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Scripture Reading: Acts 1:3; Luke 1:15; Acts 1:12-15; 2:1-4, 17-18; Luke 24:49
Thus far, we have seen that the Triune God became a man who lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. This God-man then died a wonderful, all-inclusive death on the cross to solve all the negative problems and to release the divine life. Then He overcame death by coming out of death in resurrection. In resurrection He was born as the Firstborn of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29), and at the same time He brought forth many sons of God who are His many brothers (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:11-12). Also, through His resurrection a new child was born (John 16:20-22), and He became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to apply Himself and all that He had accomplished, attained, and obtained to this new child. Therefore, on the day of His resurrection He came back to the disciples as the pneumatic Christ and breathed Himself into them as the Spirit of life.
This Holy Breath is all-inclusive. In this breath are all the elements of the person of Christ and all the elements of what He has accomplished, attained, and obtained. This breath is the compound, all-inclusive Spirit, which actually is the Lord Himself as the all-inclusive Christ breathed into His disciples. On the evening of the day of resurrection the Lord exhaled Himself as the breath, and the disciples inhaled Him as the breath. By this exhaling and inhaling, this wonderful One got into the disciples. He entered into them to be their life, to be the essence of their new being. Their receiving of this breath was altogether a matter of life essentially. They received Him as their life, as the very intrinsic essence of their being. This is a most marvelous, excellent, and wonderful fact. We must thank the Lord that in these last days He has taken away the veil to disclose to us all these things in such a detailed way.
This wonderful One, who is the Triune God mingled with humanity, became wrapped up with human living and entered into an all-inclusive death that dealt with sin and sins, that destroyed Satan and his satanic system, the world, and that annulled all the religious ordinances, terminated the old creation, and released His divine life. All these aspects of His death became elements of His compounded being. He has overcome Satan and death, and He has entered into resurrection. He became the Firstborn of God, and He produced many brothers to bring forth a new child. After all this, such a wonderful person became the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit to be breathed into His disciples as their very breath. This breath is not a small matter, but it is all-inclusive, life-giving, and indwelling. This breath, which is His indwelling presence, is life to us; it is our essential being. Now we are one with Him in the essential way of life. The believers in Christ are new beings, new persons, even divinely human persons.
Before the Lord’s ascension He spent forty days with the disciples (Acts 1:3). The number forty indicates a time of testing (Deut. 9:9, 18; 1 Kings 19:8; Heb. 3:9; Matt. 4:2). In these forty days before His ascension, He tested His disciples. He trained them to know their new being, to know that His essence had become their essence. He trained them to know that He had become them, that He had entered into them, and that He had brought them into Him. He also trained them to realize that He was in the Father, that they were in Him, and that He was in them (John 14:20). Ultimately, this kind of training was to help the disciples realize that they were mingled with the Triune God, that they were no longer merely human but divinely human, even “Jesusly human.” They were no longer separate from the Triune God, but they could now live a life in which they were one with the processed Triune God. They were no longer merely men but God-men, divine men, with the Triune God as their intrinsic essence to become their divine being.
The invisible presence of the processed Triune God was now within them. They had to be trained to practice this presence, to live and behave in this life, and to be persons in this life. The Lord was training them to be the divine persons on this earth. This is wonderful! The Lord created the entire universe in six days, but He spent forty days to train His disciples. The training of the disciples was a much bigger task than the creation of the universe. He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), He appeared to the disciples twice in a closed room (John 20:19, 26), and He also appeared to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias (21:1). His appearing and disappearing trained His disciples to know His invisible presence.
It was hard for the Lord Jesus to train the disciples to trust Him for their living. Due to the trial of the need of their living, Peter returned to his old occupation, backsliding from the Lord’s call (v. 3; Matt. 4:19-20; Luke 5:3-11), and Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples followed him to go fishing (John 21:2-3). Peter was tested, but he could not pass the test. They all went down to the sea to return to their old profession, but they did not realize that they brought the Lord Jesus there with them because the Lord Jesus was within them all the time. No matter where they were, where they went, or what they did, they could not be separated from Him, because He was mingled with them. Because they did not realize this, He needed forty days to train them.
