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Scripture Reading: John 4:24; Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20b; 28:19; Gen. 1:2b; Matt. 12:28; Rom. 8:9a; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17, 18; Rom. 8:9b; Acts 16:7b; Phil. 1:19b; John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6; Rom. 8:2; Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49; Exo. 30:22-31; Rev. 1:4c; 4:5b; 5:6; Zech. 3:9; 4:10; John 3:6b; 7:39; Rev. 22:17a
In the previous chapter we saw the contents of the Christian life. The contents of the Christian life are the Triune God who has been processed and consummated to be the all-inclusive Spirit of life through Christ’s death and resurrection. The Christian life actually is the composition of three all-inclusive things — the all-inclusive Spirit of Christ, the all-inclusive death of Christ, and the all-inclusive resurrection of Christ.
The all-inclusive Spirit of Christ is compounded with Christ’s death and resurrection. This is typified by the holy ointment in Exodus 30:22-31. The holy ointment is a compound. It is olive oil compounded with four spices. The first spice, myrrh, signifies the death of Christ. The second spice, cinnamon, signifies the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ’s death. Calamus, the third spice, signifies the precious resurrection of Christ. Cassia, the fourth spice, signifies the power of Christ’s resurrection. Thus, in this type of the holy ointment there is one basic element compounded with another four elements. We cannot say that the four spices are compounded with the olive oil because the four spices are not basic elements. The basic element is the oil. Today with the compound Spirit, the basic element is the Spirit of God, which is signified by the olive oil. The one Spirit is compounded with the elements of Christ’s death and resurrection.
We all have to learn these things, not merely as a biblical teaching but by our own experience. The most pitiful thing today among Christians is their poverty in life. A number of Christians may use the term life without really knowing what life is. Christ is life has become a slogan to them, but very few Christians really know what the Christian life is. We may say, “The Christian life is just Christ.” This is absolutely right, but who is Christ? Perhaps we would say that Christ is Jesus, and Jesus is the Son of God in incarnation. This is right, but how could this Christ who is in the heavens be our life? Some may say that He can be our life through the Holy Spirit, but if you ask them who the Holy Spirit is, they will be forced to say that they do not know. I am sharing this to show us that very few know what the Christian life is. I trust that this series of messages will make us clear concerning what the Christian life is and bring us into the real experience of the Christian life.
In this chapter we want to see fifteen crucial aspects concerning the all-inclusive Spirit. The first point concerning the Spirit is mentioned in John 4:24, which says that God is Spirit. The source of the all-inclusive Spirit is God, who is Spirit. The word Spirit in John 4:24 does not refer to God’s person but to God’s nature. This is like saying that a person’s ring is gold. This means that gold is the nature of the ring. John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit.” There is no article used in the Greek text in this verse. This is similar to saying, “Your ring is gold.” No article, such as the or a, is needed before the word gold, because it speaks about the nature. This is why John 4:24 simply says that God is Spirit. This means that God’s divine substance is Spirit.
The three in the Divine Trinity are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The third of the Divine Trinity is the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20b; 28:19). I would like us to consider the importance of the Holy Spirit among the three in the Godhead. The sixty-six books of the Bible contain many important items. Is the most important item in Genesis or in Revelation? Genesis 2 speaks of a garden with a wonderful tree, the tree of life, and man was put in this garden. But at the end of the Bible there is a wonderful city. Which is more important — the garden or the city? Surely the city is more important because the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. Thus, according to the basic principle, the last is the most important. Among the three of the Trinity, the Spirit is the most important in the sense of His being the realization, application, and reaching of the Triune God to us.
We saw in the previous chapter that the Son is the center of the Divine Trinity, expressing the Father and being realized as the Spirit. This shows us that the Son is the axis. The Son is the link. Without the Son, we cannot see the Father; and without the Son, we cannot get the Spirit. If we have the Son, we have both the Father and the Spirit. This is the very important thought in John 14.
The Lord told His disciples that in His Father’s house, there were many abodes and that He was going to prepare a place for them (v. 2). Then Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” (v. 5). Then the Lord answered, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (v. 6). The way to the Father is the Lord Jesus. Later, Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (v. 8). Then the Lord said, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (v. 9). This means that the Lord is the Father. The Son and the Father are one person. The Lord also said, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (v. 11). Who can be in another person and the other person be in him? For someone to say that he is with another one and the other one is with him is easy to understand. John 1:1 says that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. But then it goes on to say that the Word was God. First, the Word was “with” God; then eventually, the Word “was” God. How can this be? This is the mystery in the book of John.
It seems that the Lord spoke in John 14 without caring whether the disciples understood Him or not. I do not believe that any of the twelve understood what He was talking about. The Lord said that when He spoke, the Father who abode in Him did His works (v. 10). The Lord went on to say, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever” (v. 16). Eventually, He said, “The Spirit of reality...abides with you and shall be in you...In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (vv. 17, 20). This shows that the Spirit’s being in the disciples is the Son’s being in them.
