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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 12:3; 2 Cor. 4:7-14; 5:7; 1 Cor. 14:4, 19
What we are considering here, the divine speaking, is quite crucial to our Christian experience. So many riches in the Bible have all been lost or neglected by Christians throughout the centuries. Even up until five hundred years ago, that great item of God’s economy, justification by faith, was lost. It was through the reformers under the leadership of Martin Luther that this item was recovered. The divine speaking also has been, and still is, missed, lost, and neglected by Christians today. This is why there is the need of the Lord’s recovery.
As we have seen in the previous chapter, all Christians have been made the witnesses of Christ. As witnesses, we must be persons speaking. We must be speaking for Christ, telling something of Christ to others. A dumb person could never be a witness. We must be speakers, those speaking clearly, adequately, and definitely for the One we witness. I hope that we all would go out to speak. For example, we can speak something to our relatives. We can tell them something concerning Christ’s death, something concerning Christ’s resurrection, and something concerning the Body of Christ and the local church. In this matter Christianity has altogether missed the mark. We must come back to the Bible and mine the store of the divine riches. Then we will have so much to speak.
The divine speaking is in the Holy Spirit. To be in the Holy Spirit is not a small thing. Who is the Holy Spirit? Throughout the last twenty centuries there have been many debates concerning the Spirit. Even less than four hundred years ago, Christians still did not understand the Holy Spirit to be a person. In translating the New Testament, the King James translators did not use the personal pronouns He, Him, or His with regard to the Spirit; they still used it, its, and itself. This indicated that they did not consider the Holy Spirit to be a person. According to this concept, the Father in the Trinity is a person, and the Son is also a person, but the Spirit is not. They considered the Spirit just as a means, a channel, or an instrument by which the Father and the Son accomplish something. In the middle part of the last century, the British Brethren, mostly under the teaching of John Nelson Darby, saw that this was wrong. In his New Translation of the New Testament, Darby began to change the pronouns referring to the Spirit to the personal pronouns He, Him, or His.
In the first part of this century, when the Lord raised us up, we made a very strong decision not to be influenced by anything of the past. We appreciated all the Western missionaries who went to China, and we thanked the Lord for them, because they brought three treasures to us: the name of the Lord Jesus, the gospel, and the Bible. We decided to take just these three things and nothing else. We made a strong decision that we must start to have something purely and absolutely according to the pure word of the Bible. That was the start of the Lord’s recovery in China.
In this way we began to study the Bible. I myself have been studying this crucial item, the Triune God, for sixty years. This is my major. Of course, it is not only I who like to talk about the Triune God; the Bible speaks much about the Triune God, especially in the New Testament. I discovered by thorough study that nearly every book of the New Testament is constituted with the Divine Trinity. For example, Matthew at its conclusion says, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). Likewise, 1 Peter says that we were chosen by the Father, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ (1:1-2). The conclusion of 2 Corinthians says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). This is the Divine Trinity.
After sixty years of study I came to this conclusion: the Father is the source, the Son is the embodiment of the Triune God, and the Spirit is the realization of the Triune God. Now I would improve this a little more by saying that the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. The Father is the source, the Son is the embodiment, and the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. The entire Triune God is consummated in the Spirit. Hallelujah! Genesis 1:1 and 2 say, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...And the Spirit of God was brooding upon the surface of the waters.” God created, and the Spirit of God brooded to produce for God’s creation. But the last chapter of the Bible, as the conclusion of the sixty-six books, says, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” (Rev. 22:17). This verse says, “The Spirit,” not God, nor even the Spirit of God, nor even the Holy Spirit. This indicates that the Spirit, as the consummation of the processed and dispensed Triune God, is the Husband, and the bride, as the aggregate of the regenerated and transformed tripartite men, is the wife. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is not only the Spirit of God; He is the consummation of the entire Triune God.
I have a strong base to speak in this way. When the Son came, He did not come alone. He came with the Father (John 16:32). When He was living on the earth, His Father was all the time with Him. Even when He was conceived in the womb of the human virgin, God the Father was with Him. He never left the Father. It is impossible to separate Him from the Father. No doubt, the Son and the Father are distinct. Just by the titles we can see that one is the Father and one is the Son. But there is no separation. In John 14:10 He said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.” While He was speaking there, He told His disciples that He was at that time in the Father, and the Father was in Him. He was never separated from the Father. When He went to the cross, He died there, and the Father was with Him. He was, and still is, the very embodiment of the Triune God. This is proved in Colossians 2:9: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead [the Triune God] bodily.” Then at the end of His earthly ministry He told His disciples that He would ask the Father to give them another Comforter. John 14 through 16 reveals that this other Comforter is just the realization of Himself (14:17-20; 16:12-14). Therefore, this Comforter is called the Spirit of reality. We may say that the Spirit of reality is the realization of the Son, Christ, as the embodiment of the Triune God.
