Search
Scripture Reading: James 4:4-5; 2:26; 4:6, 1 Pet. 4:14, 17; 1:2, 10-12; 2:5; 4, 3:18-19; 2 Pet. 1:21; 1 John 1:3, 7; 2:20, 27; 3:24; 1-3, 6, 4:13; 5:6-8; Jude 19-20
In the book of James, one verse refers to the Holy Spirit and another to our human spirit. Verses 4 and 5 of chapter 4 says, “Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever determines to be a friend of the world is constituted an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain: The Spirit, whom He has caused to dwell in us, longs to envy?” The indwelling Spirit of God is always longing with envy that we would love God with our whole heart in an undivided way, just as a husband desires that his wife love him with an undivided love. If a wife divides her love among several men, her husband will be envious.
The Ten Commandments tell us that God is a jealous God. Concerning idols, Exodus 20:5 says, “You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” Because God is a jealous God, we should worship only Him and not divide our worship between Him and anyone else. Similarly, 2 Corinthians 11:2 says, “I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” We should not love the Lord halfheartedly. To love the things of the world even in a small way is to commit spiritual adultery. As His wife, we must love Him with undivided loyalty, with our whole heart. Just as the apostle Paul had a godly jealousy, the indwelling Holy Spirit is jealous over us that we may love God with an undivided love.
James 2:26 speaks of our human spirit. This verse says, “Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” This shows the importance of our human spirit. Without our spirit we are nothing. We are simply dead and empty. We are beings of worth only because we have a human spirit. Therefore, our spirit is the reality of our being, and it is the life of our being. By this brief mention of the Holy Spirit and our human spirit in the book of James, we can realize how much we need to pay attention to the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit in our spirit.
The revelation concerning the Holy Spirit in a book of the New Testament is according to the subject of that book. The four main writers of the New Testament are Matthew, Peter, Paul, and John. The central thought of Matthew’s ministry is the kingdom. The main item of Paul’s ministry is the church. The main thought of the ministry of John is the fellowship with the Father and with one another in the household, the family, of God. Lastly, the subject of the Epistles of Peter is the divine government. Therefore, the Holy Spirit revealed in 1 and 2 Peter is related to the government of God.
We should not think that God is not governing today. God truly is governing. If we read 1 Peter carefully, we will see the proper meaning of God’s government. Verse 17 of chapter 4 says, “It is time for the judgment to begin from the house of God.” God’s judgment in His household is a matter of His government. In this book we can see the sufferings of the believers, but we must realize why we need to suffer. The suffering of the believers is a matter of God’s government.
In our suffering under God’s governmental dealing, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of glory. Verse 14 of chapter 4 says, “If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” If we are willing to be persecuted for the Lord and suffer under God’s governmental dealing, the Spirit of glory and of God will rest upon us. At the time of his martyrdom, a martyr for the Lord has the Spirit of glory upon him. When Stephen was being tried, those in the Sanhedrin saw his face as though it were the face of an angel (Acts 6:15). This was because the Spirit of glory was resting upon him.
Thirty years ago I met a dear brother, a traveling preacher who had been a businessman, and I asked him how he had been saved. He told me that he was saved as a young man at the time of the Boxer Rebellion in the early 1900s. The Boxers were so prevailing on the streets in Beijing that all the stores were closed for fear of them. One day from within his store he heard a great noise on the street. Looking through the cracks of his door, he saw many Boxers with swords marching and shouting. At the rear of that parade was a mule cart carrying a young Christian girl on her way to be martyred, singing and full of joy. There was a glory on her face. This impressed him very much. He said to himself, “There must be something real about Christianity. How can such a small girl be so bold?” This shocked him. He told himself that he should learn what Christianity is. It was in this way that he was brought to the Lord, gave up his business, and made the decision to serve the Lord with his full time as a preacher.
There is no doubt that the Spirit of glory and of God rested upon that young sister. When we suffer for the name of the Lord, the Spirit becomes the Spirit of glory resting upon us. To be a martyr is not to be put to death with bitterness. Rather, to be a martyr is a matter of gladness and glory. What is suffering to the people of the world is a glory to us, the believers. When we suffer under God’s governmental dealing, there is always a glory. The Spirit of glory rests upon us to help us in our suffering, and while we are suffering, this Spirit of glory gives us the hope of glory (Col. 1:27) so that our suffering will be in the way of glory.
