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Scripture Reading: John 20:22; Rom. 8:2, 6, 10b, 11; 2 Cor. 3:6b, 17-18; Rev. 1:4-5; 4:5; 5:6
God is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit for God’s dispensing so that God can dispense Himself into man. The Spirit is the realization of the Son, and the Son is the embodiment of God. By these two items God dispenses Himself into His chosen people. The way for God to dispense Himself into His chosen people was for Him to first embody Himself in the Son. When the Son came, He came with the Father and by the Spirit, so He was the embodiment of the Triune God while He was on this earth. Second, the Son as the embodiment of the Triune God is realized as the Spirit. The Spirit is the realization of the Son, who is the embodiment of God. By this way God dispenses Himself into us. The Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God reaching us.
In the Gospel of John, God is in the beginning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God (1:1). Then this God became flesh (v. 14), and this man, who was the last Adam, lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, died on the cross, and was buried. Then He was resurrected. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. On the day of His resurrection He came back to the disciples as the Spirit because He breathed Himself into the disciples and charged them to receive the Holy Spirit (20:22). At the beginning of the Gospel of John is God, and at the end is the Spirit. In between, what is revealed is that the Son came with the Father by the Spirit and died and resurrected to be realized as the Spirit. When the Son is realized as the Spirit, the Spirit reaches the disciples as the Son with the Father. The Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God reaches us to be our life, to be our life supply, and to be our everything.
This Spirit is the compound of God and man plus the processes that the Triune God has gone through, including incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. All these became elements compounded in this all-inclusive Spirit. When this Spirit entered into us, all these positive items entered into us. When this all-inclusive Spirit dwells in us, all these positive items dwell in us. When we have this Spirit, we have God, and we have the uplifted and glorified humanity. We have the proper and normal human living, the effectiveness of the all-inclusive death of Jesus, and the power of the surpassing resurrection of Christ. Because we have this all-inclusive Spirit, we are short of nothing and have all that we need.
John 14:26 says that the Father sent the Spirit in the Son’s name. Then John 15:26 tells us that the Son sent the Spirit with the Father. The Father sent the Spirit, and the Son also sent the Spirit. These two verses show us two Senders and one sent One. The two Senders are the Father and the Son, and the sent One is the Spirit. For the Father to send the Spirit in the Son’s name means that the Father sent the Spirit as the Son. The Father sent the Spirit as the Son, and the Son also sent the Spirit with the Father. This means that the Spirit comes as the Son with the Father. When the Spirit comes, the Son comes and the Father comes. All three come. Thus, the Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. The Spirit breathed into the disciples at the end of John is the totality of the Triune God, the aggregate of the processed Triune God. If you have the Spirit, you have the Triune God.
Some teach that the “Holy Ghost” is merely the power, the means, or the instrument for God to do something. To these teachers, when the Holy Ghost comes, the Father stays in the heavens, and the Son is sitting at the right hand of the Father in the heavens. But the Bible’s teaching is absolutely different. The Bible teaches that when the Son comes, He comes with the Father and by the Spirit. Then the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit comes as the Son with the Father. Because the Spirit comes as the Son, whatever the Son has gone through, whatever the Son has accomplished, whatever the Son has obtained, and whatever the Son has attained are all here with the Spirit. If you have the Spirit, you have the Son with all the processes He has gone through and all His accomplishments, obtainments, and attainments. You have the Son’s person, the Son’s work, the Son’s humanity, the Son’s human living, the Son’s death, and the Son’s resurrection. Because the Spirit comes with the Father, what the Father is, has, can do, is doing, and will do are all here with the Spirit.
This Spirit is the all-inclusive, compound, processed, life-giving Spirit. This all-inclusive Spirit is the Spirit of life. He is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) who gives life (2 Cor. 3:6), so He is the life-giving Spirit. In this life-giving of the Spirit, God dispenses Himself into all His believers. The life-giving of this all-inclusive Spirit is a crucial and vital point.
Second Corinthians 3:6 tells us that the Spirit gives life, and 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that the Lord is the Spirit. John Nelson Darby indicates that in 2 Corinthians 3, verses 7 through 16 are in parentheses. This means that the Spirit who gives life in verse 6 is the Lord in verse 17. The Lord is the life-giving Spirit. Henry Alford, who was an authority on Greek New Testament words, also indicated that the Lord is identical with the Holy Spirit. M. R. Vincent, who is noted for his word studies in the New Testament, says, “The Lord Christ of verse 16 is the Spirit who pervades and animates the new covenant of which we are ministers (v. 6).” Andrew Murray, in his book The Spirit of Christ, tells us that the Spirit is the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Spirit of the God-man. He tells us that the humanity of Jesus is in the Spirit of the glorified Jesus. That Christ is the Spirit is a great truth in the New Testament.