At the Sea of Tiberias, the Lord did something miraculous. Peter and the sons of Zebedee (John and James) were professional fishers, the Sea of Tiberias was large and full of fish, and night was the right time for fishing, but through the entire night they caught nothing (v. 3). It must have been that the Lord bade all the fish to stay away from their net. Then in the morning (v. 4), which was not the right time for fishing, they caught an abundance of fish when they did it at the Lord’s word (v. 6). Surely this was a miracle! It must have been that the Lord bade the fish to come into their net. But without these fish, even on the land where the fish were not, the Lord prepared fish and even bread for them (v. 9). This was again a miracle! By this, the Lord trained them to realize that without His leading, though they went to the sea where the fish were and in the night, the right time for fishing, they could catch nothing; but with the Lord’s leading, even on the land where the fish were not, the Lord could provide fish for them. Though they caught many fish according to the Lord’s word, the Lord would not use those to feed them. This was a real lesson to Peter. For his living, he should believe and trust in the Lord who “calls the things not being as being” (Rom. 4:17). The disciples learned that the all-inclusive Lord was with them, was in them, and was taking care of them. They did not need to go fishing. They just needed to stay with the Lord to enjoy His indwelling, blessed presence.
From the day of His resurrection He appeared again and again to His disciples for forty days to train them how to realize His invisible presence. When He was with the disciples for three and a half years, the disciples experienced His visible presence, but that presence was terminated by His death. After His resurrection, by His coming back as the Spirit, another kind of presence began. This was His invisible presence, and this presence was intrinsic to His disciples. His visible presence in those three and a half years was altogether outward, not intrinsic. It was not life to them but merely a presence among them. After the resurrection, however, as the pneumatic Christ and as the life-giving Spirit, He came back to the disciples and entered into them. This entering in became an invisible presence, and this presence was life to the disciples. This presence was very inward and intrinsic, not outward, and it brought His element into the disciples’ being.
Through such an invisible presence, this invisible Christ became His disciples’ element and intrinsic essence. He was one with His disciples intrinsically and essentially, but the disciples were not used to such an invisible presence. They were used to visible things. Because of their weakness, He appeared to them and disappeared in order to train them to realize His invisible presence. He wanted them to know that even though they did not see Him or feel His presence, He was still there with them all the time (Matt. 28:20). His presence was always there inside their being; it even became their intrinsic essence and their thought. In Galatians 2:20 the apostle Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” This is the invisible presence of the pneumatic Christ. The end of the four Gospels and the beginning of Acts show how the Lord Jesus spent forty days with the disciples in order to train them to get used to His invisible presence.
The Lord had been with the disciples for three and a half years before His death, and after His resurrection He was with them in a very mysterious way for forty days. He would appear to them suddenly without their realization (Luke 24:15-16; John 20:14; 21:4). When they realized that He was there, He disappeared from them (Luke 24:31). The disciples just could not trace whether He was absent or present. Eventually, however, they all were trained. Their doubts vanished, their fear was taken away, and they were fully calmed down and satisfied. They were trained to fully realize that this wonderful person was so real and that He was with them, even within them. Whether He appeared or disappeared, He was still living within them. He was there when He appeared, and He was there when He disappeared. They did not need to be troubled by His disappearing, and they did not need to be excited by His appearing. Whether He appeared or disappeared, He was still there caring for the disciples.
After the Lord finished this forty-day training, He had the peace to leave them, so He brought them all to the Mount of Olives, where He was carried up into heaven (v. 51; Acts 1:11-12). This brought Him into another new stage. Before His incarnation He was merely God. His incarnation brought Him into a new stage, a stage for Him to live on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, a stage for Him to be a man living God. That was His second stage. Then His ascension brought Him into a third stage. This stage is that of a resurrected man living in the heavens to execute the things that God determined on this earth. This resurrected One is now sitting in the heavens to execute God’s administration (Heb. 12:2). This One in the heavens is the Head.
After the disciples received the life-giving Spirit breathed into them by the resurrected Christ as life, as the life supply, and as everything related to their inner man, they all became the God-men, the men who had been mingled with God. Then they were filled with the divine life essentially, but they were not qualified to carry out God’s economy. Therefore, the resurrected Christ had to ascend to the heavens to be exalted by God and to be given by God the kingship, the lordship, and the headship over all things. He also obtained the throne, the glory, and all the authority in the universe. While the one hundred twenty were praying on the earth for ten days, God was making the exalted Christ to be the King, the Lord, and the Head of all things. God was giving the authority, the throne, and the glory to His exalted One.
