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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2; Acts 13:52; Eph. 3:8; 1:23; Acts 1:8a; 2:4a, 17, 33; 4:4, 8, 30; Luke 24:49; Acts 16:6-10; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 12:2a; 8:29; 1 John 3:2; Rom. 8:30b; Heb. 2:10a; 1 Pet. 5:10a; Col. 1:27; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 11, 17, 26-29; 3:5-6, 12-13, 21-22; 22:17a; 21:1-3, 9-23; 22:1-2, 14
This chapter is a continuation of the foregoing chapters concerning the thirty-one items of what the all-inclusive Spirit is as the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God in Christ for the divine dispensing according to the divine economy.
I have discovered that without the proper help, it is very difficult to understand the Bible. The secret to understanding the Word is like a master key that opens the door of a large house. If you have the key, you can use the key to open every door in the house. I did not get such a key until I began to have direct personal contact with Brother Watchman Nee.
I began to correspond with Brother Nee in 1925, the first year of my salvation. Then in 1932 the Lord brought the two of us together. After I had begun to serve the Lord full time, I went to see Brother Nee, and he asked me to remain there with him. During that time with him I received the key to understanding the Bible. The more I stayed with Brother Nee, the more of the secret to understanding the Word I received. Before being with Brother Nee, I did not know the crucial things of the church, the Spirit, life, and identification with Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension. But from 1933 I began to know these crucial things, and my entire being began to be occupied with them. I found out that the church, the Spirit, life, and identification with Christ are bottomless mines. The more I have dug into these things, the deeper they have become. I have discovered that the spiritual, heavenly, and divine significances of these things in the Bible can never be exhausted.
Brother Nee was saved at the age of seventeen, and he began to minister in 1922 at the age of twenty. In that year the first local church in mainland China was raised up through his ministry. Brother Nee’s ministry spanned three decades, from 1922 to 1952. In 1952 he was put into prison, where he stayed until his death in 1972. In his early ministry, from 1922 to 1932, his knowledge on certain matters was not yet full or complete. Then from 1932 to 1942 his understanding improved. But from 1942 to 1952 he reached the stage of maturity in his ministry. Whatever he spoke or published from 1940 until the end of his ministry was very accurate. Brother Nee continually progressed in his understanding of the depths of the Bible. We need to keep this in mind as we read Brother Nee’s writings through the three decades of his ministry.
For example, the book The Normal Christian Life consists of messages given by Brother Nee in northern Europe and in China before 1938. In that book Brother Nee stresses the matter of reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God, according to Romans 6:11. But eventually, many discovered that reckoning did not work in their experience.
The book of Romans does not end at chapter 6. Romans has sixteen chapters, which can be divided into four sections. These four sections and their main subjects are: chapters 1 through 4, on justification; chapters 5 through 8, on sanctification; chapters 9 through 11, on God’s selection; and chapters 12 through 16, on the Body life, which consummates in the local churches. To say that chapters 5 through 8 deal with sanctification is a superficial understanding of that section. Actually, the subject of these chapters is the pneumatic Christ, that is, Christ as the Spirit. In chapter 8 Christ is in us (v. 10), and the Spirit of Christ also is in us (v. 9). Christ is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is one with Christ. It is in the pneumatic Christ that we experience Christ’s death and resurrection. It is not by reckoning but by identification with Christ. This Christ with whom we are identified is not merely the incarnated or crucified Christ but the Christ who became pneumatic in His resurrection. Unless we see this, we can never experience what is revealed in Romans 5—8.
The fourth section of Romans begins with the Body life in chapter 12 and consummates with the local churches in chapter 16. Ultimately, the entire book of Romans is a book on the gospel of God (1:1; 16:25). Hence, the local churches are a part of the gospel of God. Without the local churches as part of the gospel of God, the gospel of God would not be complete. Romans begins with sinners in chapter 1 and ends with local churches in chapter 16. Thus, Romans reveals that God in His sovereign economy is able to cause sinners to become the local churches.
