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Scripture Reading: Ezek. 37:1, 5, 9; John 3:5-6; Rev. 11:11; John 3:8; 4:24; Gen. 1:2b; Matt. 28:19b; John 14:10-11, 26; 15:26; 10:30; 16, 8:29b; 16:32b; Acts 10:38; Luke 4:1a, 18a; Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27; Zech. 12:1; Isa. 42:5; Job 32:8; Heb. 4:12; 1 Thes. 5:23a; 1 John 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:22a; 1 Cor. 6:17
Note: The general subject is not “The Spirit and Our Spirit” but “The Spirit with Our Spirit.”
In this series of messages we are still on the general subject of the Christian life. In order for us to experience the Christian life, we surely need to know God, the Lord, Christ, as the Spirit. Also, we have to know that for us to enjoy this Spirit, we have a spirit within us.
From my youth I have loved the Bible, and I have studied it for years. I have found that we can study the Bible in two ways. One way is to study it according to the letter, and another way is to study it in the Spirit. Paul says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). We want to know the Lord’s word, not just by the letter but by the Spirit. The unique writer of the Bible is the Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21; 2 Sam. 23:2). Throughout the years we have released many messages on the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God. But we have the burden once again to see the Christian life from its very foundation, and the foundation of the Christian life is the Spirit with our spirit.
The general subject of this series of messages is not “The Spirit and Our Spirit” but “The Spirit with Our Spirit.” We do not use the conjunction and but the preposition with. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” With is a preposition, and it is instrumental. If we say the Spirit and our spirit, this is a compound subject. Our spirit is not the subject and should not be the subject. Our spirit is the helper. If I do things with you, you are not the subject but the instrument. You are my helper. Our spirit is not the subject. The subject must be the Spirit.
In Ezekiel 37 the Hebrew word ruach is used to refer to the Spirit (v. 1), breath (v. 5), and wind (v. 9). The way in which ruach is translated depends on the context of the sentence or paragraph.
In the New Testament the Greek word pneuma may be translated also as “Spirit” (John 3:5-6), “breath” (Rev. 11:11), or “wind” (John 3:8). We know that pneuma is the wind in John 3:8 because “the wind blows.” Revelation 11:11 also uses pneuma when speaking of the resurrection of the two martyred witnesses. It says “the breath [pneuma] of life out of God entered into them.” Some translate this as “the Spirit of life.” Second Thessalonians 2:8 says that the Lord will slay Antichrist, the lawless one, “by the breath of His mouth.” The word breath here is also the Greek word pneuma.
The Bible is a book on both God and man. We need to see the basic revelation concerning God and man in the Holy Scriptures.
John 4:24 says that “God is Spirit.” Saying that God is Spirit is similar to saying that a chair is wood. Wood refers to the essence, the substance, of the chair. Thus, God is Spirit does not refer to the person of God but denotes God’s essence, substance. This was spoken by the Lord in John 4 to the Samaritan woman concerning the worship of God. In order to worship God, we have to realize that the One whom we are worshipping is Spirit in essence, in substance.
The Spirit of God denotes that the Spirit is God (Gen. 1:2b). Phrases like the Spirit of God, the light of God, and the life of God are in apposition. This means that the Spirit is God, the light is God, and the life is God. In God’s creation the creating God was the moving Spirit. Without being the Spirit, God could not do anything and would not do anything. He does everything as the Spirit. In the Bible God’s move in every step is the Spirit’s moving.
Matthew 28:19 says that we need to go and baptize people “into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit denotes the Divine Trinity and indicates that God is triune. He is one God yet three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
The three of the Divine Trinity coexist and coinhere as one God from eternity to eternity (John 14:10-11, 26; 15:26; 10:30). Hence, He is the eternal God (Psa. 90:1-2). To coexist is to exist together at the same time. To coinhere is to mutually indwell one another. The Father exists in the Son and the Spirit, the Son exists in the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit exists in the Father and the Son. This is coinherence. In John 14 the Lord Jesus Himself said that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (vv. 10-11). The Lord also said that when He came from the Father, He came with the Father (8:16, 29; 16:32b). This means that when He comes, the Father comes in Him. Christ comes with the Father, and the Spirit comes with Christ (14:26; 15:26). The three are coinhering. The Lord Jesus also revealed that His speaking is the Father’s working (14:10). Thus, the Son’s speaking is the Father’s working, and the Spirit’s moving is the Son’s moving and the Father’s moving. The three not only coexist but also coinhere.
The three of the Godhead are distinct but not separate (8:29, 16b; 16:32b; Acts 10:38; Luke 4:1a, 18a). Since They coinhere, They cannot be separated. They coexist by the way of coinhering. But there is still a distinction among Them. The Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit. These three titles denote that They are distinct. But when the Son speaks, that is the Father’s working. When the Spirit comes, that is really the coming of the Father and of the Son. Thus, They are one, with distinction but no separation.
What I have presented here is the most simple and brief way to speak on the Divine Trinity. What is our God? He is Spirit. Who is the Spirit? The Spirit is God. Who are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit? The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the Divine Trinity. They are distinctly three but not separate. They are still one. They not only coexist but also coinhere as one yet three.
According to the economical aspect of the Trinity, the Father planned, the Son accomplished, and the Spirit applies to us what the Son has accomplished according to the Father’s plan. The Father accomplished the first step of His plan, His economy, by working to choose and predestinate us, but He did this in Christ the Son and with the Spirit (Eph. 1:3-5). After this plan was made, the Son came to accomplish this plan, but He did this with the Father (John 8:29; 16:32) and by the Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20; 12:28). After the Son accomplished all that the Father had planned, the Spirit comes in the third step to apply all that the Son accomplished, but He does this as the Son and with the Father (John 14:26; 15:26; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). In this way, while the divine economy of the Divine Trinity is being carried out, the divine existence of the Divine Trinity, His eternal coexistence and coinherence, remains intact and is not jeopardized. In the divine economy the three work and are manifested respectively in three consecutive stages. Yet even in Their economical works and manifestations, the three still remain essentially in Their coexistence and coinherence.
