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Scripture Reading: John 1:14, 16-17, 29; 12:31; Heb. 2:14; John 12:24; 19:34; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 20:22; 1 John 2:20, 27; Phil. 1:19; John 3:5-6; 15:1, 4-5, 15:16; 4:10, 14; 6:49-51, 63; 7:38-39; 21:15; 1 Pet. 2:2; John 15:7; 6:27, 57-58; Exo. 16:13b-15, 21; Eph. 6:17-18a
In the previous chapters we have seen that God’s economy is to dispense Himself as the unlimited and untraceable supply to the believers for their growth in life and for their living. In this chapter we will see God’s dispensing as the supply to the believers in their preaching of the gospel and in their work for the Lord.
During the past few years we have been speaking quite much about preaching the gospel through door-knocking. Door-knocking is not for door-knocking itself but for the spreading of the gospel. This spreading and preaching of the gospel is simply to dispense Christ to others. Since we have Christ, we can go to others and dispense Christ into them. Through our speaking, gradually, word by word and sentence by sentence, we dispense Christ into others. Our door-knocking is different from that of the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses; our door-knocking is for the ministering, dispensing, and distributing of Christ into others. In order to carry out such a dispensing work, we need the rich supply of the Divine Trinity. The Divine Trinity, the very Triune God, is the source of our supply.
God is divinely triune. He as the unique God needs to be triune in order to dispense Himself into us. For His dispensing work He is the Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the Spirit as the flow. As the Spirit, He is the flow that brings the source with the course into us so that the riches of the Divine Trinity will become our supply. These riches are the very source of His dispensing. Day by day for us as Christians, it is altogether a matter of dispensing.
This matter of dispensing can be illustrated by our natural life. As living creatures, every day we eat and we drink. Our living consists mainly of eating and drinking. Both eating and drinking are a dispensing. The groceries that we buy are dispensed first into our stomach. Then the spontaneous law of digestion works within us to digest the food. After digestion there is the process of assimilation, in which the food that has been dispensed into our stomach is assimilated into our tissues to become our fibers. Eventually, the food even becomes us.
Every day of our life a dispensing is going on. It is by dispensing that we receive nourishment. It is by dispensing that plants and human beings grow. It is by dispensing that a small seed becomes a large squash. I know some brothers who were teenagers a number of years ago. Now they are married and have children. Some of their children are over ten years of age. Their growth as well as the growth of their children is the issue and the result of dispensing. We may say that this is due to life; however, to say this is too general. In a particular sense, this is due to dispensing. Dispensing issues in growth. Without dispensing we cannot live very long. Our survival depends on a marvelous, God-ordained dispensing.
God’s ordained way is that we eat and drink every day. The most important thing in our daily life is eating and drinking. Every day we should eat at least three meals and one snack. By this dispensing we can work, walk, and be strengthened to speak. I can stand and speak for two hours because while I am speaking, some dispensing is going on within me.
In John’s Gospel the matter of dispensing is very striking. Although we cannot find the word dispensing there, the matter of dispensing is implied very much in this book. John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh. The Word is God Himself. The Word became flesh to dispense God into us. Incarnation is for dispensing. If God had never become incarnated, He would have remained in His divinity, and there would have been no way for Him to dispense Himself into us. Incarnation was the initiation of the divine dispensing; it was the first step of God’s dispensing of Himself into us. When God was incarnated, He came full of grace and reality (v. 14). He did not come empty-handed. In incarnation God came in fullness; He came full of grace and reality.
Grace is God enjoyed by us. It is nothing less than God as our portion for our enjoyment. When we enjoy God, that is grace. Grace is not an expensive car or a big house; these things Paul counted as refuse (Phil. 3:8). Grace is the very God Himself subjectively enjoyed by us.
Reality is God gained by us. In the entire universe nothing is real. Solomon told us that everything is vanity (Eccl. 1:2). Houses and cars are vanity; they are not reality. Only God gained by us is reality. In His incarnation God came to us full of grace and reality for us to receive. John 1:16 says, “Of His fullness we have all received.” God’s fullness is His rich grace plus His rich reality.
When we go to the kitchen at dinner time, we can see a fullness there. The fullness may include beef, fish, melons, and many other kinds of food. This is the fullness of the kitchen. When we come to Jesus and call upon His name, within His name there is a fullness; this fullness is grace and reality. The Lord Jesus did not come empty-handed; He came with the fullness of the riches of the Triune God. The riches of the Triune God are just Himself as grace and reality. Now we all can receive Him.
