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Scripture Reading: Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15; 13:9, Acts 13:52; 4:8, 31; 2:38; 5:32b
In this chapter we want to fellowship further concerning the need of the present world, the divine truths that the Lord has shown us throughout the years, and the blessings we have been receiving of the Lord through these many years. Then we want to go on to see what our responsibility is.
In the six thousand years since man abandoned God, gave up God, and left God to take his own way, man has attempted to enjoy himself with culture, with politics, with religion, with philosophy, and with science by improving his education. All the educated people became very thoughtful, philosophical, and logical. In the past forty-one years since the end of World War II, nearly every nation has endeavored to educate its people. Thus, on this earth in any continent the people are thoughtful, philosophical, and logical. Many realize that mankind has tried culture, politics, religion, philosophy, science, plus education and that none of these things has ever satisfied. Man realizes he needs something practical, but he does not know what his practical need is.
By the Lord’s mercy, we know that the practical need of mankind is the reality of the Triune God. Even many Christians are short of the divine revelation of the processed and consummated Triune God. By the Lord’s mercy, we have such a revelation. The Lord has given us a revelation to such an extent, nearly to the top standard. Our God, who is our need, is the processed Triune God. He is the very Triune God, who was embodied in the Son and who was consummated in the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the Triune God for our portion, to be our life, our contents, and our everything. This is the very God who can meet the practical need of mankind. Not only does the unbelieving world need Him, but also all the Christians need Him. Thank the Lord that we have this divine truth.
In one message given in the 1985 winter training, I pointed out that the believers who are in the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, are enjoying the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation by living in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participating in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. These words are a part of our heavenly vocabulary. Many people on this earth have never heard such things. We all should be excited that we are enjoying the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the purpose of the divine conformation by living in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participating in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. We are abiding in the divine grapevine, which is the organism of the Divine Trinity. In this organism we participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. This indicates the high standard of the divine truths the Lord has shown us.
This particular message in the winter training covered John 14 through 16 plus chapter 17 as the Lord’s concluding prayer to His preceding message. If you are going to understand this section, you have to know how to section the entire twenty-one chapters of the Gospel of John.
The Gospel of John basically comprises three sections. The first section, comprising the first eleven chapters, is on the matter of the Lord putting Himself out as a “sample” so that He as the divine life could meet the need of man’s every case. These eleven chapters contain nine cases. The first case is the case of Nicodemus (2:23—3:36), and the last one is the case of Lazarus (11:1-57). Nicodemus was an elderly, moral, experienced, and learned man in need of life’s regenerating, and Lazarus was a dead one in need of life’s resurrecting. In between these cases are seven other cases. The Lord as life met all the needs of all the cases.
The second section of John’s Gospel begins in chapter 12 and is concerning the Lord’s multiplication for His glorification. This section begins with those in a little house in Bethany welcoming Him, serving Him, and loving Him to the uttermost (vv. 1-11). Then the Jews welcomed Him, and even the Greeks were seeking after Him (vv. 12-21). Humanly speaking, this was a golden time for Jesus on this earth. He was warmly welcomed by everyone. At that time Andrew and Philip, thinking that this warm and wonderful welcome was glorious, came to tell Him that the Greeks wanted to see Him. The Lord responded to Andrew and Philip in this way: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (vv. 23-24). Andrew and Philip may have understood the people’s wonderful reception and welcome of Jesus as His being glorified. The Lord’s thought, however, was not one of being welcomed but of being sown into the ground to die that many grains, much fruit, would be brought forth. This was His glorification. In verse 28 the Lord said, “Father, glorify Your name.” There came then a voice out of heaven: “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” Actually, the Lord’s multiplication is His glorification.
The section on the Lord’s multiplication for His glorification continues in chapter 13. Generally speaking, Christian readers consider chapter 13 of John to be on foot-washing, which is related to the disciples’ loving one another. Actually, the foot-washing was to point out the one who was going to betray the Lord and to speed this one up to go out to prepare the Lord’s betrayal for the Lord’s glorification. John 13:31 says, “Then when he [Judas] went out, Jesus said, Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God has been glorified in Him.” The Lord sent the betrayer to “sell” Him for thirty pieces of silver (Matt. 26:15), and He went to the place where Judas would bring His opposers to seize Him. After Judas left, the Lord told His disciples, “Now has the Son of Man been glorified” (John 13:31). Then He continued in John 14—16 to give a message, and after this message He prayed as a conclusion. John 17:1 says, “These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” After this prayer He led His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to get Himself ready for being betrayed. Remember that the section from chapter 12 through chapter 17 of John is concerning the Lord’s multiplication for His glorification.
