In the first part of the third chapter of 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul speaks about the Spirit of God. He shows us that the ministry today of the New Testament is the ministry of the Spirit that gives life. Then he says in verse 17, “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Spirit of God who is mentioned in the previous verses is the Lord Himself. We know that the Lord is the Son and that He is also called the Father. Now we read that He is the Spirit. So we must be clear that Christ the Lord is the Spirit too.
Some Christian writers have clearly seen this matter in this verse. Henry Alford, in his New Testament for English Readers, page 265, says, “‘The Lord,’ as here [2 Cor. 3:17] spoken of...is identical with the Holy Spirit...Christ, here, is the Spirit of Christ.” Marvin R. Vincent, in his Word Studies in the New Testament, volume 3, page 308, regarding this verse, says, “The Lord Christ of verse 16 is the Spirit who pervades and animates the new covenant.”
First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam [Christ] became a life-giving Spirit.” Christ, as the last Adam, became a Spirit. We must admit that this Spirit, who is Christ, is the very Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, Christ is also the Holy Spirit.
Let us look into another passage, John 14:16-19. We have previously seen (in verses 8 through 11 of John 14) that the Lord and the Father are one. He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him. Now in verses 16 through 19, the Lord tells us something more — that He and the Spirit are one. In verse 18 the pronoun changes. He is changed into I. “I” will not leave you; “I” am coming to you. In the previous verse the Lord says, “He [the Spirit] shall be in you,” but in this verse He says, “I am coming.” By this we realize that “He” is “I,” and “I” is “He”! We know that the Lord is referring here to His coming back in resurrection. After the resurrection the Lord came back to the disciples. He left them for not more than three days — i.e., “a little while.” Then He returned! Now the world cannot see Him, because He has become the Spirit; yet we, the disciples, can see Him because He is with us and even lives within us. He is the Spirit as well as the Father. So we have the Father in the Son and the Son in the Spirit. This is the Triune God — one God in three persons.
What does it mean to have one God in three persons? Second Corinthians 13:14 gives us an explanation: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Three things are mentioned: love, grace, and fellowship. Three persons are also mentioned: God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Are love, grace and fellowship three different substances, or are they one? We need to see that they are one. Love is the source, grace is the expression of love, and fellowship is the transmission of grace. By grace love is expressed, and by fellowship grace is transmitted. These are not three different entities but three forms of one substance. Love is in the Father, grace is with the Son, and fellowship is by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fellowships the grace of Christ, and the grace of Christ is the expression of the love of God — three forms but one substance. We may illustrate this by ice, water, and vapor. Ice can be melted into water, and water can be changed into vapor. They are all the same substance yet in three different forms.
We have a hymn with the words,
One God, one substance, is expressed in three persons. Never think that Christ is someone other than God or the Holy Spirit. Outside of Christ there is no God, and outside of the Holy Spirit we cannot have Christ. Christ is the very embodiment of God, and the Holy Spirit is the reality of Christ. Do not consider that the Holy Spirit is other than Christ or just a power or influence given to us by Christ. The Holy Spirit is Christ Himself. He is neither more than Christ nor less than Christ. As the source God is the Father. As the expression He is the Son. As the transmission He is the Spirit. The Father is the source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the transmission, the fellowship. This is the Triune God.
In Romans 8:9-11 the apostle Paul, at the mention of the Holy Spirit, uses three terms interchangeably. First, he mentions “the Spirit of God.” Then he speaks of “the Spirit of Christ.” This shows that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. These are not two, but one Spirit. Again, he changes from “the Spirit of Christ” to “Christ” Himself. So we have “the Spirit of God,” “the Spirit of Christ,” and “Christ.” Are these three different beings? No, these are three terms of one Spirit. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself.
Why do we emphasize this matter? Because we must realize that the Christ in whom we believe is the center of the Triune God. We may illustrate in this way:
He is the Son with the Father in the Spirit. If we have Him, we have the Father, and if we have the Spirit, we have Him. So, if we would have the Father, we must have Him, and if we would have Him, we must have the Spirit; because the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Spirit.
This is not all. He is also a man. One day He became incarnated as a man; the Triune God became mingled with man. He is the very God, yet He is a real man, the man Jesus. Do we believe this? If we do not and yet claim to be Christians, we are antichrist Christians. The real Christian must believe that this Triune God has become a man. He is the Triune God mingled with man.