We need to enter into the Word of God, not in the natural way of merely studying the geography, the history, and the Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible but in the way of apprehending the spiritual significance of what is revealed in the Bible. We need to enter into the Lord’s way of interpreting the Bible. In Matthew 22:23-33 the Sadducees came to the Lord with a question concerning resurrection. They did not believe in resurrection (Acts 23:8), and they wanted to argue with the Lord Jesus concerning this matter. The Lord answered them by interpreting Exodus 3:6. According to the Lord’s interpretation, the clause I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob implies resurrection. The Lord said that God is “not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt. 22:32). God could never be the God of dead persons; He is the God of living persons. As God is the God of the living and is called “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” so the dead Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be resurrected. Such a title of God implies resurrection. Simply to remember the title itself is easy and is of little value, but the implication of this title is of great significance. This is the way to interpret the Bible, and this is the way that we must learn to study the Bible. Paul also quoted and interpreted many portions from the Old Testament in this way, such as in the book of Hebrews, which is an interpretation of the book of Leviticus. We should not only read the Word according to the black and white letters. Rather, we must read, study, and pray, asking the Lord to show us the real significance of the words that are printed in black and white.
Today there is a great debate concerning the way to build up the church. Those in the Pentecostal movement say that the way to build the church is by the Spirit. But this is a shallow understanding of the way to build up the church. The Pentecostal movement in the United States began at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1906 it spread to Azusa Street in Los Angeles. In this movement there was an outpouring and a burning from the Holy Spirit among the believers for a time. But later, they found out that they could not build the church just with the Spirit. The Assemblies of God, one of the groups within the Pentecostal movement, made this discovery, set up a printing press, and began to educate their people. They told their people that they could not go out to build up the church by the Spirit alone; they had to build by the proper teaching of the Bible. Within the fifty years after the founding of the Assemblies of God in 1914, that denomination had the highest rate of increase among all the major Christian denominations. They increased because they exercised themselves in the matter of teaching. This is proof that in order to build up the church, there is the need of proper teaching.
The Southern Baptists also have stressed the matter of teaching. They have stressed the Word of God and have discouraged their preachers from speaking about the Spirit. To them the Word is solid, but the Spirit is too abstract and mysterious. They have also depended upon the teaching of the Bible in their Sunday school classes. They use so-called laymen to teach the Sunday school classes, and they have built up their churches by the teaching of the Bible.
Others have said that to build up the Body of Christ, only life is needed. Brother T. Austin-Sparks is a typical example of those with this view. I knew him very well, and I went to stay with him for about five weeks. He was very strong not to use any teaching or doctrine but to stress only life, especially the resurrection life. In the 1920s Brother Nee and I both appreciated his books. In those years Brother Nee translated a number of his books into Chinese. Brother Austin-Sparks was very much for the resurrection life, but he missed the importance of the teaching of the Bible. The effectiveness of his ministry in building up the church was diminished because of this.
Because we have learned the lessons of church history, we stress life, the Spirit, and the truth continually. The truth is a kind of doctrine or teaching, but not all doctrine or teaching is truth. We need to realize that these three things — life, the Spirit, and the truth — are of one essence. John 6:63 says, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” In this verse the word, life, and the Spirit are combined together. Then John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” According to this verse, God’s word, which may be considered as doctrine or teaching, is truth. Thus, the word, the Spirit, life, and the truth are all one. To receive “truth” from the word and yet not touch the Spirit is emptiness. Whenever we touch the truth, we should touch the Spirit. The Spirit always goes along with the truth. Actually, the word and the Spirit are one. The word is the truth, and the truth is the Spirit (1 John 5:6b). Furthermore, the Spirit is called “the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2). Thus, the word is the Spirit and the life. When we touch the word as truth, we surely need to touch the Spirit, and this Spirit is life. Actually, there is no difference between the Spirit and life. It is by these things — life, the Spirit, and the truth — that the church is built up.
The word, the Spirit, and life are all wrapped up with our spirit. Thus, we must learn to study the Word by exercising our spirit, and we must also learn to study with prayer. Whatever we study, we must turn into prayer, and then we must turn our prayer into our experience. When the word in the Spirit becomes our experience, the issue is life. The issue of the word and the Spirit is the experience of life. The only way for us to grow is by touching the word with prayer and turning the word with prayer into the Spirit, which issues in the experience of life. With the life of the Spirit from the word, we can build up the church.
The word is the base for the building up of the church. Because they realize their shortage of the word, some of the elders invite speakers to come to their locality. But this is the practice of the old way. The new way is to replace the speakers by equipping all the saints to prophesy. By the practice of prophesying, the need for the word on the Lord’s Day morning is met. Otherwise, the burden of giving a message each Lord’s Day would become a killing burden to the elders. Even when there are good speakers in a locality, after two years they will be exhausted, and the listeners will lose their taste for their speaking. The God-ordained way is to replace the speaking of one or two speakers with the prophesying by all the saints.
