Scripture Reading: Matt. 1:21-23; John 1:1, 14; Acts 16:6-10; Rev. 22:17
In this message I would like to give a further word on God's move, in particular on man moving in God's move and God moving in man's move.
The New Testament, a record of God's move, shows us that God can never move apart from man. In the beginning of the New Testament, God moved into man, gained man, and became a man (Matt. 1:21-23; John 1:1, 14). He moved not only as God and not merely as man; He moved as the God-man. This was the reason that in the four Gospels the high priests, the elders, the scribes, and the Roman officials did not know who Jesus was. They could not determine whether His activities were the activities of God or the activities of a man. He was a mystery, for He was God, yet man; He was man, yet God.
Athanasius, one of the early church fathers, said concerning Christ, "He was made man that we might be made God," and "The Word was made flesh...that we, partaking of His Spirit, might be deified." This is the principle of God's move on earth. God's move is in man and through man. God's move is to deify man, making man God in life and in nature but not, of course, in the Godhead.
In the four Gospels Christ was just one person, but on the day of Pentecost, after His death, resurrection, ascension, and descension, He was enlarged and expanded from one person into thousands of persons (Acts 2:41). A large group of people began to move in the divine move. In the four Gospels God moved in man's move, but in Acts man moved in God's move. God and man moved together. The chief priests, the elders, the scribes, and the Roman officials did not understand what had happened to Peter and John, because they knew them only as Galilean fishermen (4:13). Nevertheless, they had to admit that what these men did was divine (4:16). When they moved, God moved. Eventually, Gamaliel, a great rabbi, advised the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Jews, concerning the apostles, saying, "Withdraw from these men and leave them alone; for should this counsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest you be found to be even fighters against God" (5:38-39).
Genuine Christians are mysterious and cannot be understood by unbelievers. We Christians are a mystery because we move in God's move, and God moves in our move. God and we, we and God, move together. The worldly people know only the human part of us — they do not realize that we also have a divine part. This divine part, which is involved in our move in God's move and God's move in our move, is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.
Job pursued something in the realm of ethics, but we Christians today pursue something in the realm of God. What we are doing is a mystery, and this mystery is the Triune God consummated as the Spirit indwelling us, moving with us, and even moving in us.
We are not merely one with the Spirit, but we and the Spirit are one. This is illustrated by the move of the apostle Paul and his co-workers in Acts 16. They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to turn to the left into Asia (v. 6), and they were not allowed by the Spirit of Jesus to turn to the right into Bithynia (v. 7). This indicated a straight forward direction for their move. Paul then received a vision of a Macedonian man, and after considering the vision, Paul and his co-workers concluded that God had called them to announce the gospel to the Macedonians (v. 10). This is a wonderful picture of man moving in God's move, of man and God moving together.
We should not take any action apart from the all-inclusive Spirit. We should not face any situation or meet any need apart from the Spirit. When He moves, we move; when we move, He moves. We need to practice this in our married life. If you desire to say something to your spouse, you should wait for a period of time, until you have the assurance that your speaking is the move of the Spirit.
We need to learn not to do things too quickly. Acting hastily is the living of a descendant of Adam. Those who live in that way are quick to speak, to act, and to deal with others. We must remember that, as Christians, we are not the only ones moving. On the contrary, we are moving in another One's moving, and another One is moving in our moving. This kind of life is a constituent of the church. This kind of life keeps the Body of Christ in a living condition. However, not to move in the Spirit's move and not to have the Spirit in our move will bring death into the church.
Revelation 22:17 does not say that the Spirit speaks with the bride; rather, this verse says, "The Spirit and the bride say..." The two speak together. This indicates that we should not merely speak with the Spirit; we and the Spirit should speak together. If this is the case, our speaking will be living and full of impact. The way we must take today is the way of moving in the move of the Spirit and of having the Spirit moving in our move.