In John 16:15 He told us that all that the Father has, has been given over to Him. All that the Son is and has, has been realized in the Spirit. Then the Spirit comes to us to make all this real. Whatever the Father is, is embodied in the Son, and whatever the Son embodies is realized in the Spirit. Who then is the Spirit? He is the realization, the consummation, of the entire Triune God. If you receive Him, you receive the Triune God. If you receive Him, you receive Him with the Son and with the Father. If you receive Him, you receive all the three — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Therefore, when we speak in the Holy Spirit, we speak in the Triune God. We must realize this and declare it. It would even be good for us to become excited and jump up, declaring, “We speak in the Triune God!”
Our being in the Triune God corresponds with the baptism in Matthew 28:19. When we were baptized, we were baptized into the Triune God. It is not too much to say that we are now in the Triune God because we have been put into Him. Have we not been put into the Triune God? To be baptized is not to be baptized into Christianity, a kind of religion, or into a denomination. To be baptized is to be baptized into the Triune God. The word baptize is the anglicized form of the Greek word baptizo. It means to drop or dip something into the water. Baptism is to be dipped, not into the water of the baptistery but into the Triune God. Since the time we were baptized, we have been persons in the Triune God. We are in the Triune God, and we speak in the Triune God.
Those under the influence of the Pentecostal teaching may insist that to be in the Holy Spirit, one must go through a kind of “baptism in the Holy Ghost,” after which he will speak in tongues. I myself was in the Pentecostal movement. I stayed with them and I joined in with them for over one year, at which time I spoke in tongues. I observed all those things. Eventually, I concluded that it was a falsehood, and I had to drop it. I am bold to say that today’s speaking in tongues is, at least mostly, a falsehood. In the New Testament, speaking in tongues is mentioned in three books. The first mention is in Mark 16:17. The fulfillment of this verse was first in Acts 2. In this chapter the tongues spoken there were the different foreign dialects of the attendants who came from various parts of the world. The listeners said, “How is it that we each hear them in our own dialect in which we were born?...We hear them speaking in our tongues the magnificent works of God” (vv. 8, 11). This is strong proof that tongue-speaking must be an understandable language, not merely a voice or sound uttered by the tongue. The third book that speaks about tongues is 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 14:27 Paul says, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two, or at the most three, and in turn, and one should interpret.” If the tongue were not a dialect, how could anyone translate it? Some may excuse the practice of merely uttering sounds or voices by claiming that these are the “tongues of angels.” However, these may rather be sounds of human manufacture. Often an interpretation will be given for such a tongue. On three different occasions the interpretation of the same tongue may be greatly different. I saw this happen. Is this not falsehood? In this kind of meeting the utterance may sometimes take the form of a prediction, or prophecy. Eventually, the thing predicted does not happen. I have seen prophecies of earthquakes, healings, and resurrections, yet those things never came about.
Dear saints, do not listen to this kind of teaching, but come back to the pure Bible. The pure New Testament gives us the good news, the glad tidings, the gospel, which tells us, first, that our Triune God according to His eternal purpose became a man. This man named Jesus lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He went to the cross and was crucified there for you and me, for all of God’s chosen people, and for our sins. Not only was Jesus crucified there, but within Him the Triune God was crucified on the cross. His death is all-inclusive and eternal. That all-inclusive death accomplished the eternal redemption. Then He came out of death, He resurrected, becoming a life-giving Spirit. On the day of His resurrection He came back to the disciples and breathed Himself as the life-giving Spirit into them. Then He stayed with His disciples, appearing and disappearing for forty days. He ascended to the heavens and was there for ten days. On the day of Pentecost He poured Himself out as the Spirit of power economically on His disciples who had already received the Spirit of life essentially. At that point He had accomplished His entire and full salvation. From His incarnation to His outpouring as the Spirit of power economically, the full course of His full salvation was carried out. This is the gospel, and this gospel has become the bequest in the New Testament. The New Testament simply means a new will, a divine will, made as a new covenant by the dying Christ and given as a new testament by the resurrected Christ. In this testament God has bequeathed all these wonderful items to us. Now we have this will. Therefore, incarnation is our blessing, our portion. His human living is our portion. His death is our portion. His resurrection is our portion. His breathing of Himself as the life-giving Spirit into His disciples is our portion. His ascension is our portion. And His pouring out of Himself as the Spirit of power upon His disciples economically is also our portion. All these are our portion. When we believed in Him and received Him, we received this will and all the items in it. Now we are fully identified with Him. We are fully joined to Him. We have been baptized into Him, and this baptism gives us an organic union with the Triune God. Whatever He has gone through becomes our history. His incarnation is ours. His living on the earth is ours. His death on the cross is ours. His resurrection is ours. His breathing of the Spirit into the disciples is ours. His ascension is ours. And His pouring out of the Spirit is ours. Whatever He has gone through is ours.