To prophesy is not merely to speak. To speak may be to talk loosely, but to prophesy is to speak something from the Word with definite points. The sisters as well as the brothers must prophesy. The New Testament shows us clearly that the sisters can prophesy (1 Cor. 11:5; 14:31). But the sisters should not teach with authority in the way of defining doctrine (1 Tim. 2:12). To do so is to overstep their limit. The sisters should prophesy to minister Christ, to minister life, to others. This is for the building up of the church.
The all-inclusive Spirit, whom the all-inclusive Christ (as the threefold seed in humanity) has become, is the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God in Christ (Gal. 3:14) for the divine dispensing according to the divine economy. This all-inclusive Spirit comprises many items.
As the Spirit of life, this Spirit fills us inwardly with Himself as the life-giving Spirit that we may be saturated and permeated with the unsearchable riches of Christ to be the fullness of Christ for His expression (Rom. 8:2; Acts 13:52; Eph. 3:8; 1:23). The words saturate and permeate are similar in meaning, but each bears a special denotation. To saturate means to fill to capacity, to soak thoroughly, and carries the thought of “in depth.” To permeate means to spread or flow throughout, to pervade completely, and carries the thought of “in breadth.” It would be more meaningful to say that a room is permeated, rather than saturated, with the smell of perfume. The Spirit of life fills us inwardly that we may be both saturated and permeated with the unsearchable riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ are always with the life-giving Spirit. Christ as the threefold seed in humanity is now the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the essential Spirit, who is the spiritual, divine, and heavenly essence of all the riches of Christ. When these riches fill us, we are saturated with Christ, and when He fills us further, we are permeated with Christ. Eventually, we are full of Christ both vertically and horizontally. Vertically, we are saturated with Christ, and horizontally we are permeated with Christ. This is the infilling of the Spirit of life (Acts 13:52).
The all-inclusive Spirit as the Spirit of power fills us outwardly with Himself as the outpoured Spirit that we may be clothed with the power from on high as our authority for us to be engaged in the Lord’s work according to God’s economy (1:8a; 2:4a, 17, 33; 4:4, 8, 30; Luke 24:49). The Greek word used in reference to the inward filling is pleroo, and the corresponding word used in reference to the outward filling is pletho. According to their usage in Acts, pleroo denotes the filling of a vessel within, as the wind filled the house inwardly in Acts 2:2, and pletho denotes the filling of persons outwardly, as the Spirit filled the disciples outwardly in Acts 2:4.
The Spirit of power is the economical Spirit for the carrying out of God’s economy. This aspect of the Spirit is different from the aspect of the Spirit as the Spirit of life, or the essential Spirit. On the day of Pentecost what was poured out on the disciples was not the essential Spirit but the economical Spirit, not the Spirit of life but the Spirit of power (v. 4), because on the day of Pentecost what was needed was not primarily life but power (1:8). The power that was poured out from on high was the economical Spirit to clothe the disciples as their authority. Today, when driving on the street, you may be fearful if you see a policeman in uniform. This is because his uniform is his authority. A large truck may be full of strength and power, but when the policeman in uniform signals for the driver in the truck to stop, the truck must stop. To drive a truck is a matter of power, but to stop the truck at the wave of a hand is a matter of authority. The power from on high is our authority. Everyone who truly speaks for the Lord has this authority. His speaking is the authority. The power from on high becomes the authority for us to be engaged in the Lord’s dispensing according to His economy.
The all-inclusive Spirit as the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus directs the move of the ministers of Christ through the inward guidance by the divine dispensing (16:6-10). In Acts 16 Paul and his co-workers were traveling in Asia Minor. They wanted to turn toward Asia, but they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit (v. 6); then they attempted to go into Bithynia, but they were prohibited by the Spirit of Jesus (v. 7). Eventually, they stopped, and in the night Paul had a vision concerning a Macedonian man who entreated the brothers to come over to help them. Paul and his co-workers concluded that God had called them to bring the good news into Macedonia (vv. 9-10). They crossed the Aegean Sea and entered into eastern Europe and into the major city of that region, Philippi (vv. 11-12).
