Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:22-23; Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; Matt. 28:18-19; Mark 16:17-18
According to His New Testament economy, the Triune God, after passing through all the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, was consummated to be the all-inclusive compound Spirit. In His ascension this Spirit was poured out to accomplish the baptism of the Body of Christ. Hence, for the believers to be baptized in this Spirit is to be baptized into one Body so that as His Body we may be joined to Him as the Head to receive His authority for the carrying out of the divine governmental administration.
The breath breathed into us makes us the members of Christ who are so living and full of life. But all the members of Christ need to be put together to form one Body. This needed another step; therefore, the pneumatic Christ also had to be the ascended, exalted Christ. After being exalted, He became the authority of this universe, and He poured Himself out upon all the members to authorize them and to put them together to form them into one Body. This Body is the universal government because this Body is united to the Head. Although Christ as the Head of all things is the authority and the government of this universe, He needs a Body to execute His orders. Therefore, the Head and the Body become the authority and government of the entire universe.
Every member of the Body has the authority of the Head. Every member of this Body is a part of the universal government. In this Body and joined to our ascended Head, we have the power, the authority, and the entire universe must respect us. All the demons and the evil spirits have to fear us. As the resurrected, pneumatic Christ, the Lord dealt with all the negative items in the universe and released Himself into us as our life. He imparted Himself into us essentially as our life to make us His living members. Another step was needed for Him to be exalted to be the authority of the universe, to be the ascended, exalted Christ. Then He poured Himself out as the exalted Christ upon us as authority to make us His Body, the executing organ of the Head. This Body connected to the Head is the government, the administration, of this universe. In the Body every member is a part of the universal authority. We are qualified and equipped to carry out the divine administration on this earth. With the pneumatic, ascended, exalted Christ as our heavenly uniform, we have the power and the authority to move and to work to accomplish God’s eternal plan.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the outpouring of the Triune God, consummated in the all-inclusive compound Spirit, by the heavenly Head upon His Body on this earth, not for life but for administration, not as life essentially but as power economically to carry out God’s economy. This baptism in the Spirit was prophesied by John the Baptist. John told his followers that he was sent to baptize people in water. To baptize people in water is to terminate people in their old realm of life, the world, and bury them. He also told his disciples that One was coming after him who would baptize people in the Spirit (Matt. 3:11). To baptize people in the Spirit is to bring people into a new realm of life, the kingdom of God. For the processed Triune God to be given into us as the Spirit of life is for our germination. Then for the processed Triune God to be poured upon us as the Spirit of power is to bring us into a new kingdom. These two things should be put together since they are both carried out by the same one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). The same one Spirit as the Spirit of life germinates us and as the Spirit of power brings us into a new kingdom. Therefore, all the believers of Christ are Spirit-germinated persons and also persons brought into a new kingdom by the Spirit.
This kind of person is altogether a person of the Spirit, who is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. Such persons are germinated by the Spirit as life and also brought into a new kingdom by the Spirit as power. These persons are not only germinated, enlivened, and quickened in life, but they are equipped to carry out God’s administration in His kingdom for the fulfillment of His eternal plan. I hope that we all would receive a clear vision of this. The Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God, first, to be breathed into our being, to germinate us, to enliven us, to quicken us, so that we may have the processed Triune God as our life essentially. We then become the God-men, living God’s life. Then the Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God brings us into a new kingdom by baptizing us with the power from on high to make us qualified persons in God’s kingdom to carry out His eternal plan.