Are you crucified? Yes, we were crucified two thousand years ago. Are you in the Spirit? Yes, two thousand years ago we were put into Him. Is the Spirit in you? Yes, twenty centuries ago the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, was breathed into us already. This is the gospel. Any speaking to the contrary is not the full gospel. The full gospel comprises His incarnation, His human life on earth, His death, His resurrection, His breathing, His ascension, and His outpouring. When I believed, I received the items of the full gospel. Therefore, the life-giving Spirit is in me essentially, and the Spirit of power is upon me economically. First Peter says that the Spirit of glory and of God is resting upon us (4:14).
Now you can see that we are in the Spirit and in the Triune God. Therefore, we speak in the Triune God. If I were to speak that I am so weak and not in the Spirit, I would be lying to you. I would be speaking without faith. Speak in the Holy Spirit. “No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). We can say Jesus is Lord in the Holy Spirit. Do not be troubled by the question, “Have you received the Spirit?” You should say, “Why not! I have received the Holy Spirit. I am speaking Jesus. I am speaking Christ. I am speaking, ‘Lord Jesus.’ I speak in the Holy Spirit.”
In 2 Corinthians 4:13 Paul says, “Having the same spirit of faith according to that which is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak.” In the first book to the Corinthians Paul tells them to speak in the Holy Spirit. Now in the second book he says that he spoke by the spirit of faith. Christians today have paid much attention to the speaking in the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians. But to my knowledge, no one has ever paid much attention to the speaking by the spirit of faith.
In verse 7 Paul speaks of the treasure in earthen vessels, the very Christ as the radiance of God who was radiated into his being. Following this, he says that the putting to death of Jesus was working on the apostles and that the life of Christ was manifested in them (vv. 10-11). At this point he mentions the same spirit of faith. In the ancient time the psalmist had the spirit of faith (Psa. 116:10). Now the apostles also had the spirit of faith. They believed, therefore they also spoke. What did they speak? They spoke their experience. It was not just a certain doctrine, a certain point concerning the Triune God, but the experience of the death, life, and resurrection of Christ.
Even though Paul was not speaking with his tongue, he was speaking by his pen. When he was writing, he had the spirit of faith. He wrote with boldness, with the spirit of faith. Without the spirit of faith, I may speak to you about my experience of the Lord’s death, life, and resurrection in this way: “Dear saints, thank the Lord, I am really not worthy, but His mercy has put me here. You know I am so weak. I want to tell you that I have been put to death quite often; I am so shameful. A number of times I was really dead. But through much suffering and much prayer, yesterday I was resurrected. Still, this morning I am so weak; probably you can realize I am even sleepy.” What kind of speaking is this? In this speaking there is no spirit, no faith. If Paul were here, he would say, “Dear saints, let me tell you, the putting to death of Jesus has been upon me all the day. Praise Him, His life is also manifested upon me. I say this by the spirit of faith!” This makes quite a difference. Regrettably, in many of the meetings the dear ones who share speak in the former, poor way. When they speak, there is no spirit. When they speak, there is no faith.
About one hundred years ago Henry Alford wrote concerning the spirit of faith: “Not distinctly the Holy Spirit, — but still not merely a human disposition: the indwelling Holy Spirit penetrates and characterizes the whole renewed man.” What is referred to here as the human disposition is actually the human spirit. Even by that time the saints did not know much about the human spirit. No writers ever spoke much about the human spirit until the beginning of the twentieth century. Mrs. Penn-Lewis in one book spoke strongly concerning the difference between the human spirit and the soul, and we received much help from her. We have continued to study this and have developed it to the uttermost. Now among us even the little ones know that the Holy Spirit mingles Himself with our human spirit. The spirit here is not only the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit with our human spirit (Rom. 8:16).
