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I. The believers’ enjoyment and application of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity:
А. Regenerated to receive God’s Spirit of life, begetting into the believers’ spirit that which is the life of Christ — John 3:3-6.
John 3:3-6
Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (4) Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? (5) Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
B. Breathing the pneumatic Christ as breath — John 20:22.
John 20:22
And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.
C. Drinking the pneumatic Christ as the living water — John 4:10, 14; 7:37-39.
John 4:10
Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
John 4:14
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.
John 7:37-39
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (38) He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. (39) But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
D. Eating the Christ who is in the living word of life as the spiritual food — John 6:48, 57b-58a, 63.
John 6:48
I am the bread of life.
John 6:57b-58a
...so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. (58a) This is the bread which came down out of heaven...
John 6:63
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
E. Growing in the bountiful supply of Christ as the true vine — John 15:1, 4-5.
John 15:1
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
John 15:4-5
Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. (5) I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.
II. The results of the believers’ enjoyment and application of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity:
А. Flowing the rivers of living water — John 7:38-39.
John 7:38-39
He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. (39) But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
B. Bearing the fruits of life — John 15:5, 16a.
John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:16a
You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit...
C. Feeding the lambs in the flock — John 21:15; 10:16.
John 21:15
Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My lambs.
John 10:16
And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must lead them also, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd.
D. Becoming the bride of Christ, which is the Body of Christ as His increase — John 3:6b, 29-30.
John 3:6b
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:29-30
He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full. (30) He must increase, but I must decrease.
E. Being the organism of the processed Triune God — John 15:1, 5, 8.
John 15:1
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:8
In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so you will become My disciples.
Prayer: Lord, we worship You from our depths. You are the Lord, the source, and the Head. Thank You that You have gathered us into Your name once more tonight. We believe that You are here. We are here to seek You in Your Spirit. Lord, we believe that You will reveal Yourself to us in Your word. We are all here. May Your blood cleanse us in many ways so that we may receive Your anointing and Your rich outpouring. Lord, calm our hearts, that we may be fully open to You and may be fully delivered out of ourselves into Your Spirit. May Your Spirit grace every one of us here. Lord, operate in this meeting and in the depths of everyone here so that none would be left out and none would be left untouched, but everyone would have a word from You. Lord, may You be gracious to everyone attending this meeting, no matter who he is. After this meeting is over, may we never forget it, but may we always remember our time of gathering here and remember that it is here that we have met You and have been touched by You and have also touched You in our spirit. Lord, give us the living word and the rich supply. Transmit into us Your desire, Your love, Your thoughts, and even Your expression. Lord, may You be one spirit with us and speak to us in our speaking. Lord, vindicate Your way, shame Your enemy, and bless everyone who seeks after You. Amen!
In the last chapter we saw two main points. The first is the Divine Trinity, and the other is the divine dispensing. The Divine Trinity is our unique true God. He is the One we believe in and the One we worship. With Him there is the distinction of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is expressed in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. The Son is the manifestation of the Father, and the Spirit is the reality of the Son. These three are not three Gods but are one God. This unique God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit for a definite purpose, which is to dispense Himself into His believers. He is one Triune God, yet He can be dispensed into millions of people. This is a mysterious thing. Although we have illustrated the dispensing of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — into us in the way of a watermelon being cut into pieces and then pressed into juice, the fact of the matter is not that simple. It is too profound. It is so profound that we cannot fathom it or understand it. Yet there is such a thing in the universe.
This Triune God had a pleasure and a desire in eternity past before the creation of the world. According to this pleasure and desire, the Divine Trinity had a conference of the Godhead and made the decision to create man in His image and according to His likeness so that from one created man He could propagate many men. Long before time began and before the heavens and the earth were created, He predestinated us according to His foreknowledge and foresight and marked us out. In this way we heard the gospel one day, and without knowing why we did so, we believed. Moreover, the more we go on, the more firmly we believe. Even we ourselves marvel and wonder how this happened. Actually, the whole matter is not up to us. We have been chosen by Him. Even if we do not want Him, He still wants us.
As far as we are concerned, salvation is a small experience. But as far as God is concerned, it is not a simple thing. First, He had to create all things. Then He had to create man. After the creation of man, because of man’s failure, He had to wait four thousand years. In the end He Himself became a man. In creating all things, He could call things not being into being. But in becoming flesh, He had to work according to the law of propagation, which He had created in man. One day the Holy Spirit came to the virgin Mary, and a wonderful thing happened to her. A Holy One was conceived in her. The Holy One conceived in her was God, the eternal Word (Matt. 1:20). The God who was the Word entered the womb of the virgin Mary and remained there for nine months. At the completion of that time, He was born with a human nature. This was the Lord Jesus. What went in was God, and what came out at birth was God with humanity. This is what Isaiah 9:6 says, that a child is born to us, and a Son is given to us. This child is the mighty God, and this Son is the eternal Father.