From Acts 2 these one hundred twenty, including the twelve, became persons who were enlivened, quickened, and regenerated by the Spirit of life breathed into them by the resurrected Christ in His resurrection to be God-men, living God, expressing God, and also brought into God’s kingdom by the Spirit of power poured upon them by the ascended Christ in His ascension to execute God’s administration. These are the kind of persons we have to be today. We have to be germinated by the Spirit of life essentially, and we have to be empowered by the Spirit of power economically. Then we live God, and we carry out God’s plan. The resurrected Christ’s breathing of the Spirit of life into us germinates us, making us the members of Christ, and the ascended Christ’s baptizing us in the Spirit of power, putting us into the Triune God, makes us all the members of Christ’s one Body. Germinating makes us the members of Christ, but there is another step — the step of baptizing. Baptizing makes us, all His members, one Body. First Corinthians 12:13 says that we all were baptized in one Spirit into one Body. As long as we have first been germinated and then baptized, we become members of Christ and are composed into the one Body of Christ. It is by the breathing Spirit that we are made members of Christ, and it is by the baptizing Spirit that all the members of Christ are made one Body of Christ. Now in this universe there is the Head in the heavens, and there is the Body on this earth, cooperating together to carry out God’s administration for His eternal plan. Even though we are still in the old heaven and the old earth, we are already in the new heaven and the new earth through the germination of the Spirit of life and the baptism in the Spirit of power.
To be baptized in the all-inclusive consummated Spirit not only puts us, the believers, all together to be the Body of Christ but also positions us to drink Him to receive the all-bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19) of the processed and transmitted Triune God so that we may be nourished to be the strong and active members of the Body of Christ for the carrying out of God’s eternal plan. When the Lord poured Himself out as this all-inclusive consummated Spirit upon His disciples, He accomplished the baptism in the Spirit. He passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Then He poured Himself out. For Peter, James, and John, the early disciples who were with the Lord throughout His earthly ministry, to be baptized in the Spirit was the last step that they went through. However, to be baptized in the Spirit was the first step for the house of Cornelius (Acts 10). Today we are just like the house of Cornelius. Our beginning is from the baptism in the Holy Spirit. When the house of Cornelius received the baptism in the Spirit, they began their spiritual life. They began to drink of the Spirit. This is why 1 Corinthians 12:13 tells us that “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body...and were all given to drink one Spirit.” After we were baptized, we began to drink. To be baptized is to be put into Christ and to put Christ upon us (Gal. 3:27); then we begin to drink of Christ and to take Him in.
First we are put into Christ; then we receive Christ into us. This corresponds to the Lord’s word in John 15:4, where He says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” He also said in John 14:20 that He was in the Father, that we are in Him, and that He is in us. We must first be in Him; then He will be in us. We are in Him by being baptized into Him, and we have Him in us by drinking of Him. To baptize people into water is a demonstration of the baptism of the Spirit. One who believes in the Lord is baptized into the Triune God. Then we demonstrate this by putting this one into water, signifying that he has been baptized into the Triune God, into Christ, and into the all-inclusive Spirit. From this time onward, this baptized one begins to drink of the Spirit so that the Lord can abide in Him.
Today the Lord has accomplished everything. The breathing of Himself into the believers has been accomplished, and His baptizing the believers in the Spirit has also been accomplished. Once we believe in Him, we receive His breathing, and we receive His baptizing. He breathed once for all, and He baptized once for all. In the book of Acts thousands of people believed in the Lord in many instances, but there is no record that every time new believers came in, the Lord breathed again and the Lord baptized again. The breathing was accomplished, and the baptizing was also accomplished. When someone believes in the Lord, he gets into His baptizing. Then he is put into Christ and begins to drink Him in. Christ begins to abide in him. This baptized and drinking one is a new member in the Body of Christ.
In Matthew 28:19 the Lord Jesus charged His disciples to go and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name, that is, into the person, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. To be baptized into the person of the Triune God is to be baptized in the all-inclusive consummated Spirit, who is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God (Acts 1:5, 8). This means to be baptized into the riches of the Father, into the riches of the Son, and into the riches of the Spirit. To be baptized into the Triune God means to be brought into an organic union with the Triune God. We sinners, after believing into the Lord Jesus, have been baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This produces an organic union. Now we, the baptized ones, are in this organic union. Therefore, whatever the Father has, whatever the Son has, and whatever the Spirit receives all become ours.
