Search
Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:4-5a; 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; Rom. 8:2; John 20:22; Acts 1:8; 2:2, 4, 17; Rev. 22:17a; 21:1—22:5
We have seen that in the Old Testament, the Spirit is revealed simply as the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Spirit of holiness. But when we come to the New Testament, the revelation concerning the Spirit is very complicated. According to the New Testament revelation, the Spirit has passed through a number of stages. Of course, He was the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Spirit of holiness throughout the Old Testament. Throughout these four thousand years of human history, the Spirit of God never changed. But to say that God the Spirit has never changed is a big mistake. This is because after four thousand years of human history the Triune God Himself entered into a period of time in which He passed through many processes. These processes were incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Now He is working in His heavenly ministry, which will be concluded at His second coming.
Hebrews 1 says that He will come the second time, not as the only begotten Son of God but as the Firstborn (vv. 5-6). As the only begotten Son of God, He possesses merely divinity. But He will come the second time not mainly in His divine status but in His human status. Before His incarnation Christ, the divine One, already was the only begotten Son of God (John 1:18; Rom. 8:3). By incarnation He put on an element, the human flesh, that had nothing to do with divinity. Then He went through death and entered into resurrection. In resurrection His humanity was “sonized,” was made divine. Resurrection was a birth to Christ (Acts 13:33), and in that birth Christ in His humanity was born to be the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29; 1:4). In resurrection He brought His humanity into the divine sonship. Now as the firstborn Son of God, He possesses humanity as well as divinity.
Furthermore, as the Firstborn, He brought forth many sons in the same birth and on the same day. On the day of His resurrection not only He but also all of God’s chosen people were begotten (1 Pet. 1:3). Since He was the Firstborn, surely there were many others to follow Him. Millions of others were born with Him on the same day, the day of resurrection. He was the Firstborn, and we are the many-born sons of God.
In His resurrection He was also made the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). That was the consummation of God’s processes. Since the Triune God has gone through so many processes, how could the Spirit of God have remained the same, without any change? Actually, the Spirit of God has undergone a great change. The Spirit was revealed as the Holy Spirit for the bringing forth of Christ into humanity, for His conception (Matt. 1:18, 20). At that point the Spirit of God entered into a new age with a new title—the Holy Spirit. Actually, the literal translation of the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit the Holy.” This means that the Spirit is the Holy One. Only God is “the Holy.” In the New Testament age the first thing God did was to enter into man for the purpose of making man God, not in the Godhead but in life and nature. He became God in man so that man might become God and be holy. Now not only God is holy; the man made by God can also be holy (Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:15-16).
At the beginning of the New Testament, we see the Holy Spirit, but He was still not yet “the Spirit.” This is unveiled in John 7:39, which says, “The Spirit was not yet.” The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus in His humanity had not yet been glorified. Because Jesus in His humanity had not yet been changed, the Holy Spirit who brought forth Jesus through His conception and birth still remained the same, without change. It was not until Jesus was resurrected into His glory that “the Spirit” who shall flow out of the believers as rivers of living water began to exist. This truth is a big “missing” among Christians today. Andrew Murray said that when “the Spirit” came into existence, this was a “new era,” a new age. He had the boldness to say that humanity had been constituted into the Spirit. From the time of Christ’s resurrection, whatever has been constituted and wrought into Christ has been consummated in the Spirit. Today the Spirit of God is “the Spirit” who flows out of the believers in Christ as rivers of living water.
First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” This is another “missing” among today’s Christians. The last Adam was Jesus in the flesh. He lived in the flesh for thirty-three and a half years. Then through resurrection He changed by becoming a life-giving Spirit. This word became in Greek is the same word used in John 1:14: “The Word became flesh.” Thus, the Spirit changed from the Spirit of God to the Spirit who gives life, the life-giving Spirit. First Corinthians 15:45 is a great verse in the Bible. Today some in Christianity pay much attention to John 1:14, but they do not see that the last Adam, who was flesh, became something further. In the first step He was the Word becoming flesh. In the second step He was the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit. We have to see this.
