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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 3:3, 6, 17-18; 1 Cor. 3:9-12, 16; 17, 6:19; Eph. 2:20-22; 4:13-16
Prayer: Lord, how we thank You for Your written Word. We thank You, Lord, that in these last days You have opened up Your Word to us. We thank You for Your cleansing blood and for Your anointing Spirit. Lord, we also thank You for the churches. We are so thankful that You speak out of the Tent of Meeting, and we believe that You will speak to us further. Lord, grant us a sober mind, a seeking spirit, and a receiving heart. Open up Your mind to us, show us Your economy, and bring us all into the reality of Your word to impress us with Yourself. We desire to get into You and enjoy You all day long. O Lord, gain the victory. Gain ground in all of us, and defeat Your enemy. Destroy the power of darkness, release Your riches, and release all of us. Unto You be glory in the church. Amen.
I hope we can clearly see the difference between the Spirit of life and the Spirit of power. The New Testament likens the Spirit of life to breath (John 20:22) and to drinking water (1 Cor. 12:13; John 7:38-39). The Spirit of power is likened to wind (Acts 2:2) and to clothing (Luke 24:49). As for the Spirit of life, we need to breathe Him in as the breath and also to drink of Him as the living water; as for the Spirit of power, we need to put Him on as the uniform, typified by the mantle of Elijah (2 Kings 2:9, 13-15). The indwelling of the Spirit of life is essential for our life and living; the outpouring of the Spirit of power is economical for our ministry and work.
We breathe in breath for our life, but the mighty wind as power is for us to carry out our work. Drinking water is also for life, but clothing is for the outward appearance. Breathing and drinking are the most crucial things to our physical life, and it is exactly the same with our spiritual life. We need the spiritual breath and the spiritual drink that we may have life and live. The rushing wind and the clothing are for us to move, to act, to do something. We need the power and the outward appearance, the uniform.
On the day of resurrection the Spirit of life was breathed into the disciples. They received the breath and began to drink of the living water, but they still needed the power, the uniform. Fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, they were clothed with power from on high. That power became their outward appearance, their outward uniform. The Head of the church baptized all His believers in one Spirit into one Body (1 Cor. 12:13).
First Corinthians 12:7-10 is concerning the manifestation of the Spirit, which is the issue of the essential and economical aspects of the Spirit. Essentially, we received the Spirit of life as our essence. Economically, the Spirit descended upon us to accomplish the baptism in the Spirit. Our function comes out of the essence plus the economy. Your physical birth is essential, and your education is economical. After receiving an adequate education, we can do many things, and our doing of these things is our function. This function comes out of our essential birth plus our economical education. In all the corporations people are functioning, and their functioning is the manifestation of their ability.
In 1 Corinthians 12 there is the manifestation of the Spirit. First, the Spirit of life regenerated us essentially, and second, the Spirit of power descended upon us economically. Now we are regenerated and empowered believers, so we can function. Our function is the manifestation of the Spirit. Thank the Lord for the regeneration of the Spirit of life, the baptism of the Spirit of power, and the manifestation of the Spirit. The essential Spirit of life is for our regeneration, and the economical Spirit of power is for God’s economy. The manifestation of the Spirit requires both aspects of the Spirit — the Spirit of life and the Spirit of power. The manifestation of the Spirit is by the Spirit of both life and power.
First Corinthians 12:7 says, “To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable.” This is mainly for the profit of others, for the profit of the church’s building up, not mainly for our own profit. Verse 8 tells us that to one through the Spirit a word of wisdom is given, and to another a word of knowledge. The word of wisdom is the topmost aspect of the manifestation of the Spirit. A dead thing could never have wisdom. A computer is marvelous, but it cannot have wisdom. To have wisdom you must be a living person, and you need to be mature. There is the need of the stature of life through the growth in life. Older people generally have more wisdom because wisdom comes from the stature of life, from the maturity of life.
We need to realize that wisdom is much higher than knowledge. Wisdom in 1 Corinthians refers to Christ as the deeper things of God predestined by God for our portion (1:24, 30; 2:6-10). The deeper things of God are Christ. God foreordained that Christ as the deeper things of God would be our portion today. We have already seen that the Son came with the Father and by the Spirit to be with us. This is the word of wisdom. Wisdom is deeper than knowledge. Knowledge is simple; wisdom is profound. In a meeting for ministry some words are words of wisdom, and some words are words of knowledge. The word of wisdom and the word of knowledge are the first two items of the Spirit’s manifestation.