Paul and his co-workers had both the outward guidance and the inward guidance. The dream in which the Macedonian man said, “Come over into Macedonia and help us” was the outward guidance. The inward guidance came as they considered the dream and concluded that God had called them to announce the good news to the Macedonians. This inward guidance was through the Spirit by the divine dispensing. Through the leading of the Spirit, Paul and his co-workers received some amount of dispensing. This was their inward guidance.
Today we must take this as our pattern. Often the co-workers come to me and say, “Brother Lee, I have received an invitation to go to a certain place. Should I go or not?” Usually, I do not say whether or not they should go. I simply tell them to pray. When I say this, my consideration is that they should receive a “Macedonian call.” Once they receive the call, following Paul’s pattern, they need to consider. This consideration is inward in the human spirit with the divine Spirit.
As the renewing Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit transforms us with the attributes of Christ into the glorious image of the resurrected and glorified Christ that we may bear His image for His glory (2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 12:2a). The attributes of Christ include many items, such as His humility, His patience, and His kindness. When they are expressed outwardly, these items are Christ’s virtues, but within Christ, they are His attributes.
As the transforming Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit conforms us, His many transformed brothers, to His image, the image of the firstborn Son of God, that we may fully be what He is (8:29; 1 John 3:2). The Spirit’s transformation has a goal, and that is to conform us to the image of the firstborn Son of God. Christ as the firstborn Son of God is the model, the mold, to which we all must be conformed. In baking bread, there is the need of a mold. Once we have the mold, the dough can be placed into the mold so that it will have the same image as the mold. Christ is the mold, and we are the dough. Before being placed in the mold, we are without a proper image. But once we are put into the mold, we have the proper image. All the saints bear the same image because they have all been placed into the same mold.
Colossians 1:15 tells us that Christ “is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation.” Verse 16 then says that all things were created in Christ. Christ is the mold. Before God created anything, He first created Christ as the mold, the model. In this model all the other creatures were created. How could Christ be created first? He was created by putting on human nature. By putting on human nature Christ became a creature. But how could His putting on human nature, which took place after Adam was created, cause Him to be the Firstborn, the first creature? The answer is that there is no element of time with God. With Him there is only the fact. In the universe there is the fact that Christ was created first among all the creatures. Then, this Firstborn of creation became a mold, or a model, for a mass production.
Was Christ crucified before Adam or after Adam? According to Revelation 13:8, Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. This indicates that He was crucified before Adam was created. After drawing a circle, we will not be able to locate the starting point or the ending point. If we put a dot on some point on the circle, it would be difficult to say what is before that point and what is after it. Adam was before Christ, and he was also after Christ. Christ is actually the first because He is the center and centrality of God’s move (Col. 1:16-17). It is difficult to say whether we are before or after Him. According to human history, Abraham was before Christ. But in John 8:58 Jesus said, “Before Abraham came into being, I am.” The proper grammar for the phrase I am should be “I was.” Because Abraham was in the past, the Lord Jesus was grammatically wrong. But according to actual fact, He was right because He is eternal. As the great I Am, He is the eternal, ever-existing God. Hence, He was before Abraham and is greater than Abraham. With Him there is no element of time.
The transforming Spirit will conform us to the image of the firstborn Son of God that we may fully be what He is. First John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is.” The real meaning of this verse is that the glorified Christ in our spirit will both saturate us vertically and permeate us horizontally, filling us that we may express Him. Eventually, we will be conformed to His glorified image and be exactly as He is.
As the renewing Spirit, He transforms us, and as the transforming Spirit, He conforms us. Then as the conforming Spirit, He glorifies us with the divine glory of God and of Christ that the divine glory within us today may be expressed outwardly, in which we will be the same as Christ is in the glory of God (Rom. 8:30b; Heb. 2:10a; 1 Pet. 5:10a; Col. 1:27). To be glorified in the divine glory is not merely objective. In my early Christian life I was taught that although we are very mean and low pieces of clay, one day, when the Lord Jesus comes, we will be brought into the glory of God. At that time I did not understand the matter of glorification, so I accepted this teaching. Later, I realized that this kind of teaching is too objective. If we as pieces of clay are put into glory, we will remain pieces of clay. The only difference will be that today we are clothed with clay, but in that day we will be pieces of clay clothed with glory.