Were you baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit or into the name of the Lord Jesus? In Matthew 28 to be baptized is to be baptized into the Triune God. Then in Acts, to be baptized is to be baptized into the Lord Jesus (8:16; 19:5). This indicates clearly that the Lord Jesus in Acts is the consummation of the Triune God. He is the aggregate of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Then in the Epistles the apostle Paul defines baptism. He says that to be baptized is to be baptized in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). The New Testament tells us to be baptized into the Triune God, into the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit. This indicates that the Lord Jesus is the totality of the Triune God, and the Spirit is the realization of the Lord Jesus. We all have been baptized in the Spirit, and this means to be baptized into the Lord Jesus, which means to be baptized into the Father, the Son, and Spirit, into the Triune God. This baptism brings us into an organic union with the Triune God. Therefore, we become one with the Triune God, and whatever He is and has is ours because we are organically united to Him. This baptism in the Spirit is symbolized by the baptism in water (cf. Acts 9:17-18; 10:44-48). Baptism in water is a figure, the reality of which is the baptism in the Spirit. Without the Spirit as its reality, baptism in water immediately becomes an empty and dead ritual.
Through the baptism in the Spirit, by being baptized into the Triune God, the believers were put together to form the Body of Christ, which is joined to Him as the Head. Christ is the Head, and we are His Body, joined together to be the great universal man. The New Testament tells us that the exalted Christ has been given to be Head over all things (Eph. 1:22). He is the Head over the entire universe. He is the Head over the earth, over the earthly governments, and over all the rulers. Hence, He is the King of kings, the Ruler of the rulers, and the Lord of lords (Rev. 1:5; 17:14; 19:16). He is not only the Head over all things, but He is also the Head over all things “to the church.” His government is to the church that it may be carried out through the church. The Head executes His government to the church and through the church to reach every part of the earth. In God’s government His exalted Christ is the Head, and the church is the Body of this Head. The Head cannot do anything without the church because the Head executes everything through the Body. Christ as the exalted Head rules over and governs the entire world through the church.
Do not misunderstand my word to mean that the church must get involved in politics. Once the church gets involved in politics, the church loses its nature as the Body of Christ and becomes no church. History tells us that when the church became involved with politics, it turned into the Roman Catholic Church, which is no church in reality. When the Bible tells us that the exalted Christ as the Head is executing His governmental administration through the church, which is His Body, it means that the church stands with Him. He is executing the divine administration on the throne in the heavens, and His Body is standing on this earth as a universal man, cooperating with Him, executing the divine administration throughout the entire world. This is above all the politics. This is to rule over the earth with the Head in the heavenlies with the divine power.
The history of the world throughout the past twenty centuries shows that actually there is an invisible Ruler above the scene. (See The World Situation and God’s Move published by Living Stream Ministry.) This invisible Ruler above the scene is actually ruling over the entire earth. Who was ruling over the earth during the period of the Roman Empire? Jesus Christ. This ascended Christ was ruling over all the Caesars and later over Napoleon and over all the rulers of the earth. Today He still is the Ruler of the kings of the earth. All the presidents, kings, and prime ministers are under this unique Ruler. He is executing His government through the church, His Body. His ruling is not merely behind the scene but above the scene. The worldly people and even the worldly historians do not realize this. Their eyes are only on the world rulers and the world political situation. They do not have the spiritual view to see that the world situation is under the Head with His Body. The church should not be involved with any politics, but the church as the Body of the Head is used by the Head to carry out His heavenly ministry on this earth. The direction of the situation of the world today depends upon how the genuine church, the proper church, is proceeding on this earth.