This brief fellowship gives us an overview of the first twenty verses of John 14. What is the secret of the mystery of these twenty verses? The secret is that the three of the Triune God are one. The Bible scholars in the early church pointed out that God is triune, three-one. In mathematics there is not such a figure. Who understands what three-one is? Some teachers added the preposition in, saying that God is three in one. Something that is three in one must be some kind of compound. Three elements are compounded together to be one entity. To illustrate this, we may consider water with tea and lemon added to it. These three elements are compounded together to be lemon tea. They are three in one. This may be a good illustration, but no illustration is adequate to explain the mystery of the Divine Trinity. The Divine Trinity is beyond the realm of human understanding. We simply have to take the scriptural revelation of the Triune God and experience it.
Not long after I was saved, I began to meet with a group of Brethren believers who taught strongly that we should pray to the Father in the name of the Son. They gave verses as a basis for their teaching, and I accepted it. I tried to practice what they taught. Formerly, when I prayed, I simply said “Lord Jesus” or “Father,” without thinking about whom I was addressing. After being taught that I should pray to the Father in the name of the Son, I corrected myself when I did not do this. Eventually, I was so bothered that it became difficult for me to pray. The Brethren stressed strongly that the Lord Jesus told us to ask the Father in His name. But in my experience, whenever I prayed, the Father was there, the Son was there, and the Spirit was there.
In my writing, I may need three helpers to assist me. Sometimes I need number one. Then after five minutes I need number two. A little later I need number three. I have to make three phone calls to get these three helpers, but with the three in the Godhead, we do not need to make three calls. When one is here, all three are here. Our God is the three-one God. The all-inclusive Spirit is the third of the Divine Trinity, and the third today is the consummation of the three. If you have the third, you have the second and the first.
To see the all-inclusive Spirit, we need to begin with the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2b; Matt. 12:28; Rom. 8:9a). The Spirit of God is first mentioned in Genesis 1:2. The phrase the Spirit of God is composed of two nouns plus the preposition of. In this phrase God is in apposition to Spirit. Thus, the Spirit of God means that God is the Spirit, and the Spirit is God.
The second of the Divine Trinity in the flesh, which He had put on in His incarnation, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The all-inclusive Spirit is also the life-giving Spirit, who is the transfiguration of Jesus Christ. The third of the Divine Trinity today is the transfiguration of the second, who was in the flesh. In eternity past the Father, the Son, and the Spirit had merely one element, the divine element. Later, the second of the three put on the flesh, and the flesh is human. Thus, with the Triune God today there are two elements: the divine element and the human element.
In eternity Christ was merely divine. One day in time He came into the flesh. That means He put humanity upon Himself. Then He died and resurrected. Through His death and resurrection He did not drop His humanity. Some theologians wrongly taught that Christ put off His human nature in His resurrection. The Scriptures tell us that in the evening on the day of His resurrection, He came to the disciples (John 20:19-20). He told them to touch Him and to see that He was not a ghost, a phantom. After His resurrection they could see the wounds in His hands, His feet, and His side (Luke 24:36-40). The Lord told Thomas to see His hands and touch His wounded side (John 20:25, 27). This shows that the Lord’s body was not left in the tomb. His body came out of the tomb in His resurrection.
First Corinthians 15 tells us that in resurrection He brought His body into glory (vv. 42-44). Today we still have a body of humiliation. But the day will come when our body of humiliation will be transfigured into a body of glory (Phil. 3:21). We cannot fully understand this, but we can see an example of this in nature. A carnation seed grows up and eventually is transfigured into a beautiful blossom. The seed is transfigured into another shape.
When Christ was incarnated, He brought divinity into humanity. Then when He resurrected, He brought humanity into divinity. This is the divine traffic to bring God into man and to bring man into God. God and man, divinity and humanity, have been mingled together to be one. Now not only the Son is in humanity, but also the Father and the Spirit are in humanity. All three of the Godhead are in humanity.
Before Christ’s incarnation and resurrection, divinity and humanity were separate entities. But humanity and divinity were mingled together in Christ. Jesus is the mingling of divinity with humanity. In His incarnation divinity entered into humanity. In His resurrection humanity entered into divinity, and divinity was mingled and compounded with humanity. Water, tea, and lemon are no longer separate elements in lemon tea. When we drink this, we are drinking “lemon-tea-water.” The water has been compounded with another two elements. Our God has also been compounded with humanity and with all the elements of the process through which He passed.