It is very meaningful that God is triune and man is tripartite. God is in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—and we men are tripartite, in three parts—the spirit, the soul, and the body. Man was created by God as a tripartite man (Gen. 2:7).
Genesis 2:7 says that Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground. Our body is our outer frame formed from the dust of the ground.
Man was created by God with a spirit produced of the breath of God, as man’s inmost organ. I use the word produced here because the origin of our spirit is the breath of life. The Hebrew word for breath in Genesis 2:7 and for spirit in Proverbs 20:27 is not ruach but neshamah. Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit [neshamah] of man is the lamp of Jehovah.” Our body is the frame, and this frame has an organ—our spirit. This is the highest organ within us and is mainly for us to contact God. John 4:24 says that God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit. We must worship God in our spirit as an organ to contact Him.
When God’s breath was breathed into the nostrils of man’s body formed from dust, there was an issue. This issue was the soul of man as man’s inner being (person). We have only one person, and our person is the soul. There are a number of times when the Bible says “souls” when speaking of persons. Exodus 1:5 speaks of the seventy souls (lit.) that came out of Jacob. These were the seventy persons of the house of Jacob who went down to Egypt. The New Testament also refers to persons as souls (Acts 27:37). Our soul is our person. The outer frame is our body, the inner being is our soul, and the inmost organ is our spirit. You have a frame, you are a person, and this person in the frame has an organ, which is mostly for contacting God.
The spirit of man was created by God, in a particular sense, to complete God’s purpose in the creation of the heavens and the earth (Zech. 12:1; Isa. 42:5; Job 32:8). Zechariah 12:1 says that God stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him. Zechariah put these three things together: the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man has a spirit for God. Thus, man is the center of God’s creation, and the center of man is his spirit.
Without the heavens to give sunshine, air, and rain, the earth could not grow anything, and we could not live. All the living things—plants, animals, and man—need sunshine, air, and rain. Otherwise, they will die. Thus, the heavens are for the earth. Also, the earth was created for the existence of man, and man has a spirit within him to contain God. We are living on the earth with the supply from the heavens for the purpose of being one with God. God created an organ within us for this purpose.
The record in Genesis 1 and 2 tells us about God’s creation. It says that God created the heavens and then the earth with the plant life and the animal life. But when the record comes to the creation of man, it gives us a particular point. This point is that within man, God created a spirit out of His breath of life. This is something particular in the completion of God’s purpose in the creation of the heavens and the earth. God created the heavens and the earth because He wants to have man as His expression. In order for man to be God’s expression, this man needs a spirit to contact God and to contain God. God created the heavens for the earth, God created the earth for man, and God created a spirit for man so that man can contact Him to be one with Him organically.
The Bible reveals that man’s spirit is distinct from his soul (Heb. 4:12; 1 Thes. 5:23a). Our experience also tells us this. According to our mind, we may feel to buy something. We may really like it and desire to have it according to our emotion. Then we may decide to get it according to our will. Thus, our mind thinks about it in a good way, our emotion loves it, and our will determines to get it. At this juncture, however, there is something else deep within that tells us not to get it. This is our spirit, the deepest and inmost part of our being. This is the distinction between the soul and the spirit.
The highest part, the high peak, the highlight, of a man is the spirit. The lowest part, the meanest part, is the body. In between, in the middle, is the soul. If you live by your body, you become a low person. If you live by your spirit, you become the highest person, a person of the highest grade. Or you may be in the middle. You may be quite logical, knowledgeable, and reasonable. This is to live according to your soul. You are neither low nor high; you are in the middle.
If you live by the body, you live like a beast. If you live by the spirit, you are a genuine saint. Every believer should be a saint who lives by the spirit. But if you live by the soul, you are merely a gentleman, like a disciple of Confucius. You are very logical, reasonable, and full of knowledge. A gentleman is a logical and reasonable man. When you lose your temper without limitation by the desire and lust of the flesh, of the body, you are like a beast. When you are losing your temper and restrict it by your logic and reason, you are a gentleman in the soul. When you restrict your temper by exercising the spirit, you are a saint.
God is Spirit for man to contact Him and receive Him, and man has a spirit for man to contact God and contain God so that God and man may have an organic union (John 4:24; 1 John 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:22a; 1 Cor. 6:17). If God were not the Spirit, He could not contact us, and we could not contact Him. God the Father is the source, God the Son is the course, and God the Spirit is the flow to reach us (2 Cor. 13:14). Thus, the Spirit is the reaching of the Divine Trinity to man. God reaches us in the Son as the Spirit. Ephesians 2:18 says, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” The Spirit is the access for us to contact God, receive God, and contain God.
This is so that we and God may have an organic union. Our union with God is not like the union in today’s American labor unions. That union is in an organizational and coexisting way, but our union with God is organic. It is a union not only of coexistence but also of coinherence. Today we are coinhering with God. He lives in us, and we live in Him. In John 15 the Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4a). First John 4:15 and 16 speak of God abiding in us and us in God. This is a mutual abiding, and this mutual abiding is coinherence. It is only after being regenerated to have God in us as our life and nature that we are in union with God organically. This union is a coinherence, a mutual abiding. This is the Bible’s revelation concerning God and man. We all have to know Him and know ourselves to such an extent.