When I was a young Christian, I thought that Jesus was a man on this earth for thirty-three and a half years but that after His resurrection He was no longer a man. I thought that He put on humanity as a piece of clothing and that after He died and resurrected, He put off this clothing. Do you have the same thought today? We must realize that He is still a man. After His resurrection He came to His disciples and showed them His physical body. Of course, this body is one which we cannot fully understand. His resurrected body is spiritual (1 Cor. 15:44); yet it is physical, for He asked the disciples to touch Him.
In Matthew 26:63-64 the high priest asked the Lord if He was the Son of God. The Lord answered, “From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest referred to the Son of God, but the Lord referred to Himself as the Son of Man. This tells us that after the Lord’s ascension to the heavens, He was still the Son of Man, and that when He comes back on the clouds of heaven, He will still be the Son of Man. He is not only the Triune God but also a man. Stephen said as he was being stoned, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). He saw the Son of Man! Today the Lord Jesus is in the heavens as a man. First Timothy 2:5 says, “There is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” John 1:51 shows that even in eternity Christ will still be a man. He is the Triune God mingled with man. Therefore, He is the Triune God-man.
Let us add to our first illustration in this way:
Christ is God the Son with the Father in the Spirit, and He is mingled together with man. All the fullness of the Father is in the Son; all that is in the Son is in the Spirit; and all that is in the Spirit is in the man. This is the very Savior in whom we believe. This is the very Lord whom we serve. This is the very God whom we worship. This is the Christ who dwells in us as our life!
Before the Lord comes into us as life, He has already been mingled with man. He comes into us not only with the divine nature but also with the human nature. It is so easy for Him to be life to us because He is human as we are. He works within us not in a miraculous way but many times in a very human way — in fact, so humanly that we can hardly believe it is His work. He is so all-inclusive and unlimited; yet He works in such a normal, ordinary, and human way. He is not only God, but He is God mingled with man.
Within this life we have God the Son, the Father, the Spirit, and man. Take a cup of plain water and mix it with tea. Now the water is more than just water. Originally, it was water, but now it is water mingled with tea. Before Christ was incarnated, He was God alone, but after His incarnation He is God mingled with man. In Him is not only the divine nature but also the human nature, the human essence, the human element. He is God, He is the Father, He is the Son, He is the Spirit, and He is man. He is so rich!
This still is not all. We can never exhaust all that He is! God is the Creator, and man is the creature. In Him, therefore, is the Creator and the creature. We must also realize that in Him is the creation. And while on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, He experienced human living. Therefore, He not only has humanity but also the experience of human living. After this, He was crucified and went into death. He suffered death, He conquered death, and He came out of death. So in Him is the element of the effectiveness of death. Every one of us naturally fears death. Death is an awful thing. But for us the death of Christ is a great deliverance and release. We need this death not only in an objective way for our redemption but also in a subjective way for our deliverance. The death brought in by Adam is a real damage to us, but the death of Christ is a great deliverance. The death of Christ, as a great deliverance to us, is a killing element, killing our selfish, natural life and so many negative things.
There are medicines today that contain many different elements. In some doses of medicine there is a germ-killing element as well as nourishing elements. On one hand, they kill the germs, and on the other hand, they nourish the body. In Christ we not only have the effectiveness of His death that kills all negative things but also the resurrection life that nourishes us and the resurrection power that releases and empowers us. And with the resurrection we have the glorification that transforms us and the ascension that uplifts us. Now He is the transcendent One in the heavens, enthroned with authority and established as the Head and Lord of all (Eph. 1:20-22; Acts 2:32-36). Thus, with Him is also the kingdom.
We cannot exhaust all that Christ is! In Him we have the Creator, the creature, the creation, the divine nature, the human nature with the human living, the effective death, the resurrection, the glorification, the ascension, the enthronement, the headship, the lordship, the authority, and the kingdom. All these are in Christ! They are all included in this one great dose, which is Christ Himself.
If we will take Him as our life and experience Him day by day, we will sense many times the humanity and the human living. Many times we will sense the killing element, putting the natural life to death. Many times we will realize the resurrection power, the releasing, liberating, and rising power. And sometimes we will realize the glorification, the enthronement, the authority, the headship, the lordship, and the kingdom, which is the reign of Christ within us.
We must bring this to the Lord and pray that He may reveal these things to us. We do not need mere knowledge, but we do need a real revelation! We must see that the Christ in whom we believe is such a Christ. He is the Triune God mingled with man and possessing so many experiences and attainments. All the elements which we have mentioned are with Him and in Him. He is everything, and He has everything. We need to know this all-inclusive Christ. Then we may know the way to experience Him as life and everything to us day by day.