After His resurrection the Lord Jesus charged His disciples to baptize people into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Acts and the Epistles say that the disciples baptized people into the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 8:16; 19:5) and into Christ (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27). This is because Christ is the totality of the three of the Godhead. This is like saying that tea is the totality of water, lemon, and tea. In our baptizing of people, we may be too dogmatic. We may insist on saying, “Brother, we are baptizing you into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit.” To repeat this, however, can be dogmatic. It is better to say, “Brother, I’m baptizing you into Christ.” Christ is the embodiment and totality of the Triune God.
The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is mingled and compounded with humanity. The Son entered into humanity, and He brought this humanity into divinity. Into divinity means into the Divine Trinity. Today all three of the Godhead are involved with humanity. First Corinthians 15:45b says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The last Adam was Christ as a person in the flesh. This person in the flesh became a life-giving Spirit. The word became indicates mingling. Christ became a life-giving Spirit by the way of compounding, by the way of mingling. Thus, the life-giving Spirit is the mingling of divinity and humanity. With the lemon-tea-water, the spirit (the essence) of the tea and the spirit (the essence) of the lemon are in the water. The essence of lemon and the essence of tea cannot be seen, but they can be tasted. Today we cannot see how man is in God and God is in man, but these divine and human essences are mingled together and are included in the all-inclusive Spirit.
The Lord (Jesus Christ) is the Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Lord in this verse, according to the context of this section, must refer to Christ the Lord (2:12, 14-15, 17; 3:3-4, 14, 16; 4:5). Jesus Christ today is the Spirit. The Spirit is Christ, and Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God.
The Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18) is a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. This means that the Spirit is the Lord.
The Spirit of Christ, mentioned in Romans 8:9b, is related mainly to the Lord’s resurrection.
Acts 16:7b speaks of the Spirit of Jesus. This is the only verse that uses this specific term for the Spirit. The Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression concerning the Spirit of God and is related mainly to the Lord’s humanity and human living.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19b) refers to Christ both in His humanity and human living and in His resurrection.
Such a Spirit is the Spirit of reality (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6). In the whole universe, only One is real — the Triune God. Only the Triune God is the reality. Today the Spirit is the reality because the Spirit is the real essence of the Triune God. More than forty years ago, I read a book by Brother Watchman Nee which says that the Spirit is the reality of the resurrection. Resurrection needs some reality, and that reality is the Spirit. If you are not in the Spirit, you are not in resurrection.
The Spirit is also the reality of Christ’s all-inclusive death. We must be crossed out. Our flesh, our natural humanity, should be put to death, and death ushers in resurrection. Without death there is no resurrection. This is why the Christian life must be a life of the Spirit through the cross and into the resurrection of Christ.
The Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). The Spirit of life is the reality of life, for this Spirit contains the element of the divine life. Actually, the Spirit Himself is life. If we have the Spirit, we have life.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of power (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49). The Spirit is not only life within essentially but also power without economically. If we want to receive the Pentecostal power, we need to go through the cross of Christ so that we can be brought into resurrection. Then we will experience the Spirit as our life inwardly and our power outwardly.
The all-inclusive Spirit is the compound Spirit, typified by the compound holy ointment (Exo. 30:22-31). The compound ointment has olive oil as a base compounded with four spices — myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. The numbers related to this compound ointment are very significant. The one unit of olive oil is compounded with four spices. One signifies the unique God, and four signifies the creatures. This shows that the unique God is compounded with man, the creature.
Furthermore, there are five substances in the ointment. Five in the Bible signifies responsibility. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 are divided into two groups of five, and the ten virgins in Matthew 25 are divided into two groups of five. Our hand has four fingers plus one thumb. The four fingers signify man and the one thumb signifies God. We, the four, plus God, the one, bear responsibility, five. Every day our hands bear responsibility. Without a thumb, how could we pick up our Bible? We need the four fingers plus the thumb to bear responsibility. In the same way, we need ourselves plus God to bear responsibility. Every day we need to have a “plus.” Our “plus” is God.
Also the four spices of the compound ointment are divided into three units of five hundred shekels each. Five hundred means one unit of full responsibility, and three signifies the Triune God. The three units of five hundred shekels each, in four spices, signify the Triune God in resurrection mingled with humanity to bear the full responsibility. The New Jerusalem is a city of the number twelve, which is three times four. The city has twelve gates, three gates on four sides (Rev. 21:12-13). The numbers three and four are seen in the compound ointment. The entire New Jerusalem is one city composed of the unique Triune God, signified by the olive oil, mingled with man, signified by the four spices. The Triune God today has been consummated to be such an all-inclusive Spirit with all the marvelous elements of His person and work.
