As believers in Christ, we need to breathe in the Spirit as the holy breath so that we may live the Christian life.
The Triune God went through a process to become the consummated Spirit, and He came to breathe Himself into His disciples as the holy breath on the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection; only the all-inclusive Spirit can live the Christian life, for this Spirit is everything to us today. Amen!
This week in our morning revival we come to week 4 of the 2022 Thanksgiving Conference; the title is, Experiencing the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity by Breathing the Spirit, Drinking the Water of life, and Eating the Bread of God.
God is our unique blessing, and He dispenses Himself into us little by little, day by day.
We want to enter into this blessing and experience it, even live in and under this blessing.
There are many ways for us to enjoy the Triune God dispensing Himself into us as our blessing.
One way is to remain in the divine romance; the more we love the Lord, the more we open to Him to receive Him and take Him in.
This is not a natural, emotional love; it is a love that constrains us to live to Him and no longer live to ourselves but to the Lord.
The love of Christ constrains us to the extent that we just live to the Lord, living in the divine romance to experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the divine economy.
Another way to live in the divine dispensing is for us to turn our mind to our spirit so that the law of the Spirit of life may be activated.
The Triune God came into our being not only to be our life and life supply; He was installed in us as the law of the Spirit of life to constantly dispense and impart God as life into all the parts of our inner being. Amen!
This week we come to the matter of experiencing the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity by breathing the Spirit, drinking the water of life, and eating the bread of God.
How do we experience the divine dispensing? It is by breathing, drinking, and eating. We need to breathe the Spirit, we need to drink the water of life, and we need to eat the bread of God.
This is what the Lord emphasized in the Gospel of John: He came as the bread of life for us to partake of and have part of Him, He was cleft on the cross to flow out living water for us to drink, and He breathed Himself into His disciples as the holy breath for them to breathe the Spirit.
These are three basic matters of our Christian life.
Just as humanly speaking we can’t graduate from eating, drinking, and especially breathing, so in the spiritual realm, we need to constantly depend on our eating the Lord as the bread of life, drinking Him as the water of life, and breathing the Spirit as the holy breath.
No matter how mature we are in the Lord, we need to keep breathing the Spirit, eating the bread of life, and drinking the living water.
These basic matters will keep us in the divine dispensing day by day, even moment by moment.
The Consummated Spirit was Breathed into us as the Holy Breath for our Life and Living
After the Lord Jesus was crucified and buried, He took a tour of Hades and, on the third day, He resurrected and became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).
Then, He came to His disciples, who were afraid that the Jews will persecute them because of their association with Christ.
They were sorrowful, for they had been with the Lord for three and a half years, walking with Him, living with Him, seeing Him interact and speak, and seeing His God-man human living.
And then, He was just gone; He was put to death and died. So they were sorrowful, and they were also scared, for that was not a good time to be a friend of Jesus, who had just been put to death.
The Lord Jesus came to them not by knocking on the door but simply by appearing among them.
And instead of taking the opportunity to explain to them how they will have to live without Him and how can they carry out God’s purpose, He simply said, Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).
The consummated Spirit was breathed into the disciples by the Son in resurrection; this Spirit was actually Christ Himself, for the Spirit is His breath.
The Holy Spirit is the breath of the Son.
The Greek word for “Spirit” is “pneuma”, which can be translated as breath, wind, or spirit. This verse can also say, Receive the holy breath.
On the day of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus breathed Himself into His disciples as the holy breath.
This Spirit in John 20:22 was the Spirit expected in John 7:39 and promised by the Lord in John 14:16-17, 26, 15:26, and 16:7-8, 13.
The Lord breathed Himself as the Holy Spirit, the holy breath, into the disciples, to fulfil the promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter.
The Gospel of John that Christ became flesh to be the Lamb of God and that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit; as such as Spirit, He breathed Himself into His disciples.
He was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit by the process of death and resurrection; now He is the life-giving Spirit to impart the divine life into all those who believe Him.
It is as the Spirit that He breathed Himself as the holy breath into us, and it is as the Spirit that we can receive Him, drink Him, and flow Him out as rivers of living water (John 7:38-39).
![And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, [Even] the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know [Him; but] you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you...But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you. John 14:16-17, 26 But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. John 16:13](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/And-I-will-ask-the-Father-and-He-will-give-you-another-Comforter-that-He-may-be-with-you-forever-Even-the-Spirit-of-reality-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, [Even] the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know [Him; but] you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you...But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you. John 14:16-17, 26 But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. John 16:13")
It is as the Spirit that He came in His resurrection to enter into His disciples as their Comforter, and He began to abide in them.
It is as the Spirit that the Lord can live in us and enable us to live by Him and with Him (14:19).
It is as the Spirit that the Lord can abide in us and enable us to abide in Him (14:20; 15:4-5).
It is as the Spirit that the Lord can come with the Father to us, those who love Him, and make an abode with us (14:23).
It is as the Spirit that the Lord can cause all that He is to be fully realized by us, His disciples (16:13-16).
By breathing Himself as the holy breath into us, the Lord imparts Himself into us as our life and everything.