From chapter 18 through chapter 21 is the third section of John. From chapter 18 He was betrayed, judged, and crucified to accomplish redemption. Then in chapter 20 He was resurrected, and that was the time of His multiplication. Therefore, He came back to His disciples, calling them “My brothers” (v. 17). His brothers, who are His Body, the church, are His multiplication for His glorification.
Based upon this bird’s-eye view of the Gospel of John and specifically of the subject of John 12—17, we can see that there is a case in John 14, a case in John 15, and a case in John 16 illustrating the Lord’s glorification. The first case is the Father’s house (14:2), the second case is the vine (15:1), and the third case is the little child (16:21). The Father’s house with all the abodes, the vine with all the branches, and the little child with all His members are corporate items illustrating the real glorification of this wonderful Christ. God needs, in the universe, a dwelling place, the Father’s house; He needs a divine organism, the vine, to express Himself; and He needs a new man to work out His will. These three items consummate in the New Jerusalem. Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be the house of God, the eternal organism to express God, and the eternal new man to carry out God’s eternal purpose. This wonderful bird’s-eye view of John will help us to realize the marvelous extent to which the Lord has opened up the divine truths to us.
I would also like to relate something of our recent experience in Taiwan that shows how the Lord’s blessing is with us. In October of 1984 I went to Taipei, and I was led by the Lord to carry out and finish three “risks.” First, fifty-two elders were established overnight in Taipei, and twenty-eight more were added later. Approximately ninety percent of these elders are under forty years of age, and some are a little over thirty years of age.
Second, we realized that we had been on the island of Taiwan for over thirty-six years, and we had still not evangelized the entire island. As a result, we made a decision to rise up and evangelize, “gospelize,” and “truthize” the entire island of Taiwan within five years. We are calling for five hundred full-timers every year for the next five years, giving us up to twenty-five hundred full-timers. This is a big risk.
Third, I proposed that for the Lord’s move for evangelizing Taiwan, we needed a large center for training. We acquired thirty-seven and a half acres on which to build this center, which cost about eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. After making the decision to purchase this property, we made an announcement to the twenty-one halls of the church in Taipei concerning the need. On the Lord’s Day nearly the entire amount of cash came in to purchase the property from each offering box in the twenty-one halls. No one knows who offered how much, but the land was paid off mostly by one Lord’s Day offering.
Later, about two hundred and fifty full-timers were raised up on the island of Taiwan. Since approximately one hundred and thirty of these full-timers were raised up in Taipei in 1985, over five thousand new believers have been baptized in the church there. This is the Lord’s blessing.
In December of 1985 we had two big gospel meetings in a stadium in Taipei that can seat twelve thousand people. To my surprise, this stadium was filled over its seating capacity with fourteen thousand people for the first gospel meeting. There were at least seven thousand newcomers there. When I sounded the call at the end of the meeting for the unsaved ones to receive the Lord, approximately fifteen hundred to two thousand people came forward. Again, this is the Lord’s blessing.
In the last two meetings of the 1985 winter training in Irving, Texas, I fellowshipped about the matter of going full-time, and one hundred ninety-eight responded to the call to be full-time. Again, we can see the Lord’s blessing on His recovery. The present need of the world and of all the Lord’s children is the Triune God. We are those who have the truth concerning this processed and consummated God, and we are experiencing the Lord’s blessing wherever we go.
Now we must see what our responsibility is. We all need to do one thing—go! In the New Testament there are two small words that are great in their spiritual significance—come and go. In Matthew 11:28 the Lord told all who toil and are burdened to “come to Me..., and I will give you rest.” In the last book of the New Testament, Revelation, there is a call for the thirsty sinner to come and drink the water of life (22:17). After the Lord had stayed with His disciples for three and a half years, He took the lead to go (through His death and resurrection). They did not know that the Lord’s going was His real coming to them (John 14:2-3 cf. vv. 18, 28). He took the lead to go, and He came back in resurrection.
In Matthew 28:18-19 the Lord told the disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The Lord did not say to go to disciple the nations and baptize them. He said go to disciple the nations, baptizing them. Discipling includes baptizing. We disciple others by baptizing them. I have heard Christians debating as to where people were to be baptized, how people should be baptized, and what kind of water people should be baptized in. But I hardly ever heard a stress on baptizing people into the name, that is, into the person, of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit. The Lord charged us to go to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the Triune God, the processed and consummated Triune God.
