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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:3-4; 1 Cor. 12:13; 6:17; Phil. 1:19b; Eph. 4:23; 2 Tim. 4:22a
There is one Body and one Spirit. I absolutely believe that at this time the Lord’s Spirit has led us to touch the matter of the Body, and from the Body to touch the new man. What we saw in the past was not very clear. Ephesians speaks of the Body at the very beginning and continues to speak of the Body, connecting it to the new man. Whenever it speaks of the Body, it connects it to the new man. We have seen not only the one Body but also the one new man. Now we can say, “One Body, one new man, and one Spirit.” In this chapter we will fellowship about the Spirit.
We know that the Body needs life, and the new man needs a person. With regard to the church as the Body of Christ, there is the need for Christ to be our life; with regard to the church as the new man, there is the need for Christ to be our person. At this time we want to point out clearly that, on the one hand, the Spirit is life, and on the other hand, He is a person. The Spirit is not only life to us but also a person. In the New Testament you can find certain passages that emphasize the Spirit as life. For example, the Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life;...the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). There is no doubt that the Spirit here refers to life. This Spirit is not a matter of person but of life. In other words, the Spirit here is not with respect to making decisions but with respect to supplying. The Spirit is life to be our supply. Some passages, however, refer to the Spirit with the emphasis on the person and not on life. For example: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). The emphasis concerning the spirit in this passage is not on life but on a person; the emphasis is not on life’s supplying but on a person’s leading and making decisions.
We admit that this point is new to us. I fully believe that in the past we did not have this utterance — that the Spirit is, on the one hand, life to us and, on the other hand, a person to us. In the past we spoke something about life being in the Spirit, and we also spoke about the Spirit being the person of the Lord. Jesus is the name, and the Spirit is the person. When we call, “Lord Jesus,” the Spirit comes; we immediately get the Spirit. At the same time, when this Spirit enters us, He becomes our life. Although we have spoken about these things, the light has never been as clear as it is today. Today we can clearly see that with respect to the Body, the Spirit is life, and with respect to the new man, this Spirit is a person. One Body, one new man, and one Spirit. This one Spirit is the life of the Body and the person of the new man.
First Corinthians 12:13 says that whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we were all baptized into one Body. Where were we baptized? In one Spirit. In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body. Furthermore, we were all given to drink one Spirit. This passage refers to the Spirit twice: once for baptism and once for drinking. Baptism is our being put into this Spirit, and drinking is our getting this Spirit into us. The emphasis here is not on the Spirit as a person but as life.
Another portion, Philippians 1:19, speaks of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. You must admit that this refers to the Spirit as a person. Since it is He who comes to supply us, it is not just a matter of life but of a person.
We must be clear that for both the Body and the new man, what we need is this Spirit. Without the Spirit, the Body is short of life, and the new man is short of a person.
The problem with today’s Christianity is that many do not know the Spirit in a proper way. Christianity teaches that God is three persons — the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit — in one Body. I was clear about this doctrine from my childhood, but I had no experience of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was a term, the Holy Son was a term, and the Holy Father was also a term. These are the three terms for the Triune God. This is the teaching of the old, orthodox Christianity. Gradually, the Pentecostal movement came in with another way of teaching that confused people even more. According to the Pentecostal people, it does not matter whether you speak of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God. They say that if you speak in tongues, you have the Holy Spirit, and if you do not speak in tongues, you do not have the Holy Spirit. I also experienced the Pentecostal movement, and at that time I even led people, taught people, and encouraged people to speak in tongues. When I look back on those tongue-speakings, they were always, “Duh, duh, duh,” or “Dee, dee, dah.” What are these so-called tongues? Only the Lord knows.
In any case, we cannot approve of this kind of tongue-speaking. In addition, throughout history there have been millions of people who really had life and power yet never spoke in tongues. Many people were truly helped by Brother Watchman Nee, and I served the Lord beside him. He clearly told me that he had never spoken in tongues. Furthermore, in 1936 when he heard that I was in Tientsin speaking in tongues and leading others to speak in tongues, he immediately sent me a telegram from Shanghai. The telegram had neither a salutation nor a complimentary close; it contained only one sentence: “Not all speak in tongues.” As soon as I read it, I understood. It is true that not all speak in tongues, and he himself never spoke in tongues. Can you say that one such as he did not have the Holy Spirit? You cannot say this.
