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In this chapter we shall consider a number of crucial verses pertaining to the Spirit and to our experience of the Spirit. All these verses are deeper and more profound than we have ever realized.
In John 4 the Samaritan woman brought up the matter of the worship of God, saying, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship” (v. 20). In His reply to her the Lord Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (v. 24). If you are religious, in your worship of God you will bow down and say, “O God.” But according to John 4:24, we must worship God in spirit and in truthfulness. In our worship of God there is no visible object. Because God is Spirit, He is invisible. This Spirit is like the breath or the air. In fact, the Greek word for Spirit is the same word as the word for air or breath. When we worshipped God in the past, according to our concept, we worshipped One who was great and mighty or One who was in the heavens. We need to drop our religious concepts and worship in spirit. Actually, chapter 4 of John does not deal with the worship of God but with the drinking of the living water. The Lord Jesus met the Samaritan woman for the purpose of giving her a drink. This is the subject of this portion of the Word. However, because of the religious question raised by the immoral, yet religious, Samaritan woman, the Lord Jesus spoke the word about worshipping in spirit. The Samaritan woman discovered that God was different from her concept of Him; for God is Spirit, and He is also a drink to satisfy our thirst.
According to John 4, the very God whom we worship is good for drinking. The proper worship of God is not to bow down before Him; it is to drink Him as the living water and to breathe Him as the living air. God is a living drink, the unique drink in the universe that can quench our thirst. If you would kneel down before this drink and say, “O God, I worship You and bow down before You,” He would say, “Foolish child, I don’t want you to bow down to Me, worshipping Me in your religious way. I am here for you to drink. You need to drink of Me. The more you drink of Me, the more you worship Me.” Have you ever realized that the true worship of God is the drinking of God? The more you drink of God, the more you worship Him.
We need to put together verses 14 and 24 of John 4. Verse 14, which speaks of drinking the living water, is the interpretation of verse 24. To drink of the living water is to worship God the Spirit. However, thousands of Christians worship God without drinking Him. Although they have worshipped Him again and again, they have never drunk of Him. When we say that God is Spirit, we do not mean that He is merely the object of our worship. No, when the Lord Jesus said that God is Spirit, He was indicating that we must drink of Him. In other words, we must receive Him into us, not only drinking Him as the water but also breathing Him in as the living air. God is our breath, and we must breathe Him in. Thus, drinking Him and breathing Him are true worship. Have you worshipped God today by drinking and breathing? In John 20:22 the very Spirit, who is God, is likened to the air, the breath, the pneuma, and in chapter 4 the Spirit is likened to living water. The air is the living water, and the living water is the air. Today we worship our God by breathing Him in and by drinking of Him. This is the proper way to worship God.
How much we need God as our air and as our water! Nothing is more necessary for our physical life than water and air. Although we may live for many days without eating, we can go only a few days without drinking and only several minutes without breathing. Air and water are most necessary for our living. As the Spirit, our God is both the air and the water. We need to breathe Him in as the air, and we need to drink of Him as the water. We need to have a deep breathing and a deep drinking. This breathing and drinking is our worship. God is Spirit, and we must worship Him by breathing and drinking. This is not a mere doctrine, for doctrine cannot quench our thirst or refresh us. But this Spirit refreshes us, quenches our thirst, and satisfies us. Hallelujah, God is Spirit for our enjoyment!
First Corinthians 12:13 says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” Because we all have been baptized into one Body, we all have been given, or positioned, to drink of one Spirit. Not many Christians fully realize that we have been positioned to drink of the Spirit. We all have been positioned in the living, eternal fountain to drink of the one Spirit. Thus, we are the drinking people.
Although you may be familiar with all these verses, my burden is that you daily and hourly experience drinking of the Lord. The Lord’s recovery is to bring you back to the drinking of God. Every day and all day we must drink of God. God, who is Spirit, is our drink. We should not worship Him in a religious way, but drink of Him in a living way. The genuine worship we render to God is our drinking of Him. The more we drink of Him, the more worship He receives from us. Whenever we come together, we should say, “Let us drink!” God is Spirit for us to drink.
Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This verse does not refer to a ritual; rather, it speaks of baptizing the believers into a name, which is the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. A name always denotes a person. For example, if I call a certain brother by name, the person himself responds. Thus, to be baptized into the name means to be baptized into the person, for the name is the person. According to this verse, the person into whom we are baptized is the person of the Triune God. The name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the name of the Triune God. It is not merely the Father or the Son or the Spirit but the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
There is no human language adequate to describe the Triune God in full. The Father denotes the source, the Son denotes the course, and the Spirit denotes the flow. The flow is with the course, and the course is with the source. These three, the source, the course, and the flow, are one reality. The source is in the course, and the course is the flow, the Spirit. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is the Spirit. Thus, we have the source, the course, and the flow of the reality. To baptize the believers into the name of the Triune God means to baptize them into the person of the divine source, the divine course, and the divine flow. In other words, to baptize believers into the name of the Triune God is to place them into the flow of the Triune God.
Before someone believes in the Lord, he has nothing to do with the Triune God; he has nothing to do with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But after a person believes in the Lord, we must exercise our faith to place him into the very reality of the Triune God. Today the reality of the Triune God is the flow of the Spirit with the course of the Son and the source of the Father. We baptize the believers into such a reality. This reality is a person, and this person is triune: the Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the Spirit as the flow. Proper baptism is to place the believers into the flow of the Triune God. When anyone is baptized into such a person, he is both satisfied and excited. Now he is in the flow, and he is even carried away by the flow.
When we were saved and baptized, most of us did not hear such a rich gospel or have such a proper baptism. I expect that from now on the churches in the Lord’s recovery will preach a rich gospel and practice the proper baptism of placing people into the person, the reality, of the Triune God, baptizing them into the Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the Spirit as the flow. In this way we put all the new converts into the flow of the Triune God. Are you in this flow? If you are, you should be able to say a strong Amen. Because I am in this flow, I am sometimes beside myself with joy. I am in the flow of the Spirit with the course of the Son and the source of the Father. When I am in the Spirit, I have the Son; and when I have the Son, I have the Father. How wonderful! When we believe in the Son, we have the Father; and when we call, “O Lord Jesus,” the Spirit comes, just as when we call a certain brother by name, the brother himself comes. Jesus is the name, and the Spirit is the person. Therefore, when we call on the name of Jesus, the Spirit comes. Therefore, we have all three of the Triune God: the Father, the source; the Son, the course; and the Spirit, the flow. We are people in the flow of the Triune God. We should not understand this merely in a doctrinal way but in the way of experience.
Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit are with us. Love is the source, grace is the course, and the fellowship is the flow. The fellowship is a matter of transmission, of conveying something into us. With the Father, the source, we have love. When the love comes forth, we have the course, the grace of Christ the Son. When this grace is conveyed to us, it becomes the fellowship of the Spirit. The fellowship of the Spirit transmits into us for our enjoyment all that Christ is along with the Father. This transmission is the flow, the fellowship. It is the transmission into our being of God the Spirit so that we may enjoy Him. Here in this transmission we enjoy the grace of Christ, and we taste the love of God. Here we are in the fellowship, the communication, the flow, of the Triune God. Day and night something is being transmitted into our being for our enjoyment. In this way we enjoy the love of God and the grace of Christ in the fellowship of the Spirit. Today this Spirit is constantly flowing into us, through us, and out of us. This is the fellowship of the Spirit.
Thus far, we have covered two aspects of the Spirit: that God is Spirit and that the Triune God issues in the Spirit. The Triune God with the Father as the source and with the Son as the course issues in the Spirit as the flow. The Father and the Son come to us in the flow of the Spirit. Therefore, the Triune God issues in the Spirit for our enjoyment.