Some may feel that if we mean business with the Lord to go, this means to be full time. All the believers are God’s priests, and our profession is the divine priesthood. Whatever a priest does is for God’s service. We may need to make a living, but this does not mean that we do not go. Acts 8:1 tells us that a great persecution fell upon all the saints in Jerusalem, and all of them were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Thousands of believers left Jerusalem and carried out the spreading of the gospel (v. 4). Were these ones who were scattered full-timers? In a sense they were, and in another sense they were not. No doubt, some of them still had jobs, but they all went. They all were the goers to disciple the nations. Without that persecution, they probably would not have gone. The persecution kept them from remaining in Jerusalem. The Lord’s word in Acts 1:8 that the believers were to be His witnesses first in Jerusalem, then in Judea, and then in Samaria was fulfilled through that great persecution. When that great persecution came, thousands of believers were sovereignly sent to spread the gospel.
Soon before His ascension, the Lord told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit would come upon them (vv. 4, 8). After the Spirit came upon them, they would go to be His witnesses in Jerusalem as a start and unto the uttermost part of the earth as the consummation of His ministry in the New Testament. On the day of resurrection, the Spirit of life, the essential Spirit, was breathed into the Lord’s disciples (John 20:22). Then on the day of Pentecost the Spirit was poured upon them economically (Acts 2:4, 17). Now all of us as the disciples of the Lord have the Spirit within us essentially and the Spirit upon us economically.
Some may say that they do not have any sensation or feeling concerning having the Spirit within essentially and the Spirit upon them economically. We need to realize, however, that neither do we have any feeling concerning the Lord’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. These are divine facts that are substantiated not by feeling but by faith in what Jesus has accomplished. Jesus has died for me. Jesus was resurrected for me. Jesus breathed His Spirit into His believers, and Jesus poured out the Spirit economically upon all His believers. He has baptized His entire Body into the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). We do not need to have any feeling concerning these divine facts. We just have to claim these facts and say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You died for me, You were resurrected for me, You breathed Your Spirit into me, and You have poured out Your Spirit upon me. Thank You, Lord.”
Merely to say that we need to claim the essential and economical aspects of the one Spirit by faith, though, is still too objective. Acts 2:38 and 5:32b tell us that if we are going to receive, enjoy, and experience the Spirit, we need to repent and we have to obey. God gives the Spirit to those who obey Him. If we mean business to believe that the Spirit has been given to us within essentially and has been poured out upon us outwardly and economically, we have to repent of all of our sins, our weaknesses, our filthiness, our mistakes, our wrongdoings, our offenses, and whatever is an evil and sinful thing in the eyes of God, toward God, and toward man. You must have a thorough repentance. Then you obey. To do this is to rise up. You can never go without rising up.
In the New Testament the principle is that we need to rise up and go. You can only go by rising up. How can we rise up? A balloon can only rise up by being filled within with air. Just to have the air within the balloon, however, will not make the balloon buoyant. The air outside the balloon is also needed. When the balloon is filled with air inwardly and outwardly, it becomes buoyant. We all need to go, but shall we go by our own effort and our own resolution? This does not mean anything. We need to go by rising up, by being filled with the consummated Spirit.
The Spirit has been consummated and has been breathed into us and poured upon us. He is here waiting for us to participate in Him. The food and drink may be here, but you can participate in the food and drink only by eating and drinking. How are you going to drink the Spirit, and how are you going to eat the Spirit? By repenting and obeying. Sometimes a mother may tell a naughty child that if he does not behave, he will get nothing to eat. To obey is to behave. We all need to behave by obeying what the Lord says. Then we will get something divine to eat, with which to be filled.
We need to obey and repent to empty out all the dirt, the filthiness, within us to be filled with the Spirit. We need to get ourselves cleared up fully. We cannot redeem ourselves, but we have to repent. The Lord has redeemed us, and His blood has been shed for the forgiveness of our sins. He is ready to forgive us and wash us all the time, yet the forgiveness and the washing of the blood need our repentance. Without repentance, even God cannot forgive us. The basic principle for both the unbelievers and the believers is that we all need to repent. God cannot forgive anyone unless that person repents. First John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confessing is the practical repentance. If you repent, surely you would confess. You would confess specific sins, failures, and wrongdoings.