In the forty days of the resurrected Lord’s training, the disciples learned the lesson; therefore, after the Lord ascended to the heavens, they could pray together for ten days in Jerusalem in a threatening environment (Acts 1:12-15). They prayed together in a fearless way, forgetting about their eating, their drinking, and their living. Acts 1 is a wonderful record showing us how the one hundred twenty could stay together under a threatening situation for ten days, caring for nothing except the charge of the ascended Christ (vv. 14-15). Among them there was no disputation, no fighting, only oneness. Before the Lord’s death the twelve were still fighting over who was going to be greater (Luke 22:24). They were so natural, selfish, fleshly, and even sinful. Peter was very natural and very selfish. The two sons of thunder, James and John, begged the Lord Jesus to give them the two top positions when He came in His kingdom (Mark 10:35-37). They wanted to sit with Him, one on His right hand and one on His left hand. When the other ten heard this, they were indignant (v. 41). They were bothered because they were also ambitious. However, after the Lord’s resurrection, His stay with them for forty days, and His ascension to the heavens, they and those of the one hundred twenty all became different. They were not only regenerated but also transformed persons to some extent, so they could pray together in one accord for ten days. It would be difficult for even a handful of us to pray for ten hours in one accord, but they were one hundred twenty praying for ten days in a place that was full of threatening. At that time the religious leaders of Jerusalem were threatening to put the followers of Jesus to death. They were under this kind of death threatening, yet they dared to stay there and pray for ten days, and they prayed in one accord. They did not care for their safety or their peace. They cared for the Lord’s commission, for the Lord’s testimony (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:48), and for preaching the gospel in His name (v. 47; Matt. 28:19).
While the one hundred twenty disciples were praying and while the exalted Christ was executing on the throne in the heavens, the day of Pentecost came (Acts 2:1-4). There was a wonderful scene in the universe, which should have been seen by the angels as the spectators on the day of Pentecost. The Head was sitting on the throne in the heavens executing God’s administration, and the Body, represented by the one hundred twenty, was coordinating with the Head for ten days to carry out God’s move on the earth. Then on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out from the Head and by the Head to the disciples and on the disciples (vv. 17-18). This means that heaven was brought to earth, and God was poured out on man. This pouring out was not essential but economical. It was not for life but for power, for administration. What was needed on the day of Pentecost was not life but power, even the mighty power to carry out God’s administration. After the blowing of the mighty wind, those one hundred twenty became not only spiritual persons but heavenly persons. They became the very joint between heaven and earth. They joined the heavens and the earth, and they were cooperating with the heavenly Head to carry out God’s eternal administration. This was the pouring out of the fully consummated Spirit by the heavenly Head, the pouring out of the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God by the resurrected and ascended Christ, to accomplish the baptism of His Body in the Spirit.
On the day of Pentecost the exalted Christ was poured out as the Spirit, the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God, upon the one hundred twenty prepared ones, fifty days after His resurrection. On the day of resurrection He was the all-inclusive breath that was breathed into His disciples as the Spirit of life. But after forty days’ training and ten days’ preparation, the heaven and the earth were ready for the pouring out of this exalted One as the Spirit of power upon the believers on this earth who had been made ready.
What happened on the day of resurrection and on the day of Pentecost are landmarks in the universe. On the day of resurrection the resurrected Christ, as the all-inclusive breath, was breathed into the disciples. On the day of Pentecost the exalted Christ, the authorized Christ, as the mighty wind, was blown upon those ready believers. After Pentecost, within them was the all-inclusive breath and upon them was the mighty wind. On the day of resurrection the resurrected Christ was the breath to be breathed into His disciples, and on the day of Pentecost the exalted Christ was the mighty wind blown upon those ready believers. Within them they had the breath; upon them they had the wind. Within them they had the all-inclusive Christ as the resurrected One for their life, and upon them they had the ascended Christ as the exalted One for their power, for their authority, and for their uniform.