I have been asked in the past whether or not we have the manifestation of the Spirit in our meetings. What these persons meant by the manifestation of the Spirit was speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophesying, healing the sick, and performing other miracles. When they asked me whether or not we had the manifestation of the Spirit in our meetings, I pointed out to them from the Word that the topmost items of the manifestation of the Spirit are not speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues but the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. In every meeting the first manifestation of the Spirit we have is the word of wisdom and then the word of knowledge.
Many of those who “speak in tongues” know that the tongue they speak is not real, yet they still speak it. In 1963 the writer of an article in a Pentecostal paper said that he checked with two hundred tongue-speakers, and every one of them doubted that the tongue they spoke was genuine. Then the writer said that there was no need to doubt, and he encouraged them to go on “speaking in tongues.” In our summer training in 1963 in the United States, I asked a brother to read this article to the saints. Then I asked, “Do you believe that those of the one hundred twenty who spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost began to doubt whether what they spoke was a genuine tongue or not?” Obviously, none of them doubted. Why was it that two hundred people speaking in tongues all doubted? Because the tongues they spoke were not genuine.
In 1963 I was invited to speak to a Pentecostal group in San Diego. When I was in the meeting, they practiced tongue-speaking and interpretation of tongues. I shared that we should only care for the living Christ and that He should be our focus, our aim, our goal, and our everything. After the meeting, we all came back home; they served us a snack, and I went to sleep. The pastor of this group and his wife then took the opportunity to lay hands on one of the brothers accompanying me to get him to speak in tongues. They told him not to speak Chinese or English but to speak anything that he did not know. This brother did not know what to speak, so he could not speak anything. Another brother who was with us told this brother in Chinese, so that the pastor and his wife would not understand, that if he did not speak something, the pastor would never let them go. He advised him in Chinese to speak some nonsense. Then they would be released to go to bed. This brother’s wife was an overseas Chinese Indonesian, and from her he had learned a little bit of the Indonesian language. When he spoke some nonsensical Indonesian, the leader of the group and his wife rejoiced that he “spoke in tongues.” The next morning I heard the entire story and told the pastor at the breakfast table that he had been deceived. I told him that the brother he and his wife had helped to “speak in tongues” had actually spoken some Indonesian words he had learned from his wife. Then I said, “Brother, isn’t Christ sufficient for us to preach? Why do we need to preach anything like this?”
Another leader in this Pentecostal group told us that he had received the grace to speak Chinese. Then he began to “speak in tongues,” and we brothers who were both Chinese did not understand a word he was saying. I told him that I spoke Mandarin, the national Chinese language, and that the other brother I was with spoke Cantonese. I also told him that both of us had traveled throughout China and had heard many different dialects, and we could not understand a word he was saying. This is an example of today’s speaking in tongues.
Of the nine items of the manifestation of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues are listed as the last two, because they are not as profitable as the other items for the building up of the church (14:2-6, 18-19). These two are the tail, not the head. The head is the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge, the top two items of the manifestation of the Spirit. Of these nine gifts and those listed in 12:28-30, prophecy as prediction, faith, gifts of healing, works of power, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues are miraculous. All the rest — a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, speaking for God and speaking forth God in prophecy by the prophets, discerning of spirits, helps, and administrations — are gifts developed by the growth in life, as those listed in Romans 12:6-8. The miraculous gifts, especially speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues, do not require any growth in life. The Corinthians did much speaking in tongues, yet they still remained in infancy (1 Cor. 3:1-3). However, the gifts developed in life require growth in life, even maturity, for the building up of the church.
First Corinthians 14:4 says, “He who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but he who prophesies builds up the church.” Prophecy is mainly to speak for God and to speak forth God. Included in this is the matter of foretelling, predicting. It is when we speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord that the church is built up. To prophesy, to speak forth the Lord, builds up not only the individual saints but also the church. Paul goes on to say in verse 5 that he would rather that the believers prophesy because “greater is he who prophesies than he who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, that the church may receive building up.”
