus. As we touch the Spirit, it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us. This is the testimony of Jesus. It is not a representation of Jesus, but it is Jesus Himself living and moving in His Body.
In today’s Christianity it is difficult to hear a message on the life-giving Spirit because there is very little revelation concerning the life-giving Spirit among Christians today. This revelation was not invented in the Lord’s recovery. The life-giving Spirit is revealed in 1 Corinthians 15:45: “The last Adam [the Lord Jesus in the flesh] became a life-giving Spirit.” Second Corinthians 3:17 also reveals that today the Lord is the Spirit. However, throughout the centuries this truth became lost to the Lord’s children. The truth of justification by faith was recovered by Martin Luther, and that truth can never be lost. Through His recovery the Lord has recovered the truth that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit, and this truth can never be lost.
All that the Father is and has is embodied in the Son. If we reject the Son, we lose everything of the Father (1 John 2:23). All that the Son is and has, has been processed to become available to us in the life-giving Spirit. In rejecting and opposing this truth, today’s Christianity has lost nearly everything concerning God’s economy. Because it does not fit into traditional theology, the truth of Christ being the life-giving Spirit is an offense to many Christians. Yet it is the pure revelation of the Bible. We in the recovery do not care for traditional theology. We care for Christ, and we care for life. We care for the truth that the Lord is now the life-giving Spirit to impart Himself as life to us so that we can be His Body for His testimony on the earth.
The Spirit was first the Spirit of God in God’s creation (Gen. 1:2). In His person He is forever the Spirit. But through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, many ingredients have been added to Him. In Genesis 1:1 God created the heavens and the earth. In verse 2 the earth became waste and empty because of God’s judgment on Satan’s rebellion. Then God came in as the Spirit of God to move upon the face of the waters. This Spirit is God in the element of His divinity. As the Spirit of God, He is related to the creation of God.
The Spirit is not merely a power or an influence; He is a wonderful person. In Genesis 1 this wonderful person was the Spirit of God in God’s creation. In chapter two the name Jehovah is mentioned for the first time (v. 4). Jehovah is God’s name in His relationship with man. God’s relationship with man is more intimate than His relationship with creation. After creating man, God remained intimately involved with him. This is why in the Old Testament the Spirit is usually referred to as the Spirit of Jehovah (Judg. 3:10; 6:34; Isa. 61:1; Ezek. 11:5). The Spirit of Jehovah came upon certain people (Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Sam. 16:13). This indicates that the Spirit of Jehovah has to do with God’s reaching of man. As the Spirit of Jehovah, He empowered man to carry out His purpose. Therefore, in the Old Testament two wonderful titles of the Spirit are unveiled. The first title is the Spirit of God in God’s creation, and the second title is the Spirit of Jehovah in His reaching of man.
In the New Testament, when the Lord was about to move forward to do something further in His economy, the title the Holy Spirit is used for the first time. (In Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10-11 the King James Version uses the term Holy Spirit; but the proper translation of this term should be “Spirit of holiness.”) He was the Holy Spirit in the conceptions of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus in order to sanctify humanity for Christ’s incarnation (Luke 1:15, 35; Matt. 1:20).
There is a distinction between the work of the Holy Spirit in the conception of John the Baptist and the work of the Holy Spirit in the conception of Jesus Christ. In the conception of John the Baptist the Holy Spirit came to an overage, elderly person in order to produce a son who was merely human. This was God’s miracle. John the Baptist was full of the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15), but he had only the human nature and lacked the nature of God. John’s being full of the Holy Spirit enabled him to stand against the tide of that evil religious age and initiate a new dispensation for God’s economy. This also qualified John to be the one who introduced the Savior to His people.
In the conception of Jesus the Holy Spirit went further. Luke 1:35 says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy thing which is born will be called the Son of God.” In the conception of Jesus the divine essence of the Holy Spirit was added to the human essence. According to Matthew 1:20, the Triune God was born into Mary’s womb through the Holy Spirit. The result of such a work of the Spirit was a God-man with two natures, divinity and humanity. Jesus is the complete God and the perfect man. He is the God-man.
Today the Holy Spirit is still working. He is working in us not according to the conception of John the Baptist but according to the conception of the Lord Jesus. According to 1 Corinthians 12:3, whenever we call on the name of Jesus, we are in the Holy Spirit. This Spirit is operating in us to saturate us with God’s holy nature, making us holy for God’s purpose.
