As those who are learning to cooperate with the Lord for His spreading on earth, we need to experience the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who passed through human living and suffering of death.
Such a Spirit both supplied and led the apostles in their cooperation with the Lord for His move on earth, and such a Spirit enabled them to carry out their ministry, a ministry of suffering carried out among human beings and for human beings in the human life.
When we speak of the propagation of Christ through the church we don’t speak of man going to preach the gospel in a zealous way for God, and then establishing churches with the new converts.
The Lord’s spread is actually the Lord Himself as the Spirit spreading on earth, and He does this through the many members of His Body.
God’s propagation is through the Spirit who is mingled with our spirit; whenever we live in the mingled spirit and experience the mingling of God with man, we are part of God’s propagation, His increase on earth.
In the Old Testament God’s move was mainly outward and it was in many cases quite supernatural; God had to come through the Spirit to speak to man and gain man to do what He wanted to do.
But in the New Testament the way God works and the way He propagates is through the Spirit who is now with our spirit, and our spirit is regenerated and vivified with the divine life.
In the New Testament we see that the Holy Spirit came to Mary, and He mingled Himself with man; therefore, the Lord Jesus was the mingling of God with man, and He was the first God-man.
Through His death and resurrection, Christ passed through a process to become a life-giving Spirit, a Spirit that can impart the divine life into us, and who can come into our spirit to mingle Himself with us as one spirit.
Now all believers in Christ have a mingled spirit, for God as the Spirit came into our spirit to mingle Himself with our spirit, and it is here – in the mingled spirit – that God’s move takes place.
Today we can experience and enjoy the resurrected and ascended Christ as the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit.
On one hand the Holy Spirit comes to mingle God with man, and on the other, the Spirit of Jesus grants us the supply for us to go through human life with its sufferings, and to live a life like the Lord Jesus on the earth.
Today we can participate in God’s move on earth by enjoying and experiencing the wonderful Spirit with our spirit. We need to know and experience the Spirit with our spirit, for without this Spirit there’s no propagation of God or move of God on earth.
We can Experience the Spirit of Jesus to Live a Proper Human Life and Endure its Sufferings
The expression “the Spirit of Jesus” in Acts 16:7 is a particular expression concerning the Spirit of God and refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross (Matt. 1:21).
The Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression; Jesus was a man – He was God becoming a man, one hundred percent man, having humanity and living the human life, and in the course of His human life He passed through much suffering.
As a Man, Jesus endured suffering and overcame this suffering, living a proper human life; this was Jesus on earth as a man.
In their missionary journey, the apostles experienced the Spirit of Jesus with His humanity; they experienced the sufferings He passed through, and the Spirit was applied to them.
We can experience the Spirit of Jesus to live a proper human life and endure its sufferings; we can be identified with Jesus, experiencing Him and enjoying Him as our reality.
In the Spirit of Jesus there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death as well.
In other words, the Spirit of Jesus is not only the Spirit of God (who had divinity in Him, so that we may live the divine life), but also the Spirit of the man Jesus with humanity in Him, so that we may live the proper human life and endure its sufferings.
When we talk about the Spirit, we talk about something divine, something of God; but this title, the Spirit of Jesus, reveals something marvellous – this Spirit is the Spirit of a man!
In our daily life we cannot call or receive help from the spirit of a man, but there’s a Man whose Spirit can help and offer supply for our daily living!
This Spirit is not just the Spirit of God in a general way or the Holy Spirit who was involved in the birth and incarnation of Christ; this Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of a Man full of humanity!
We can experience the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of a Man full of humanity, a Man who had the experience of death and resurrection and ascension.
In this all-inclusive Spirit there’s divinity, humanity, human living, and suffering of death, together with His resurrection and ascension. Such an all-inclusive Spirit is needed for us to preach the gospel and carry out our ministry of spreading Christ, which ministry is of suffering, carried out among human beings and for human beings in the human life.
In Acts 16 we first have the mention of the Holy Spirit, and then the Spirit of Jesus; both these titles are not found in the Old Testament, and the Spirit as such a One can be our experience today.
When Christ was conceived, the Holy Spirit was involved; the Holy Spirit brings in the mingling of God with man.
The Holy Spirit involves that God wants to be one with man and He wants man to be one with God for God to be mingled with man and man to be mingled with God.
But the Spirit of Jesus involves in particular the supply needed for the believers to live a proper human life and endure its sufferings.
