Knowing this Age and Knowing the Spirit of God in the Move of God’s Eternal Economy

Our God is a moving God, and if we are going to cooperate with the Lord to carry out His move in His economy, we must know this age and know the Spirit of God. In a particular way, we must know the age of today’s Christianity in relation to the revelation of the Bible, the divine truths, and the genuine and proper theology.

We must know this age; this age has a physical, spiritual, and religious aspect, and for us to live in this world and see the world situation and the constant development and change, we need to know this age.

We shouldn’t belittle knowing the world situation, thinking that is has nothing to do with the Lord’s move among us. Both history and the Bible tell us clearly that God’s move is in human history.

In Jer. 8:7 the Lord says that the swallow knows the time and seasons, but His people don’t know Jehovah’s commandments. The birds know when a change in weather is taking place, and they fly somewhere warm when the winter comes, but God’s people don’t know the world situation and they have no feeling.

May the Lord have mercy on us, wake us up, and save us from having no feeling concerning the world situation today. May we realize that today we live at the consummation of this age, and in this last stage of our race, may we not ignore the age the Lord put us in.

We shouldn’t be foolish but wise, like the birds, adapting to the changing of the seasons and the weather. The Lord told His disciples something similar when He said, How com you can discern the season and the weather but cannot discern the age (Matt. 16:3)?

We need to have the ability to discern the age we live in, and we need to see the religious world and know the present age of Christianity in a particular way, in the light of the divine revelation of the Bible with the divine truths and the genuine and proper theology.

In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we have been brought to see the high peak of the divine revelation, but we may not be aware of what is among those in Christianity, what truths they hold, and what they speak and know.

We need to know the high peak of the divine revelation and bring it to all believers to enjoy it, and we also need to have a particular understanding of what it is in Christianity.

God is moving, and we need to cooperate with Him to carry out His move in His economy; we cooperate with the Lord in His move by knowing the age of today’s Christianity in a particular way, especially in relation to the revelation of the Scriptures, the divine truths, and the genuine and proper theology.

Knowing this Age and Knowing the Spirit of God in the Move of God’s Eternal Economy

Unfortunately, none of today’s theologies – including the Nicene Creed which many hold dear and recite and read again and again – stresses adequately five critical points concerning the Spirit of God in the move of God’s eternal economy.

The Nicene creed is somewhat basic, not even touching these five points. The revelation in the Bible concerning the Spirit is so rich, the Christians today remain in the shallow and superficial knowledge of the Spirit.

The Spirit is very important in God’s move, for it is the Spirit with our spirit who is the key to God’s organic salvation, and it is by following the Spirit in His move that we can participate in the Lord’s move.

God’s Spirit is related to God’s move; if you read Gen. 1 you will see that, even in the restoration of the earth and the heavens, the Spirit of God was there hovering over the earth.

For us to participate with the Lord in His move, we must have a thorough and adequate understanding of the Spirit of God in the move of God’s economy, and in particular, we need to know the following five critical points concerning the Spirit.

1. The Spirit that gives life was not yet before the glorification (the resurrection) of Christ (see Jon 7:37-39). Knowing the Spirit of God is not that simple; in Gen. 1 we see that the Spirit of God was there from the beginning, but in John 7 we are told that “the Spirit was not yet”.

Who or what is this “the Spirit” who was not yet? The Spirit who can dispense life into man was not yet, for at that time Christ didn’t complete the process by going through death and resurrection to be glorified and become the Spirit.

The Spirit has gone through many processes, and now He is consummated to live in us; He comes into our innermost being, and He flows in us and gushes out of us as springs of living water into eternal life.

Praise the Lord, the Spirit is not merely the Spirit that does miracles and wonders outside of us, but through Christ’s glorification – His resurrection – the glorified Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit that can be dispensed into us as life!

2. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit – Christ in the flesh became a life-giving Spirit, fulfilling John 7:39 (see 1 Cor. 15:45b).

Through His death and resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit, and in 2 Cor. 3:17 we are told that the Lord is the Spirit, and in v. 18 we have the Lord Spirit, a compound divine title. The life-giving Spirit is Jesus Himself.

In the systematic theology today the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are segmented and segregated, each having His own portion and position, and none of them being mixed with the other.

But 1 Cor. 15:45 clearly says that Christ, the second of the Divine Trinity, became a life-giving Spirit, the third of the Divine Trinity. He didn’t just bring in the Spirit (as He said He would in John 16) but He became the Spirit.

We cannot separate Christ and the Spirit, because the Spirit is Christ Himself, who has become the life-giving Spirit. Now Christ is the life-giving Spirit, constantly dispensing Himself as life into us!

Thank You Lord for becoming a life-giving Spirit. Hallelujah, now Christ is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, constantly dispensing God in Christ as the Spirit to be life and everything to us. Thank You Lord for passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, to become a divine-life-imparting-Spirit who now is in our spirit! Lord, impart more life to our being, and cause us to experience and appreciate You as the life-giving Spirit!