In the Bible there is a wonderful progression concerning the Spirit. In creation the Spirit is the Spirit of God. Then in His relationship with man He progressed to be the Spirit of Jehovah. Eventually, in the New Testament He is the Holy Spirit to sanctify humanity for Christ’s incarnation. Still, this progression has gone even further.
The Spirit was not yet before Christ’s resurrection, in which He was glorified. According to John 7:39, before the Lord’s death and resurrection, the Spirit was not yet. There was the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indicated by these three titles had only the element of divinity. No other elements had yet been added to the Spirit. But on the day of resurrection something new took place in the universe. Jesus was resurrected, and in resurrection He was glorified (Luke 24:26) and was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit. In this Spirit the elements of Christ’s incarnation, His human living with all His human virtues, His all-inclusive death with its effectiveness, and His wonderful resurrection with its power are compounded together. This Spirit is the all-inclusive compound Spirit of the processed Triune God.
What should we do with such a Spirit? According to John 7:37-39 and 1 Corinthians 12:13, we must drink the Spirit. Today the Spirit is drinkable. Isaiah 12:3-4 says, “Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation, / And you will say in that day, / Praise Jehovah; call upon His name! / Make His deeds known among the peoples; / Remind them that His name is exalted.” These verses show that the way to drink from the springs of the Lord’s salvation is to praise Him and call upon His name. When we drink Him in such a way, rivers of living water flow out of our innermost being (John 7:38). These rivers are the different aspects of the life of Jesus Christ. If we drink the Spirit, rivers of love, joy, peace, holiness, and patience will flow out to those around us.
The last Adam became the life-giving Spirit as the pneumatic Christ in His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b). When Christ resurrected, He became the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic Christ. On the evening of His resurrection, He breathed into His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). The Greek word for spirit is pneuma, which means “breath,” “wind,” or “air.” Christ as the life-giving Spirit breathed Himself as the holy pneuma, the holy breath, the Holy Spirit, into His disciples.
Today this pneumatic Christ dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). Every day we can drink Him as a wonderful drink, and moment by moment we can breathe Him in as the heavenly air. On the one hand, He supplies us with all the positive elements of the pneumatic Christ, and on the other hand, He kills all the negative elements in our being, so that we can become the testimony of Jesus.
The Spirit is also the Lord Spirit for transforming the believers into the glorious image of Christ. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” The life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45 is called the Lord Spirit in this verse.
The title the Lord Spirit is related to the transforming work of the Spirit within us. The verb transform in Greek is metamorphoo, meaning “to change form.” Transformation is a metabolic process. Metabolism has at least three aspects. First, a new element comes into our being. Second, this new element replaces our old element. Third, the old element is discharged. Therefore, transformation can be defined as the inward, metabolic process in which God works to spread His divine life and nature throughout every part of our being, bringing Christ and His riches into our being as our new element and causing our old, natural element to be gradually discharged. Through this metabolic process we are transformed into the same image as the resurrected and glorified Christ.
Transformation is a lifelong process. Therefore, every morning we need to cooperate with this process by opening our entire being to take in the new element of the life, nature, and essence of the processed and consummated Triune God. Our God is not the “raw” God anymore. The Triune God has gone through a process to become the life-giving Spirit. Every morning we need to take a new element into our being to replace the old element. We do not have to be bothered by the natural life, the flesh, the self, and all kinds of negative things any longer. By taking in this new element of the processed Triune God, we will be transformed into the same image as the resurrected and glorified Christ.
The life-giving Spirit is also the Spirit of life, the essential Spirit of God (Rom. 8:2). The title the Spirit of life indicates that life belongs to the Spirit, and the Spirit is of life. The Spirit and life are actually one (John 6:63). Hence, the way for us to experience the divine, eternal, uncreated life is by the Spirit of life. This Spirit works in us inwardly to transform us metabolically day by day. He also works in us inwardly for our life and living essentially, freeing us from the law of sin and death. According to Romans 8, the Spirit of life, who is now mingled with our spirit, gives life to our spirit (v. 10), to our soul, represented by our mind (v. 6), and to our mortal body (v. 11).