In Revelation the all-inclusive and consummated Spirit, who was likened to the breath for life and to the wind for power, becomes the seven Spirits (1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6), which are the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God (4:5) to carry out God’s administration. These seven Spirits are the lamps on the seven lampstands. The seven lampstands are the seven churches holding the lamps, which are the seven Spirits as the lamps of fire burning before the throne to carry out God’s administration. Such a picture shows that the exalted Christ on the throne as the Head is executing God’s government through the church by the seven Spirits. When Christ ascended to the heavens, He was authorized to be the Ruler of this universe. In Revelation He is revealed as the One who has the authority to open the seals so that God’s administration in its entirety can be carried out on this earth (5:2-5, 9; 6:1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12; 8:1). The ascended, exalted Christ carries out His administration by the seven Spirits as the lamps of fire through the churches as the lampstands.
Whenever the saints on this earth, representing the Body of Christ, pray about the situation of this earth, the throne in the heavens immediately takes action to perform the things on this earth to carry out God’s administration (vv. 3-5). Christ as the Head sitting on the throne is executing, and the churches are standing on this earth holding the seven Spirits to carry out God’s administration. In the Gospels the Spirit is likened to breath, in Acts the same Spirit is likened to wind, and in Revelation the same Spirit is likened to fire. On this earth today nearly everything is carried out by fire. Electricity is for burning, and gas is for burning. Airplanes and automobiles cannot move if they do not burn some type of fuel. Even atomic power involves a type of burning. If there were no burning, the moving on this earth would be severely limited. The all-inclusive Spirit is breath to us for life, wind to us for power, and the fire for us to carry out God’s administration in God’s move.
In resurrection Christ is life to us, and in His exaltation He is power to us, not merely for preaching the gospel but also for carrying out God’s administration. We must realize that preaching the gospel is a part of the carrying out of God’s administration. We preach the gospel to carry out God’s administration to spread the kingdom of God. To usher in the kingdom of God is to carry out God’s administration. Preaching the gospel effectively does not depend upon our eloquence. It depends upon our power. We may not be so eloquent in speaking, but if we are a people full of the breath within and filled with the wind without, our speaking will be full of power and authority. Preaching the gospel is not only to let sinners hear our voice but also to let all the demons and evil spirits hear the voice of the divine power.
After the ascension and exaltation of the Savior the disciples went out to preach the gospel to all the creation (Mark 16:15). This corresponds with Matthew 28:18-19, where the Lord told the disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” The disciples went and discipled the nations not merely by preaching the Word but even more by exercising the authority of the Head. This kind of preaching is always followed by the authority of the ascended Christ. This is the reason Mark 16:17-18 mentions five kinds of miracles that would follow the preaching of the gospel by the disciples: “These signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it shall by no means harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will be well.” To cast out demons is not a matter of preaching but a matter of authority. If you do not have the authority, you cannot deal with demons. To speak with new tongues is to solve the problem of the nations, which came in at Babel to divide all mankind (Gen. 11:6-9). To overcome the dividing factor of different languages, new tongues are needed. With the new tongues, the oneness of mankind is recovered. The genuine tongue-speaking is the issue of the power and authority of the ascended Christ to overcome the divisions of mankind. In the Lord’s salvation, by the exalted Head, tongue-speaking overcomes the divisions of mankind caused by different dialects. This is the main principle.
From His incarnation to His ascension the all-inclusive Christ accomplished many things, attained many things, and obtained many things. First, He breathed Himself as the breath of life into His believers. Then He poured Himself out as the Spirit of power upon these believers. By breathing Himself into them, He made them members of His Body. By pouring Himself out upon them, He formed them into His Body. Now in this universe there is a universal man. The Head is in the heavens, and the Body is on this earth. The Head and the Body are corresponding and coordinating one with another to carry out God’s eternal plan. Today we have Him within us as life essentially, and we have Him upon us as power economically. Now we are living a life that is the processed Triune God, and we are carrying out His economy, which is the accomplishment of God’s eternal plan. This is the church life.
Once He poured Himself out upon His believers, they were put together to be His Body, and this brought His believers into the foretaste of the powers of the age to come. Today we are still living in the old age, which is full of demons, sickness, death, division, and problems and troubles. Yet among mankind there is a group of people who believe in such a wonderful One, having received this wonderful One into them as life essentially and having had this wonderful One poured upon them as power economically. These are new persons of mankind who have been brought into a new realm, a new kingdom, which is the kingdom of God. In this new realm they enjoy a foretaste of the coming age, the age of the kingdom.
