As believers in Christ, we can experience the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of the suffering Jesus and the resurrected Christ, the Spirit with a bountiful supply for us to not only endure all the sufferings but also magnify Christ by living in His resurrection life.
Hallelujah, what a miracle that we have been regenerated by God to have His life and nature!
We are not only men but God-men, men with God in them; when we believed into the Lord Jesus and thus have received Him, we were given the authority to become children of God who are born of God (John 1:12-13).
Now we have two lives with two natures in us: we have the human life with the human nature by our human birth from our parents, and we have the divine life with the divine nature by our being born again, born of God.
We truly are mysterious persons, for many times we do this and that, we have this and that decision to make, and we need to go here and there, and suddenly something within us gives us a feeling, a sweet speaking, to not do that, not go there, not say that, and not make that decision.
Our Christian life should be a life according to this inner operating God; God operates in us both the willing and the working according to His good pleasure.
And the way He operates in us is not by forcing us to do things according to His will, neither is it by deceiving us (as Satan does) or tricking us into doing what He wants us to do.
Rather, God operates in us with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
In other words, God operates in us both the willing and the working by first supplying us with the enjoyment of Himself, by giving us a bountiful supply that meets our needs and which causes all things to turn out to our salvation.
The way God operates in us is not supernatural, extraordinary, or spectacular in an outward way; He works in our inner being to change us from within, and He does it by supplying us with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
As long as we simply open to Him, turn to Him, and live in spirit, something marvelous yet normal takes place in us: we’re bountifully supplied with the Spirit of Jesus Christ as all that we need, and we spontaneously live Christ for His magnification.
As we enjoy this supply inwardly, as we keep turning to the Lord and living in the mingled spirit, He fills our inner being with Himself, and our will becomes one with His will, our emotion loves and hates what He loves and hates, and our mind becomes the mind of Christ.
Little by little, God is rearranging, reconstituting, and filling our inner being – our mind, emotion, and will – with Himself as the bountiful supply, and we spontaneously have the willing and the working, for it is God who operates in us.
This is mysterious yet wonderful; this is normal yet miraculous. Hallelujah!
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of Jesus with His Endurance for Suffering and the Spirit of Christ with His Resurrection Life and Power
Phil. 1:19 says that Paul knew that for him this very situation – him being in prison, even to such a long extent and in such a way – will turn out to salvation through the petition of the saints and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
This title, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is a compound term, and it is uniquely used here; it refers to the Spirit of the suffering Jesus and the resurrected Christ.
When Paul used this designation of the Spirit he was in prison in Rome; on one hand, he was suffering there by imprisonment and persecution, but on the other hand, he was there rejoicing, for he was living out Christ.
Brother Watchman Nee, similarly, endured prison for two decades, and his testimony at the end of it all was that he maintained his joy.
Paul experienced the Spirit of Jesus, being identified with the suffering life of Jesus.
At the same time, he experienced Christ with His resurrection power, His ascending power lifting him up above any depression or sufferings and causing him to rejoice and maintain his joy.
The Spirit of God was there from the beginning of the Bible (see Gen. 1:1-2), but it was only in the New Testament after the Lord was glorified that the Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, was there.
In John 7:38 the Lord asked all those who are thirsty to come and drink of the living water, and v. 39 says that this living water is the Spirit, who was not yet, for Jesus had not yet been glorified. Wow!
Even though the Spirit of God was there, the Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the consummation of the processed Triune God, was not yet until after the resurrection of Christ (Luke 24:26).
After the Lord Jesus was resurrected, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ; as such a One, He came and breathed Himself into the disciples of Christ in the evening of the day of His resurrection (John 20:22).
Such a Spirit is now “another Comforter”, the Spirit of reality promised by Christ before His death (John 14:16-17).
Now this Spirit, also called the Spirit of Jesus Christ, has both the divine element and the human element, and in Him, there’s the essence and reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ.
This consummated Spirit is now the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ flowing as living water with a bountiful supply for us to receive, enjoy, and experience (John 7:38-39).
Before the Lord’s resurrection, such a Spirit was not yet; today, however, this Spirit is here with a bountiful supply.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is typified in the Old Testament by the holy anointing ointment in Exo. 20:23-25; in this unique ointment we see olive oil with four kinds of spices, all of which typify Christ and the processes He went through.
The Spirit is not only the Spirit of Jesus as in Acts 16:7 nor only the Spirit of Christ as in Rom. 8:9 but the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of Jesus mainly refers to and contains the Lord’s humanity, human living, and endurance for suffering; the Spirit of Christ mainly refers to and contains the Lord’s resurrection and ascendency.
But hallelujah, the Spirit of Jesus Christ includes both the human living, the endurance for sufferings, and the resurrection of Christ with its power, the transcendency of ascension, and His enthronement. Hallelujah!
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of the Jesus who lived a life of suffering on the earth and of the Christ who is now in resurrection.