Every day that we live on this earth we get dirty to some extent. This is why we need to wash our hands at least several times a day. This earth is full of dirt, which requires our regular washing. Even our physical body itself discharges waste. Because we sweat, we need to wash regularly. In the spiritual realm we also need much washing, but the washing, the forgiveness, depends upon our repenting.
If we are going to rise up, we have to repent and make a thorough confession. Some may say that they were saved years ago and have already been forgiven of all their sins. I agree with this. However, you cannot say that because you washed your hands two weeks ago, you do not need to wash your hands anymore. Neither can you say that you took a shower two months ago, so there is no need for you to take another shower. This is wrong. Even after half a day you need to wash again. In like manner, you need to make a thorough confession of all your shortcomings, weaknesses, wrongdoings, and sinfulness to have a conscience without offense toward God and men (Acts 24:16). Man may not know what you have been doing, but God surely knows. According to Matthew 12:36-37, every man will have to render an account in the day of judgment of every idle word that they speak. It is possible to deceive man, but you cannot deceive God. If we mean business with Him, we need to repent and make a thorough confession.
It would be wonderful if all of us could spend one or two hours with the Lord personally to make a thorough confession. I once spent more than two hours in fellowship with the Lord to make a thorough confession, and that was after I had been saved for at least ten years. It is always better to make such a confession by yourself. Do not make confession corporately. Corporate confession is not so good. You can never make a thorough confession corporately, because you are afraid of other people hearing you. We all need a private time to confess everything to God. We do not need to be afraid of Him knowing our sins since He knows them all already. Since He knows the record of all our sinful doings, it is best for us to ask Him to rid us of that record by confessing. All of us need this.
In order to go by rising up, we need to make a thorough confession—a fine, detailed confession. We need to confess all the small things. Even if you were unhappy with a brother, you have to confess that unhappiness. If you were unhappy with your wife, you need the confession of that unhappiness. You have to confess all your sins. Do not go to the Lord in a rough way. It is not sufficient to tell the Lord, “Lord, You know I am sinful. I don’t have the time to confess everything, but thank You that You shed Your blood and that Your blood washes me.” In order to have a fine forgiveness, you must make a fine confession, confessing to the Lord in a detailed way. Everyone who has done this and who does this can testify that after a thorough confession, they are filled with the Spirit within and clothed with the Spirit without. They have the inward, essential filling of the Spirit and the outward, economical filling of the Spirit.
The Bible tells us clearly that the essential Spirit has been breathed into the believers of Christ and that the economical Spirit has been poured out upon His Body. Since we are members of His Body, surely the pouring out of the Spirit is our inheritance, our lot, our portion. Some Christians separate the Spirit from the Father and the Son. Actually, God the Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. The Son is the embodiment of the Triune God, and the Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. Now we have this consummated Triune God within us and upon us. We need to believe this and take it.
We do not need to beg Him to give us the Holy Spirit since the Holy Spirit has been given already. What we need to do is make a thorough repentance with a thorough confession before Him. Then experientially we will be filled within and without with the Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. Then we will rise up and become so buoyant.
We all need to go by rising up and by being filled with the consummated Spirit essentially and economically. We are filled by repenting and obeying. All of us need to have a solid time with the Lord to make a thorough confession. A husband and a wife can even make an agreement with one another that they are going to have such a time and would not like to be disturbed. When you are having such a time, it is best to take the phone off the hook. Find some place in your house or somewhere else where you can be alone to make a thorough confession. We need to mean business with the Lord. We need to go by rising up, and we need to make a thorough confession so that we would be filled with the divine air and so that we would be brought into the divine air. Thus, we are filled within with the essential Spirit and filled without with the economical Spirit. We will be buoyant.
If this confessing and repenting become our practice, we will always come to the meetings buoyant. There is a hymn that says, “There’s a Man in the glory... / How buoyant is He!” (Hymns, #505). If you make such a thorough confession to the Lord, you will be buoyant for at least three days. If you find yourself becoming not so buoyant, then make a thorough confession again. We need to confess thoroughly all the time. Before coming to minister the Word, I always exercise to get myself thoroughly cleansed in the Lord’s precious blood. This is why I am buoyant in the ministry. When we become buoyant, we go.
Stanzas 3 and 4 of Hymns, #890 say,
We should not let anything dim our vision or make our vision weak. Too often we let something dim our vision and make our vision so vague. This is our sinfulness. If we would confess our sins thoroughly, this thorough confession would clear the sky. Then our vision could never be dim. Go wherever He would send you. Do not let anything dim your vision. Go by rising up and being filled with the consummated Spirit essentially and economically.