Now we come to a crucial point: the fact that Christ, the Redeemer, became a life-giving Spirit. First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam was Jesus Christ in the flesh. As a man in the flesh, He was the Lamb of God who took away our sins. Furthermore, when He was crucified on the cross, He dealt with our natural life, our natural man, and our self. By dealing with our sins and our self, Christ made it possible for us to receive the divine life. God’s intention was to impart His life into us. As the Lamb of God, the last Adam accomplished these two things on the cross, taking away our sins and dealing with our self and natural life. Both are included in the glad tidings. We need to see that our sins have been taken away and that our self has been dealt with. Thus, we are able to receive the divine life. After dying on the cross to take away our sins and to deal with our natural life, the last Adam, our Redeemer, became in His resurrection a life-giving Spirit to impart Himself as life into us.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him as our Redeemer, it was the life-giving Spirit who came into us. Many believers do not realize that they received the Lord Jesus not only as the Redeemer and the Savior but also as the life-giving Spirit. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we knew that we were sinful. Therefore, we prayed, repented, confessed, and received Him as our Redeemer. However, we were not told that He would come into us to be our life. At least I was not told this when I believed in Him. However, I later found out that after believing in Him, there was something inside me that made me happy and joyful. Sometimes I even felt like leaping. Have you not had this experience? This is the experience of Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Although we received Him as our Redeemer, He came into us not only as our Redeemer but also as the life-giving Spirit. Today He is in us mainly as the life-giving Spirit.
If you ask believers where their Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, is, many lift up their eyes, point to heaven, and say, “He is in heaven.” Rarely do you find a Christian who, when asked where the Lord Jesus is, will say with rejoicing, “Christ is in me!” If you ask me where my Jesus is, I will say, “Jesus my Redeemer is, on the one hand, in the heavens as my Lord and, on the other hand, in me as the life-giving Spirit.” For this reason sometimes I am rejoicing, bubbling, and even beside myself with joy. Rejoice, Jesus Christ is the life-giving Spirit within us! Before coming into the church, you probably never heard that the Redeemer became a life-giving Spirit. But there is a verse in the Bible telling us that the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. It seems that those in Christianity do not have the second part of 1 Corinthians 15:45. After completing the work of redemption, Christ became the life-giving Spirit.
Verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 3 says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” and verse 17 says, “And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” If we put these verses together, we see that the Lord is the Spirit who gives life. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is no bondage, no deadness, no entanglement of letters and regulations. Because the life-giving Spirit is within me, I am free from the law, from knowledge, from bondage, from regulations, and from all dead letters. Hallelujah, I have the living One within me!
Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” If we, like mirrors, behold and reflect the Lord without having any veils on our faces, we shall be transformed into His image from one degree of glory to another. This is from the Lord Spirit. This indicates that the life-giving Spirit is now doing a transforming work within us. Our God is the Spirit for us to breathe in and to drink of, and our Triune God issues in the Spirit as the flow, the fellowship, the transmission. Also our Redeemer is the life-giving Spirit within us, imparting Himself into us as life. When we open to Him, gaze on Him, behold Him, and reflect Him, we are under the process of transformation. This means that all that He is, now is being transfused into our being. By being transfused with all that He is, we shall have a complete transformation. We shall be transformed into His image from one stage of glory to another. Eventually, we shall all be the same as He is. This does not take place by means of teaching or doctrine but by means of Him as the Lord Spirit. This Lord Spirit is in us right now.
To this point we have seen three aspects of the Spirit: that our God today is Spirit, that the Triune God issues in the Spirit as the flow, and that Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, has become the life-giving Spirit within us to transform us by imparting Himself into us as the transforming element. Do not think that you are so familiar with all these verses about the Spirit. You need to consider your experience. I do not care whether or not you know these verses. I am burdened to fellowship with you to bring you into the real experience of these verses. God is Spirit, the Triune God issues in the Spirit, and the Redeemer today is the life-giving Spirit, transmitting Himself into our being so that we may be transformed into His image to be exactly the same as He. We must experience this Spirit today.