According to 1 Peter, glory always follows suffering. Verses 10 and 11 of chapter 1 say, “Concerning this salvation the prophets, who prophesied concerning the grace that was to come unto you, sought and searched diligently, searching into what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them was making clear, testifying beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glories after these.” The prophecies concerning Christ were made by the Spirit of Christ in the prophets of the Old Testament dispensation. Even before Christ came, His Spirit in the Old Testament was with the prophets who diligently did their best to seek out, to search, and to know what would happen to Christ. At that time the Spirit of Christ signified to them and testified how Christ would suffer and then be glorified. The Psalms and Isaiah in particular have many predictions concerning Christ’s suffering and glory (Psa. 22; Isa. 53). The Spirit of glory within us today gives us the understanding that if we suffer with Christ, we will also be glorified with Him.
First Peter 1:12 continues, “To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to you they ministered these things, which have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, which things angels long to look into.” The Holy Spirit in 1 Peter is also the preaching Spirit. It is through Him that the gospel is preached, and it is through Him that we receive the gospel to be saved.
Verse 2 says, “Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.” In 1 Peter, the Spirit is also the Spirit of sanctification, the sanctifying Spirit. The gospel was preached and received through Him. Then after receiving the gospel and being saved through the Spirit, we are being sanctified by this same Spirit.
Verse 5 of chapter 2 says, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” To be built up as a spiritual house is to be built up in the Holy Spirit and in our spirit. Moreover, the spiritual sacrifices we offer to God are both in the Holy Spirit and in our spirit. The gospel is preached through the Spirit, and it is by the Spirit that we received the gospel. Now the Spirit is doing a work to sanctify us and to build us up as a spiritual house, a body of priests, to serve God by offering spiritual sacrifices. Therefore, to be saved, sanctified, and built up and to serve God are all in the Spirit, who is with us as the Spirit of glory under God’s governmental dealing.
Verses 18 and 19 of chapter 3 say, “Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit; in which also He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.” Although many Bible scholars find these verses difficult to understand, the principle here is that genuine preaching is always carried out by the Spirit who makes alive. Christ was put to death in the flesh, but He was made alive in the Spirit as the essence of His divinity (Rom. 1:4; cf. John 4:24a), and it is in this Spirit that He went to proclaim the victory achieved by God. In the same principle, when we go out to preach the gospel, we also must proclaim in the Spirit who has made us alive.
First Peter also speaks of our human spirit. Verse 4 of chapter 3 says, “The hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very costly in the sight of God.” Because our heart surrounds our human spirit, our spirit is the hidden man of the heart. Such a spirit should be meek and quiet. This is the best adornment before God, especially for the sisters. The sisters should be meek and quiet, not merely outwardly but inwardly in their spirit, that is, in the hidden man within their heart. We usually consider that females are meek and quiet persons. In truth, though, it is difficult to be meek and quiet in the spirit. It is easier to be angry inwardly. The best adornment in the sight of God is a deep meekness and quietness from the innermost, hidden part of the heart. It is not only the sisters who need such a spirit; the brothers also need such a spirit.
Verse 6 of chapter 4 says, “Unto this end the gospel was announced also to those who are now dead, that they might be judged in the flesh according to men but live in the spirit according to God.” In order to live according to God, we must live in the spirit. We are made alive in the Spirit, we proclaim in the Spirit, and we live according to God in our regenerated human spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God (John 3:6; Rom. 8:10-11). Everything must be in the Spirit.
Second Peter contains one reference to the Spirit. Verse 21 of chapter 1 says, “No prophecy was ever borne by the will of man, but men spoke from God while being borne by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit bore the prophets, just as wind carries along sailboats. As they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, the prophets spoke from God. Therefore, the Spirit in 2 Peter is the prophesying Spirit.
The subject of 1 John is the fellowship of the children of God with the Father and with one another (1:3, 6-7). This fellowship is first vertical, with the Father, and then it is horizontal, with one another. This is the “family fellowship” in the household of God. In 1 John as a book of fellowship, the Holy Spirit is the anointing Spirit (2:20, 27). Fellowship is possible only by the anointing Spirit. The anointing is not only the ointment itself but also the action of anointing. The indwelling Spirit is constantly moving, working, and acting to anoint us. To anoint is to “paint” with an ointment, to apply the ointment to us. The Holy Spirit within us is always anointing us to put the substance, the divine element, of God into us. The more He anoints us, the more His divine element is “painted” into us. It is by this anointing that we maintain the fellowship between us and the Father and between one another.
The anointing is on the positive side. On the negative side, we also need the cleansing of the blood (1:7). This corresponds with the type in the Old Testament. In type, the blood was first sprinkled on the items of the tabernacle, and then the ointment was applied to the things sprinkled by the blood. In order to have the anointing, we must first have the cleansing of the blood. The sprinkling of the blood paves the way and lays the ground for the anointing. That is why the cleansing of the blood is mentioned in chapter 1, and the anointing of the Spirit is in chapter 2. The cleansing of the blood takes care of the negative things, such as our sins, transgressions, and shortcomings. Then the anointing of the Spirit brings in the positive matter, which is the substance and element of God. It is by the cleansing plus the anointing that we maintain the fellowship in the household of God. Therefore, the Spirit in 1 John is the anointing Spirit.