We must leave the teachings of this group or that group in Christianity; there are too many teachings. Early on in the second and third centuries there were great battles over the ways to speak about the truths of the Trinity, and in the end there were the church councils and synods to discuss how to resolve these disagreements. In the past thirty to fifty years this battle has been going on. Because the old traditional teaching concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was too doctrinal, dead, and nonexperiential, it brought in a reaction called the Pentecostal movement. This reaction began in the past century around the year 1850. At the beginning the reaction was wild with jumping, rolling, and many other things. More recently this movement has become a movement of spiritual gifts, and it is more cultured and more moderate without the laughing, jumping, and rolling. However, the focus is on this one thing: If you speak in tongues, you have the Holy Spirit, and if you do not speak in tongues, you do not have the Holy Spirit. You can see the two extremes in Christianity: One is to teach empty doctrines, and the other is to promote speaking in tongues.
Because of the dead doctrines on one side and the wild Pentecostal things on the other, we were led to the Bible to make a thorough study. I can tell you that over the past fifty years there have been two topics that we studied the most. The first is the church; in these fifty years we have been very clear concerning the revelation of the church. The second is the Holy Spirit. In these years I do not know how much time we have spent studying the Spirit. We read and studied the Bible again and again, and we have gotten clear about almost every passage in the Bible that refers to the Spirit. Moreover, we can say that we have consulted almost every great school of teaching from the second century up through the present to see their explanation and understanding of the Holy Spirit. From this we have discovered that two things are lacking in the discussions concerning the Spirit throughout the centuries.
First, there is the lack of the knowledge of how the Lord in His death and resurrection became the life-giving Spirit. No one taught clearly enough on this point. In the past it seems that this was something seen uniquely among us and that we may have been the only ones to tell people about it. Anyone who has been with us for some time knows that we did not have the utterance for this in mainland China. When we were in mainland China, prior to 1949, the books we put out did not have this teaching, that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Nor did we release any messages on this topic. It was only after coming to Taiwan that we began to emphasize that when our Lord Jesus Christ died and then entered into resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection. In these last three to five years, however, we discovered that in the past and even up to the present, there have been many great Bible expositors who have said the same thing. Some said that in resurrection Christ and the Holy Spirit are equal; some said that in resurrection Christ is the Spirit of power. These points have been seen, but throughout the centuries no one has sufficiently emphasized or developed them.
Second, prior to us there may never have been anyone who paid adequate attention to the seven Spirits in Revelation. Today we not only see that the Holy Spirit is part of the Triune God — the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit — nor do we only see the Spirit of Pentecost who enables people to have the manifestation of different gifts, including speaking in tongues — but we also see that the resurrected Christ is the life-giving Spirit and that in the darkest hour of the church age this Spirit has become the sevenfold intensified Spirit. God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is triune. Doctrinally speaking, this is absolutely correct. Furthermore, on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out, people did receive gifts and spoke in tongues. This, too, is correct. However, it is not sufficient to see only these two matters; we must go on to see that the resurrected Christ is the life-giving Spirit in resurrection. On the one hand, the Lord resurrected and ascended to the heavens, but on the other hand, He remained on the earth after His resurrection. From the aspect of ascension He has already been made both Lord and Christ. From the aspect of remaining on the earth, He is the life-giving Spirit in resurrection. In the heavens He is the Lord, and on the earth He is the life-giving Spirit. This involves a great deal more than His simply being the Holy Spirit and the One giving gifts at Pentecost. Furthermore, today in the church’s darkest hour He is the sevenfold intensified Spirit, the seven Spirits before the throne of God. We must add up all four of these aspects: the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of Pentecost is the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit is the seven Spirits.
What is our conclusion? Our conclusion is that today this Triune God is the very Spirit. In this Spirit there is the Holy Father; in this Spirit there is the Holy Son; in this Spirit there is the Holy Spirit; in this Spirit there is divinity; in this Spirit there is the uplifted, resurrected humanity; in this Spirit there is the Lord Jesus’ all-inclusive death with its efficacy; and in this Spirit there is His resurrection with its power. In this Spirit there are all the glory of divinity and all the virtues of humanity.
This Spirit is what the New Testament calls “the Spirit.” John 7:39 says, “This He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Ephesians 4:3 says, “Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit.” The Spirit spoken of in these passages is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Pentecost, the life-giving Spirit, and the sevenfold intensified Spirit. When we speak about one Body, one new man, and one Spirit, the one Spirit refers to “the Spirit.” The Spirit is life with respect to the Body of Christ, and the Spirit is the person with respect to the new man. The Spirit is the life of the Body and also the person of the new man.