The Spirit that dwells within the believers and the Spirit that descends upon the believers are not two Spirits but one Spirit in two aspects. From His incarnation through His resurrection He became this Spirit of breath, which is for life intrinsically and essentially. Then after His ascension He became the Spirit of wind, which is for power. The breath is very close to the wind. When the breath is strengthened, it becomes the wind. When the wind is softened or slowed down a little bit, it becomes the breath. Also, the Greek word pneuma and the Hebrew word ruach can be translated as “Spirit,” “wind,” or “breath.” In John 3 the Greek pneuma is translated first as “Spirit” (v. 6), and then as “wind” (v. 8). In Ezekiel 37 the word ruach, which is equivalent to the Greek pneuma, is translated in the English version as three words: “Spirit” (v. 14), “wind” (v. 9), and “breath” (vv. 6, 8). We should not consider the breath as something separate from the wind. After being strengthened, the breath becomes the wind. After being softened, the wind becomes the breath. The wind and the breath are two aspects of one matter. Also, the wind brings us the fresh air to breathe. The fresh air for our breathing depends upon the proper, strong wind. The wind is for power, and the breath is for life. Praise the Lord for the breathing of the Spirit, and praise the Lord for the blowing of the Spirit! The Spirit is the breath and also the wind. The breath comes into us, and the wind comes upon us. In the Pentecostal movement the breath has been neglected, and the wind has been misunderstood.
In the past century the Brethren teachers in England saw these two aspects to some extent. They called the Spirit on the day of resurrection the indwelling Spirit. Then they called the Spirit on the day of Pentecost the mantle Spirit. The mantle Spirit is the Spirit as the outer clothing, the uniform. The British Brethren teachers saw from Luke 24:49 that the disciples were to wait in Jerusalem until they put on power from on high. The verb put on reminded them of the mantle of Elijah, which was a symbol of the power of the Spirit (2 Kings 2:13-14). The aspect of the mantle Spirit, which is outward, is different from the indwelling Spirit, which is inward. Their teaching has greatly helped us, but by the Lord’s mercy, standing on their shoulders, we have gone a little bit higher to see that the indwelling Spirit as the breath of life is the resurrected Christ Himself. The Brethren teachers did not see this in full.
The life-giving Spirit, who is still God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is the pneumatic Christ, the resurrected Christ. This Christ, who is the embodiment of God mingled with man, comprising all His processes, is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The Lord has also shown us that the mantle Spirit is the very exalted Christ. The indwelling Spirit is the resurrected Christ, and the outpoured Spirit is the exalted Christ. This Christ in exaltation is the mantle Spirit, which is the Spirit of power and the Spirit of authority. Both the resurrected Christ and the exalted Christ are the all-inclusive Spirit with these two aspects: the indwelling aspect and the mantle aspect.
Even though these one hundred twenty received the Lord as life essentially, they still were not equipped and qualified to carry out God’s economy. They still needed to be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). After we wake up in the morning, our eating breakfast fills us with life essentially. Even though we have been filled with life essentially, we are still not qualified to come to the meeting to speak something for the Lord. We need to wash, comb our hair, and put on the proper clothing. Now we are not only constituted intrinsically, essentially, but we are also equipped economically. If a policeman did not have a uniform, no one would respect him or recognize him. When a person is driving his car and he sees a man with a police uniform, he becomes very careful in his driving. The uniform means a lot to the policeman because it represents the government for which he is working. It is his authority that qualifies him to carry out the administration of his state or government.
After the Lord had breathed Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit into the disciples on the evening of the day of His resurrection, the disciples were filled inwardly with the Spirit, but they still had not received their uniform. They did not have the proper clothing to carry out God’s administration, God’s economy. In Luke 24:49 the Lord told the disciples, “Behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you; but as for you, stay in the city until you put on power from on high.” After their forty-day training, the one hundred twenty still needed the uniform, so the Lord charged them to wait in Jerusalem until they put on power from on high. This power from on high was the outpoured Spirit who is the ascended, pneumatic Christ. This power from on high was the heavenly uniform to be put on God’s chosen and prepared people for their qualification to carry out God’s administration.
Elijah was a man who received authority from God to control the weather (1 Kings 17:1; 18:41-45). The book of James tells us that Elijah prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three and a half years. Then Elijah prayed again, and it rained (5:17-18). Elijah had a mantle, and that piece of clothing was his uniform, his authority, to control the heavens for God’s administration. He had the power from God, and that power was in his mantle. Elisha realized that he needed the mantle of Elijah to carry out God’s administration. When Elijah ascended to the heavens, his mantle was transferred to Elisha (2 Kings 2:12-15). Therefore, Elisha inherited the power and the authority that were in the uniform of Elijah.