Thank You Lord Jesus for becoming the Spirit of Jesus with a bountiful supply for us to live a proper human life and endure its sufferings. Lord, we want to experience the Spirit of Jesus in our daily life and especially in spreading Christ on earth. Amen, Lord, may such an all-inclusive Spirit be our supply in our preaching ministry to spread Christ on earth, a ministry of suffering carried out among human beings and for human beings in the human life. Lord, we take You as our daily supply.
We need to Experience the Spirit of Jesus to face Opposition and Persecution in Preaching the Gospel
The apostle Paul needed the Spirit of Jesus because in the Spirit of Jesus is the limitation and the suffering element, together with the suffering strength to withstand persecution (see Col. 1:24; Acts 9:15-16; 16:7).
Today we also face opposition and persecution in our preaching of the gospel, so we need to experience the Spirit of Jesus to face the persecution and deal with opposition.
After speaking of the Holy Spirit in Acts 16:6, Luke mentions the Spirit of Jesus; Jesus as a Man lived a human life, was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to the heavens and was made Lord and Christ.
The Spirit of Jesus implies the Lord’s humanity, His human living, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension.
The move of the apostles in their evangelistic work was strictly speaking not by the Spirit of God but by the Holy Spirit (involved with the Lord’s incarnation and birth) and by the Spirit of Jesus (involved with the Lord’s humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension).
This shows us that Paul’s move in his evangelical work was not something in the way of the old dispensation but in a new way, by the Spirit. The evangelical work of the apostles was a new move in God’s New Testament economy.
Today we also need to experience the Spirit of Jesus to face any opposition and persecution, and also to be one with the Lord in His new move according to His New Testament economy.
If we participate in the propagation of Christ, we should be ready for opposition and persecution. Praise the Lord, in the Spirit of Jesus there’s the supply for us to pass through any opposition and persecution, for He endured suffering and He overcame!
We cannot carry out the propagation of Christ by ourselves; even if we strive, try, exercise our own will, and do our best to be absolute, we cannot do it.
The propagation of the resurrected, ascended, and all-inclusive Christ is a move of God in man and with man, by means of the Spirit of Jesus with our spirit.
The Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and when we move, He moves, and as He moves, we move; we and Him live and move in oneness, and the move is of the Spirit and with our spirit.
The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of the One who passed through all the sufferings and persecutions, and He has the super-strength allowing Him and enabling Him to pass through all the oppositions and persecutions.
As a Man, Jesus first lived a human life and then was crucified and resurrected (Acts 2:23-24, 32-33). When we call, O Lord Jesus! we call on this One who was a man on earth and had a perfect human life.
He passed through all kinds of sufferings as a man, and He was crucified, killed and resurrected. This man – who the Jewish leaders delivered to be killed, God raised up, for it was not possible for Him to be held by death.
Hallelujah, Jesus Christ as a man was ascended to the heaves and was made Lord and Christ (v. 36). Christ didn’t just live the human life and was killed, but He was resurrected and ascended, and He was made Lord and Christ!
Now the Lord of the universe is a Man, the Man Jesus! He’s the One who lived the human life, died, resurrected, and ascended; now He’s on the throne in the heavens! And we can experience the Spirit of Jesus in preaching the gospel today!
Thank You Lord Jesus for passing through the process of incarnation, living a human life with all the sufferings and persecution, death, resurrection, and ascension. Hallelujah, the One on whom we call – Lord Jesus – is a Man whom God has raised and ascended to make Lord and Christ! Praise the Lord Jesus Christ! This ascended Man is now the Spirit with our spirit for us to enjoy and experience! Amen, Lord, we want to experience the Spirit of Jesus to face any opposition and persecution in preaching the gospel to spread Christ!
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, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2999-3000 (by Witness Lee), 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:
# Now within the Lord’s recov’ry, we’re so glad to find the way / To experience the Triune God and live by Him today— / Get into the mingled spirit, and within the spirit stay; / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
# The Spirit of Jesus has / All elements human, divine, / The living of man in Him / And glory of God combine. / The suff’ring of human life, / Effectiveness of His death, / His rising and reigning too / Are all in the Spirit’s breath. (Hymns #242)
# The Spirit of the triune God / Within our spirit now doth rest; / He ever seeks thru us to flow, / That God in Christ may be expressed. (Hymns #749)