However, without dispensing we cannot receive Him, because receiving is based on dispensing. If I do not speak, how can others hear? If God does not dispense, how can we receive Him? As the incarnated God, He is ready to dispense all that He is into us. He is dispensing Himself as grace and reality to His believers so that all His believers can receive Him again and again every day. The time of morning revival is a time for receiving. It is a time to eat Christ and drink Christ. When we come to the Lord’s table, we come to eat and drink.
When we pray, we are actually breathing in the Lord, and this again is a receiving. It may seem as if we are merely praying, but actually we are receiving the living Lord as our water, food, air, and everything we need. On God’s side He is dispensing and distributing Himself; on our side we are receiving. Every day our Christian life is one of receiving the dispensing from God. If I did not receive anything from God, I would have nothing to speak. While I am speaking, I am also receiving. This is a kind of transmission. On the one hand, while I am speaking, I am dispensing; on the other hand, while I am speaking, I am also receiving. My dispensing comes from my receiving of His dispensing.
The Christian work is a dispensing. When we preach the gospel by knocking on doors, we should not trust in ourselves. Rather, we should pray that when we open our mouth, while we are speaking, the Lord would supply us. Then, between us and the Lord there will be a transmission, that transmission will enter into others, and they will receive Christ.
After His incarnation Christ lived on this earth for more than thirty years. Then He went to the cross and was crucified there. This was the second step of God’s dispensing.
In His crucifixion Christ as the Lamb of God first took away our sin (1:29).
Second, as the bronze serpent, Christ destroyed Satan, the source of death and the ruler of this world (12:31; Heb. 2:14).
Third, as the grain of wheat, Christ released the divine life within Him for the producing of the many believers by imparting, that is, dispensing, the divine life into them (John 12:24). By this He made all the believers His members and the many grains of wheat.
Many Christians do not realize that Christ’s death, like His incarnation, was for His dispensing. He died on the cross to release His divine life for His dispensing.
At the cross, when the soldier pierced the side of Christ, blood and water came out (19:34). The blood symbolizes the redeeming aspect of Christ’s all-inclusive death, and the water that came out of Christ symbolizes the life-imparting aspect of Christ’s all-inclusive death. This one death did two works: it redeemed us from our sins, and it released the divine life of God into the believers.
Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John tells us that Christ was God in eternity past (v. 1). This very God who was the Word became incarnated to be a man (v. 14). Then chapter 20 tells us that after His death this Christ entered into resurrection, and in resurrection He changed His form and became a life-giving Spirit (vv. 19-22). In incarnation He changed His form from the form of God to the form of man. In resurrection He as the last Adam changed His form again, from the form of the human flesh to a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).
The word life-giving implies dispensing, because to give is to dispense. The British call a drugstore a dispensary. This means that the store dispenses different kinds of medicines and drugs. Christ as the life-giving Spirit is dispensing life as food to His believers. Within our physical food there is medicine; the nourishment in the food kills the germs. Within Christ as the food there is the real “medicine” that kills all the spiritual germs.
In Greek the word for spirit is pneuma. This word can also be translated “breath.” On the night of His resurrection the Lord came back to visit His believers. He did not give them a message or any teaching or instruction. He did only one thing: He breathed into them (John 20:22). By breathing into them, He breathed Himself into them. At that time Christ was the life-giving Spirit. Thus, by Christ’s breathing, all the disciples received Him as the life-giving Spirit.
Christ is not only the life-giving Spirit; He is the compound Spirit as well. The compound Spirit is the Spirit of God compounded with Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection. In this way He became the anointing (dispensing) ointment (1 John 2:20, 27). Even the anointing is a dispensing. This compound Spirit as the anointing ointment is the consummation of the processed Triune God.
In eternity past God had only divinity; He did not have humanity, and He did not have the elements of death and resurrection. By His passing through incarnation, death, and resurrection, a number of elements were added to Him. In His incarnation He added humanity; in His crucifixion He added the element and effectiveness of death; and in His resurrection He added the divine power of resurrection. With all these elements He became the life-giving Spirit. As such a Spirit, He is compounded with the elements of divinity, humanity, the all-inclusive death, and the powerful resurrection. All these elements were compounded with the Spirit of God as the base, as the oil, to produce the compound Spirit.
