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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:45; John 20:22; Rom. 8:2, 9, 11
God’s intention is not to make us good people by improving us or changing our character. The Bible reveals that God originally intended to have man express Him by working Himself into man’s being. Based on this eternal intention, God created man so that man could take God in as life, be one with God, and become God’s expression. Genesis 1:26 tells us that God made man in His image. God Himself was the mold for the creation of man. God made man in His image so that man could express Him. Although created man had the image of God, he did not have the divine life inwardly as reality. For this reason, God created man not only with a body but also with a spirit (2:7; Zech. 12:1; Job 32:8). Man’s body is an outward organ to contact the physical things, and man’s spirit is an inward organ to contact and receive God. Just as a transistor radio has a receiver that allows the radio to receive the radio waves, man has a spirit that enables him to receive God. God’s intention to enter into man can be realized because man has a spirit to receive and contain God. When man receives God through his spirit, God becomes man’s content, and man becomes God’s expression. After God created man in His image and with a spirit to contact and receive Him, He placed man before the tree of life (Gen. 2:9, 16). This is a strong indication that God wanted man to exercise his will to choose to receive God as life.
Despite such a wonderful beginning, man became fallen. From Genesis 3 on, the Old Testament records the long story of the fall. The New Testament begins with God’s coming to be incarnated. God came into man, making Himself one with man through incarnation. Outwardly, Christ was a man, a Nazarene named Jesus, but inwardly, He was God. Isaiah 9:6 prophesies of Him when it says, “A child is born to us...and His name will be called...Mighty God.” Jesus was born as a child in a manger in Bethlehem, yet He was the Mighty God. Thirty-three and a half years later, He went to the cross, where He died to redeem man from the fall. On the cross He also dealt with sin and terminated the old creation. After resting in the tomb for three days, He came out of death and entered into the realm of resurrection. In resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Thus, the Spirit today comprises divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, an all-inclusive death, and the power and life of resurrection. This all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is the ultimate consummation and expression of the processed Triune God, is for us to receive.
On the day of His resurrection the Lord came to His disciples not to teach them but to breathe into them (John 20:22). When He breathed into them, He said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Pneuma, the Greek word translated as “Spirit” here, also means “breath.” Before the Lord came to the disciples, they were in fear (v. 19), but after they saw the resurrected Lord, they became joyful (v. 20). Then the Lord disappeared. The Bible does not say that He left the disciples, because He was actually with them all the time. In a normal situation the Lord does not appear or disappear, but the Lord appeared and disappeared for a period of time after His resurrection to train the disciples to know and enjoy His invisible presence. After He breathed the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord was within them. However, because they had grown accustomed to His physical, visible presence during the three and a half years of His ministry, He had to train them to realize and practice His invisible presence.
Today we have the Lord’s invisible presence. We should not long for the Lord’s visible presence, which was a feature of the primitive age of the Lord’s earthly ministry. Actually, the Lord’s invisible presence is far more precious. Although the disciples had the Lord’s invisible presence after His resurrection, Peter soon grew impatient and led the other disciples back to their old job of fishing (21:3). Although they fished the whole night, they caught nothing. In the morning the Lord appeared to them (v. 4), but He actually had been with them all the time. Because the Lord was within the disciples as the Spirit, He was with them while they were fishing. The Lord wanted them to trust in Him for their supply, not in a human activity or profession like fishing. Thus, after the Lord helped them to catch an abundance of fish (v. 6), He invited them to come and eat a meal that He had prepared for them (vv. 9, 12-13). As long as we have the Lord, we have everything, for He can meet all our needs. The Lord thus trained the disciples to enjoy His invisible presence. Peter was put to shame, but he learned the lesson. We need to learn the same lesson.
Today the Triune God has accomplished everything—creation, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, an all-inclusive death, and resurrection. Now He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, and His people simply need to breathe Him in by calling on His name, praying, or crying to Him to take Him as their life and content and become His expression. We should no longer live naturally; instead, we should live the Spirit, the processed Triune God. This is clearly revealed in the Bible, but through the past twenty centuries many Christians have lost sight of this central lane. Though all genuine believers have accepted the Lord as their Redeemer, many do not know that He is the life-giving Spirit to be the life supply to them. The Bible reveals that God is Spirit (John 4:24), that the third person of the Godhead is the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19), and that the second person of the Godhead, the Son of God, through death and resurrection became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Thus, the entire Triune God today is the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of the Triune God (John 16:13).
According to the Bible, human beings were created by God with a spirit. Zechariah 12:1 says, “Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.” Job 32:8 says, “There is a spirit in man.” We are different from the animals because we have a spirit. No animal has ever worshipped something, but throughout human history every kind of people has worshipped something. Even atheistic governments have been unable to suppress the worship of God, because God created man with a spirit. Just as we have an appetite for physical food and grow hungry several times each day because we have a stomach, so we have a spiritual appetite and hunger for God because we have a spiritual stomach—our spirit.
The processed Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is available to be received by man. Moreover, we have a spirit, which causes us to hunger after God and is our organ to receive Him. As the Spirit, the processed Triune God is omnipresent. He is on the throne in heaven, and He is also everywhere on earth. The Triune God is like the air, which is constantly present around us and comes into us anytime we breathe. Speaking of Christ, Romans 10:8 says, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Calling on the Lord is our spiritual breathing. The processed Triune God as the Spirit comes into us when we simply say, “O Lord Jesus!” (v. 12).