The third “missing” among today’s Christians is that they do not see that the life-giving Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. At the completion of Christ’s resurrection He revealed this divine title to His disciples: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). He passed through incarnation, human living, and death and entered into resurrection. In resurrection the Triune God was consummated by Jesus becoming the life-giving Spirit. Thus, it was not until the resurrection was completed, that this title—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—was clearly revealed in full. The consummation of the Divine Trinity is the consummated Spirit.
Also, in the Bible there is a clear vision that the life-giving Spirit has been compounded. He is the compounded Spirit, and within Him there is not only the divine element but also the human element. This is why I treasure chapter 5 of Andrew Murray’s book The Spirit of Christ. Andrew Murray had the boldness to stress repeatedly that humanity is now an ingredient of the Spirit. The compound ointment in Exodus 30 is a marvelous type of the compound anointing Spirit. According to this type, the death of Christ with its effectiveness and the resurrection of Christ with its power are ingredients of the compound Spirit. The Spirit today is an ointment. A single item cannot be an ointment. An ointment is a compound of a number of elements. This is the fourth “missing” today.
The fifth “missing” is the seven Spirits spoken of in the book of Revelation (1:4; 4:5; 5:6). To study the definition of the Spirit, we have to get into and stress these five “missings,” which are covered in these chapters. The life-giving Spirit is the compound Spirit, and this compound Spirit is the seven Spirits.
The book of Revelation reveals the seven Spirits as the sevenfold intensified Spirit for the church’s degradation in this dark age. Even by the end of the first century, the church had become degraded. The apostles Paul, Peter, and John all dealt with this degradation in their writings—particularly in 2 Timothy, 2 Peter, and the three Epistles of John. At the end of the first century, the degradation of the church began and has continued until today.
Throughout the past nineteen centuries God has been carrying out His economy; on the other hand, Satan has been carrying out his chaos. We published a book on this subject entitled The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation. The satanic chaos and the divine economy go together. Eventually, the satanic chaos will be done away with in the lake of fire, and the divine economy will consummate in the New Jerusalem. In the universe there are both day and night. When you see the church in the day, in a wonderful state, you should be ready to take the night. But when you are in the night, do not be disappointed. Soon the day will come. Because of the degradation in this dark age, God has intensified His Spirit sevenfold.
When the Lord was on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, He did everything by the Spirit, but the Spirit was still just one. With the early apostles at the time of Pentecost, the Spirit was also one. But in the age of Revelation the Spirit has been intensified sevenfold. Such an intensified Spirit is for us to be vitalized, to be the overcomers in the degradation of the church. At the end of the first century, it was not easy to overcome. Today with us it is the same. In this dark age we need the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Many Christians appreciate what is recorded in the four Gospels and Acts at Peter’s time, but they should appreciate even more what we have today. Today what we experience is the sevenfold intensified Spirit. In order to be the overcomers, we need such a Spirit.
The book of Revelation is a book concerning the overcomers, and the overcomers are the martyrs. In Revelation 12 the man-child is a composition of all the overcoming martyrs beginning from Abel (v. 5). Then all the overcomers standing on the glassy sea in Revelation 15 will be martyred by Antichrist during the three and a half years of the great tribulation (v. 2). The overcomers recorded in Revelation are martyrs to God. They live as martyrs by the sevenfold Spirit.
During the Boxer Rebellion in China, there were a number of Christians who were martyred for the Lord. One brother who was a young businessman in the old capital of Beijing told me a story of one young person who was martyred there. One day the Boxers were parading and shouting in the street. All the stores had closed their doors, and he was within his store observing them through a crack in the door. He saw a young girl in their midst singing and praising while being led to her execution by the Boxers. He was amazed that such a young girl would not be afraid in such a terrifying situation. He resolved to find out what made this young woman so courageous. Because of this, he was saved by the Lord and became a preacher. Later, he came to my hometown and told me this story. How could such a young girl be that strong? She could be that strong only by the sevenfold intensified Spirit. In order to be today’s overcoming martyrs, we need to experience this Spirit.