In Exodus 30 we can see the record of the compounding of the anointing ointment (vv. 22-25). In this record the Spirit of God is signified by the olive oil, which is the base for the ointment. Into this base were added four kinds of spices, which, when compounded with the oil, became an ointment for anointing. When this ointment was used for anointing, all the elements of the compound ointment were applied to the objects that were anointed.
Anointing is like painting. In painting, one layer of paint is painted upon another until the painted article is covered with all the elements of the paint. This is the dispensing of the paint into the painted article. Today the Triune God as a compound Spirit is painting Himself into us. As such a compound Spirit, He is the consummation, or completion, of the Triune God. In eternity past God was perfect, but He was not complete. He needed humanity, the wonderful death, and the powerful resurrection to make Himself complete. By passing through all the processes, God is now not only perfect but also complete. This completion is the consummation of the Triune God.
Today our consummated, processed Triune God is the very compound Spirit. The very Christ in whom we believe today is a life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the compound Spirit, and the compound Spirit is the completed, consummated God, the consummation of the processed Triune God. This is our Christ and our Savior. When we speak to others about Christ, we do not have to talk so much. As long as people believe in Him and call on His name, the compound ointment as a “paint” will anoint them. This will give them one coat of paint. However, this coat may not be very thick. We need to go back to them and sing, pray, read the Word, and call on the Lord with them again. This will give them some thicker coats of paint. Day by day and moment by moment, as they are under this anointing, they will experience the “painting,” layer upon layer and coat upon coat.
As such a compound Spirit, Christ became the bountiful supply of the Divine Trinity for His dispensing. Philippians 1:19 uses the term the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit today is no longer merely the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God has been compounded with the elements of Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection to become the Spirit of Jesus Christ. As such a compound Spirit, He has the bountiful supply.
Today the Pentecostal people seek to be filled with the Spirit. But many of them do not realize that to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the compound Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is the bountiful supply. To have the bountiful supply is to be supplied with whatever we need. In Greek, the word for bountiful supply denotes the supplying of all the needs of a musical group by the leader of the group. Whatever the group needed, whether it was musical instruments, clothing, uniforms, food, or medicine, was supplied by the leader.
Today Christ is such a Leader. As the life-giving Spirit, who is the compound Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, He has the bountiful supply to meet all our needs. Paul was able to do such a marvelous work for Christ because within him there was such a bountiful supply. This bountiful supply comes from the source of the consummation of the processed Triune God. This consummation is the compound Spirit, and this compound Spirit is Jesus Christ.
We should not say that we are weak. Instead, we should be strengthened and encouraged because the very Spirit within us is the compound Spirit. We can go out to preach the gospel by being supplied with Him. When we knock on others’ doors, we should do so by exercising our spirit and our faith, with much assurance. We should not go according to our feeling but according to the revelation of the Bible. If we go in this way, our way of preaching the gospel will be transformed. The old way is to speak to people without power, but the new way is to speak with Christ in us. The new way is not merely to knock on the doors of people’s houses; it is to knock on the door of their heart and to touch their spirit. To do this we must speak with faith and assurance. The Lord Jesus told the disciples that He had received all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). Therefore, we can go with Him as our authority. When we speak to people with this Christ, who is God who passed through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to be the compound Spirit with the bountiful supply, our preaching will become very different from what it was in the past.
Some people do not believe that a person can be saved within a short time. But painting does not take a long time. If someone comes to you with a can of paint, he can put the paint on you without saying too many words. There is no need to speak too much. Some have been in the church for many years. They may know many things, but they may not have the faith, the power, the authority, or the bountiful supply. The old way is to beseech people in a weak way, but the new way is to go to people with Christ in us.
It is not a small thing to have Christ within us. As the Spirit within us, He has passed through the great processes of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Now, as the compounded One, He is within us. We have Him, and we are one with Him; therefore, we have the assurance. We should not merely preach to others; we should give them with assurance the command and the order to believe and be baptized.
In regeneration Christ dispenses Himself into our spirit (John 3:5-6). This is the initiation of the divine dispensing, making us branches of Christ as the true vine. We were wild olive branches (Rom. 11:17), but now we have become the branches of the cultivated vine (John 15:1, 5). As the branches of the resurrected Christ, we live with Him, grow with Him, and work with Him. This is the result of regeneration.