Let us now add many more things to our illustration in this way:
We have seen what Christ is; now we must see what the Spirit is. Again, when we say “what,” we are speaking of the substance, the essence. What is the substance, or essence, of the Spirit?
In John 7:39 we find a clause that is quite strange: “The Spirit was not yet.” At that time the Spirit of God was already present, but here it says that the Spirit was not yet! Why? The verse continues: “Because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Do we realize the meaning of this verse? First of all, we must see what the glorification of the Lord Jesus is and when He was glorified.
Many of us think the Lord was glorified when He was taken up into the heavens, but this is not accurate. If we read Luke 24:26, we will see that by the resurrection the Lord was glorified. “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory?” After His resurrection He met two disciples on the way to Emmaus and told them He had already entered into His glory. This word was spoken before His ascension but after His resurrection.
What does glorification mean? We know that the Lord, the God of glory, became incarnated one day as a man. The very God of glory came into man and clothed Himself with man. All of His divine glory was concealed within this man. He was an ordinary man, but within Him was the God of glory. However, through His death and resurrection, the glory within Him was released. He was like a grain of wheat or the seed of a beautiful flower. Within the seed is the glory of the flower, concealed and veiled. But once the seed falls into the earth, dies, and then grows up, the glory of the flower is released. Thus, through the Lord’s death and resurrection, His very glory as God was manifested.
Why was the Spirit “not yet” when the Lord was on this earth? Because Jesus was not yet glorified. It was after His resurrection and glorification that the Holy Spirit came. In the morning He was resurrected, and in the evening He came to His disciples and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). The Holy Spirit, therefore, is the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.
In the entire Old Testament the title Holy Spirit cannot be found. “Thy holy spirit” in Psalm 51:11 (KJV) should be “the Spirit of Thy holiness” according to the Hebrew, and “his holy Spirit” in Isaiah 63:10-11 (KJV) should also be “the Spirit of His holiness.” See Darby’s New Translation. This title, Holy Spirit, began to be used in the New Testament when the Lord Jesus was about to be brought in and incarnated in the womb of Mary (Luke 1:15, 35; Matt. 1:18). The title Holy Spirit, therefore, has something to do with God mingling Himself with man. In the Old Testament there was not such a mingling, although many times the Spirit of God came upon the prophets and certain other persons. At that time God was only God, and from God, the Spirit of God came down. He was God only, nothing more. But in the New Testament the Triune God — the Son with the Father in the Spirit — became incarnated in man. He lived upon this earth for thirty-three and a half years, experiencing all of human living. He passed through death, conquering and subduing it, and entered into resurrection, with which, as we have seen, is glorification. Through all these experiences the Spirit of God came to us as the Holy Spirit, including all the elements of divinity, humanity, human living, the effectiveness of death, and the power of resurrection.
We must realize that the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is different from the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God in the Old Testament was only of one element, divinity, because He was solely the Spirit of God. But the Holy Spirit today in the New Testament is of many elements, including the divine nature, the human nature, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the power of His resurrection. Andrew Murray in his book The Spirit of Christ says,
The Spirit of God as poured out at Pentecost was indeed something new. Through the Old Testament He was always called the Spirit of God or the Spirit of the Lord; the name of Holy Spirit He did not yet bear as His own proper name. It is only in connection with the work He has to do in preparing the way for Christ, and a body for Him, that the proper name comes into use (Luke 1:15, 35). When poured out at Pentecost, He came as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Spirit of the Incarnate, crucified, and exalted Christ, the bearer and communicator to us, not of the life of God as such, but of that life as it had been interwoven into human nature in the person of Christ Jesus. It is in this capacity specially that He bears the name of Holy Spirit. (p. 38)
In the following paragraphs of his book Brother Murray continues,
From His [Christ’s] nature, as it was glorified in the resurrection and ascension, His Spirit came forth as the Spirit of His human life, glorified into the union with the Divine, to make us partakers of all that He had personally wrought out and acquired, of Himself and His glorified life...In virtue of His having perfected in Himself a new holy human nature on our behalf, He could now communicate what previously had no existence — a life at once human and Divine...In our place, and on our behalf, as man and the Head of man, He was admitted into the full glory of the Divine, and His human nature constituted the receptacle and the dispenser of the Divine Spirit. And the Holy Spirit could come down as the Spirit of the God-man — most really the Spirit of God, and yet as truly the spirit of man. (pp. 39-40)
Let us now read Acts 16:7: “When they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” The King James Version omits of Jesus in this verse. In the Greek text of Jesus is after the word Spirit. It should read “the Spirit of Jesus.” See also the American Standard Version and the Amplified New Testament. The Spirit of Jesus is a special term. Its meaning differs from that of the Spirit of God. Since Jesus was a man and is still a man, “the Spirit of Jesus” is the Spirit of the man Jesus.