Now we must proceed to see another aspect of the Spirit. Not only is God the Spirit, not only is the issue of the Triune God the Spirit, and not only has the Redeemer become the life-giving Spirit, but the words the Lord Jesus speaks are also Spirit. John 6:63 says, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Years ago I could not understand how the word could be the Spirit. Eventually, I learned that the word of God is Spirit because it is God’s breath. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.”
According to the New Testament, the word of God, which is God’s breath, has various functions. The first of these functions is nourishing, a function covered in John 6. This chapter reveals that the Lord Jesus is the bread of life (vv. 35, 58). The bread of life is the Lord Himself conveyed to us in His word. The word is the breath of God that nourishes us with Christ as our food. Thus, the word has a nourishing function. It is able to nourish us and to satisfy us with all that the Lord Jesus is. He is food, and this food is conveyed by the word, which is the Spirit. Whenever we come to the Bible, we should not simply take in the letters by exercising our mind to understand what is written. We must also exercise our spirit to touch God’s breath, the Spirit of the Lord. If we do this, we shall be nourished.
Ephesians 6:17 says, “Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” According to this verse, the word, which is the Spirit of God, has a killing function. It kills the enemy, the flesh, the self, the darkness, and all other negative things, such as hatred and envy. The word of God as the breath of God has the ability to kill. It has the capability to slay every negative thing. Many of us can testify that the more we pray-read the Word, the more the negative things within us are killed. Although you may not have the intention to kill your hatred, the living word that enters into you kills your hatred as you pray-read the Word. It also kills your pride. Again and again, the living word as the breath of God kills Satan. Hence, the word not only nourishes but also kills.
Second Timothy 3:16 and 17 indicate that the word of God also has the function of furnishing the believers. Many Christians are like unfurnished apartments with no bed to lie down upon and no sofa to rest on. Are you like this? We need to be furnished, and nothing can furnish us except the living word. The more you pray-read the Word, which is the breath of God, the living Spirit, the more you are furnished. Although teachings may instruct you, they cannot furnish you. You may read the verse that says, “Husbands, love your wives.” But if you simply take this verse as black and white letters, it will be a teaching to you; it will not furnish you. However, if you pray-read this verse and touch the Spirit in it, the Spirit will supply you with love. Then you will have something with which to love your wife. The word of God is not merely letters; it is God’s breath. As the living Spirit of God, it not only instructs us, corrects us, and reproves us, but it also furnishes us, equips us, with the riches of Christ. This is the way that we are equipped.
Therefore, the word of God has three main functions: the nourishing function, the killing function, and the furnishing function. Day by day we need to pray-read the Word, contacting the breath of God in order that we may be nourished, experience the killing power, and be furnished with all that we need for our Christian life. All that we need for our daily Christian living is conveyed into our being through the living word. We should not merely read and study the Scriptures with our mind; we must also exercise our spirit to contact the living word. If we do this, we shall receive the nourishment, experience the killing power, and be equipped with the divine elements. In this way we become a proper dwelling place for the Lord.
In this chapter we have seen four aspects of the Spirit. We have seen that God is Spirit, that the Triune God issues in the Spirit, that the Redeemer has become a life-giving Spirit, and that the word of the Lord, His breath, is the Spirit that nourishes, kills, and furnishes. In substance, God is Spirit; in His economy, the Triune God issues in the Spirit; in His consummation, the Redeemer has become the life-giving Spirit; and in His life supply, His word is the Spirit as the nourishing, killing, and furnishing instrument. We need the full experience of these four aspects of the Spirit. It is by this Spirit that we are transformed to be the same as Christ. It is by this Spirit in the Word that we are supplied with the nourishment, the killing power, and the equipping with all the divine elements. In this way we are fully equipped to be the Lord’s habitation.