As the consummated Spirit of the divine life, Christ is the living water (4:10, 14). He is now watering the believers with Himself. As the living bread, which is the real manna from heaven, He is feeding the believers (6:49-51, 63). Furthermore, as the consummation of the processed Triune God, that is, as the consummated, all-inclusive, compound Spirit, He is flowing from the inward parts of the believers (7:38-39). In the Christian life, from the day we are regenerated, He waters us, feeds us, and flows out from within us every day. This is the process of dispensing. Watering is a dispensing, feeding is a dispensing, and flowing also is a dispensing.
This divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity becomes the supply to the believers in their gospel preaching and work for the Lord. The first item of the gospel work is fruit-bearing, that we may dispense the riches of the divine life to others. To bear fruit is to preach the gospel by dispensing the riches of Christ into others (15:4-5, 16).
In feeding the lambs, we dispense further the riches of the divine life to the new believers for their growth in life (21:15; 1 Pet. 2:2). In the Gospel of John we are charged to do two things: in chapter 15 we are charged to bear remaining fruit (v. 16), and in chapter 21 we are charged to feed the lambs, the new believers (v. 15). Both the bearing of fruit and the feeding of lambs are a dispensing of life into others. The way to carry out the gospel work and the feeding work is to dispense the life of Christ into the unbelievers and the believers.
Today the processed and consummated Triune God has a fullness, which is His grace as our enjoyment and His reality as our gain. John says that of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace (1:16). We need to consider the way to receive this fullness.
First, we must abide in Christ. To abide in Christ is to remain all the time in our spirit. As tripartite beings, we have a body, a soul, and a spirit (1 Thes. 5:23). The place where we should remain is the spirit. If we stay in our thoughts or our temperament, we remain in our soul. Christ is not in our soul but in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). At other times we may remain in our body by engaging in sports or fighting with one another. But what we should do is remain always in our spirit? When we remain in the spirit, we abide in Christ, and Christ has the ground to abide in us to carry out His divine dispensing in us (John 15:4-5).
Second, we must abide in Christ that His words may abide in us (v. 7). Every morning we should abide in Christ by getting into His Word. In the morning we need to abide in Christ, enter into His word, and even dwell in His word. In this way His word will enter into us, abide in us, and dispense all the riches of Christ into our being. Every word in the Bible is the embodiment of the living Christ. Christ is mysterious and somewhat abstract, but He is embodied and made real in the word. This is why we must exercise our spirit to read the Word and to pray, that is, to pray-read.
Third, we need to drink of Christ as the living water (4:10, 14). This water is the water of the eternal life, which is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. Our Christ today is the water. We need to drink of Him. The way to drink of Him is to pray, to call on Him, and to talk to Him. This kind of praying is also a breathing and inhaling of Christ into us.
Fourth, we need to eat Christ as the living bread. This bread is the bread of the eternal life embodied in His words, which are Spirit and life (6:27, 51, 57-58, 63). Eventually, God, Christ, the Spirit, life, and the word are all one thing. God is Spirit (4:24), and the Spirit is Christ (2 Cor. 3:17). This Spirit, as Christ, is life (Rom. 8:2; Col. 3:4) and is embodied in the words of the Bible. Thus, when we come to the Bible, we must realize that we are coming to the living God, the living Christ, the living Spirit, and His life.
We need to eat Christ daily at the appointed times. We should especially eat Him early in the morning as our daily manna (Exo. 16:13b-15, 21). We should also eat Christ with the drinking of Him; that is, we should receive His word by prayer (Eph. 6:17-18a), by pray-reading His Word. This is the way to receive His gracious dispensing. In this way all the rich elements of the Divine Trinity will be dispensed into our being. This will enable us to grow in life, to live Christ, to preach the gospel, and to do the divine work for the Lord. We do not do these things by ourselves but by the One who lives in us and who is now dispensing His riches into us all the time.
If we cooperate with the Lord by abiding in Him, by allowing His words to abide in us, and by eating Him as the living bread, drinking Him as the living water, and breathing Him as the heavenly air, Christ will flow from within our every inward part in all the aspects of His riches as rivers of living water (John 7:38-39). He will have a way to dispense Himself into our spirit and from our spirit into all the parts of our being. Then we will be supplied and will be able to grow in life, live Christ, preach the gospel with authority, and do the divine work. This is the revelation of the Gospel of John concerning the dispensing of the processed Triune God within us as our bountiful supply, beginning with incarnation and ending with fruit-bearing and lamb-feeding.