The way that we are glorified is not objective but very subjective. Christ as the glory today is already within us as the hope of glory (v. 27). He is not in us in a dormant way, but He is saturating and permeating us to bring us through the process of conformation. His conforming us is also His glorifying us. When this glorifying reaches its climax, our body will be redeemed (Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23). At that time we will no longer be clay. Rather, our clay will be transformed and conformed to the expression of Christ in glory.
As the seven Spirits of God, as the seven lamps of fire, and as the seven eyes of the Lamb, the all-inclusive Spirit searches through enlightening and infuses through observing the churches with all the saints by the divine dispensing (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6). The seven Spirits are the Spirit of God intensified sevenfold. The seven Spirits as the Spirit of God are the seven eyes of the Lamb, Christ (v. 6). This strongly contradicts traditional theology, which says that the three of the Divine Trinity are separate persons. In Revelation 5:6 the third of the Divine Trinity, who is the Spirit, is the eyes of the second, who is the Lamb, Christ the Son of God. Are these two separate persons, or are They one person? The eyes of a person cannot be separated from that person to become another person. The third of the Divine Trinity is one with the second of the Divine Trinity. How wonderful this is!
The seven Spirits of God as the eyes of the Lamb are also seven lamps of fire (4:5). Whenever we close our eyes, we find that we are in darkness; we have no “lamps” by which we can see. Thus, our two eyes are two lamps. If we were blind, we would have no light, because we would have no lamps. To have light, we need a lamp. Without our eyes we would have no light, no lamp, to enlighten us. This illustrates how the eyes are the lamps. Because our eyes are our lamps, we must pray so that the Lord will open our eyes that we may have light (Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:18). Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah.” Our spirit is the lamp to bring in the Lord as the light. Our spirit is not the light; it is the lamp to receive the light. But without the lamp we cannot receive the light. Hence, we must exercise our spirit, which is the lamp, to have a clear conscience so that the light can shine within us.
The seven lamps of fire are for searching through enlightening. If we are going to search a dark room, light is needed. The seven eyes of the Lamb are for infusing through observing. When I observe you, my eyes dispense something into you. If I am angry with you, my eyes dispense anger into you and cause you to be angry; but when I am joyful, my eyes dispense joy into you, causing you to become joyful. This means that either my joy or my anger is dispensed into you. Thus, before we look at others, we must be full of the Spirit. Then our looking at others will dispense the Spirit into them, just as the Lord does when He looks at us.
As the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit speaks to the churches as Christ Himself to transfuse and infuse all that Christ is, as Christ declared at the beginning of each of the seven epistles, to the saints who are seeking to be overcomers (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26-29; 3:5-6, 12-13, 21-22). In each of the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3, Christ Himself as the Speaker declared who or what He is. Then, at the end of each epistle, we are told that the Spirit speaks to the churches. This indicates that the Spirit and Christ are one. This also indicates that the speaking Spirit dispenses the very Christ into the churches with all the saints. He transfuses and infuses all that Christ is into the saints who are seeking to be overcomers. Because we are seeking to be overcomers, every morning we must listen to the speaking of the Spirit. As we listen, something of Christ is transfused and infused into our being. This is His dispensing.
The life-giving Spirit, who today is sevenfold, is the consummation of the processed Triune God. This consummated Triune God marries the transformed, tripartite, redeemed saints, that He and we, we and He, may be a universal couple for His redeemed ones to enjoy the riches and fullness of the processed Triune God as the all-inclusive blessing of the New Jerusalem through His dispensing according to His economy for eternity (22:17a). The entire Bible of sixty-six books ends with the New Jerusalem, the embodiment of the blessing of the gospel of God. Galatians 3:14 reveals that the Spirit is the blessing of the gospel. The New Jerusalem is the aggregate of the Spirit, who is the blessing allotted to us in the gospel of God for our eternal enjoyment.
The life-giving Spirit, as the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God in Christ, consummates in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as the aggregate, the totality, of Christ’s being the threefold seed in humanity (Rev. 21:1-3, 9-23; 22:1-2, 14). The Spirit is the consummation of Christ as the threefold seed of Mary, Abraham, and David.
This total blessing is the mingling, the blending, of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen and glorified tripartite saints as the conclusion of the divine revelation for eternity. This is the end of the Bible, and this is the central line of the divine revelation.