Verse 24 of chapter 3 tells us that the anointing Spirit is for the mutual abiding between us and God. This verse says, “He who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.” Then verse 13 of chapter 4 says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.” The Lord’s abiding in us is by the anointing Spirit.
This anointing Spirit is also the Spirit for our discernment. Verses 1 through 3 say, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. In this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and now is already in the world.” Every spirit that confesses the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that the Lord Jesus was God incarnated to be a man, is of God. Whoever cannot confess this is not of God. The Spirit of God here is the testifying and discerning Spirit.
Verse 6 continues, “We are of God; he who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.” The Spirit of truth is the Spirit of God who testifies and confesses that Christ came in the flesh as God incarnate. This is the work of the Spirit, which is contrary to the deceitfulness of the false spirits. Many times when a person has a “Pentecostal” experience, he does not feel that it needs to be tested. However, this is against the word of God in 1 John. We need to receive the word that certain manifestations that seem to be of the Spirit should actually be tested.
We saw a particular case like this almost forty years ago in the place where Brother Watchman Nee was. One day while a brother was praying, a voice came to him from the corner of the ceiling, speaking in Chinese. He was very excited, so he called others to come hear that voice speaking. They also became excited and went to Brother Nee. However, Brother Nee read this portion of the Word to them: “Do not believe every spirit.” He told them to go back to test the spirit by asking whether or not he would confess that the Lord Jesus came in the flesh as God incarnated to be a man. The next time the voice came, they said to it, “Do you confess that the Lord Jesus came in the flesh, that He was God incarnated as a man?” The answer came back: “Read 1 Corinthians 13.” The brothers were very happy since this is a chapter about love. However, Brother Nee said, “He must answer your question yes or no. If he does not answer, he is of the devil” (Matt. 5:37). The brothers went back and told the spirit, “In the name of the Lord Jesus we ask you, do you confess that the Lord Jesus came in the flesh?” At this point the voice said, “Jesus is cursed.” Those who were present had an indescribable evil sense. Brother Nee personally told me this story, and many years later another brother who had been there confirmed it. We must not do anything that is not according to the Word. The Word tells us not to believe every spirit but to test them. In particular, we need to test certain so-called manifestations of the Spirit.
In 1 John 5 the testimony of God is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (vv. 1, 9-11). Verses 6 through 8 say, “This is He who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood; and the Spirit is He who testifies, because the Spirit is the reality. For there are three who testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are unto the one thing.” The Spirit, the water, and the blood correspond to the major events in the life of the Lord Jesus: His birth, His baptism, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. At the conception of Christ, the Holy Spirit declared that He was the Son of God (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35). Then at His baptism, the water bore witness that Christ was the Son of God (John 1:31). When Jesus was baptized, a voice out of heaven proclaimed, “This is My Son, the Beloved” (Matt. 3:16-17). At His crucifixion, the blood also bore witness that Christ was the Son of God (John 19:31-35; Matt. 27:50-54). When Christ was crucified, the centurion declared, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). Then in His resurrection, He was designated the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness (Rom. 1:4). In this principle, the anointing Spirit constantly witnesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Jude 20 says, “You, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit in Jude is the Spirit for our prayer. We need to pray not in ourselves but in Him. Verse 19 says, “These are those who make divisions, soulish, having no spirit.” The people in the world are soulish, not caring for their spirit or using it; they live and walk in the soul. We the believers must use our spirit by praying in the Holy Spirit. However, we may be the same in principle as the worldly people, walking and living in our soul. If this is the case, it will seem that we do not have a spirit. What distinguishes the believers from the unbelievers is that the latter are soulish, not using their spirit, while the former care for their spirit and pray in the Holy Spirit.
We may illustrate the difference between believers and unbelievers in the following ways. When an unbeliever is about to travel, he exercises his mind as to whether he should go by bus or by airplane. This means that he is soulish. However, when a believer is about to travel, he should make his decisions by exercising his spirit to pray. Similarly, the unbelievers exercise their mind and live in the soul to make decisions about their schooling. The believers, though, behave in a different way. Because they have the Holy Spirit within them, they make all their decisions by exercising their spirit to pray in Him. It is regrettable, though, that we sometimes behave the same as the unbelievers do. It seems that we do not have a spirit, that we are soulish. In everything, even in our shopping for example, we need to pray in the Spirit. We should not exercise our mind to buy things in the soul. We need to exercise our spirit to do our shopping with prayer. Unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit in their spirit, but we the believers do.
