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Scripture Reading: John 1:29, 32-33; 3:5-6; 4:24; 6:63; 7:37-39; 14:17; 16:13; 20:22; Rev. 2:7; 5:6
In this small book and particularly in this chapter, we want to see what our urgent need is today. Our need today is nothing other than the Triune God as the Spirit. The book of John stresses our need of the Spirit, who is the reality of the divine life. John also shows us the principle of life versus good or evil. If we desire to have a proper church life, we need to live and work according to the tree of life, not according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We will see something concerning this in chapter 2. In chapter 3 we will fellowship concerning the two kinds of fruit out of the divine life. We need to walk by the Spirit to bear the fruit of Christian virtues so that we can be prevailing in the gospel to bear the fruit of saved persons regenerated with the divine life.
The relationship between us and God is something that we cannot fully describe. According to Genesis 1:26, God created man in His own image. It is a great matter for us to be created in the very image of the Triune God. The Bible shows us that the intention of God in creating us in His image is to make us one with Him. Man as the creation of God is to be made one with God. God’s desire was for humanity to be made one with divinity. Not many Christians realize that God’s intention is to make Himself one with us. When God makes us one with Him, He is making Himself one with us.
It is wonderful to have our sins forgiven and receive the redemption of Christ. It is wonderful to be regenerated with God, of God, and by God. But we must remember that God’s intention in redemption and regeneration is that we and He would be joined together as one. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” As believers in Christ, we are joined to the Lord, and we are one spirit with Him. When you are living in your daily life, do you realize that you are one with God, that you are one spirit with the Lord? The Bible says that we were made according to the image of God, that we have been reborn of God (John 1:13; 3:3, 6), and that we are one spirit with the Lord.
Now we have to ask how we could be one spirit with the Lord. The Bible shows us that God as a whole is Spirit (John 4:24), and it also refers to the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2; Rom. 8:9). In resurrection the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Furthermore, the third of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God, the life-giving Spirit, and the Holy Spirit are the one Spirit. We need the sixty-six books of the Bible to reveal the one Spirit to us. Eventually, in the book of Revelation this one Spirit becomes the seven Spirits (4:5; 5:6). God’s intention to make Himself one with us could be accomplished only by His being a Spirit. If God were not a Spirit, there would be no way for Him to be one with us. God has to be a Spirit, and He is the Spirit. God became a man, and after He accomplished redemption on the cross as the Lamb of God, in His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit. Then when He comes to us as the third of the Trinity, He is the Holy Spirit. By being such a Spirit, He is capable of being one with us.
After the Lord Jesus, the incarnated God, died on the cross and entered into His resurrection, He came back to His disciples, breathed into them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). At that time He was the Spirit, and He breathed Himself into His disciples as the Spirit. It is so easy for the air to get into us and be one with us. Wherever we go on the earth, the air follows us and is even at our destination, waiting to meet us. If we do not breathe the air for even a short period of time, we can die. The Triune God is like the omnipresent air to us. He is a wonderful, divine person mingled with humanity as the divine air for us to breathe in and enjoy. We cannot understand Him to the uttermost, but we can experience Him all the time.
When a local church has been established and has existed for a number of years, it has a tendency to become old. Degradation comes from oldness. We have to find out why we become old. The reason that we become old is that we are short of the Spirit, who is the processed Triune God. Today we are receiving the Spirit of the Triune God who has gone through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Although we have such a Spirit, we are short of this Spirit. We may have much knowledge, terminology, and doctrines, but we are short of the Spirit. The reality of all the doctrines is the Spirit. The Spirit is called the Spirit of reality (14:17). If there were no Spirit, God would not be real. God is not real to us without the Spirit, because the reality of God is the Spirit. The reality of Jesus Christ and the reality of the resurrection of Christ are the Spirit. Without the Spirit, even the eternal life, the life of God, is not real. The Spirit is the reality of the divine life.