We have seen that the New Testament reveals to us the Triune God embodied in the Son to be a man, and this man is the last Adam, who went to the cross and died to clear up all the negative things in the universe. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. Thus, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and this Spirit is all-inclusive as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God compounded with all that God is, has, is doing, can do, and will be doing. This Spirit is also compounded with Christ’s person, work, and the processes He has gone through, including all His accomplishments, attainments, and obtainments. When we have the Spirit, we have everything. When this Spirit dwells in us, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and the uplifted, resurrected, and ascended man dwell in us. The incarnation, human living, the effectiveness of the all-inclusive death of Christ, and the power of His resurrection are in us. All the attributes of God and all the riches of Christ are in us. Life, light, love, grace, holiness, righteousness, power, might, strength, divine energy, and all the virtues of man and the attributes of God are in our spirit.
This all-inclusive Spirit is the Spirit of life, the life-giving Spirit, giving life to us all the time. First, He gives life to our spirit to make our spirit life (Rom. 8:10). Then He imparts life into our mind to make our mind, along with our entire soul, life (v. 6). Finally, He gives life to our mortal body (v. 11). The life-giving Spirit gives life to our spirit, soul, and body to make our entire being life, making us men of life. As the Spirit of life, He makes us men of life. While He is giving life to us, this life transforms us metabolically. The Lord is not interested in outward correction and adjustment but in our transformation, our being changed metabolically. This Spirit of life dwells in us to give us life, and this life changes us metabolically, transforms us organically, into the image of the glorified Christ from one degree of glory to another degree of glory (2 Cor. 3:18).
In some Christian weddings the pastor charges the man to love his wife and charges the woman to submit herself to her new husband. Although the husband and wife agree to do this, shortly after the wedding both of them may realize that they cannot do this. The wife realizes that she cannot submit herself to her husband, and the husband realizes that he cannot love his wife to the uttermost. To teach the husband to love his wife and the wife to submit herself to her husband is the ethical teaching of religion. Humanly speaking, there is nothing wrong with this. But according to God’s economy, this is absolutely wrong. Ethical teachings are according to man’s culture, not according to God’s economy, not according to God’s Spirit.
Instead of exhorting the husband to love the wife and the wife to submit herself to her husband, it would be wonderful if the person marrying them would tell them, “Both of you need to realize that the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God is in you. Don’t make up your mind to submit yourself to your husband, and don’t make up your mind to love your wife. That would never work. Instead, you need to open up yourselves to the Lord every day with an unveiled face. You need to turn your heart to the Lord so that there is nothing between you and the Lord, nothing between you and the Spirit. Every day, every minute, open up yourselves to the Lord who is the Spirit within you. Always say, ‘Praise the Lord! Amen! O Lord Jesus! I love You, Lord Jesus.’ Open up yourselves to the all-inclusive Spirit in such a way. Behold Him. If you do this, life will be supplied into your being. Life will be given to your spirit, to your soul, and even to your mortal body to make you persons of life. If you as a husband practice this, spontaneously in every instance you will love your wife. That will not be your love but the Lord Jesus within you. The Lord loves your wife, so you will love her too because you are one with the Lord. As a wife, if you practice this, spontaneously you will submit yourself to your husband. Whatever your husband says would not bother you because you are filled with the Lord Jesus within you. Then you will have a happy marriage life. As you practice this day after day, the life-giving Spirit will supply you with life, and this life will transform you organically and metabolically, making you the same as the Lord in His glorious image. Then both of you will grow in life. You will even mature in life and will be so willing to be built up with others. Then you will not only have a good marriage life and a good home life but also a good church life.”
This is not religion, ethics, or mere doctrine. This is God’s dispensing. This is the all-inclusive Spirit giving life to all those who are open to Him, which is much higher than ethics. In the Spirit are all the divine attributes plus all the uplifted and glorified human virtues. We need to forget about religion, ethics, and ethical teachings. We need to stay away from the letter that kills and pay attention to the Spirit who gives life. We need to treasure God’s economy and enjoy His divine dispensing all the time. All day long we need to praise the Lord and call upon His name. We need to pray-read His Word, fellowship with Him, and be filled with Him and saturated with His life. Then we will be transformed and grow in life to become the same image as He is.