Why was it that when the apostle Paul would go to a certain place to preach the gospel, “the Spirit of Jesus” did not allow him? Why does the Scripture not say “the Spirit of God” instead of “the Spirit of Jesus”? There must be some reason. When we look into Acts 16 and see the environment of that chapter, we realize the need of the Spirit of Jesus. In this chapter there is much suffering and persecution. Paul was even put into prison! In such a situation “the Spirit of Jesus” was really required. Jesus was a man who continually suffered intense persecution while He was on earth. Therefore, “the Spirit of Jesus” is the Spirit of a man with abundant strength for suffering. He is the Spirit of a man as well as the Spirit of suffering strength. In persecution while preaching the gospel, we do need such a Spirit — “the Spirit of Jesus”!
By the previous verse (v. 6), it is proved that “the Spirit of Jesus” is the “Holy Spirit.” If we read the context of these two verses, we see that “the Holy Spirit” who was leading the apostle Paul in his preaching of the gospel was “the Spirit of Jesus.” It was “the Holy Spirit” who was leading the apostle; but “the Holy Spirit” at that time and in that incident was acting as “the Spirit of Jesus.”
The Spirit of Jesus is not only the Spirit of God with divinity in Him that we may live the divine life but also the Spirit of the man Jesus with humanity in Him that we may live the proper human life and endure its sufferings.
In Acts 16:7 we have “the Spirit of Jesus,” while in Romans 8:9 we have “the Spirit of Christ.” In Romans 8:9 “the Spirit of Christ” is used interchangeably with “the Spirit of God.” It tells us that the Spirit of God today is the Spirit of Christ. The emphasis of “the Spirit of Jesus” is upon humanity and the strength for suffering. But the emphasis of “the Spirit of Christ” is upon the resurrection and the imparting of life. Persecution in the environment faced in Acts 16 required suffering strength in humanity. But the death in our nature dealt with in Romans 8 requires resurrection power in the imparting of life. Thus, in Acts 16 it is “the Spirit of Jesus” who led in the preaching of the gospel under persecution. But in Romans 8 it is “the Spirit of Christ” who raises us up from any kind of death-element and animates us by imparting life into us. In the verses following Romans 8:9 we read, “If Christ [who is the Spirit of Christ] is in you, though the body is dead...the spirit is life...And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (vv. 10-11). The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of the incarnate and suffering Jesus. But the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the resurrected and life-giving Christ. By the Spirit of Jesus we can share “the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,” but by the Spirit of Christ we can partake of “the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:10), identified with Him in the transcendency of His ascension and in the authority of His enthronement. By the Spirit of Jesus we share the Lord’s humanity and His suffering strength. By the Spirit of Christ we partake of His resurrection life, His resurrection power, His transcendency, and His reigning authority.
Since the Spirit of God today is the Spirit of Jesus and the Spirit of Christ, we have “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” in Philippians 1:19. It says, “This will turn out to salvation through...the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” Here “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” is related to “the bountiful supply.” Conybeare says, “The words here mean the supplying of all needs.” Williams and Vincent both say “bountiful supply”; The Twentieth Century and Montgomery Translations, “rich supply”; Wuest, “the full-proportioned support and aid”; and The New Testament in Basic English, “the giving of the stored wealth.” Bountiful supply is a specific, rich word used by the apostle here to indicate the bountiful, rich supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It is the abundant “stored wealth” in the Spirit of the incarnated, afflicted, and crucified Jesus and the resurrected, ascended, and enthroned Christ.
In Philippians 1 the apostle was suffering imprisonment and expecting deliverance. For the suffering he needed the Spirit of the suffering Jesus. For the deliverance he needed the Spirit of the rising Christ. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ was all he needed to face his situation at that time.
Christ, as God, by being incarnated put on Himself the human nature. Through His life on earth He acquired also the human living. With the human nature He entered into death, conquered it, and rose up from it. By rising from death He was glorified. Then He ascended and received the enthronement, the headship, the lordship, the authority, and the kingdom. After experiencing and entering into all of these things, He came down! He came down in the Spirit and as the Spirit, for we have seen that He is the Spirit. He came down as the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Let us complete the illustration thus:
This is the Spirit of Jesus spoken of in Acts 16:7. This is also the Spirit of Christ spoken of in Romans 8:9. This is the Spirit of Jesus Christ spoken of in Philippians 1:19. And this is the Spirit of God today! Today the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, who as the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit, bountifully rich in so many elements for the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose.