My burden at this time is on how to enjoy the Spirit. The secret to enjoying the Spirit is found in 1 Corinthians 12:13. We all must believe that we have experienced the first half of 1 Corinthians 12:13. In one Spirit, that is, in “the Spirit,” we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks. The Spirit and the Body are connected. We must believe that we believers of the Lord were in that one Spirit baptized into one Body. Do you believe that you are in the Body today? Since you believe that you are in the Body, then you must also believe that you are in the Spirit. It does not matter whether or not you speak in tongues. Do not be bothered by this point. The fact is that all of us believers in the Lord have been baptized in one Spirit into one Body.
Today the problem is with the second part of 1 Corinthians 12:13: “And were all given to drink one Spirit.” The Greek text here is very difficult to translate. The meaning of the original language is that you have been placed in a position to drink. It is as if there is a drinking fountain outside, and you bring me to it and set me in the right position. Then I am able to drink from that drinking fountain. From the first day that we were baptized into the Body, we were placed in a position in which we were given to drink one Spirit. We all have the position to drink the Spirit.
Anyone can tell from reading 1 Corinthians 12:13 that it is not a small verse but a great verse in the Bible. We have all been baptized into the Spirit, and now we need to drink this Spirit. Drinking is the way that we receive Him. We have already been baptized into the Body and have been put in this position, so now we need to drink.
The problem in Christianity is that many people think too much and do not drink enough. The theology and teaching in Christianity are all on thinking, not on drinking. However, I have found a secret: I do not need to think, study, discuss, or quote the Bible; I simply need to drink. Consider a glass of water. No matter how much you try to study, analyze, and describe the water, not even the scientists among us who may have written ten books on the subject can give a clear explanation of what water is. Moreover, the scientists may eventually divide into different groups and fight among themselves. When I drink from a glass and take the water into my being, my thirst is quenched and I am strengthened, but not even someone with five Ph.D.’s is able to research, discuss this glass of water, and clearly explain it. If the tiny human brain cannot explain a simple glass of water, how can it thoroughly explain the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Pentecost, and the sevenfold intensified Spirit? It is impossible.
I exhort you all not to think, discuss, or write about drinking; simply come to drink. Here is the easiest way: Come to drink the glass of water. I am afraid that you may go out to speak about the water, but none of you will drink the water. You do not get a drink by talking about it, nor do you get a drink by understanding it or by speaking about it correctly. I could be a country person who cannot say anything correctly, but I can constantly drink this water. Let us all drink this water.
How do we drink? We simply need to call, “O Lord Jesus!” It is that simple. You may oppose and argue, but if you do not drink in this way, you will not get a drink. Just try it and see. Let us all leave our position as “scholars” and be “country folks,” living the “country life” and drinking together. If your drinking is too refined, you will not enjoy the taste much. On the other hand, uneducated country people often enjoy their drinking. I would urge everyone not to care about being polite when eating the spiritual feast; simply care for the enjoyment by tasting its sweetness and eating to your heart’s content.
From our experience we have discovered that if you do not call on the Lord’s name, you will probably not get a drink of the living water. We have all been given to drink the one Spirit. I would ask you, have you drunk yet? How much have you drunk? Do you drink daily? I can certainly testify that since the day I saw this, I have realized that I cannot get by without drinking.
Do not ever consider that calling on the Lord’s name is a small matter. It is a great matter! In our physical body, breathing is a crucial matter. In the spiritual things, if you have the experience, you will understand that drinking is breathing, breathing is drinking, and drinking is eating. Have you heard this kind of speaking before? Breathing is drinking, and drinking is eating. What is breathing? It is calling on the name of the Lord, as in Hymns, #73, stanza 2, which says, “Blessed Jesus! Mighty Savior! / In Thy Name is all I need; / Just to breathe the Name of Jesus, / Is to drink of Life indeed.” For us to breathe is just to drink, and to drink is just to eat. A baby eats by drinking milk; his drinking is his eating. We all must understand that our calling on the Lord today is our breathing the Lord, our breathing the Lord is our drinking the Lord, and our drinking the Lord is our eating the Lord. When we breathe much, that is our drinking; and when we drink much, that is our eating. All we need to do is call on the Lord’s name, and we simultaneously drink and eat. The result is that we receive air, water, and food. When a person receives air, water, and food, will he not be healthy?
