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Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 5:19-20; 1 Tim. 3:16; 2 Tim. 1:14; Titus 3:5b; Heb. 6:4b; 9:14; 10:29c; James 4:4-5; 1 Pet. 1:10-12a; 4:14; 1 John 3:24; 6, 4:13; 5:6-9; Rev. 2:7; 14:12-13; 22:17
In this chapter we want to continue to see the functions of the Spirit in the Epistles of the New Testament.
The Spirit has the function of preaching in the gospel. When we preach the gospel, the Spirit preaches in our preaching (1 Thes. 1:5; 1 Pet. 1:12b).
Another function of the Spirit is to give us joy in our affliction (1 Thes. 1:6b). When we are suffering, we enjoy the Spirit’s joy.
The Spirit has the function of inspiring for prophecies. First Thessalonians 5:19 and 20 say, “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies.” The Spirit is quenched by us when we would not speak. We all have to admit that we quench the Spirit many times. In the meetings of the church, we may have the feeling that we should stand up to speak, but we do not speak. We have to be strong in making up our mind to speak.
We Christians have a very wonderful function. When we speak, the Spirit comes out. In 2 Thessalonians 3:1 Paul asked the saints to pray for him that the word of the Lord might run and be glorified. For the word of the Lord to run is for the word of the Lord to have free course (see v. 1, KJV). The free course of the word is our speaking. If no one spoke the word of God, this would mean that God’s word was fully blockaded. If we are going to let the word of God run, we have to speak. We should not despise prophecies. That means we should not despise the speaking. The prophecies mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 5 are those described in 1 Corinthians 14. Verse 19 of 1 Thessalonians 5 tells us not to quench the Spirit. Then verse 20 tells us not to despise prophecies. These two things go together. If we quench the Spirit, we surely despise prophecies.
First Thessalonians 5:19 and 20 imply the inspiring of the Spirit in speaking. We should speak whether we feel that it is the right time or the wrong time to speak (2 Tim. 4:2). Actually, the time is always right for us to speak. The considerations in our mind that discourage us from speaking for the Lord are devilish. We need to reject such considerations. We may have a burden to speak and yet not know how to begin our speaking. I have learned not to consider what I would speak as an opening word. We just need to stand and speak. Quite often when I begin to speak, I am not very clear what I am going to speak. But the Lord is faithful to give me the living speaking by the Spirit. Of course, this does not mean that we should speak in a loose or nonsensical way. We need to look to the Lord as the Spirit, trusting Him to speak in our speaking. Still, as long as we speak, this is better than not speaking.
We should not be overly concerned about making mistakes when we speak. When we do things in a wrong way, we learn to do them in the right way. If a person wants to learn how to play the piano, he must practice and make mistakes to learn how to play correctly. His tutor will correct him. Our tutor in our speaking for the Lord is the Spirit. If we speak wrongly in a meeting, the Spirit within us will adjust us. For us to speak is to give the word of God a free course.
According to 1 Timothy 3:16, the Spirit functioned to vindicate Christ, who was manifested in the flesh. The incarnated Christ in His human living was not only vindicated as the Son of God by the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; Rom. 1:3-4) but also justified, proved, and approved as right and righteous by the Spirit (Matt. 3:15-16; 4:1). He was manifested in the flesh but vindicated and justified in the Spirit. He was in the flesh manifesting God, and He lived in the Spirit (Luke 4:1, 14; Matt. 12:28). This Spirit vindicated that He was God manifested in the flesh.
The Spirit also functions to speak in prophesying. First Timothy 4:1 says, “The Spirit says expressly that in later times some will depart from the faith.” This verse does not mean that the Spirit speaks directly without some human instrument or vessel. The Spirit speaks through the believers’ prophesying. When the believers prophesy, the Spirit speaks in their prophesying.
The Spirit indwells us and guards the deposit of truth within us (2 Tim. 1:14). The Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:16). Hence, to guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit requires us to exercise our spirit.
Titus 3:5 speaks of the renewing of the Holy Spirit. We are receiving the new supply of the Spirit to renew us metabolically. The Holy Spirit is the divine person, washing and renewing us in the divine element to make us a new creation with the divine nature to be heirs of God in His eternal life, inheriting all the riches of the Triune God. The Spirit began to renew us from our regeneration and is renewing us continuously every day and all day to make us a new creation with the divine life.
Hebrews 3:7 and 8 say, “Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of trial in the wilderness.’” These verses show that the Spirit also has the function of exhorting, or warning.
Hebrews 6:4 says that we are partakers of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is a portion for us to enjoy, to partake of. At the time of our salvation, we did not partake of the Spirit once for all. This partaking of the Spirit is going on every day because the very Spirit, of whom we partake, is within us for our enjoyment.