3. The compound Spirit typified by the anointing ointment in Exo. 30:23-25. In the entire Christianity only brother Lee saw the matter of the compound Spirit.

The Spirit today is not just the Spirit of God, but a compound Spirit, just as God commanded Moses to make a compound ointment with one hin of olive oil and four kinds of spices in Exo. 30.

The Spirit today is compounded with divinity, humanity, Christ’s death with its effectiveness, and Christ’s resurrection with its power; all these are blended into the Spirit.

When we exercise our spirit and enjoy the Spirit, we enjoy God, man, crucifixion, the effectiveness of His death, resurrection, the power of His resurrection – all of them compounded in the Spirit. Do we need power? The resurrection power is in the Spirit.

The Spirit is not merely “a dove flying here and there” as Christianity depicts it; we need the Lord’s shining light to expose the superstition in Catholicism and the superficiality in Christianity, for their theology is imperfect, lacking, and short when it comes to the divine revelation.

Thank You Lord for coming into us as the compound Spirit to apply all the elements in Your being to us for our enjoyment and experience. We want to know You and experience You as the Spirit who has been compounded with God, man, Christ’s death with its effectiveness, and Christ’s resurrection with its power. Amen, Lord, what a Spirit we have in our spirit! Everything we need is in the Spirit, and this compound Spirit is anointing us, filling us, and bringing us into the experience of Himself daily!

4. The Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the indwelling Spirit in Romans 8:2, 9-11, all refer to the compound Spirit that gives life. This is amazing.

The Spirit in Rom. 8 is called the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the indwelling Spirit – these all refer to the compound Spirit who gives life by indwelling us.

Are these five Spirits or are they one Spirit? The life-giving Spirit in 1 Cor. 15:45 is called the Spirit of life who has a wonderful law of the Spirit of life; the Spirit of life is the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead; the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ who is within us, and the Spirit of Christ is just Christ Himself who dwells in us.

Hallelujah for all these wonderful specific aspects of the Spirit – the compound Spirit who indwells us to dispense life to us all the time!

5. The Spirit of God in the move of God’s eternal economy today is the seven Spirits – the sevenfold intensified Spirit (see Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6).

In the book of Revelation we see that there are seven Spirits of God; these are not seven different Spirits but one Spirit who has been intensified sevenfold, just as in Isa. 30:26 the light of the sun has been intensified sevenfold like the light of seven days.

For the producing the church the life-giving Spirit is sufficiently strong, but because of the degradation of the church, this strong Spirit has been intensified sevenfold to counteract this degradation and produce the overcomers to consummate the New Jerusalem.

Today Christ is not only the life-giving Spirit but also the sevenfold intensified Spirit to intensify His organic salvation and produce us, His people, to be His overcomers to build up the Body of christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

At the end of this age we enjoy not only the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the compound Spirit, but also the sevenfold intensified Spirit.

We should not belittle or neglect these five main points concerning the Spirit. We need to know that the Spirit has gone through a process, and now the Spirit is Christ Himself compounded with many elements; He dwells in us, and He is the sevenfold intensified Spirit.

We need to know the Spirit of God in the move of God’s eternal economy, and we need to be one with the Spirit for the Lord’s move on earth!

Thank You Lord for becoming not only the life-giving Spirit but the sevenfold intensified Spirit to counteract the degradation of the church, produce the overcomers, build up the Body, and consummate the New Jerusalem. Praise the Lord, now the compound Spirit has been intensified sevenfold to intensify God’s organic salvation in all His believers and produce them as the overcomers who would build up the church as the Body of Christ and consummate the New Jerusalem! Oh Lord, we want to know and experience the Spirit of God so that we may cooperate with God’s move in His eternal economy!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James L. for this week, and portions from, The Divine and Mystical Realm, ch. 1 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Special Fellowship concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Move, msg. 1 (week 1), Cooperating with God to Carry Out His Move in His Economy by Knowing This Age and by Knowing the Present Truth.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Now Christ is the life-giving Spirit; / Now Christ is the Spirit today. / Now Christ is the life-giving Spirit; / So turn to your spirit and say— / O Lord, Amen, / O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah! (Song on Christ being a life-giving Spirit)
  # He’s the Spirit of reality, / Pneumatic Christ, the Firstborn Son in me, / The consummation of the Triune God, / Life-giving Spirit, all-inclusive Christ / Intensified sevenfold. / He’s the Spirit of Reality. / He’s the secret. He is one with me; / He’s in my spirit. God dispensed in me / From my spirit, soul and then, body, / Producing reality. (Song on the Spirit)
  # Sevenfold the Spirit is / For the deadness of the church, / That the saints may turn and live, / That the Lord may burn and search. / Now the Spirit of our God / Has become intensified: / ’Tis not one but sevenfold / That the church may be supplied! (Hymns #1122)