The life-giving Spirit is also the Spirit of power, the economical Spirit of God, for the believers to put on as their uniform typified by the mantle of Elijah (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49; 2 Kings 2:9, 13-15). We need the daily infilling of the essential Spirit of life as well as the daily experience of the economical Spirit of power. A policeman needs to eat well for his life and living essentially, and he also needs to put on his uniform to carry out his governmental duty economically. In the same way, we Christians need to receive daily the Spirit of life as the element and essence of the processed Triune God that we may have a proper life and living essentially, and we also need to put on the uniform of the Spirit of power economically for our work in carrying out God’s economy.
Today we should be vital; that is, we should be living and active. Our being living with vitality comes from the Spirit of life working in us essentially, whereas our being active with authority comes from the Spirit of power being upon us as our uniform economically.
The life-giving Spirit is also the compound Spirit, compounded with Christ’s divinity, humanity, death with its effectiveness, and resurrection with its power to be the anointing ointment (Exo. 30:23-29). The word compound is used as a verb with reference to the mixing of different kinds of ingredients to make medicines and ointments. If a person has an ailment, a pharmacist may form a compound from many different ingredients in order to meet that person’s need. In the same way, the Spirit has been compounded to give us just what we need.
The ingredients of this compound Spirit are clearly shown in the type of the holy anointing oil in Exodus 30:23-31. The holy anointing oil was used for the particular purpose of anointing both the priests and the tabernacle. The base of the holy anointing oil was one hin of olive oil. The olive oil signifies the Spirit of God. In addition, the oil signifies the divinity in the Godhead.
Four spices were added to this olive oil in three units of five hundred shekels each. These three measures of five hundred shekels signify the Triune God as an element in the compound Spirit. The second of these three measures is divided into two equal portions of two hundred fifty shekels each. This signifies that Christ, the Second of the Divine Trinity, was crucified, “split” on the cross. In the Bible the number four signifies God’s creation. Ezekiel 1:5 and Revelation 4:6 speak of the four living creatures. The four spices signify the humanity of the Lord Jesus in God’s creation. The four spices blended with the one hin of olive oil signifies that in the compound Spirit humanity is blended, mingled, with divinity.
The four spices were myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. Myrrh in the Bible was used for burial (John 19:39) and is related to death; hence, it signifies the precious death of Christ. Cinnamon, which can be used to stimulate the heart, signifies the effectiveness of Christ’s death. Calamus, a reed that grows in a marsh or a muddy place, signifies the precious resurrection of Christ. Cassia, which was used as a repellent to drive away insects and snakes, signifies the power of Christ’s resurrection.
First, the Spirit is the compound Spirit, the compound ointment; then He is the anointing Spirit (2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27). The anointing Spirit is simply the application of the compound Spirit. The compound Spirit needs to be applied to us and added to us through the anointing Spirit. The anointing is the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit. Second Corinthians 1:21 says, “But the One who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God.” God anoints us by attaching us to Christ, the anointed One. Christ, the anointed One, is full of ointment. He is not only the compound Spirit, but He is also the means by which we are anointed. He is the ointment and the anointing One. Because we have been attached to Him, the ointment that is on Him flows to us. Through the moving of the anointing Spirit, all the elements of the compound Spirit are added into our inner being.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of Jesus for the human life of Jesus, especially in His sufferings (Acts 16:7). In Acts 16 the apostles, having come to Mysia, were endeavoring to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. The Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression referring to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior, the One who passed through human living and even death on the cross. The Spirit of Jesus includes not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus with all His experiences of human living and His death on the cross. Such an all-inclusive Spirit was needed by the apostles in their ministry — a suffering ministry among human beings and for human beings in the human life of Jesus.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ for Christ in resurrection in His divinity and His uplifted humanity (Rom. 8:9). In Acts 16 there is the Spirit of Jesus, but in Romans 8 we see the Spirit of Christ. Romans 8:9 says, “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.” The title the Spirit of Christ implies that this Spirit is the embodiment and reality of Christ. This Christ accomplished everything necessary for God’s plan. He includes not only divinity, which He possessed from eternity, but also humanity, which He obtained through incarnation. Human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are also included in the Spirit of Christ. This is the Spirit of the One who passed through death and entered into resurrection. His death was an all-inclusive termination, terminating everything of the old creation. His resurrection was the all-inclusive germination that brought forth the new creation. The Spirit of Christ is therefore the totality, the aggregate, of the all-inclusive Christ with His all-inclusive death and resurrection. Because we have this Spirit of Christ in us, we have everything related to this all-inclusive termination and germination.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is for His bountiful supply in His death and resurrection that the believers may live Christ and magnify Christ (Phil. 1:19b-21a). The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit mentioned in John 7. At that time the Spirit was not yet, but at the time Paul wrote Philippians, the Spirit was. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of the glorified Jesus. This Spirit is not merely the Spirit of God before incarnation, but the Spirit of God compounded with the elements of Christ’s incarnation, human living under the cross, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
Paul experienced both the Lord’s suffering in His human life and the Lord’s life-giving resurrection. Thus, to Paul this Spirit was the Spirit of Jesus Christ. When we enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we live Christ and magnify Christ. To magnify Christ is to show, declare, exalt, and extol Him without limitation, regardless of the circumstances. Through the bountiful supply of the Spirit, we become one with Christ in our life and living to such an extent that we and He live as one person.