In Hebrews 9:6-8 Paul speaks of the type of the tabernacle with the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Through this type the Spirit speaks something concerning the New Testament. The Spirit shows us something of the New Testament by the Old Testament types.
Hebrews 9:14 says that Christ through the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God. This shows that the Spirit was the means through which Christ offered Himself to God.
The Spirit testifies the Lord’s word. Hebrews 10:15-17 shows how the Spirit speaks something to testify what the Lord has spoken already in the Bible. The Bible is the written word. When we read it, the living Spirit within us testifies to what is written in the Bible.
Hebrews 10:29c refers to the Spirit of grace. This means that God’s grace is embodied in the Spirit. If you have the Spirit, you have God’s grace. If you receive the Spirit, you receive grace.
James 4:4 and 5 show that the Spirit envies the believers for God. God and Christ are our Husband (Isa. 54:5; 2 Cor. 11:2). We should be chaste and love Him alone with our entire being (Mark 12:30). If our heart is divided by loving the world, we become adulteresses. Our God is a jealous God, and His Spirit is jealous over us with a jealousy of God (2 Cor. 11:2).
The Spirit has the function of sanctifying the sinners for believing in Christ. In 1 Peter 1:2 the sanctifying of the Spirit is not concerning those who are already believers but concerning the sinners who are going to be believers. This is the sanctification of the Spirit before our believing in Christ. The Holy Spirit’s sanctification has different steps. The first step is before our repentance and believing, and the second step is after our believing to sanctify us positionally.
The woman’s seeking of the lost coin in Luke 15 typifies the Spirit’s seeking of the sinner (vv. 8-10). The woman lights a lamp and sweeps the house to find the lost coin. This is the Spirit’s work to enlighten and expose the sinner’s position and condition that he may repent and return to the Father, as the prodigal son did (vv. 17-20). (This is the first step of the Holy Spirit’s sanctification.) Once he returns to the Father and receives Christ, the Spirit then takes another step to sanctify him dispositionally.
In 1 Peter 1:10-12a we see the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ testifying beforehand the death and glorification of Christ as a revelation to the Old Testament prophets. These verses show that the Spirit of Christ was there already in the Old Testament. When the Old Testament prophets were prophesying concerning Christ, the Spirit of Christ was in them, witnessing to them how and when Christ would die and how and when Christ would be glorified, first in His resurrection and then in His ascension. We may wonder how the Spirit of Christ could have been in the Old Testament. We always consider the element of time, but with Christ, with God, there is no time element. When the prophets in the Old Testament predicted Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, the Spirit of Christ within them was testifying. The Spirit’s testifying means that the Spirit within them was saying, “What you are speaking now concerning the coming Christ is right.” The Old Testament prophets were not merely motivated by the Holy Spirit to prophesy. While they were prophesying, the Spirit of Christ was testifying to them.
First Peter 4:14 says that the Spirit of glory rests upon the reproached, persecuted believers. When the believers are being persecuted, being reproached, for Christ’s sake, the Holy Spirit is resting upon them. This Spirit is called the Spirit of glory. Footnote 2 on 1 Peter 4:14 in the Recovery Version says concerning the Spirit of glory and of God that it is literally, “the Spirit of glory and that of God.” The Spirit of glory is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of glory is the One through whom Christ was glorified in His resurrection (Rom. 1:4). This very Spirit of glory, being the Spirit of God Himself, rests upon the suffering believers in their persecution, for the glorifying of the resurrected and exalted Christ, who is now in glory (1 Pet. 4:13).
Second Peter 1:21 says, “No prophecy was ever borne by the will of man, but men spoke from God while being borne by the Holy Spirit.” According to the context of this verse, prophesying here is predicting. This section of the Word says something concerning the Old Testament prophets’ prophesying, foretelling, or predicting the things concerning Christ. No prophecy was ever carried along by the will of man. Man’s will, desire, and wish, with his thought and solution, are not the source from which any prophecy came; the source is God, by whose Holy Spirit men were carried along, as a ship borne by the wind, to speak out the will, desire, and wish of God.
The Spirit also confirms that God abides in us. We know that God abides in us because of the Spirit given to us (1 John 3:24; 4:13). The Spirit is within us to confirm that God dwells in us, that God abides in us. Actually, the indwelling Spirit is God, so the Spirit confirms what God does.
The Spirit has the function of confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2). Whenever we say in a proper way that Jesus has come in the flesh, that indicates that we have the Holy Spirit within us. At the apostle John’s time there was a heresy being spread that Christ was not a man. Such heresy undermines not only the Lord’s incarnation but also His redemption and resurrection. Since Christ was conceived of the Spirit (Matt. 1:18) to be born in the flesh (John 1:14), the Spirit would never deny that He has come in the flesh through divine conception.
