Search
I. God's eternal purpose
А. A people to express God
B. Man being made in God's image
II. The way God fulfills His eternal purpose
А. God's economy (oikonomia)
B. God's dispensing of Himself to produce the Body
III. God as the Spirit reaching man
А. The way God can enter into the believers
B. The Spirit being the transmission of God
IV. The Spirit being the entire Triune God
V. The Spirit of reality
VI. The human spirit
А. For contacting God
B. Being the key to the Christian life
C. The greatness of man's spirit
In the New Testament there are three verses that speak of both the human spirit and the divine Spirit. They are important verses that you should memorize. They are John 3:6, John 4:24, and Romans 8:16.
[In John 3:6 we read: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." This verse speaks of two distinct "spirits": one is capitalized and the other is not. The first occurrence of the word refers to the Holy Spirit of God, and the second to the human spirit of man. That which is born of the Holy Spirit is the human spirit. Another verse showing these two "spirits" is John 4:24: "God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and reality." Again, the first "Spirit" is capitalized and the second is not. We must worship God, who is the Spirit, in our human spirit. Romans 8:16 further confirms the existence of two spirits: "The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God." The pronoun "our" definitely designates the human spirit and removes any ground to doubt the reality of both the divine Spirit and the human spirit.]
Many who have been Christians for years have never seen the two spirits in these verses. Yet, this is a crucial truth concerning God, His purpose, and our Christian experience.
[According to Ephesians 3, in eternity past God planned to work Himself into His chosen people. His eternal purpose is to have a people with Him as life. God will be within them and they will be one with Him. This people will be the Body of Christ to express God Himself in Christ. First they are the church and eventually the New Jerusalem.]
[The Bible tells us that in eternity past there was only God. Then He purposed to have a Body for Christ. For this He created the universe and then man, the center of the universe. Man, Genesis 1:26 tells us, was made in a specific way. He was made in God's image and according to His likeness. Why was it that God made man in His own form? It was because God intended that one day He would enter man to make man His container, with Himself as the content. From the very beginning, then, from the time of man's creation, the preparation was made for man to contain God.]
The way in which God fulfills His eternal purpose is His "economy." [The economy of God is to dispense Himself into His chosen, predestinated, and redeemed people as their life, their life supply, and their everything. We have spent much time to study the Greek word for economy or dispensation used in Ephesians 1:10; 3:9 and 1 Timothy 1:4 — oikonomia. This Greek word is a compound word made up of oikos, meaning house, and nomos, meaning law. If you trace the root of this word, it goes back to a word that refers to the parceling out of food, the distributing of food as in parcels. This root word also means to distribute food to the cattle for grazing. It is God's economy to parcel Himself out to us as our life and as our life supply.]
[In God's economy He dispenses Himself into His people as life, as life supply, and as everything to them. He dispenses Himself as their strength, their power, their wisdom, their righteousness, their holiness, their love, their kindness, and even as their attributes and virtues. This is God's economy. Out of this economy many believers are being produced to be the components of the Body of God's Son for a full expression of the Triune God. This is our vision concerning God's economy.]
In what way could the infinite God be dispensed into man? [The Father by Himself cannot reach us, nor can the Son by Himself enter into us. The Father is unapproachable (1 Tim. 6:16), but the Son came to tabernacle among us (John 1:14). But still He was not able to enter into us because He was blood and flesh. As a man with a physical body He was able to be among His disciples, but not within them. So He told His disciples that He had to die and to be raised up. By His death and resurrection His form was changed from a physical form into a spiritual form. He became the pneumatic Christ who was able to enter into His disciples (John 20:22). This is the reaching of the Triune God. When the Triune God reaches His redeemed people, He is the Spirit.]
[God the Father is embodied in God the Son, and God the Son is realized, transmitted, experienced and gained by us in God the Spirit. The Spirit as the third in the Godhead is God being our realization and experience. This means that the application of the Triune God to us comes by the Spirit of God. For this reason, in our experience the Triune God is the Spirit.