The Spirit is also the reality of so many other items, such as righteousness. Without the Spirit there is no righteousness. Without the Spirit there is also no real humility. A person may seem to be very humble, but that is not humility in actuality. In actuality the Spirit is the reality of our humility. Love without the Spirit is a falsehood. Our natural love is a falsehood because it is a love with a motive for ourselves. As long as our love is not the Spirit, that love is not real. The New Testament shows us that the Spirit is the reality of all the positive things in the universe, including God, Christ, resurrection, the divine attributes, and even the proper human virtues. The reality of the positive things in the universe is uniquely the Spirit. You may be a professor, a doctor, or a president, but without the Spirit you are simply a vanity. To be a real man, we must be filled with the Spirit. This is our urgent need.
We do not need what we are in our natural life. Whatever we are is a falsehood. We must not trust our humility or kindness. Whatever we are is not trustworthy. Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” If a person thinks he is true, he must consider himself to be God. In Mark 10 a young man came to the Lord Jesus and said, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” The Lord Jesus replied, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except One—God” (vv. 17-18). To call one good means that you consider him to be God. If you say that you are true, you are blaspheming. Only God uniquely is true. We all are a falsehood. The reality, the real thing, is the Spirit.
The Spirit is all we need. Doctrines, terminologies, and points without the Spirit are condemned. Our no is condemned, and our yes is just as condemned. Evil is condemned, and good is likewise condemned. Genesis 2 speaks of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (v. 9b). The tree of evil is also the tree of good. Neither evil nor good is life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil brings us death (v. 17). Four things are related to this complicated tree: knowledge, good, evil, and death. Besides this tree there is the tree of life (v. 9a). It is purely and simply of life. There is no knowledge, good, or evil involved with it, so there is no death. The more knowledge you have, the more poison of death you have received. The more you talk about good and evil, yes or no, right or wrong, the more you have been poisoned with death. In so many years of service in the churches, I have rarely been to a church in which there is no talk about who is right and who is wrong. Wherever a serving one goes, some cases will be brought to him, and he will be asked to decide matters of yes or no and right or wrong. This is the poison of the serpent, which is the poison of death.
Our need is the Spirit. Christians always like to talk about revival. However, in the entire New Testament the word revival is not used. For many years I did not know the reason for this. However, today I realize that we do not need a revival; we need the Spirit. The Spirit is here today. If you are a person short of air, it is foolish to say you need a revival. The air is here. You simply need the proper breathing to take the air in. You even need some particular deep breathing several times a day. Those who are regenerated do not need a revival. The Spirit, who is life, is within us just like the air. We simply need to breathe Him in.
If we all drop everything else and take care of breathing the Spirit, we will be very healthy. Stop your gossiping with the saints and with your spouse. Simply pray. Do not pray for others, saying, “Lord, have mercy upon him that he might repent.” You do not need to pray in this way. You should rather pray for yourself: “Lord, shine over me and shine from within me.” After ten minutes of this kind of prayer, you will have a deep sensation that the Spirit is moving in you. You will be filled, not with knowledge but with the Spirit.
Many times we do not need to speak so much in prayer. Simply call “O Lord Jesus.” If you would call on the name of the Lord for ten minutes without speaking anything else, you will experience the proper breathing. Speaking too much in prayer and mentioning too many things concerning others can terminate the proper breathing. The proper breathing is simply to call on the name of the Lord. You do not even need to confess your failures with so many words. The fewer words you use and the more calling you do, the better. While you are exchanging words with your spouse, you should change your arguing to calling “O Lord Jesus.” This will not only stop your arguing, but it will also cause you to be filled with the Spirit. All that we need is to pray and be filled with the Spirit.
My burden is to point out our shortage. We are short of the Spirit. Today the saints in the churches may have too much knowledge, too much terminology, and too much discernment exercised toward others rather than toward themselves. This kills the churches and the saints and annuls the things of the divine life. Whether we are right or wrong, good or bad, does not matter. We are short of the Spirit.
We may hear many messages concerning Christ from the Word. But when we hear them, we may merely be infused with more terminology. After returning home from the meeting, one brother may say that the teaching was very good, but another brother may say it was not so good. One brother may uplift the speaker, but another brother may say that he cannot uplift him. This kind of talk is not healthy and enlivening. It is deadening. Today we all need the Spirit. We are short of the Spirit. This is why we may be in a pitiful situation of being critical and condemning others. Some may say, “I am for this,” and others may say, “I am for that.” This is similar to what was being spoken by the saints in the church in Corinth, where each one said, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ” (1 Cor. 1:12). This kind of talk is deadening and is a strong proof that we are short of the Spirit.