Because the Spirit is always present and available, we should no longer live by the natural life or the self. God does not want us to live merely a good life. Good and bad both belong to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead, God wants us to live Him, to live as God-men. A married couple may decide to love and honor each other. However, even if they are successful for a time, they are living as good men, not as God-men. God wants His people to live Him. Instead of making up our mind to be good, we should simply pray, “Lord, thank You that You are the all-inclusive Spirit. Thank You for creating me with a spirit and for regenerating my spirit. As the all-inclusive Spirit, You are now in my spirit and are one spirit with me. I just want to live You.” If we pray sincerely in this way, we will spontaneously be good, not by our endeavoring or striving but by God.
The all-inclusive life-giving Spirit who indwells our spirit is rich. According to Romans 8:2, 9, and 11, He is the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the resurrecting One. The Spirit is not only rich but also living, active, and functioning. He is neither silent nor dormant in us. We need to see, open to, and enter into the function of the Spirit.
The spontaneous operating of the law of the Spirit of life is the first function of the all-inclusive Spirit (v. 2). A law is a natural power that works automatically. For example, if someone who is holding a book releases it, the law of gravity will immediately and spontaneously function to cause the book to fall to the ground. The all-inclusive Spirit in us is such a law, a spontaneous power that works automatically. When we call on the Lord, we “switch on” this law, and the Spirit is activated in us. When I was a teenager, the barbershop in my hometown in China did not have an air conditioner or electric fan to cool the customers in the summertime. Instead, they had a fan hanging from the ceiling that was operated by a boy who constantly pulled a string. When the boy was distracted or tired, he sometimes neglected his duty and would be chastised by the barber. After being admonished, the boy would make up his mind to pull the string regularly. However, when the barbershop eventually obtained an electric fan, there was no longer the need for a boy to make up his mind to carry out a required task. Instead, when the fan was needed, someone only had to switch it on. Today the Spirit within us is like an electric fan. Thus, we do not need to make up our mind to live properly and virtuously by our own effort, which does not work well anyway. Instead, we only need to switch on to activate the Spirit. The Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit has been installed in our being, and this Spirit is a natural law, a power that works automatically.
As the Spirit of life, the all-inclusive Spirit continually supplies life to us (v. 2). He Himself is the life and the life supply. His function is to minister life into our being. As we are praying or calling on the name of the Lord, we sense deep within that life is flowing in to supply us. This supplying is the function of the all-inclusive Spirit. To try to do good, improve ourselves, or behave better is to be unbelieving. We must believe in the indwelling, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. He is real, and He is within us, supplying us with life. We should not focus on ourselves; instead, we simply need to call on the name of the Lord and pray. The way to cause the all-inclusive Spirit to function in us is to pray continually by calling on the name of the Lord. When we call, we touch the Spirit and cause the Spirit to function. Then we receive the supply of life by the functioning of the indwelling Spirit.
The indwelling Spirit is also the Spirit of God and is God Himself (v. 9). As the Spirit of God, He ministers God into us. The great and all-inclusive God is the origin, the Originator, the Creator, the Administrator, and the Father. Such a God is ministered into our being by the Spirit. As soon as we switch on by calling on the Lord or by crying to the Father (v. 15), the indwelling Spirit supplies us with God.
The indwelling Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ (v. 9). Christ is God’s anointed One and God’s appointed One. He became incarnated, lived a human life on the earth, passed through many human sufferings, and died to redeem us, take away our sins, and terminate the old creation. Afterward, He resurrected and is now in ascension, glorification, and enthronement. Christ and all that He has attained and obtained are included in the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit of Christ, the indwelling Spirit functions to supply us with Christ.
As the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ, the indwelling Spirit supplies us with life, God, and Christ. Furthermore, as the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead, this all-inclusive Spirit ministers the power of resurrection and the resurrection life into us (v. 11).
God does not want us to live by our nature. We should not try to excuse our disposition by saying, “I was born this way.” God also does not want us to live by our culture. We should not use our nationality as an excuse. Humanly speaking, to be ethical is very good, but God does not want us to live by ethics. Neither does God want us to live according to religion. Religion is to do something for God but without Christ. Instead of religion, God, who is Spirit, wants us to live, serve, and worship Him in our spirit (John 4:24). Finally, God does not want us to live by our habit. Perhaps it is our habit to joke. Even many genuine seekers of the Lord still live mostly by habit. We should not be overly habitual in our daily walk. We should be aware of whether we are living by the spirit or by nature, culture, ethics, religion, or habit. We need to realize that the all-inclusive Spirit indwells us. God’s economy is for us to live Christ as the Spirit. We need to practice to live by the mingled spirit. To live by the mingled spirit is to live God, who is higher than nature, culture, ethics, religion, or habit.
In the church meetings we may see that we need to live God and breathe Him in as the Spirit, but we may forget this and return to our old way of living when we go home. In our daily life at home, work, or school, we may still live according to our old nature, culture, ethics, religion, and habits. We should not live two lives in this way. We need to exercise our spirit at home as well as in the meetings. If we do not, our functioning in the meetings will be a performance. The church meetings should not be a performance but a testimony and an exhibition of our daily life. We should live and meet in the same way. Our meeting life should be a continuation and issue of our daily life.
The goal of the Lord’s recovery is not to recover any particular doctrine or practice but to recover Christ as the Spirit in our spirit for the church life and every aspect of our daily life, including our family life, school life, and job life. Our entire living and daily walk, including any virtues such as humility, kindness, and love, must be the Triune God. We can live God because He is the Spirit in our spirit. The all-inclusive Spirit functions within us automatically as a spontaneous law and supplies us with life, God, Christ, and the life and power of resurrection. We need to cooperate with His operation by calling on the name of the Lord and crying, “Abba, Father!” As we pray continually in this way, we will keep ourselves in contact with the indwelling Spirit and live by the Spirit. To live by the mingled spirit is the Lord’s recovery, God’s up-to-date move, and the way to produce the testimony of Jesus as a bright, shining lampstand.