In the coming age there will be no more divisions among mankind, Satan will be bound, all his demons and evil spirits will be dealt with, sicknesses will be healed, death will be swallowed up, and all the problems among mankind will be solved. That will be the time of the “restoration of all things” referred to in Acts 3:21, the kingdom of peace and righteousness on this earth. That age has not yet come, but we believers, who are the new persons and who have been brought into a new realm, the kingdom of God, have a foretaste of the coming age. Therefore, we can speak the new tongues, which unify us; we can cast out demons, who recognize us and fear us; we can overcome death; we can heal diseases; and we can solve all the problems. This is the foretaste of the coming age.
In 1969 five brothers who meet with us went to a Pentecostal, charismatic meeting where there was much “speaking in tongues.” When these five brothers went into that meeting, the pastor and his helpers were attempting to cast out a demon. The demon-possessed man laughed at them, and the demon within him said, “You cannot cast me out.” Then he said, “In this room there are only five genuine Christians.” This shows that if we are truly one with the Lord, even the demons will know it (19:13-17). Within we are intrinsically, essentially, one with the Lord, and without we are economically one with Him in His governmental administration. Even though the people around us do not realize this, the demons know. This is related to God’s governmental administration.
God has an exalted Head, and this Head has a Body, which is the church. The genuine church, the church that is one with this ascended Head, is one with Him in the inner life and one with Him in the outer economy. If we are people of the Spirit, filled with Him inwardly as our inner life and clothed with Him outwardly for His administration, all the demons will know us. The evil spirits know that we have the authority because the heavenly uniform is upon us.
The proper understanding of casting out demons and of speaking with new tongues is to realize that they are related to God’s governmental administration. All the items listed in Mark 16:17-18 are the display of the governmental authority of Christ’s administration.
We must realize that not all the things mentioned in Mark 16 happen at the same time or happen to everyone. Even the things mentioned in Acts 2 do not all necessarily happen to one person. Since the Lord poured Himself out as the Spirit of economy upon His believers, a new age began. History tells us that in this new age, from the ascension of Christ up until today, here and there, now and then, new tongues were spoken, illnesses were healed, demons were cast out, and dead people were raised up. This does not mean that all these things happened at the same time to one person or at the same time to one group.
Furthermore, at the time of Pentecost and in Peter’s ministry there were miracles of healing and even of resurrection (3:6-8; 9:32-42). In the earlier stage of the apostle Paul’s ministry there were also healing miracles. But in the later stage of Paul’s ministry he charged his intimate co-worker, Timothy, to use a little wine for the sake of his stomach and his frequent weaknesses (1 Tim. 5:23). Why did Paul not execute his healing gift to cure Timothy of his stomach sickness rather than instruct him to take the natural way for healing?
Acts 19:12 tells us that God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs from him could heal people. Some people in today’s Pentecostalism like to imitate the age of the apostles in the matter of healing. They would even try to imitate Paul by putting their hands on a handkerchief while praying for their sick friend. They believe that if they would mail this handkerchief to their sick friend, he could receive divine healing. Why did Paul not do this with Timothy? Paul rather told Timothy to take the natural way to be healed. He told him to drink a little wine for his stomach’s sake.
We must thank the Lord for such a record in the Bible. Paul and his co-workers were under the exercise of the inner life in this time of suffering rather than under the power of the outward gift. The former is of grace in life; the latter of gift in power — miraculous power. In the decline of the church and in suffering for the church, the gift of power is not as much needed as the grace in life. I hope that this kind of word rescues us from our natural concepts. Actually, the Lord did not have any trust in miracle-seeking people. John 2:23-24 says, “When He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed into His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them.” Too much miraculous healing distracts people from the inner life.
