Search
In this message we shall cover more symbols of the Spirit found in the New Testament.
Romans 8:23 speaks of the firstfruit of the Spirit. This firstfruit is not the first fruit borne by the Spirit. The firstfruit of the Spirit is simply the Spirit Himself as the firstfruit of the coming harvest of what God is to us. We enjoy Him as the foretaste of the full blessing to come. He is the foretaste of God for our enjoyment. Hence, to have the firstfruit of the Spirit is to enjoy the Spirit as the firstfruit.
The firstfruit of the Spirit is for our enjoyment; it is a foretaste of the coming harvest. This firstfruit is the Holy Spirit as a sampling of the full taste of God as our enjoyment of all that God is to us. God is so much to us. The full taste will come in the day of glory. Nevertheless, before the full taste comes, God has given us a foretaste today. This foretaste is the divine Spirit as the firstfruit of the harvest of the full enjoyment of all that He is to us.
The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — has given Himself to us for our enjoyment. Eventually, we shall enter into the full enjoyment of the Triune God. For the present, God has given us the gift of the Spirit as the firstfruit to be the first taste of our divine inheritance, which is the Triune God. This first taste is the guarantee that we shall have the full taste.
In 1 Corinthians 10:1 and 2 the Spirit is symbolized by the cloud: “All our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Verse 1 says that our fathers “were under the cloud.” The cloud that covered the children of Israel typifies the Spirit of God being with the New Testament believers. Immediately after the New Testament believers take Christ as their Passover (1 Cor. 5:7), the Spirit of God comes to be with them and leads them to run the Christian race, just as the pillar of cloud came to be with the children of Israel and to lead them (Exo. 13:21-22; 14:19-20).
First Corinthians 10:2 speaks of being baptized “in the cloud,” which signifies in the Spirit. When we were baptized, we were baptized in the Spirit. In one Spirit we were baptized into one Body (1 Cor. 12:13).
The cloud, which brought God’s presence to His people, also appeared when the children of Israel were gathered at Mount Sinai (Exo. 19:9, 16) and when the tabernacle was erected (Exo. 40:34-38). The cloud in Exodus 19 indicated that God the Spirit was appearing to overshadow the area where His people were gathered to receive the heavenly revelation. Then in Exodus 40 the cloud overshadowed the tabernacle, covering it. This indicates that the Triune God was appearing to His people and that He was reaching them and was being applied to them. In the church life today we also should be overshadowed and covered by the Spirit as the cloud.
According to the Bible, there is fire in the cloud (Exo. 40:38). This indicates that when we are overshadowed by the Spirit, we are enlightened by Him. The Spirit gives us light by which we may walk. This is the Spirit as the cloud.
First Corinthians 10:4 says, “All drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.” The spiritual drink here refers to the living water which flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6) and that typifies the Spirit as our all-inclusive drink (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13). The Spirit as symbolized by the spiritual drink is the ultimate issue of the Triune God. This drink quenches our thirst and satisfies our being. In our Christian life we should all drink the same spiritual drink; we should not drink anything other than the all-inclusive Spirit.
In Hebrews 1:9, Matthew 25:3-4, 8-9, and Luke 10:34 the Spirit of God is symbolized by the oil. The oil is simply of one single element, symbolizing that the Spirit of God was merely of the element of divinity. It is with this Spirit that God has anointed Christ.
Another symbol of the Spirit is the compound ointment (2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27). According to the type in Exodus 30, a hin of olive oil was compounded with four spices to produce the holy anointing oil, the holy ointment. In typology oil signifies the Spirit of God, and the compound ointment, the oil blended with four spices, signifies the Holy Spirit, the compound Spirit. Through a compounding process the oil became an ointment and was used to anoint the tabernacle and everything related to it. The priests also were anointed with this holy ointment. Before Exodus 30 this compound was “not yet,” but after Exodus 30 such an ointment was definitely in existence. In like manner, before Christ was crucified, resurrected, and glorified, the Spirit as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit was not yet (John 7:39). But through the process of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection the Spirit of God, typified by the oil, became the compound Spirit, typified by the ointment.