The Holy Spirit in John 20:22 is actually the resurrected Christ coming to us as the Spirit to breathe Himself into us so that we can receive the holy breath. Hallelujah!
It is the Spirit who gives life, and this Spirit is our very breath (2 Cor. 3:6, 17).
Everything we need is in the holy breath; everything of God is embodied in Christ and realized as the holy breath, who now is in us and with us.
Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for not only dying for us to redeem us but also becoming a life-giving Spirit to impart the life of God into us! Hallelujah, Christ became a life-giving Spirit, and He dispensed Himself into us as the holy breath! We open to You, Lord, to receive You as the Spirit, the river of living water flowing in and out of us. We want to simply abide in You and allow You to abide in us as the Spirit with our spirit. Live in us today, Lord, and enable us to live by and with You. We love You, Lord, and we come to You in Your word; make an abode with us and be with us. Keep us breathing You in as the holy breath, the Spirit who gives life! Hallelujah, the Lord is the Spirit who gives life, and this Spirit is our very breath!
The Spirit is Everything to us in our Christian Life: We need to Breathe the Spirit to Be a Christian!
![In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 ...I have come that they may have life and may have [it] abundantly. John 10:10 I am the true vine... John 15:1](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/In-the-beginning-was-the-Word-and-the-Word-was-with-God-and-the-Word-was-God-3-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 ...I have come that they may have life and may have [it] abundantly. John 10:10 I am the true vine... John 15:1")
Being a Christian is the most wonderful yet the most difficult thing; being a Christian is impossible unless we breathe in the Spirit to live in spirit and do everything in spirit.
Being a Christian means that Christ lives in us as the Spirit; if we try to live Christ and express Him without remaining in the organic union with the Lord, we are not really a Christian.
The kind of holiness that God requires of us is impossible for us to produce; only the Spirit can be a Christian. Only the Spirit can be an overcomer.
This Spirit, the consummation of the Triune God, is our God, our Father, our Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Shepherd, and our life and life supply.
The Spirit is everything to us in our Christian life, and we need to breathe the Spirit as the holy breath so that we can be a proper Christian!
If you try to live the Christian life apart from the Spirit, you will end up being a self-righteous yet miserable person, and you will not be one who is pleasing in God’s sight.
Only the Spirit filling us and living in us can really be a Christian, and only the Spirit flowing in us and out of us can live the Christian life and carry out the Christian work.
Christ, who is the Word of God, became flesh to be the Lamb of God; then, in resurrection, He became the holy breath for us to breathe in (John 1:29; 20:22).
He has done everything for us: He took away the sin of the world as the Lamb of God, and He became a life-giving Spirit to dispense all that God is into us as the holy breath.
On our side, we simply need to breathe the Lord in.
We need to breathe the Spirit so that we can be a proper Christian and live the Christian life.
As we breathe in the Lord, we are refreshed and we live by another life, the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit to be our life.
When we breathe in the Lord as the Spirit, we abide in the Lord and He abides in us, we live Christ and He lives in us, and He abides with us and is realized by us.
Now we have Christ as the Word, the Lamb, the tree, and the breath; He as the Word is to express God, as the Lamb He is for redemption, as the tree He’s for the impartation of life, and as the breath, He’s for our living (John 1:1, 29; 10:10b; 14:19; 15:1).
We may have breathed in the Lord when we were regenerated and many days after, but we cannot stop breathing.
As soon as we stop breathing in the Spirit, we find it impossible to live the Christian life.
Only the holy breath, the Spirit as the breath of God, can be a Christian.
We need to consider our daily living: how do we live our Christian life? How do we do all things in our Christian life?
Do we merely mentally acknowledge the Lord and do our best to please Him, or do we breathe in the Spirit as the holy breath so that we spontaneously live the Christian life as Christ lives in us?
Only the holy breath, the Spirit as our breath, can be a Christian and can live the Christian life.
In the Spirit, we have everything we need to live the Christian life.
Our God is not merely up in heaven, being Almighty and sovereign over all things; He went through a process to become the holy breath for us to breathe in, and He is breathing Himself into us all the time for us to enjoy and partake of.
When we face a difficult situation, we can open to Him and talk to Him about it.
When we have a need, we can just breathe Him in and partake of His riches (Rom. 10:12-13).
He is rich to all who call on Him, and we can simply breathe in the holy breath to live the Christian life.
When we contact Him and breathe in the Spirit, He will come in to face the situation and live in us, doing whatever is needed.
May we learn to breathe in the Spirit day by day to live a proper Christian life and church life!