How much of the Spirit do we have today? We should not say that we experienced the Spirit many years ago. You may have drunk very much yesterday, but if you do not drink today and for the next three days, you may die. We may have been short of the living water of the Spirit for three months or more. Do not consider others. We must consider ourselves in this light. I like to keep myself filled with living water all the time. I like to be filled with the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit. I do not like to be full of knowledge. I hope that we all would say, “Lord Jesus, fill me. I hate the terminology. I hate gossiping. I hate murmurings, reasonings, and talk about others or even about myself. I hate all of this kind of talk. I want to be filled with You as the Spirit.”
Whether you uplift a minister of the Word or condemn him, whether you are for him or against him, you are still in the tree of knowledge. One may say, “I am for this person,” and another may say, “I will never be for him,” but both are altogether in the second tree, not in the tree of life. In 1 Corinthians 1:12 Paul condemned the one who said that he was of Christ as well as the one who said that he was of Paul. Paul might have said, “Do not say you are of Paul. Rather, I, Paul, am for you.” We must stop all deadening talk. This will be our rescue. Our deadening talk will be used by the subtle one, the old serpent, to spread his deadening poison. What we need is the Spirit.
Do not consider that you know anything. Paul said that he planted and Apollos watered, but God caused the growth (3:6). The life-giver is the unique One. Instead of being the means through which God can give life to others, we can give death to others. We should stop our deadening talk, turn to the Lord, and call “O Lord Jesus.” We should forget about everything else and simply call upon the name of the Lord.
We must first call upon the name of the Lord day after day. Then we must know nothing that we could talk about in a deadening way. Third, we must love one another. Do not love anyone with an impure motive. That is politics, and you will not be loving as a Christian but as a politician. Fourth, we should live Christ, walking in our spirit. We must not consider what is wrong or what is right. We should know only how to walk in our spirit. In our spirit is the Spirit. When we walk in the Spirit, He is walking with us, and we enjoy Christ and live Christ. Fifth, we should speak Christ to others in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2). This is to present Christ to others. Today the entire human society is thirsty. Everyone is a needy one and is thirsty. To speak Christ to people and to live Christ will attract people. Finally, we should always come together with the saints to worship, to fellowship, and to speak Christ and minister Christ to others. If we do this, the churches will be flourishing.
In the Lord’s recovery there are no heresies. There is no fundamental problem among us, and we do not have an organization. Forget about any rumors you may hear. Live a very simple life, loving the Lord, calling on Him, loving one another, walking in the Spirit, and preaching and speaking Christ to everyone you meet, in season and out of season. Then we should do our best to come to the meetings, either in the homes, in small groups, or in a big meeting. Then we will enjoy Him. What we are will be expressed, and this will quench the thirst of today’s society and meet the need of people today. Spontaneously, we will be the lampstand, and we will be able to attract others. People will be saved through us. Let us take this way positively.
All the saints are lovable, and no one is worthy of being criticized, so we do not need to spend time on the negative things. Some are afraid that we may go astray, but do not be anxious for tomorrow. None of us can live a life in tomorrow. In this sense we do not have tomorrow. What we have is today. Be at peace, and enjoy your life today.
From now on I hope that there will be no more negative talk. Whenever you hear something negative, remind one another not to talk in this way. Say something positive, wonderful, and beautiful. Then we will see the churches flourish. In Romans 14:4 Paul says, “Who are you who judge another’s household servant? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will be made to stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” We need to have this kind of spirit. Do not worry about others. Simply live today, always considering others more highly than yourself. Love everyone. Christians are a loving people; the Christian life is a life of love. Only love builds up (1 Cor. 8:1). Therefore, we should remind one another to avoid negative talk and keep ourselves filled with the Spirit all the time. Our urgent need is the Spirit of the Triune God.