The four spices used to make the ointment in Exodus 30 — myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia — typify respectively the effectiveness of Christ’s death, the sweetness of His death, the power of His resurrection, and the fragrance of His resurrection. Before Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, the Spirit of God did not have these four elements. But after Christ’s resurrection these elements were compounded into the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God became the Spirit, the compound Spirit symbolized by the compound ointment (see Life-study of Exodus, Messages 157-163).
In this compound ointment we have the Triune God signified by the numbers one and three (one hin of olive oil; three complete units of five hundred shekels — Exo. 30:23-25) and humanity signified by the number four (four spices). We also have the death of Christ, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, the power of Christ’s resurrection, and the flavor of His resurrection. This compound ointment is a picture of today’s compound Spirit. Before the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection, the Spirit of God was not a compound. He had merely divinity, nothing else. But after the Lord’s resurrection this Spirit of God was compounded with humanity, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the effectiveness of His resurrection. This all has been compounded into one ointment which today is the Spirit. Before Christ’s resurrection the Spirit of God, but not the compound Spirit, was in existence. After the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the compound Spirit came into being. On the day of Christ’s resurrection the Spirit of God became the compound Spirit. In the compound Spirit there are many items: divinity, humanity, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the power of Christ’s resurrection.
In 2 Corinthians 1:21 Paul says, “He who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God.” First John 2:20 says that we have an anointing from the Holy One, and verse 27 says that this anointing abides in us. “Christ” is the anglicized form of the Greek word Christos, which means the anointed One. The Greek word for anointing is chrisma. Because we have been attached by God to Christ, the anointed One, we are spontaneously anointed with Him by God. Christ has been anointed with the divine ointment, and the ointment that is upon Him now flows in us. This is pictured in Psalm 133, which says that the anointing oil flows from the head of Aaron to his beard and even to the skirts of his priestly robe. This indicates that Christ has an abundance of the anointing oil. God has poured the ointment upon Him. Through that anointing Christ has received the ointment, and eventually He, the anointed One, became the anointing One. In fact, He has even become the anointing. When He entered into us as the anointed One, He became the anointing One in us. Actually, the anointing that dwells in us is the anointed One becoming the anointing One and also the anointing.
God’s intention is to work Himself into us as our life and our everything to make us His counterpart for His expression. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary for God to pass through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. When He entered into resurrection, He became the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is actually Christos, the anointed One, becoming the life-giving One. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him into us. The One we received is the anointed One, who through death and resurrection has become the anointing One. Furthermore, this anointing One is the all-inclusive, indwelling Spirit. As soon as we believed in Him, He as the Spirit entered our spirit. Now He is within our spirit to anoint us, “paint” us, with the element of the Triune God. The more this “painting” goes on, the more the element of the Triune God is transfused into our being. Today we all are under the anointing of the compound Spirit with Christ’s divinity, humanity, all-inclusive death, and wonderful resurrection. This is the Spirit as the compound ointment.
Second Corinthians 1:22 says that God has sealed us, and Ephesians 1:13 and 4:30 tell us that, as believers, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. The anointing in 2 Corinthians 1:21 is the sealing in verse 22. Because God has anointed us with Christ, He has also sealed us in Him. To be sealed with the Holy Spirit means to be marked with the Holy Spirit as a living seal. We have been made God’s inheritance (Eph. 1:11). At the time we were saved God put His Holy Spirit into us as a seal to mark us out, indicating that we belonged to God. The Holy Spirit, who is God Himself entering into us, causes us to bear God’s image signified by the seal, thus making us like God.