Lord Jesus, we want to breathe in the Spirit day by day and even moment by moment so that we may live the Christian life! Cause us to realize, Lord, that it’s impossible to live the Christian life apart from breathing in the Spirit so that the Spirit is everything to us! Hallelujah, only the processed and consummated Triune God living in us as the all-inclusive Spirit can be a Christian! Praise the Lord, the Spirit is our God, our Father, our Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Shepherd, and our life and life supply! Amen, Lord, we come to You to simply breathe in the Spirit so that the Spirit becomes everything to us in our Christian life. May our Christian life be altogether a matter of breathing in the Lord as the holy breath so that Christ lives in us and we live Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ted Williamson in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Job, pp. 109-110, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the Divine Economy (2022 Thanksgiving Weekend Conference), week 4, entitled, Experiencing the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity by Breathing the Spirit, Drinking the Water of life, and Eating the Bread of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Peter and the Lord’s disciples / All were Spirit born and filled, / Breathing in the Holy Spirit / As on them Christ breathed and willed. (Hymns #272 stanza 2)
– O Lord, breathe Thy Spirit on me, / Teach me how to breathe Thee in; / Help me pour into Thy bosom / All my life of self and sin. / I am breathing out my sorrow, / Breathing out my sin; / I am breathing, breathing, breathing, / All Thy fulness in. (Hymns #255 stanza 1 and chorus)
– The Spirit today is the air that we breathe; / Our spirits rejoice in this living inflow. / For just as our body the breath does receive, / So also in spirit to live it is so. / The Spirit today is the air that we breathe; / What thing more important than breathing to do? / For breathing each moment, new life we receive, / And God’s living freshness is constant and new. (Hymns #1114 stanzas 1-2)
About aGodMan
[The Spirit in John 20:22] was the Spirit expected in 7:39 and promised in 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; and 16:7-8, 13. Hence, the Lord’s breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. This fulfillment differs from the one in Acts 2:1-4, which was the fulfillment of the Father’s promise in Luke 24:49. (See footnote 1 on v. 17 in John 14.) In Acts 2 the Spirit as a rushing, violent wind came as power upon the disciples for their work (Acts 1:8). In John 20:22 the Spirit as breath was breathed as life into the disciples for their life. By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord imparted Himself into them as life and everything. As falling into the ground to die and growing out of the ground transform the grain of wheat into another form, one that is new and living, so the death and resurrection of the Lord transfigured Him from the flesh into the Spirit. As the last Adam in the flesh, through the process of death and resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As He is the embodiment of the Father, so the Spirit is the realization, the reality, of Him. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into the disciples. It is as the Spirit that He is received into His believers and flows out of them as rivers of living water (John 7:38-39). It is as the Spirit that through His death and resurrection He came back to the disciples, entered into them as their Comforter, and began to abide in them (14:16-17). It is as the Spirit that He can live in the disciples and enable them to live by and with Him (14:19). It is as the Spirit that He can abide in the disciples and enable them to abide in Him (14:20; 15:4-5). It is as the Spirit that He can come with the Father to His lover and make an abode with him (14:23). It is as the Spirit that He can cause all that He is and has to be fully realized by the disciples (16:13-16). John 20:22, footnote 1, Recover Version Bible
The Spirit was breathed into the believers by the Son in resurrection… The Holy Spirit in John 20:22 is actually the resurrected Christ Himself, because this Spirit is His breath. The Holy Spirit is thus the breath of the Son. The Greek word for Spirit in this verse is pneuma, a word that is used for breath, spirit, and wind. Therefore, this verse can be interpreted, “Receive the holy breath.” On the day of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus breathed Himself into His disciples as the holy breath. The essential, infilling Spirit is our breath for our breathing. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1990, vol. 1, “The Spirit,” p. 549
Being a Christian is impossible unless we breathe in the Spirit as the holy breath!
Thank the Lord that He has become a life-giving Spirit and He is breathing Himself into us all the time to be everything that we need to live the Christian life!
May we keep coming to Him with all our needs, problems, and situations, and may we breathe in the Spirit so that the Spirit would live in us and express God through us!
The Spirit is everything to us to live the Christian life. The Christian life is altogether the processed and consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit.
O May we live in the spirit and be in the resurrection to overcome the flesh, the world and the devil.
Hallelujah!
As the one who passed through death and resurrection, Jesus, the Son of God, as the embodiment of the Triune God became the life-giving Spirit, who as the breath of God, breathed Himself into us to be our life and everything!
Apart from this one as the consummated Spirit abiding in us, even as we abide in Him, we cannot live the Christian life, much less bear fruit.
Praise the Lord, brother. This morning we see why Jesus had to breathe Himself into us. Jesus’s breath is His Spirit.
Without the Spirit, it would be impossible to live the Christian life.
The Spirit is everything to us to live the Christian life.
May we never cease to exercise our spirit in order that the Spirit would be the living One who deals with our difficult situations and meets the impossible standards of our Lord, and does whatever is needed for us to overcome…
Aaaaameeen! Yes Lord, keep us breathing You in today!!
Amen brother, apart from Him we can do nothing, we cannot be a Christian without Him, its only by the Spirit can we live such a life.
amen brother I enjoyed that our God became processed so that he become the holy breath, the life giving Spirit for us to receive and live by breathing him in our situations
the Christian life is impossible to live but hallelujah we have the triune God indwelling us so that we can breath him everyday and live by him
Oh Lord Amen! Hallelujah! Keep us breathing you in moment by moment
Amen Lord, be our breathing today!
Ameeen!!!
God has been processed and completed to be the all inclusive compound Spirit to be everything to us.
Only the Spirit can be a christian. Only the processed and consummated triune God as the Spirit living in us can live the christian life. How we need to receive, experience, and enjoy the Spirit as our breath and drink.