Thus far in this message we have seen the progression and the consummation of the Spirit of God. Initially, the Spirit was of God for creation. This is outward and objective. Next, as He entered into His relationship with man, He was the Spirit of Jehovah. This is subjective and precious. Then He was the Holy Spirit to sanctify humanity for Christ’s incarnation. Although He was the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit, He was also the Spirit who was not yet. This indicates that some aspect of the Spirit was not yet. However, in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. The Spirit of God became a life-giving Spirit with a new function — not just to create outwardly, to merely be related to man, or even to sanctify man in the situation for Christ’s incarnation. Now the Spirit has become the life-giving Spirit to enter into humanity to give life.
As the Lord Spirit, He is the Spirit who transforms the believers. As the essential Spirit of God, He is the Spirit of life to be our life. As the economical Spirit of God, He is the Spirit of power to empower us to carry out God’s economy. In order to understand how one Spirit could have so many functions and carry out so many things in God’s economy, the Old Testament type of the compound ointment is needed to reveal the compound Spirit. This compound Spirit is now the anointing Spirit, anointing us, flowing over us, to bring all the elements of this compound Spirit into us.
As the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ, He is related to all the believers in the suffering of human life, the power of resurrection, and the bountiful supply, respectively.
In Revelation 1:4; 4:5; and 5:6 the Spirit is referred to as the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit, for the overcomers in the degradation of the church. At the time of the writing of the book of Revelation, the churches were degraded. The Spirit needed to be intensified to deal with the degraded situation among God’s people on the earth. In Revelation 1:4-5 the seven Spirits are ranked among the three of the Triune God, showing that the seven Spirits are the Spirit of God in the Divine Trinity. In these verses the Spirit is mentioned second, not third, indicating that in the carrying out of God’s recovery work in a degraded situation, the Spirit is crucial.
Today everything of the Triune God has been processed and consummated in the Spirit. Hence, what we need is this all-inclusive Spirit intensified sevenfold. In the Old Testament, this intensified Spirit is typified by the seven lamps of the lampstand (Zech. 4:2-6). The seven lamps before the throne in Revelation 4:5 are for the shining, the enlightening, and the burning in carrying out God’s building work. In Exodus 25 with the tabernacle and in Zechariah 4 with the rebuilding of the recovered temple, God needed these seven lamps to burn, to shine, and to expose for His building. Eventually, these seven lamps are the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 4:5), and the seven Spirits of God are the seven eyes of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6).
In the recovery today we need the seven Spirits to come in to search us, to enlighten us, and to shine into us in order to expose our worldliness, our fleshliness, our deadness, and our lukewarmness. In order to become vital for the practice of the vital groups, we need to exercise to have a thorough confession before the Lord, until vitality is brought in. For such a confession we need the searching and shining of the seven Spirits. We need the shining and burning of these seven Spirits so that the building work can go on.
Eventually, the Spirit is the consummated Spirit to be the reality and the realization of the pneumatic Christ and the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God to be one with the bride of the Lamb (Christ) to proclaim the coming of Christ. Revelation 22:17 says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.” In this verse the title the Spirit indicates that everything of the Triune God has been processed and consummated. Now as the Spirit He brings the Triune God into us to be one with us as the bride. This consummated Spirit has joined Himself to the bride. Hence, at the end of Revelation the Spirit and the bride speak together, saying, “Come!” For the Lord’s coming He needs people who have been searched and burned by the sevenfold Spirit until in their being and their living, the Spirit and the bride are speaking together, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
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