We should not regard the sealing as separate from the anointing. Actually, anointing implies sealing. As we are under the anointing, the anointing becomes a sealing. In this way we become different from others. Furthermore, the seal causes us to bear the appearance of God. When God anoints, the anointing is the sealing. The anointing brings the divine essence into us. First, through the anointing God adds the essence of Himself to us. Then this anointing seals us with the essence of God, forming the divine element into an impression to express God’s image, thereby making us the image of God.
The seal of the Spirit signifies ownership. It signifies that God is our owner and that we belong to Him. The anointing within us as the sealing declares to the universe that we belong to God. God possesses us, and He has put Himself upon us as a seal.
The Spirit as the seal of God upon us bears the image of God. This implies that the seal of the Holy Spirit is the expression of God and brings God’s image into our being. When we bear the Holy Spirit as the seal of God upon us, we bear the image of God and the expression of God. The anointing within us becomes the seal, and the seal bears the very image of God. In this way we bear the image of God. This means that we express God by being anointed and by being sealed. Therefore, the seal of the Holy Spirit denotes both ownership and expression.
The New Testament also speaks of the Spirit as a pledge (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14). In 2 Corinthians 1:22 Paul says that God has given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts. The pledge of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the pledge. The seal of the Spirit is a mark that we are God’s inheritance, God’s possession, belonging to God. The pledge of the Spirit is a guarantee that God is our inheritance or heritage belonging to us. The Spirit within us is the pledge, an earnest, of God being our portion in Christ.
Ephesians 1:14 says that the Holy Spirit is “the pledge of our inheritance.” We need the Spirit as both the seal and the pledge because in God’s work on us two kinds of inheritances are involved. Ephesians 1:11 indicates that we were made God’s inheritance, and verse 14, that God is our inheritance. In God’s economy we are an inheritance to God, and God is an inheritance to us. This is a mutual inheritance. For us to be God’s inheritance we need the seal. We are God’s possession, and as our owner God has put a seal upon us. Because God is our inheritance we also need the pledge of the Spirit as a guarantee. We shall inherit all that God is. For such an inheritance, the Holy Spirit is the pledge, the guarantee.
The Greek word for pledge in Ephesians 1:14 also means foretaste, guarantee, token payment guaranteeing the full payment, a part payment in advance. Because God is our inheritance, the Holy Spirit is a pledge of this inheritance to us. God gives His Holy Spirit to us not only as a guarantee of our inheritance, securing our inheritance, but also as a foretaste of what we shall inherit of God.
In ancient times the Greek word for pledge was used in the purchase of land. The seller gave the buyer a sample of the soil from the land being purchased. Hence, a pledge, according to ancient Greek usage, was also a sample. The Holy Spirit is the sample of what we shall inherit of God in full. As those who are to inherit God, we have the Holy Spirit as a pledge, guarantee, earnest, and down payment of our inheritance. At the same time the Spirit is also a sample and a foretaste. The foretaste gives us a taste of God; the full taste is yet to come.
In 2 Corinthians 3:3 ink is a symbol of the Spirit: “Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” The Spirit of the living God, who is the living God Himself, is not an instrument, like a pen for writing, but the very element, like the ink, with which the apostles minister Christ as the content for the writing of living letters that convey Christ. The writer of this letter is not the Spirit of God; the writer is the apostles. The Spirit of the living God is the “ink,” the element, the essence of the writing. This means that the Spirit of the living God is the element with which the letter is written.
The ministry of the apostles is to write letters with the life-giving Spirit as the essence. The more the apostles minister to you, the more they put into you the element of the life-giving Spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 3:3 Paul says “inscribed not with ink”; he does not say “inscribed not by ink.” The preposition “with” indicates that the spiritual ink, the Spirit of the living God, is an essence, an element, used by the one doing the inscribing or the writing. The Spirit is neither the writer nor the instrument used for writing; rather, the Spirit is the essence, the element, the substance, used in writing. The Spirit of the living God is the heavenly ink used by the apostles in writing living letters that convey Christ. Therefore, Paul’s view of the Spirit here is that of an essence used for inscribing letters of Christ.