In Revelation 1 the sevenfold Spirit is ranked as the second in the Divine Trinity instead of the third, indicating the intensification of the Spirit (vv. 4-5a).
Revelation 4:5 says that the seven Spirits are the seven lamps burning before the throne of God to carry out the divine administration for the consummation of the divine economy. God’s administration today is not weak. The administration of God today on the earth is strong in a sevenfold way to accomplish His economy. The sevenfold Spirit is the seven lamps of fire before the throne of God to direct the world situation in order to execute God’s economy in the universe.
The seven Spirits are the seven eyes of the Lamb, the observing parts of our Redeemer, to observe all the churches in all the nations for the building up of His Body to consummate the building up of the New Jerusalem, accomplishing the eternal economy of God (5:6; 21:1-3). Eventually, the life-giving Spirit, the compound Spirit, has become the sevenfold Spirit as the seven eyes of the Lamb. This exposes the wrong teaching that Christ and the Spirit are separate. The seven Spirits are the eyes of Christ. How could your eyes be separate from you? They are a part of you. A person’s eyes are for observing and transfusing. When you look at someone, you observe him, and your looking at him transfuses something of you into him. The sevenfold Spirit today is the eyes of our Savior. He observes us and transfuses all His riches into us by His seven eyes.
The sevenfold intensified Spirit is the speaking Spirit to all the churches. The Lord’s epistles to the seven churches are in Revelation 2 and 3. At the beginning of each epistle, it is the Lord Jesus speaking (2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14), yet the end of each epistle says that whoever has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to all the churches (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
He is the speaking Spirit in the beginning of the book of Revelation. Then He becomes the consummated Spirit as the totality of the Triune God at the end of Revelation. Today He speaks to the churches, but at the end He and the church speak together, and the church is His bride (22:17a). The processed Triune God consummated as the Spirit is married to the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, glorified tripartite man as His wife. The Triune God and the tripartite man become a married couple. The New Jerusalem as the conclusion of the Bible is the marriage life of the processed God married to the transformed man. They live together as a couple in eternity, and their life is portrayed in full in the New Jerusalem.
The essential Spirit of God is the Spirit of life breathed into the believers as the divine essence of the divine life (Rom. 8:2; John 20:22). The economical Spirit of God, the Spirit of power, was poured out upon the believers as the divine essence of the divine power (Acts 1:8; 2:2, 4, 17). The consummated Spirit has these two aspects: the inward, essential aspect and the outward, economical aspect. On the day of resurrection the Lord breathed the essential Spirit as life into His disciples. Then after fifty days, on the day of Pentecost, He poured out the economical Spirit of power upon the disciples. The essential Spirit is for our life and living inwardly. The economical Spirit is for our ministry and work outwardly. To be economical means to be for God’s economy, for God’s work, to carry out His plan.
The Lord Jesus also experienced the Spirit in these two aspects. He was born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, and constituted with the Spirit. But when He became thirty years of age to come out to do the work for God to carry out God’s economy, the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove (Matt. 3:16). This was the economical aspect of the Spirit for Christ to carry out God’s economy.
Ultimately, the Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God. This is the consummation of the Triune God after His ascension, that is, after He had been fully processed. Such a Spirit speaks together with the bride as the universal couple (Rev. 22:17a).
The conclusion of the entire sixty-six books of the Bible reveals that the processed and consummated Triune God marries the redeemed, regenerated, and transformed tripartite people for His final manifestation and ultimate expression in glory for eternity (Rev. 21:1—22:5). We may wonder what the difference is between manifestation and expression. Something that is concealed can be manifested, uncovered, or disclosed. God was concealed as a mystery. But when Jesus came, He was God’s manifestation. Then this manifestation has an issue, and the issue is to express God. The Triune God will have the New Jerusalem as His corporate manifestation. Then through that manifestation He will be expressed corporately for eternity.