After the Lord Jesus was born, Herod tried to kill Him, and Joseph and Mary took Him away to Egypt for refuge. Later, they returned to a small village in Galilee, Nazareth, where He spent thirty years in the house of a poor family. At the age of thirty, which according to Scripture is the age for a priest to assume his duties, He was baptized and was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Moreover, He was tested. From that time on, He began to speak for God and to work. Everywhere He went, He spoke about God, expressed God, and revealed God to men. After three and a half years He was betrayed, bound, condemned, and crucified on the mount of Golgotha outside the city of Jerusalem. John tells us that this crucified Jesus had three statuses. First, He was the Lamb of God, to be our Redeemer, taking away the sin of the world. Second, He was the bronze serpent, hanged on the tree to remove the satanic nature within us. Third, He was the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died, releasing the divine life and bearing the many grains.
Furthermore, His whole being — spirit, soul, and body — resurrected and was transfigured into the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is a compound life-giving Spirit. In this Spirit there is divinity, humanity, the human living of Jesus, and His all-inclusive death with His resurrection power. This is the holy ointment described in Exodus 30. It is the mingling of one hin of olive oil with four kinds of spices. The Spirit as the holy ointment anointing us within enables us to partake of all the elements of the Triune God. In this way, through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, the Triune God has achieved a great thing, which is to accomplish His divine dispensing. Today our God is not simply the Word who was there in the beginning. He became flesh, worked for God on earth, went to the cross, accomplished the work of redemption, entered Hades, overcame death, and came out of death. In resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit. Now He is so available to us. As long as we believe in Him and call on His name, He will dispense Himself into us. This is the gospel.
Today we should preach this gospel to others. We should not preach the shallow gospel that Christianity preaches. That gospel tells people that they have sinned and must suffer the punishment of hell, but that God has had pity on them and has given His beloved Son to die for them to redeem them and to resurrect for them, and that as long as they repent and believe in Him, they will receive eternal life and will go to heaven. It tells them further that although the world is full of sufferings, they can trust in Him, learn to do good, and glorify God. Although this is the gospel, it is a low gospel. The high gospel that we preach says that the Word who was God from the beginning became flesh, passed through human living, was crucified, resurrected, and has become the life-giving Spirit to accomplish the great work of the divine dispensing.
Today Jesus is not only our Redeemer and our Savior; He is also the dispensing God, dispensing Himself into all those who believe in Him. When He is dispensed into us, the believers, He becomes our grace and our reality so that we have substance and are no longer empty. Our lives have a purpose and a goal. Since Christ has accomplished this divine dispensing and has become the life-giving Spirit and is now everywhere, He can enter into those who call on His name anytime and anywhere. At any time, when a person believes in Him and calls on His name, He will enter into this one and will become his life and everything to him.
I know definitely that I am saved. I also know definitely when I was saved. In April 1925 a young lady came from Shanghai to preach the gospel, and I went to listen out of curiosity. When I heard the word, I was caught by the Lord. There was no loud shouting, nor was there any jumping or skipping. I simply felt that I was captured by the Lord. I told the Lord that I did not want Satan to usurp me anymore. I did not want the world anymore. After the meeting, while I was on my way home, and before I reached home, I lifted up my head to heaven and said, “Lord, from today, even if the whole world is given to me, I will not take it anymore. I want to go and preach Jesus.” After one or two years I discovered that there was a change in me. The worldly entertainments that I formerly enjoyed were all shaken off from me. From that day on, I began to love the Lord, to pursue after Him, and to serve Him. During my Christian life, very many things have confirmed to me that spiritual experiences are normal. The more normal the experience, the more proper it is. It is, in fact, miraculously normal. The reason for this is that the Triune God has been dispensed into me to be my life.
After the Lord accomplished His divine dispensing, He sent men to preach the gospel. When we hear the gospel, our only choice is to believe. Once we believe and call on the name of the Lord, the following things happen. First, we are regenerated. When we receive the Lord, the dispensing of the Triune God begins to operate in us. The Spirit who was produced through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus enters into our spirit, and we receive God’s Spirit of life, which begets into our spirit that which is the life of Christ (John 3:3-6). In other words, we receive the life of God in addition to our life in the flesh. From that point on, we are born of God and become God’s children (1:12-13). God is our Father, and we are His household.