Verse 6 says, “Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation or in knowledge or in prophecy or in teaching?” Revelation, knowledge, prophecy, and teaching are all either words of wisdom or words of knowledge. This indicates again that in the church meeting the speaking of the word of wisdom and the speaking of the word of knowledge are the topmost aspects of the manifestation of the Spirit. If you do not have a certain amount of the growth in life, a certain amount of maturity, it is hard for you to speak this kind of word in the meetings. Even to speak the word of knowledge needs a certain amount of maturity of life. To speak the word of wisdom, you need more maturity and more learning. This means there is the need to develop the ability that you received at your spiritual birth. This ability is developed by the growth in life. The issue of our growth in life and maturity of life is that we are able to speak the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge for the building up of the church.
We have been essentially regenerated, and we have also been economically baptized. Now we are in the church enjoying the Spirit, drinking of the Spirit, contacting the all-inclusive Spirit, and being transformed. If children do not grow, they can never be metabolically transformed. Month after month and year after year, children are growing to be transformed. Spiritually speaking, we are the same.
First Corinthians 12 and 14 deal with the manifestation of the Spirit, but 1 Corinthians was not written for this purpose. First Corinthians was written to give the Corinthians a way to grow. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul says that he planted and Apollos watered, but God caused the growth (v. 6). This means that Paul’s intention in writing 1 Corinthians was not to develop the manifestation of the Spirit. Paul especially wanted to restrict the excessive speaking in tongues. The apostle’s illustrations in 14:7-11 indicate that the Corinthian believers abused speaking in tongues by doing it in a nonsensical way, uttering an “uncertain sound” (v. 8) of “no distinction” (v. 7), “without significance” (v. 10). They also overused it by practicing it in any place, in any way, and in any situation. Hence, Paul corrected and restricted them from their abuse and excessive use of such a small gift of the least profit, that they might seek the greater gifts and excel for the building up of the church (v. 12).
The goal of 1 Corinthians was to motivate the Corinthian believers, who were soulish, fleshy, and fleshly, to aspire to the growth in life that they might become spiritual (2:15; 3:1; 14:37) for the building up of the church. Paul’s burden was for them to grow. He told them that they were God’s cultivated land, God’s building (3:9), and as God’s cultivated land, they needed to grow. Paul planted, Apollos came to water, and God was causing the growth. The Corinthians needed to grow in the Spirit of life. By this growth they could be transformed into gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12).
Paul told them that he as a wise master builder had laid the foundation but that all the believers have to build upon this foundation, taking heed how they build, either with wood, grass, and stubble or with gold, silver, and precious stones. Wood, grass, and stubble are natural things, but gold, silver, and precious stones are transformed material. We the believers are natural persons, but we have been regenerated with the divine life. Now we need to grow in this life that we may be transformed to become gold, silver, and precious stones. Then we will be the temple of God (vv. 16-17). In this temple of God dwells the Spirit, not as the Spirit of power but as the Spirit of life. We must be transformed and built up together to become God’s temple with the Spirit of life dwelling in us. The temple of God, which is the church, is a house with materials built together and firmly fitted (Eph. 2:21-22).
In our natural man we are so individualistic that we cannot be one with one another. Even husbands and wives cannot be one. We can only be one by the growth in life and by transformation in life. By growth and by transformation we are built together. In a husband’s relationship with his wife, he needs more growth and more transformation. The more he grows, the more he is transformed in the Spirit of life, the more he is one with his wife. The more the wife grows, the more she is transformed and the more she is built together with her husband. Because we are so natural, we have our own desire, our own intention, our own likes and dislikes, and our own way. Therefore, it is really hard for a husband and a wife to be one. The husband may be a quick person and the wife a slow person. How can a quick person be one with a slow one? At night the husband may want to close the window, and the wife may want to open the window. What shall they do? Shall they fight with one another? Both of them need to call upon the name of the Lord. When we call upon the name of the Lord, the Spirit moves in us, causing us to grow in life. By the growth in life we are transformed and become one with one another.
Among the Christians today there is much fighting and division. There is always fighting in a marriage. After a husband and a wife get married, they eventually fight with one another. If we Christians do not come together, there will be no fighting. But once we do come together, eventually we begin to fight. Perhaps in the first three days of our being together, we will be full of praises to the Lord. But by the third day, disagreements may begin to surface. The only way we can avoid this situation is by growing in life, by being transformed. Do not pay much attention to the miraculous manifestation of the Spirit, but pay your full attention to the growth in life for the transformation in life.