If a man puts on a police uniform, we all must respect him. Actually, our respect is for his uniform. His uniform is his power and his authority because it represents his government’s administration. The disciples were charged by the Lord to wait in Jerusalem until such a mantle, such a uniform, would descend upon them. Then they would all be clothed with the heavenly uniform, which is the power from on high. After they prayed for ten days, this mantle came down from heaven, and they all received the uniform. This mantle, this power from on high, was the ascended, exalted Christ poured down upon them.
The Bible tells us that Christ ascended into heaven (Eph. 4:8-9; Heb. 9:24), but it also says that He was taken up and exalted by God (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Phil. 2:9). After God exalted Him, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples. The Son ascended, the Father exalted Him, and the Spirit was poured out. The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — was fully involved with the ascension and the pouring out of the Spirit. In the Son’s death the Triune God was involved, in the Son’s resurrection the Triune God was involved, and in the Son’s ascension and exaltation the Triune God was also involved. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit were wrapped up with the Son’s ascension and the pouring out of the Spirit.
In the Son’s ascension God exalted Him, and His exaltation includes the highest attainment. In His ascension He obtained the kingship (Acts 5:31; Rev. 17:14), the lordship (Acts 2:36), the enthronement (Heb. 12:2), the headship (Eph. 1:22), and the glory and honor (Heb. 2:9). All authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:20-21). All these attainments of Christ are not essential for us and have nothing to do with us intrinsically, but these attainments have everything to do with us economically. If a government is weak and disorderly, the policeman’s uniform does not mean that much. But if the government is strong, proper, full of power, and orderly, the uniform of the policeman means a lot. If Jesus had never been exalted and had never received the kingship, the lordship, the headship, the enthronement, the glory and honor, and all the authority, nothing could have been carried out economically. Even though He succeeded in incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection, He still needed to be inaugurated into His heavenly office with all its attainments.
We should praise the Lord that our Christ has ascended and that God has exalted Him. He is the top One in the whole universe sitting on the unique throne in the universe. He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Head of all things. He has received all the authority, and He has a name above every name (Phil. 2:9). After His ascension, His exaltation, He poured out Himself as authority on His disciples. This poured out, exalted Christ is the authority of the entire universe, and this poured out, exalted Christ has become our clothing, our uniform. Now we not only have His life essentially, but we also are equipped and qualified economically with His authority to carry out God’s economy, God’s administration.
The very Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) as the breath breathed into us is absolutely for life. We have the Triune God in His humanity with His human living, His all-inclusive death, and His excellent resurrection within us as our life. This is satisfying to the uttermost, but we still need the equipment, the power, the authority, the heavenly uniform. After ten days of prayer, the exalted, pneumatic Christ was poured out upon the disciples. He was breathed into them on the evening of the day of the resurrection as their life essentially, and He was poured out upon them on the day of Pentecost as their authority, as their mantle, as their clothing, as their heavenly uniform economically. Our friends, colleagues, neighbors, and family may not realize that we are wearing the exalted, pneumatic Christ as our uniform, but every demon and evil spirit knows this. They know that we are authorized and that we are part of the ascended Christ.
Thus far, in our definition of the Divine Trinity and of our experience of the Divine Trinity, we have used two new words in our spiritual vocabulary: essential refers to the existence, to the being, and to the life for existence; economical refers to economy, work, and function. When we speak of the essential Trinity, we mean the Divine Trinity in His existence, referring to His being. When we speak of the economical Trinity, we mean the Divine Trinity in His economy, referring to His move, work, and function. To experience the Triune God as our life for our spiritual being, spiritual existence, is essential. To experience the Triune God as power for our spiritual work, spiritual function, is economical. To feed on the Lord as food, to drink Him as water, and to breathe Him as air is essential because it is related to the inner life for our spiritual existence. To put on the Lord as our clothing, to be clothed with the outpoured Spirit as power from on high, is economical because it is related to the outward move and work. On the day of resurrection the Lord breathed the Spirit of life into the disciples. That is essential. On the day of Pentecost the Lord poured out the Spirit of power upon the disciples. This is economical. On the one hand, they received the Spirit of life into their being essentially, and on the other hand, they received the Spirit of power upon them economically. Eventually, they became persons of the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God.
