In and for the Lord’s spreading on earth we may experience and enjoy the resurrected and ascended Christ as the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit.
We need to be clear that the propagation of the resurrected, ascended, and all-inclusive Christ as the development of the kingdom of God is NOT any movement of man, any kind of organisation, any evangelical activities, or any man’s agenda or arrangement.
The Lord’s spread is altogether a move of the Triune God as the Spirit in oneness with the disciples, the believers in Christ; it is the Spirit in oneness with the regenerated and vivified spirit of man that carry out His propagation.
This is clearly shown in the book of Acts; here, in this book, we see that the propagation of Christ is altogether carried out by the wonderful Spirit, who is the culmination and reality of the Triune God.
The move of spreading Christ is carried out not just by the Spirit of God alone, but the Spirit in oneness with the regenerated spirit of man; in this union, in this oneness, we carry out the propagation of the resurrected, ascended, and all-inclusive Christ.
Strictly speaking, this move of God in man, the propagation of Christ on earth, is seen in Acts not as a move of man but a move of God as the Spirit together with man, through man, in oneness with man – the Spirit of God in oneness with the spirit of man.
This week we want to see the matter of, The Spirit of Jesus; without the Spirit there’s no propagation, for it is as the Spirit that the Triune God is being propagated today.
Today God is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of reality, the consummated Spirit, and in particular in those participating in His propagation, God is the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
We need to receive a new view, a new vista related to the Spirit in God’s propagation, in particular to see that the Spirit today is the Spirit of Jesus – not just the Spirit of God, but the Spirit of a man, Jesus!
He is the One we need to experience and enjoy for His propagation. Before Christ’s incarnation, the move of God was mainly outside of man, outwardly; this is why in Genesis we read that the Spirit of God was brooding over the death waters before God came in to do the work of restoration and further creation (Gen. 1:2).
Whenever God wanted to have a move in the Old Testament, the Spirit of God was involved.
Before Christ’s incarnation, the move of the Spirit was primarily outside of man, not in man; after Christ’s death and resurrection, however, God became in Christ a life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit can now enter into our spirit.
He is not just outside of us; He is here in us, the believers, and He is through and with the believers today.
The move of God’s Spirit after Christ’s death and resurrection is something inward, in man.
In John 7:37-39 Christ told His disciples that the Spirit will flow out of the believers inner being as rivers of living waters; this flow refers to the Spirit – who was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
After Christ died and resurrected, He was glorified; His glorification was His resurrection, and in resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit, an enterable Spirit, a Spirit that can be dispensed into the believers and flow out of the believers as river of living waters.
We need to see that, in God’s propagation in the New Testament Christ has become the Spirit, and in particular the Spirit of Jesus, and this Spirit can be our enjoyment and experience in the spreading of Christ.
We may Experience and Enjoy the Resurrected and Ascended Christ as the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit
After Christ’s death and resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit; the resurrected and ascended Christ is the pneumatic Christ – He has been pneumatized, and today He is the Spirit.
Christ came as the last Adam and became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45); this Spirit is for the producing and spreading of the Body of Christ.
The Spirit in the book of Acts is the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, which is Christ Himself in a pneumatic form – Christ as the Spirit. Through the spreading of this wonderful all-inclusive Spirit the church, the Body of Christ, came into existence.
For Christ to spread and produce the church, He became a life-giving Spirit, and through the spreading of this all-inclusive Spirit the church comes into existence and is produced.
It is not the disciples of Jesus going out and spreading His teachings that multiplied the churches on earth, but it is Christ as the Spirit who was increased and spread through and in the disciples all over the earth that brought forth the churches.
What we see in the book of Acts is the spreading of Jesus as the wonderful Spirit to produce the Body of Christ, which is the church, expressed all over the earth as many local churches.
This Christ as the Spirit was experienced and enjoyed by His disciples, and He mingled Himself with many human beings including Peter, John, James, Paul, Timothy, and thousands of believers.
All the believers in the book of Acts were joined to Christ and they were made one with Christ as the Spirit. Paul in particular experienced and enjoyed the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, in the spread of Christ on earth.
We may experience and enjoy the resurrected and ascended Christ as the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6-7).
This expression, the Spirit of Jesus, and, the Holy Spirit, refer to a particular experience of the apostle Paul in his ministry journey; he was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and later when they tried to go into Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus didn’t allow them.