I remember clearly that twenty years ago the Lord began to recover among us the matters of exercising our spirit, using our spirit, releasing our spirit, and eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord. In the spring of 1958, in this very place, we had three conferences in a row for two weeks each, in which we spoke about eating, drinking, and enjoying God. From that time until today, we have spoken more and more on this topic, and the more we speak, the more we have to speak. I believe that this teaching will increase more and more among us because this is our most critical personal need. If as co-workers and responsible brothers in the churches you do not know how to breathe, drink, eat, and enjoy the Lord, you will never be able to make the churches in your localities living.
Dear brothers and sisters, I do not approve of screaming, shouting, and making much noise. However, I also do not agree with the old Christianity way in which everyone comes at the scheduled time clutching a Bible to have a worship service, and while waiting for the pastor to come, each one greets this friend and that friend. If you want me to go back to support this, I cannot do it, even if you were to threaten me with beheading. This practice kills people, and I do not want to be an “executioner.” Nor do I encourage you to scream, shout, leap, or jump. However, if we keep pace with the Lord’s recovery by constantly calling on the Lord in spirit, breathing the Lord, drinking the Lord, and eating the Lord, then we will daily partake of Him and experience Him as our living water and our Companion. If all of us here at this time, more than ten thousand people, were the “living creatures” and if we were to live this way to such an extent that even the universe would be startled, then all the demons would flee from us.
We may use this conference as an example. The way of Christianity is that each denomination first sends representatives to a joint planning session in which the leader of the conference is chosen and the methods are discussed. Then they put advertisements in all the newspapers. In the conference meetings everything is done according to rituals, and the atmosphere is dead. In the church, however, if everyone is burning inwardly by eating, drinking, and breathing the Lord, then we, like Benjamin, as ravenous wolves, will tear the devil to pieces (cf. Gen. 49:27). Whenever we are living, the demons immediately flee. When we sing hymns, there are not even any shadows, but all are in life, and the angels in the air shout for joy. I tell you that anyone who comes into such a situation will be saved. Everyone will be enlivened because death will have already been swallowed up by the life of the church. I deeply feel that the church in each locality should have such a condition.
I would only ask that when you get into life and have this living, you would please avoid natural activities. We do not want to have any activities in the flesh. We want our spirit to be strong, living, and released. I definitely know that calling on the Lord will change us, but you should not shout early in the morning when the neighbors are still sleeping. This is neither ethical nor righteous. Our voices should not be thrust on others. We can call on the Lord Jesus softly, gently, and quietly. Also when we come together for morning watch, we should not disturb others with our loud pray-reading of the Word and our calling on the Lord’s name. We should always exercise heavenly wisdom; the new man should have the wisdom of the new man.
My point is that you should not forget that we all must drink the Spirit. There is no other way to drink the Spirit except by calling on the name of the Lord. Calling on the Lord is absolutely scriptural; it has a basis in the Bible. First Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” Thus, even if you reverse the order of the name, when you say, “Jesus is Lord,” you are in the Spirit. As soon as you open your mouth and breathe, the air gets into you. Today the Spirit is the living air, so all you need to do is call on the Lord’s name: “O Lord Jesus!” Then you will immediately feel that within you there is some fresh air. This is not something psychological. If you call on Socrates, Washington, or Lincoln, nothing will happen. However, when you call on the Lord Jesus, something happens. Even if you call on Him in a joking way, six out of ten times you will be touched by the Lord. If you were to call on all the famous people from the past to the present, you could call for half a day, but the more you call, the more thirsty you would become, because those names do not give water or breath. However, when you call, “O Lord Jesus!” you will be completely changed. If you call a few more times, your tears will well up. “O Lord Jesus, You are so good and so sweet. I love You.” We can all experience this.
If you go back and reread both the Old and New Testaments, you will discover that there are several hundred records of calling on the Lord. The verses on calling that I treasure the most are Lamentations 3:55-56: “I called upon Your name, O Jehovah, / From the lowest pit. / ...do not hide / Your ear at my breathing.” This clearly tells us that calling on the Lord is our breathing. Both the Body and the new man depend on breathing the Lord’s name. When we call on the Lord’s name and drink the Spirit, the Spirit is life to the Body and the person to the new man. It is by enjoying the Lord in this way that all the saints on the entire earth can become one new man.