In Revelation 4:5 the Spirit is symbolized by the seven lamps of fire burning before God’s throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. The seven lamps of fire, which are the seven Spirits of God, signify the enlightening and searching of the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God. God will touch the earth by the seven lamps, by His seven Spirits, which are burning, shining, observing, searching, and judging. The seven lamps here refer to the seven lamps of the lampstand in Exodus 25:37 and in Zechariah 4:2. In Exodus 25 and Zechariah 4 the seven lamps, signifying the enlightening of the Spirit of God in God’s move, are for God’s building. In Revelation 4:5 the seven lamps are for God’s judgment, which will issue in the building of the New Jerusalem. While God executes His judgment, His sevenfold intensified Spirit will carry out His eternal building by searching, enlightening, and judging.
The seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God are for enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning. All this is for the carrying out of God’s administration. Today, God is administrating His government by means of enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning. Anything that does not correspond to God’s nature will be burned by His fire. Although we have been saved and have undergone some amount of transformation, our work will be burned if it is wood, grass, and stubble and not gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:15). Any fleshly work, work done in the name of the Lord but actually having nothing to do with Him, will be burned. Everything that is not of God or according to God will be counted by God as wood, grass, and stubble, and it will be burned by fire. This burning is the carrying out of God’s administration. The Bible reveals that God is the burning One (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). All things outside of Him or that do not correspond to His nature will be burned.
Although the seven enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning lamps will burn all that does not correspond to God, they will refine those things that are truly according to His nature. The dross will go to the lake of fire, but the refined gold will go to the New Jerusalem. Even now the seven Spirits as the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God are burning, refining, and purifying for the carrying out of God’s universal governmental administration.
In Revelation 5:6 we have yet another symbol of the Spirit — the seven eyes of the Lamb: “I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as having been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.” The seven lamps are simultaneously the seven eyes of the Lamb. The lamps are for enlightening and burning; the eyes are both for watching and observing and also for infusing and transfusing. As the redeeming Lamb, Christ has seven watching and observing eyes for the carrying out of God’s administration. These seven eyes are also transfusing all that the Lamb is into our being so that we may become the same as He. The way for us to be transformed is to come to Him and be seen by Him. As the Lord enlightens and judges us, He looks at us, and His seven eyes transfuse Himself into us.
It is significant that in Revelation 5:6 the seven Spirits are the seven eyes of Christ, the Lamb. A person’s eyes cannot be separated from the person himself, for a person’s eyes are his expression. Our inner being is expressed mainly through our eyes. In like manner, the seven Spirits are the seven eyes of Christ by which Christ expresses Himself. As a person and his eyes are one, so Christ and the Spirit are one. Therefore, it is a mistake to say that the Spirit is separate from Christ. Since the seven Spirits are the Holy Spirit and are also the eyes of Christ, then the Holy Spirit, who is the seven Spirits, is not separate from Christ. The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and the Spirit is the expression of the Son. The seven eyes of Christ, which are the seven Spirits of God, are Christ’s expression in God’s move for God’s building. Today Christ’s eyes are upon us so that we can be transformed and conformed to His image for God’s building.
The last symbol of the Spirit in the New Testament is the river of water of life: “He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street” (Rev. 22:1). This river of water of life is a symbol of God in Christ as the Spirit flowing Himself into His redeemed people to be their life and life supply. It is typified by the water that came out of the riven rock (Exo. 17:6; Num. 20:11) and symbolized by the water that flowed out of the pierced side of the Lord Jesus (John 19:34). In Revelation 22:1 the water of life becomes a river proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb to supply and saturate the entire New Jerusalem. Therefore, as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God, the Spirit as the river of water of life is the flow of the processed Triune God with Himself as the water of life to satisfy His chosen people that He may have an eternal manifestation to express Himself for eternity.