There was no STOP sign in front of them physically, but the Spirit within them did not allow them or forbade them.
The apostles were one in their move to propagate Christ, and they experienced the Spirit in a very particular way; the Holy Spirit forbade them, and the Spirit of Jesus didn’t allow them. This may seem something negative, yet such an experience gives us a window into how these men moved in the Spirit and with the Spirit.
They were not moving or conducting their work according to a certain agenda or plan; they followed the Spirit and allowed the Spirit to lead them. At some point the Spirit forbade them or disallowed them, and at another point He led them forward.
As we see the matter of the propagation of Christ, we need to realize that our participation in this propagation implies the experience and enjoyment of the Spirit of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Without this Spirit there’s no propagation or move on this earth.
Lord Jesus, we want to experience and enjoy the resurrected and ascended Christ as the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, for the spreading of Christ on earth today. Hallelujah, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit, and today we can enjoy and experience God as the Spirit with our spirit! Oh Lord, speak to us, guide us, and be the leading One in us, so that we may follow You, listen to Your speaking, and be one spirit with You for Your spreading on earth. Thank You Lord for joining Yourself to us to make us one spirit with You!
The Title “the Holy Spirit” indicates that God is now Mingling Himself with Man
We need to pay careful attention to the two divine titles in Acts 16:6-7 – the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus.
The interchangeable use of these two titles reveals that the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit; these are not two different spirits but one Spirit in two aspects, as seen from two different angles. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, and the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a general title of the Spirit of God in the New Testament. We cannot see such a title in the Old Testament; rather, what we see in the Old Testament is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jehovah being mentioned in many places, but nowhere can we see the Holy Spirit.
There are two places in the Old Testament – Psa. 51:11 and Isa. 63:10 – where the Spirit of holiness is used; this is not the same as the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
The use of “the Spirit of holiness” in the Old Testament refers to the Spirit of God working on man to separate man unto Himself, make man holy, separated unto God Himself.
This is different from the Holy Spirit as revealed in the New Testament, which involves not just being separated unto God positionally but being saturated with God’s holy nature inwardly to produce something holy within man.
In the Old Testament the Spirit of holiness at most separated people unto God, but in the New Testament the Holy Spirit carries out something more intrinsic, bringing the very holy nature of God in the human nature of man so that God and man would be mingled.
The title, the Holy Spirit, is first used in the New Testament at the conception of the Lord Jesus (see Luke 1:15; 35).
It was when the time came to prepare the way for Christ’s coming and to prepare a human body for Him to initiate the New Testament dispensation that the title, the Holy Spirit, came into use (see Matt. 1:18, 20).
The source and origin of the Lord Jesus, the holy thing conceived in Mary’s womb, was the Holy Spirit. The birth of Jesus, His incarnation, was the result of the visitation of the Holy Spirit to man.
For us to understand the first usage of the title the Holy Spirit we need to see that this title is involved with the Lord’s incarnation and birth, then further in the New Testament this title indicates that God is now mingling Himself with man.
What we are enjoying today is not just the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Jehovah, but the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who brought God into man for the first time, the Spirit that brings about the mingling of divinity with humanity.
What a wonderful Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit brings about the mingling of God and man, divinity and humanity!
Hallelujah, the Holy Spirit is mingling God with man so that we may be God’s corporate expression on earth for the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan! Thank You Lord for coming to us as the Holy Spirit in the New Testament not only to separate us unto God but also to mingle us with God so that divinity may be mingled with humanity! Praise the Lord, we are holy not only because we’re sanctified unto God but because the Holy Spirit has come into us to mingle God’s holy life and nature with our human nature, and we are intrinsically and organically holy!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 3, “The Spirit in the Epistles,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 7, The Spirit of Jesus.
- Hymns on this topic:
# The Spirit of God today / The Spirit of Jesus is, / The God-man who died and rose, / Ascending to glory His. (Hymns #242)
# Of the Spirit, born of Spirit— / This the source of Jesus is; / Filled with Spirit, all of Spirit— / This the essence truly His. / In the Spirit, with the Spirit, / As the Spirit Jesus came; / Now the Lord is just that Spirit / And in spirit we’re the same. (Hymns #1123)
# Through resurrection the Lord is now the Spirit. / Our spirit by Him has been regenerated. / The Lord, the Spirit, mingling / With our spirit, is the most wondrous thing. / Our spirit’s mingled, Lord! (Song on, He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit)
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