We need to go on from 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 to 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 3:3 Paul indicates that the believers are a letter of Christ, “inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh.” This is the inward inscribing in our being by the Spirit of life, not by the Spirit of power. This inward inscribing is not for the miraculous manifestation of the Spirit but for the growth in life, for the transformation in life, and for the building up of the church. The New Testament does not stress the power of the Spirit; rather, it stresses the life of the Spirit. The New Testament does not stress the miraculous manifestation of the Spirit; rather, it stresses the inscribing of the Spirit, the constitution of the Spirit. The Spirit of life within us essentially is inscribing Himself into us, constituting us with all the riches of Christ to make us a copy, a reproduction, of Christ. This is transformation for the building up of the church.
In the Lord’s recovery we do not stress the miraculous manifestation of the Spirit, but we stress the life of the Spirit, the growth in life, and the transformation in life. We need to grow and be transformed day by day. In order to realize the growth in life and the transformation in life, we must contact the Lord. We must open our entire being to Him by calling upon His name in a real way (2 Tim. 2:22), in a way to touch the Spirit in our spirit. If we would practice this every day and all day long, the Spirit of life, who is the all-inclusive Spirit, will move in us and work in us to touch us and enlighten us. He will expose us to the uttermost in all our failures, wrongdoings, mistakes, natural intentions, and lustful and selfish desires. Everything within us that is not of the divine life, the Spirit of life will expose.
In the shining of the divine light, which is the light of life (John 8:12), we will spontaneously confess. We may pray, “Lord, forgive me. I am still so selfish, so natural. I still live in the old creation and in the flesh. Lord, I repent for not living You. Occasionally I live You but not all the time. Most of the time I still live according to myself. Even though I may not commit any gross sins or do any bad things, I still do not live You. It is still I who live, not Christ. I realize that I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. But this is too much of a doctrine in me. In my daily life it is not Christ but still I.” We need to make such confessions day after day.
All the saints may praise you and say that you are a good brother. Yet you realize in the Lord’s light of life that you are not that wonderful. You are still full of the self, living in the natural life, and doing things in a natural way always by yourself. You do not trust in the Lord. Every day you need to confess your failure that you do not live Christ, that you do not walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4). This is a very good practice. Day after day you will learn to practice to walk according to the spirit, to practice being one spirit with the Lord. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). We need to confess to the Lord that we are not practically one spirit with Him. We need to ask the Lord to have mercy upon us and grant us the grace that all day long, from morning to evening, we would practice the one spirit with the Lord. As we practice the one spirit with the Lord, we will grow and be transformed for the building up of the Body of Christ. If we would live such a life that practices the one spirit with the Lord and have such a walk that is according to the spirit, we would never have a divisive opinion. We would never fight with any brother but would be one with the church. Wherever we would go and wherever we might be, we would be one with the churches, which means that we are built up.
If all the believers today on this globe would grow, be transformed, and be built up in this way, what a strong testimony of Jesus there would be on this entire earth. If we would live in such a oneness, this would convince the entire world. This is why the Lord prayed, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me” (John 17:21). The situation that we see among Christians today, however, is one of endless divisions. We endeavor to preach the gospel to the people of the world, but we may not have much impact. Our preaching may not be powerful because we have lost the testimony. We have missed the oneness. Instead of the expression of the one Body of Christ, there are divisions after divisions. This is why the power is lost and the impact is gone. In the Lord’s recovery the Lord is not concerned with the many works related to the miraculous manifestation of the Spirit. The Lord wants one thing — that we all grow in life and be transformed in life for the building up of the Body of Christ. We should take no other way but this one way to live Christ, to walk according to the spirit, and to practice the one spirit with the Lord. Then we will grow daily, be transformed daily, and be built up into the one Body. We will be one wherever we go.
We enjoy the divine oneness by the dispensing of God and for the dispensing of God. When we live in such a oneness, God has an opportunity to dispense Himself more and more into us and more and more into other people. Once we live Christ and practice the one spirit with the Lord, we afford the Lord the best opportunity to dispense Himself to all the people around us, and we will also receive more dispensing of the divine life into ourselves. It is by this way that the church will grow and that the Lord’s recovery will increase. Then the Lord will gain the victory, and He will be glorified.