Christ is not only our life to regenerate us; He is also the holy breath for our breathing. John 20:22 says that when the Lord Jesus came into the midst of the disciples, He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This means that every believer can breathe in the Lord through calling on His name. This breathing is the breathing in of the pneumatic Christ as air (v. 22). Stanza 2 of Hymns, #73 says, “Just to breathe the Name of Jesus, / Is to drink of Life indeed.”
Third, to breathe in the name of the Lord Jesus is not only to breathe in the Lord as air but to drink of the pneumatic Christ as the living water (4:10, 14; 7:37-39). Hence, He is not only our life and our air but also our living water.
In addition, we can eat the Christ who is in the living word of life as the spiritual food. The Lord said in John 6:63, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” It is this Spirit and this life that enable us to have the supply of the spiritual life. Second Timothy 3:16 also tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed. The word of God is the breathing out of God. What He breathes out, we breathe in. In this way we receive the supply of life.
Although the Bible contains many teachings and exhortations, when we receive them, we must first receive their supply and then receive their teaching. Most people receive the teaching first. This is wrong. The Bible is the breath of God. It contains God’s own element, and it is for our supply. In Romans 10:5-8 Paul quotes the word of the law in Deuteronomy 30:12-14. There he applies the word of the law to Christ, because although it was the word of the law, it came out of the mouth of God, and Christ is the One who came out of God. Hence, the written word of the Bible and the living word of Christ are both the word of God. When the Lord Jesus was tempted, three times He quoted the word of Deuteronomy to oppose Satan. He told the tempter that man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). God’s word can nourish man because God’s word is simply Christ.
Hence, before you read the Bible, you must first exercise your spirit to call on the Lord’s name. In this way your spirit will receive the supply from Christ. Then when you try to understand the meaning of the Lord’s word, you will receive more, because Christ will not only supply your spirit, but He will also open up your understanding and will enlighten your mind to comprehend the meaning of God’s word. In the end the supply you receive will not only be in your spirit but will also be in your mind, emotion, and will. This is to eat Christ as the spiritual food.
Moreover, Christ is also the true vine. We are the branches of Him, the tree. When we abide in Him to enjoy all His riches, we will grow in His life. When we breathe Him in, eat Him, and drink of Him, His divine dispensing will enter into us to become our air, our living water, and our spiritual food. In this way we will be able to abide in Him to enjoy the bountiful supply of Him as the vine.
From this we can see that breathing, eating, and drinking Him is a kind of dispensing. Abiding in Him to absorb His riches is also a kind of dispensing. During the day, whenever it may be, as long as we turn to Him, His dispensing will go on within us.
For this reason, from now on, we have to change our concept. Not only can we pray-read two verses in the morning, but during the whole day we can always call on the Lord’s name. As soon as we contact the Lord’s word or call on His name, the supply comes. This is all the more necessary in the marriage life. No two persons living together can avoid problems. Therefore, I must tell you a spiritual principle: every time the other party makes you unhappy and causes you to lose your temper, you should tell yourself to call on the Lord Jesus first. This is the all-inclusive dose. The minute you call “O Lord Jesus,” all the tempers are gone. Whenever we have any problem, the best way to deal with it is to call on the Lord.
If you ask me why I am so healthy, I can tell you that I always do one exercise, which is to walk around a little after I eat. Just a few steps render me great help. The same is true with our spiritual life. In the midst of our busy work, if we would stop for a while and would call on the Lord a little and think of Him a little, we would be strengthened. One hymn says that if we would say just a word to the Lord, everything would be well. Every time we encounter temptation, we need only to say a word to the Lord, and everything will be well. Whether it is the wife who is angry with the husband or the husband who is wronged by the wife, there is no need to say even half a word to each other. As long as we say a word to the Lord, the temper will be gone. This is real and practical. We must not be affected by some teachings that say that one must fast or abstain from sleep before something will happen. All we need to do is to simply and consistently call on the Lord. Spontaneously, there will be a supply from the Lord’s life. If we call on the Lord’s name all the time, breathe Him in, drink Him, eat Him through the word of the Bible, and abide in Him to receive His supply, we will grow in the life of God.
When we enjoy and apply the divine dispensing this way, five results will be manifested. First, out of us will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38-39). Second, we will bear fruits of life (15:5, 16a). Third, we will feed the lambs in the flock (21:15; 10:16). Fourth, we will become the bride of Christ, which is the Body of Christ as His increase (3:6b, 29-30). Fifth, we will become the organism of the processed Triune God to express the Triune God Himself (15:1, 5, 8). This is our Christian life. It is also the church life.