We have used the illustration of a cup of water mingled with tea. Now suppose we add some sugar, salt, apple juice, and many other things. Originally, it was just a cup of plain water, but now it is an all-inclusive drink! In the Old Testament the Spirit of God was only the Spirit of God. There was no human element, no human living, no effectiveness of death, etc., within Him. However, today in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, there is God, man, the human living, the effectiveness of death, the life and power of resurrection, glorification, ascension, enthronement, headship, lordship, authority, and the kingdom. All these elements are included in the rich and bountiful Spirit of Jesus Christ.
If we give our attention to this all-inclusive Spirit, we will continually experience the working of these items within us. We may never have heard about the cross as the killing element within us, but when we experience the Spirit of Jesus Christ working in us, we sense that something is killing our natural, selfish character, our bad habits, our temper, and many other negative things. Perhaps we have had no teaching, but we have the actual effectiveness of Christ’s death in our experience. This is included in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
As we have illustrated, this wonderful Spirit is just as a dose of medicine which contains many elements. Within the dose there is one element which kills the germs. It does not matter whether we have been educated regarding it or not; as long as we take the dose, we will experience the killing element. There is no need for me to remember the messages about the cross. As long as I experience the Holy Spirit moving and working within me, I will sense the killing of my desires, my intentions, my habits, my character, etc. The more I am filled with the Holy Spirit, the more I will be killed, for within the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the effective killing element of Christ’s death.
Not long ago while visiting a certain place, I was invited to a brother’s home for dinner. There were four brothers present besides the host, and during the evening they spoke at length about the book of Romans and of a certain correspondence course dealing with this book. When they had finished their conversation, I asked the host what light they had received from this book. He replied that they had really seen something in Romans 6 about reckoning oneself dead. I smiled and said, “It is good that you have seen this, but would you please tell me frankly and faithfully, are you really dead by your reckoning?” He said, “Oh, Brother Lee, the more I reckon that I am dead, the more I am alive!” Then by the help of the Lord, I pointed out to those brothers that it is not by reckoning. We must be in the Spirit. What is spoken in Romans 6 must be realized in Romans 8. If we only have Romans 6 without Romans 8, it is like having a book about electricity, but not the electricity itself. The electricity portrays the Spirit of life in Romans 8. This is the Spirit of Christ. If we experience the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8, we will have the reality of Romans 6. It is most important to know this living Spirit of Christ within us. We must be filled with Him. We must go along with Him in order to sense His presence and touch His reality.
For a number of years I tried to reckon myself dead. The more I reckoned, the more it seemed that I was alive. One day the Lord opened my eyes to see that I can never reckon myself dead. It is the Spirit of Jesus Christ that contains the effectiveness of death. In this all-inclusive dose is the killing power. We need to take the dose and forget about the formula, the teaching, and the doctrine. The more we experience the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the more we will have the killing element. Our need is not the teaching or the knowledge about Christ and His cross but the experience of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit also works the resurrection power within us. Many times when we are in the Spirit, we sense something within us so living, so energizing, so strengthening, and so empowering. Nothing can suppress it. The more depression, suppression, and even oppression, the more something within us is energizing, living, and rising up. This is the resurrection power. We may never have been taught that the resurrection power of Christ is within us, but when we experience the Spirit of Christ, we experience the element of resurrection.
Many times we sense that we are transcendent and not on this earth. The more the Spirit of Christ moves within us, the more we sense that we are in the heavenlies. We are far above all, and it seems that nothing can touch us. All things are under our feet. This is the transcendent One moving within us.
At other times when the Spirit of Christ is moving within us, we sense that the Lord is on the throne. We feel that we must prostrate ourselves before Him and enthrone Him as the Lord of lords. At the same time we sense the authority, the headship, and the lordship of Christ. The more we have the Spirit of Christ moving within us, the more we are subdued by Christ. I am sure that all of us have experienced these realities at some time in our lives.