Marvin Vincent in his word study of the New Testament follows Henry Alford, saying the same thing: “Spirit of faith: not distinctly the Holy Spirit, nor, on the other hand, a human faculty or disposition, but blending both.” He uses the word blending. There is a blending between the Holy Spirit and our human spirit. This is what we call the mingled spirit. We have the mingled spirit of faith.
Faith is a wonder, a miracle, within us. Every genuine Christian has such a wonder, a miracle, within him. No one can describe or explain it, but we do have such a thing. We have illustrated this by the action of a camera. The camera has a lens outside and film within. Opposite the camera there is scenery. Also, light is needed. When you click the shutter, the light shines onto the film. There is an exposure, and a picture is produced. This exposure describes the operation of faith. We are just like a camera. The gospel described in the New Testament is the scenery, the Holy Spirit is the heavenly light, and our spirit is the film. When you hear the speaking of the gospel once, twice, even four or five times, there is a click within you. Whatever is described in the speaking would then be in your spirit. No one could ever remove it from you. That is faith.
Now by this faith you could go everywhere to tell people that Jesus is the Savior. One may ask, “How do you know?” You just know. They do not believe it, but you believe. There is no way to drop what we have received in this way. Once this click occurs in you, it remains forever. Now wherever we go, we would tell people that Jesus is the Savior: “He is living, and He lives in me!” In this way you speak by the spirit of faith. In my speaking you could realize that I am so strong and very bold. Why am I so bold? I have the spirit of faith. I speak, not by my mind but by the spirit of faith.
Faith is in our spirit, which is mingled with the Holy Spirit, not in our mind. Doubts are in our mind. This can be illustrated by the situation with an angry person. When one is angry at someone, his anger is not in his mind. The anger is in his spirit. Every angry person does not exercise his mind. If he would get into his mind and consider a little, he would not be mad. This is why when you preach the gospel, you should not stir up the person’s mind. If you stir up his mind, he would not believe. You should rather induce him to get into the spirit. Then you can complete the transaction. When we get into our mind, faith, like anger, will be gone. In such a state I may testify, “Well, I just came here yesterday to visit the church, but a brother told me this morning that you are going to have a meeting, and he asked me to give a testimony. I don’t know what to say. I even don’t know whether what I am going to tell you is really of the spirit or from my mind. I just don’t know.” This kind of testimony will kill the entire meeting. No doubt I would be speaking from my thoughtful mind. I must rather give a living testimony, testifying boldly, “Saints, Hallelujah! Oh, the Lord Jesus is living! I want to tell you that He is living. He lives in me. And He was so living yesterday.” Then I would continue to tell you much more by the spirit of faith.
This is what the church needs for edification, for the building up. Speaking in tongues, even the genuine tongues, does not build the church (1 Cor. 14:4). What builds the church? Prophesying, that is, speaking Jesus, speaking Christ, builds up the church. So Paul says, “I would rather speak five words with my mind...than ten thousand words in a tongue” (v. 19). Ten thousand words in a tongue mean nothing in the church meetings, but the plain words spoken by anyone by the spirit of faith and in the Holy Spirit build the church. Therefore, we all have to practice everywhere to speak. We speak on the street; we speak in the classroom; we speak in the office; we speak at home; we speak to everybody, to all kinds of persons; and, we especially speak in the meetings, even the more in the home meetings. Learn to speak this way. This kind of speaking enlivens, this kind of speaking refreshes, this kind of speaking makes people new, this kind of speaking makes people strong and happy, and this kind of speaking imparts life to others and dispenses the Triune God into the listeners. This kind of speaking will overcome any kind of opposing environment. We must speak — speak in the Holy Spirit and speak by the spirit of faith. If everyone would become a speaker, a speaking witness, the situation would be overturned. This kind of speaking is a strong testimony of the Lord’s recovery. We must not simply have a congregation with a speaker, hymns, a prayer, a speech, and so forth; we must be different. We must be revolutionized to have new meetings with everyone speaking. There should be no chairman, no one presiding. Everyone speaks everywhere, anytime, to anyone. We speak in the Holy Spirit and by the spirit of faith.