Electrical current is an illustration of the Spirit as the application of the Triune God. Apart from the current of electricity, electricity cannot be applied. In its application, electricity needs to become an electrical current. The current, however, is not something different from electricity itself. The current of electricity is simply electricity in motion. In the same principle, the application of the Triune God to us is the Spirit. The Spirit is the current of the Triune God for us to apply; He is the Triune God in motion.]
Furthermore, [it is very important to see that the Father and the Son are fully realized in the Spirit as the third of the Godhead. This means that we cannot separate the Holy Spirit from the Son or the Father. The three of the Godhead not only coexist, but They also coinhere. Hence, among the Father, Son, and Spirit there are both coexistence and coinherence. God is triune; He is three-one.] We have covered these matters quite thoroughly in the Triune God lesson book.
[The Holy Spirit is the ultimate and consummate reaching of the Triune God to us. Do not think that when the Holy Spirit reaches you, only He, the third of the Godhead, comes, and that the Father and the Son remain in heaven. Some Christians have such an understanding. Instead of believing that Christ is in us, they claim that Christ sent the Holy Spirit to function as His representative in us. This concept is altogether wrong. The Bible does not speak of the Spirit representing the Son in the believers. On the contrary, according to the Scriptures, when the Holy Spirit comes, the Son comes with Him and in Him. The Father also comes with the Son and the Spirit. This means that when the Holy Spirit comes to us, the entire Triune God comes. According to the Bible, we may say that the Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow. How marvelous that the Holy Spirit is the consummate reaching of the Triune God to you and me!]
Because the Spirit is the realization of the Triune God, He is called the Spirit of reality (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). [In John 16:13 we see that the Spirit of reality guides us into all the reality: "But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever he hears He will speak; and he will disclose to you what is to come." The Spirit of reality guides the believers into all the reality of the Triune God and of all divine matters. The Spirit of reality guides us into the reality of justification, holiness, love, and all other divine things. He leads us into, brings us into, the reality of these things.]
[If we would apply all that God and Christ are, we need the Spirit. We must praise the Lord that today He is not only the Father and the Son but also the Spirit. He is not only the source and the course but also the application. The Spirit reaches us, entering into us and applying all that we need of the Father and the Son. This is wonderful.]
[Man can be likened to a radio. The Spirit of God is like the heavenly radio waves. The spirit in man is like the radio receiver. Many radios do not function because their owners do not use their spirit! People are unable to contact God because the receiver within them is out of order.] If man did not have a spirit, he would be unable to contact God.
[It is in our spirit that we were born again (John 3:6); it is in our spirit that we were made alive (Eph. 2:5; Rom. 8:10); it is in our spirit that God dwells (Eph. 2:22; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16); it is in our spirit that we are joined to the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17); and it is in our spirit that we contact and worship God (John 4:24). Now we must walk and have our whole being according to our spirit — serving in our spirit (Rom. 1:9), praying in spirit (Eph. 6:18), being filled in spirit (Eph. 5:18), seeing God's revelation in spirit (Eph. 1:17; 3:5; Rev. 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10), having fellowship with the brothers and sisters in spirit (Phil. 2:1); and being built together with others into a dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:22).]
[Zechariah 12:1 tells us that there are three crucial things in God's creation: the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. It says that Jehovah is the One who "stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him." How great is our spirit! The heavens are for the earth. Without the heavens, the earth could not have anything organic. The earth is for man, and man is for God. For man to be for God, he needs a receiver. This receiver is our human spirit. Praise the Lord that we are here under God's plan and in His plan; that we have been made by Him in His image and after His likeness; that we have a spirit to receive Him; and that He, as the divine Spirit, has entered into our human spirit, making us His sons for His expression! This is His plan.]
God's eternal purpose is to have a people that would express Him. The way He fulfills this purpose is called His economy. In His economy, God as the Spirit dispenses Himself into man. God is able to dispense Himself into man because He is the Spirit and man has a spirit. The Spirit transmits the entire Triune God, and the human spirit receives this transmission. Our spirit is the means for us to contact the Triune God; therefore the human spirit is a great thing in the universe. By the divine Spirit entering the human spirit, God will accomplish His desire.