We also find that within this all-inclusive Spirit is the element of humanity. He works within us, not in a miraculous way but in a very normal and human way. How can we apprehend this? If we look into the record of the four Gospels, we see a man taking God as His life. His life on this earth was absolutely human, absolutely normal. Of course, He performed many miracles to prove that He was the Son of God, the almighty God, but apart from this, His life on earth was very normal. Sometimes He was thirsty. He even asked a certain woman for water to drink. Sometimes He wept. He was so human. Many Christians think that if we take Christ as our life, we will be like an angel. But this is wrong. The more we take Christ as life, the more human we will be. We will not be sinful but human in an uplifted and pure way. A spiritual person is not a special person but an ordinary person; he is one who is very human, very normal. To expect something extraordinary simply shows that we are not clear about the Lord’s way concerning life. The Lord’s way regarding life is so ordinary, so human.
Perhaps in the morning when we pray, we have a sense that we must give up certain things. It is just a little sense deep within us. We may wonder if it is of the Lord or of ourselves, but this is the way the Lord takes to work within us. He does not work in a miraculous way, but in a very human way. We may think it is just our own human thought, but it is really the Lord Spirit working within us.
I have seen some so-called spiritual persons who would never laugh or weep. They thought that if they were in Christ, they should not laugh or weep but should be very solemn and strict. I am not encouraging emotionalism, but I must say that a person who is spiritual will be very human. The divine nature is mingled with the human nature.
We will also experience the suffering element in the Spirit of Jesus. While the Lord Jesus was on this earth, He suffered all the time. Today this suffering life is in the Spirit. The suffering element, the suffering strength, is now in the Spirit of Jesus. When we have this Spirit moving within us, we will frequently sense a suffering energy and a suffering capacity. Something within us energizes us to bear all hardships. Never think that when we are spiritual, we will have no trouble. The more spiritual we are, the more we will be troubled, but we will be filled with the Spirit of Jesus, who will enable us to suffer. Within this Spirit is the suffering element.
We must realize that we are one with this all-inclusive Spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” The Lord, as we have seen, is this all-inclusive Spirit. If we are joined to the Lord, we are joined to this Spirit. Therefore, we are one with this all-inclusive Spirit. All that He is and all that He has, all that is in Him, is ours. He is the Spirit of reality (John 14:17; 16:13) — the reality of God, of man, of the Father, of the Son, and of all the elements to which we have referred. Today He is within us as a foretaste (Rom. 8:23, firstfruits means “foretaste”) through whom we can enjoy all the riches of Christ with all the fullness of God.
In 2 Timothy 4:22 we have a wonderful word — “The Lord be with your spirit.” Since the Lord is the all-inclusive Spirit, this word means that the all-inclusive Spirit is in our spirit. He is so wonderful and marvelous, yet He is within us! He is so all-inclusive and bountiful, yet He is in our spirit! He is so rich yet so available to us. It is so easy for us to contact Him and apply Him. If we just turn to our spirit, we will meet Him! If we just exercise our spirit a little, we can apply Him!
Although this all-inclusive Spirit is so bountiful, so rich and powerful, so all-inclusive, He works within us in a very silent, normal, and ordinary way. He is also called the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). With any kind of life there is a natural element which is so ordinary and silent. Look at the trees and the flowers. How silent they are! How natural they are! They grow a little today and a little tomorrow, and many wonderful and beautiful things come out of this gradual growth of life. The riches and beauty of life spring forth in such a silent, natural, and ordinary way. This is the way the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ works within us. Our only need is to cooperate, to go along, with Him. We must learn to take care of the deep, inner registration. We need not expect the extraordinary. The more gentle and ordinary, the better! We must be faithful to Him and attend to the small, inner sense of Himself. We must be obedient and submissive to His inner working. Then day by day and moment by moment we will experience the riches of Christ.
Many times I have had just a little sense, just a small feeling, very deep within me, telling me to do a certain thing. This sense is so silent, so normal, and seems so human. I have doubted that it is of the Lord and thought it must be something from myself. Yet while I am doubting, the sense within continues. It is not so strong, but it is so constant. Finally, I have to obey; there is no other choice. Even while I am about to do it, there is still a lingering doubt that it is of the Lord. However, when I completely obey what I have sensed deep within, it proves to be wholly of God!
This is the way the all-inclusive Spirit of the New Testament works within us. If we cooperate with Him, we will experience His reality and will gradually be saturated with Him. The process seems so slow, but it is so steady. Do not expect the Lord to give you some supernatural experiences. There are such experiences, but they are not normal. The normal way for us to experience Christ by His all-inclusive Spirit is in such a silent and ordinary way. If we go along with Him in this way, we will be saturated and permeated with Him. We will be transformed from glory to glory into the image of the Lord.