In the book of Revelation we see the seven Spirits (1:4; 4:5; 5:6). There is only one Spirit (Eph. 4:4), but in Revelation the one Spirit of God has become seven Spirits. Essentially, God the Spirit is one, but in function He is seven. As seven is the number for completion in God’s operation, so the seven Spirits must be for God’s move on the earth. In substance and existence God’s Spirit is one; in the intensified function and work of God’s operation God’s Spirit is sevenfold. It is like the lampstand in Zechariah 4:2. In existence it is one lampstand, but in function it is seven lamps. At the time that the book of Revelation was written, the church had become degraded; the age was dark. Therefore, the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God was needed for God’s move and work on the earth.
In essence the Spirit is one, but in function, especially at the end times in the dark age, God’s Spirit is sevenfold. Just like a three-way light bulb gives a threefold shining, the Spirit of God shines in a sevenfold way. Today in the recovery we need the sevenfold Spirit. Today’s age is full of darkness. For us to live a victorious life, we need the sevenfold Spirit. We should praise the Lord that the all-inclusive Spirit who dwells in us is now sevenfold. None among us in the Lord’s recovery should be weak. All of us in the Lord’s recovery should be strong because we have the sevenfold Spirit. The all-inclusive, compound, processed, life-giving Spirit today in the Lord’s recovery is seven times intensified. It works sevenfold; it functions seven times. Today’s age is dark, but we have the sevenfold shining. Today’s society is corrupted, but we have the sevenfold Spirit. The sevenfold Spirit is now strengthening us, saturating us, enlightening us, shining upon us, and shining from within us.
Revelation is the last book of the Bible, the ultimate consummating book. In the Old Testament there are the Spirit of God for God’s creation and the Spirit of Jehovah for God’s contact with man. But by the time we pass through the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles and come to Revelation, the Spirit is now the sevenfold Spirit who is the consummation of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, the Holy Spirit, and the all-inclusive, compound, processed, life-giving Spirit. The all-inclusive Spirit is now sevenfold within us.
Traditional theology teaches us that the Triune God is of three persons with one substance and that the three persons should not be confused, and the one substance not divided. In John 20:22 the Lord Jesus breathed into His believers and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. This clearly indicates that the Holy Spirit is the breath of the Lord Jesus, and this means that the third of the Trinity is the breath of the second. Now we need to ask whether the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity or the breath of the second. Furthermore, when we come to Revelation, the one Spirit has become seven. Revelation 5:6 tells us that the seven Spirits are the seven eyes of the Lamb, and this means that the Spirit is the eyes of the Lord Jesus. Now the third person of the traditional Trinity is the eyes of the second. Is the Spirit a person or the eyes and breath of the second person? If the Spirit is the breath and the eyes of the second person, where is the third person? By this we can see that the traditional teaching is not that trustworthy because it is not that accurate.
In the Godhead there are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the Divine Trinity. There is a distinction between the three, but They cannot be separated absolutely. This would be against the revelation of the New Testament. They are three, yet They are one. They are one, yet They are still distinct. This is the Triune, three-one, God. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three, yet They are still one. They are one, yet They are still distinctively three. No one can tell to what extent Their distinction goes. Likewise, no one can tell the point at which Their oneness begins. The Spirit comes as the Son with the Father. Thus, when one comes, all three are here. The three do not only coexist simultaneously, but They also coinhere. For the three in the Godhead to coinhere means that They mutually indwell one another. The Lord Jesus revealed this matter of coinherence when He said that He was in the Father and that the Father was in Him (John 14:10-11). The Father and the Son coinhere, and the Father and the Son at the same time coinhere in the Spirit. This matter is beyond our understanding, but we need to take whatever the Bible says.
In God’s economy the very Triune God embodied Himself in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God compounded with all the divine attributes and the human virtues. This compound Spirit dwells in our spirit, and now He is sevenfold, seven times intensified. We do not need to practice religion, try ethics, or try to keep certain regulations or doctrines. We just need to keep ourselves open to such a wonderful Spirit, letting Him give us life without any obstacles in our being in order to saturate us with the divine life in our spirit, in our soul, and in our body and to transform us metabolically, making us the same as He is in glory.