First John 4:6 says that the Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Truth means “reality.” The Spirit of truth is also mentioned in John 14:17; 15:26 and 16:13. The Spirit of truth is a particular divine title used by John. Neither Paul nor Peter used this title. Such a title means that the very Spirit is the reality of the doctrines concerning the Trinity. This is one of His functions. He makes all the teachings concerning Christ, concerning God, and concerning the Divine Trinity real.
The Spirit is the reality, testifying the things concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1 John 5:6-9). Christ is a mystery. The Son of God is altogether hidden from the world. The worldly people without the Spirit cannot understand the things concerning Him. But we have the Spirit within us, and the indwelling Spirit makes everything taught concerning Christ in the New Testament so real to us.
The Spirit is also for the believers’ prayer (Jude 20). The Spirit functions for us to pray. We pray in the Holy Spirit. The entire blessed Trinity is employed and enjoyed by us believers in our praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves in the love of God, and awaiting the mercy of our Lord unto eternal life.
In the book of Revelation the Spirit functions as the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God, meeting the need of the seven churches, which signify all the churches in the seven stages through the centuries in degradation (1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). How could the one Spirit be seven Spirits? In typology, there is the one lampstand with seven lamps. In existence it is one lampstand, but in function it is seven lamps. The stand is one, but the lamps are seven. This signifies that the one Spirit of God has a sevenfold intensified function.
Because there are seven churches, the Spirit of God has to be sevenfold. This means that He is adequate and He is altogether sufficient to meet the need of all the churches. Sevenfold means all-inclusive. The seven churches signify all the churches in the seven stages through the centuries in degradation. The sevenfold intensified Spirit of God meets the need of the degraded churches. The seven Spirits are before the throne of God for God’s administration, especially in the local churches (1:4). The throne is for government.
The seven Spirits are the means for Christ, in taking care of the local churches as the High Priest trimming the seven lamps in the Holy Place, to speak to the church in Sardis, a dying church. Revelation 3:1 speaks of “He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.” This is Christ as the One who takes care of the church. He spoke to the church in Sardis, a dying church. Such a dying church needed such a Christ to make it living through the seven Spirits. This verse also implies that the seven Spirits are for the seven stars. The seven stars are the leading ones. To be a star taking the lead in the church, you need the sevenfold Spirit.
The seven Spirits function as the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God, executing God’s administration by enlightening and burning for judging and stirring up (4:5; Zech. 4:2, 6). Because we may be in darkness, we need the enlightening. In darkness we are also dead, so we need the judgment to burn away all the dross. Meanwhile, we need to be motivated, stirred up. In the degraded churches such enlightening and judging are surely needed.
The seven Spirits also function as the seven eyes of the Lamb (of Jehovah, v. 10) being sent forth into all the earth for watching over, observing, and searching all the churches with the power of Christ—the seven horns of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6). Revelation refers to the seven eyes of the Lamb, but Zechariah 4 speaks of the seven eyes of Jehovah. The seven Spirits are the seven eyes of the Lamb, of Jehovah, sent forth into all the earth. These eyes are for watching, for observing. Today we have seven eyes watching over us. We may not have this kind of realization. Instead, we may be loose and light. But we have to realize that Christ is watching over us with seven eyes. He is observing us. The seven Spirits as the seven eyes of the Lamb are for observing and searching the churches with the power of Christ. The seven eyes go along with the seven horns of the Lamb. Christ’s watching eyes are observing and searching with His power.
Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation say seven times that the Spirit speaks to all the churches (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The Spirit as the sevenfold intensified Spirit is now speaking to all the churches.
Revelation 14:12 and 13 say, “Here is the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice out of heaven, saying, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them.” The dead here refers to the martyrs under the persecution of Antichrist during the great tribulation. The Spirit functions in speaking to testify of the labors and works of the martyrs.
The Spirit also functions in speaking with the bride as the universal couple to express the consummated Triune God in the transformed tripartite man in God’s economy (22:17). At the end of the entire Bible the sevenfold intensified Spirit, who has been processed and consummated to be the consummation of the processed Triune God, is the Husband. He is the Husband because He speaks with the bride, the wife. The One who speaks with the bride must be the Husband. The wife is the bride, and the Husband, the Spirit, is the One who is speaking with the bride. The consummated Triune God is speaking here as the Spirit. The Spirit is speaking as the Husband with His wife, the bride.
The bride of this couple is the transformed tripartite man. Such a couple is the consummation of all the work of God through the old creation and the new creation and the consummation of the entire Bible. The working God eventually becomes the consummated Triune God, and the redeemed man eventually becomes the transformed tripartite man. The consummated Triune God is the Husband, and the transformed tripartite man is the bride. This couple is altogether the completion and the consummation of God’s eternal economy. We are a part of this universal bride. We are in the bride because we are a part of the bride. We are not alone because we have our Bridegroom. We are not a part of a widow. We are a part of the bride who has the Bridegroom.