When I was a young Christian, I read some books that point out from the Word that we have died with Christ (Rom. 6:8a). I asked myself how I could experience this. Then I was taught that I should reckon myself to be dead (Rom. 6:11). There is a hymn by A. B. Simpson that speaks of reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin (Hymns, #692). I tried to reckon myself to have died with Christ, but this did not work. Brother Watchman Nee taught that we should reckon ourselves as having died with Christ in his book entitled The Normal Christian Life. Eventually, however, Brother Nee discovered that we cannot experience Christ’s death in Romans 6 unless we experience the Spirit in Romans 8. The death of Christ is in the Spirit. Let us use the illustration of the lemon tea again. Where is the lemon? It is in the water. Where is the tea? It is in the water. In like manner, where is Christ’s death? It is in the Spirit. Where is Christ’s resurrection? It is in the Spirit. Where is the Triune God? He is in the Spirit. In this message I am sharing how to experience the Christian life. Without this Spirit, we cannot experience the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. This Spirit is the compound of God, man, Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection.
The seven Spirits are the seven eyes of God and the seven eyes of Christ (Rev. 1:4c; 4:5b; 5:6; Zech. 3:9; 4:10). The seven Spirits are the sevenfold intensified Spirit. In essence and existence God’s Spirit is one; in the intensified function and work of God’s operation, God’s Spirit is sevenfold. In my home I have a seven-way lamp, which the brothers made for me. Each time the switch to this lamp is turned, the shining becomes brighter and brighter, more intensified. Many lamps today are three-way lamps, but today the all-inclusive Spirit is seven ways, that is, sevenfold intensified. This is for the Spirit to go forth into all the earth.
A number of brothers and sisters among us have recently gone to Russia. These dear brothers and sisters went in the intensified Spirit. I also believe that the ones who are now preparing to go to Russia are intensified in their spirit. We may be able to rest and take it easy here, but the ones who are going to Russia cannot take it easy. They have to go to encounter all kinds of troubles. Our brothers and sisters first went to Russia in October, at the beginning of winter. The Russians who have been brought into the church life were very grateful to the saints for coming to them in the deep winter. They said that no foreigners would come to their country to carry out a project in the winter because it is too cold. But the brothers and sisters came in the deep winter to help them. Often, a number of the brothers did not have the time to eat dinner because they were so busy. I believe that their spirit is intensified. Many of us here, on the other hand, are not intensified. We may come to the meetings in a loose, relaxed, and unexercised way. Among us, whose spirit is intensified? We are like the “four fingers” thinking that they can function without the “thumb,” that is, without the Spirit.
Going out to foreign countries to carry out the gospel for God’s economy is through the Spirit who is sent to all the world as the sevenfold intensified One. This Spirit is the seven lamps of fire before the throne, and the throne is for God’s administration. No doubt, the sevenfold intensified Spirit is to carry out God’s administration.
These seven Spirits are the seven eyes of God. Some have said that the three persons of the Godhead are separate. But according to the scriptural revelation, the Spirit is the eyes of God. In other words, the third of the Trinity is the eyes of the first. The eyes are for expressing the sentiment. When I look at you, my eyes express my feeling, my sentiment, about you. In addition, the eyes are for observing and transfusing. When one person looks at another person, he transfuses his feeling into that person. Thus, the eyes are for expressing, for observing, and for transfusing.
The seven Spirits are not only the eyes of God but also the eyes of Christ. Thus, the third of the Divine Trinity is the eyes of the first and the second. Zechariah 3:9 tells us Christ is the engraved stone. Christ as the stone was engraved on the cross for us, and on this stone there are seven eyes. The seven Spirits are the seven eyes of Christ.
At the time when we are preaching the gospel, speaking about Christ, the Spirit looks at us to transfuse us, to express Christ’s feeling about us, and to infuse His love into us. In other words, on the crucified Christ there are eyes expressing His sentiment concerning us. The eyes on the crucified Christ infuse His feeling, His love, into us. By this infusion we become inspired. We feel that our Christ is so lovely and so good. Our Savior, the crucified One, has seven eyes to express His sentiment concerning us and to infuse His love into us. The stone in Zechariah is not a bare stone but a stone upon which are seven living eyes. We are preaching a living stone with living eyes to infuse Himself into us and to express His dear sentiment into our feeling.
John 3:6b says that we have been born of the Spirit. John 7:39 says that before Christ was resurrected, the Spirit was not yet. The Spirit is the processed Spirit, the consummated Spirit. Before Christ’s resurrection the consummation of the Spirit was not completed, so this Spirit was not yet. The Spirit of God was in Genesis 1, but in John 7:39 the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus was glorified in His resurrection (Luke 24:26). In resurrection Jesus in the flesh became a life-giving Spirit, and that life-giving Spirit is the Spirit. In Christ’s resurrection the Spirit of the Triune God was consummated in the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Eventually, He will be the Spirit as the processed and consummated Triune God to be one with the bride as the corporate, regenerated, and transformed tripartite man (Rev. 22:17a). The consummated Triune God and the transformed tripartite man will be married to be one heavenly, universal couple.