Now both Jesus as the suffering One and Christ as the resurrected One both operate in this Spirit to supply not only Paul but also us in our daily living to live Christ for His magnification. Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, we turn to our spirit to enjoy and partake of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, our God went through a process and was consummated to become the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ with our spirit! Amen, Lord, we turn again and again to our spirit and we want to live in the mingled spirit so that we may enjoy and experience the Spirit of Jesus Christ. May we experience You in Your humanity, Your human living, Your endurance for sufferings, Your crucifixion, Your death, Your resurrection, and Your ascension and enthronement. Hallelujah, all that Christ is, has, and has gone through, with all His attainments and obtainments, is now in the Spirit of Jesus Christ for us to enjoy as our bountiful supply to live Christ for His magnification!
We can Experience the Spirit of Jesus Christ with its Bountiful Supply by Turning to our Spirit
In his book, The Spirit of Christ, Andrew Murray has a very good explanation or exposition of what the Spirit of Jesus Christ is; brother Lee referred to this portion many times, and it is good to be familiar with it.
The Spirit of God as poured out at Pentecost was something new.
Throughout the Old Testament, He was always called “the Spirit of God” or “the Spirit of the Lord”; He didn’t bear the name “the Holy Spirit” until the New Testament.
It is only in connection with the work that He had to do, in preparing the way for Christ and a body for Him, that the name “the Holy Spirit” is used.
Then, when He was poured out on the day of Pentecost, He came as the Spirit of the incarnate, crucified, resurrected, and exalted Christ; He is the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.
He bears and communicates to us not only the life of God but even more, the life of God as it had been interwoven into human nature in the person of Jesus Christ.
Now in the person of Jesus, He is both God and man; the Spirit of Jesus Christ is both divine and human.
Even more, as He was glorified in the resurrection and ascension, the Spirit of Jesus Christ came forth as the Spirit of His human life glorified into the union with the divine life to make us, the believers in Christ, partakers of all that He had personally wrought out and acquired of Himself and His glorified life.
In virtue of His having perfected in Himself a new holy human nature of our behalf, He could now communicate what previously had no existence in life – something that was at once both human and divine.
As man and as the Head of man, Christ was admitted into the full glory of the divine; this human nature constituted the receptacle and the dispenser of the divine Spirit.
At Pentecost the Holy Spirit could come down as the Spirit of the God-man – most really the Spirit of God, and yet truly the Spirit of man.
And we as believers in Christ can experience the Spirit of Jesus Christ in our daily life, for He is not only for us to know and enjoy but also to experience and participate in, to partake of.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ today is the Spirit of the Jesus who lived a life of suffering on earth and of the Christ who is now in resurrection.
In the Spirit of Jesus, we have the glorified human nature, the Spirit of God with His divine life and nature, the death of Christ with its effectiveness, the resurrection of Christ with its power, and the ascension of Christ with its transcendency and enthronement.
When we turn to our spirit and contact the Lord, we receive such an all-inclusive dose, an all-inclusive and all-encompassing supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to bountifully supply us.
As we go on with the Lord and go through things, we may not know what we need, but through our contact with the Lord, the Spirit of Jesus Christ bountifully supplies us.
When we turn to our spirit, the death of Christ is applied to our being to terminate anything negative, and the repelling power of His resurrection keeps away anything from Satan, anything that is negative.
When we turn to our spirit, we enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and we are able to endure and suffer the current situation, for in this Spirit we have the endurance for suffering.
Furthermore, as we turn to the Lord and enjoy Him, His resurrection life is imparted into us to vivify our inner being and bring our whole being out of any death into life, so that we may live Christ for His magnification.
As we exercise our spirit to enjoy and experience the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection and even are identified with Him in His ascendency and enthronement over all things.
Everything we need is in this bountiful supply, which we can access by being in our mingled spirit.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being so available to us as the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in our spirit. We exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and experience the Spirit of Jesus Christ with His bountiful supply right now. Thank You, Lord, everything we need is in this all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is now mingled with our spirit. We just call on Your name, Lord Jesus, and we are supplied! Hallelujah, we can experience and enjoy Christ’s divine life, divine nature, human living, endurance for sufferings, resurrection, the power of resurrection, ascendency, and enthronement in our mingled spirit! Amen, Lord, keep us turning to You today to enjoy and experience the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in whatever situation we’re in!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with our Spirit,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living In and With the Divine Trinity (2021 Thanksgiving Day Conference), week 5, entitled, Living with the Divine Trinity (2) God Operating in us.
- Further reading on this topic:
– Experiencing the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (via, The Subjective Experience of the Indwelling Christ);
– Applying the Spirit – the compound Spirit for the Body and for God’s service (via, life-study of Philippians);
– The way to experience and enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (via, The Economy and Dispensing of God); - Hymns on this topic:
– With all these components true / His Spirit in us doth move, / And by His anointing full / The riches of Christ we prove. / This Spirit of Jesus doth / Encompass both great and small; / Inclusively He doth work / In us, making God our all. (Hymns #242)
– Life is God the Father in Christ Jesus / As the Spirit flowing into us. / How enjoyable, this Person wonderful! / He’s our life so rich and bountiful. (Hymns #1193)
– O Lord, Thou art the Spirit now / Who in my spirit makes His home; / He mingles with my spirit too, / And both one spirit thus become. / Lord, teach me how to exercise / My spirit now to contact Thee, / That in Thy Spirit I may walk / And live by Thy reality. (Hymns #493)
