The Practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of Reality as the Presence of God in our Spirit

Jesus is our Emmanuel, God with us; the practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of reality as God’s presence in our spirit, and we can enjoy God’s presence and live with Christ as Emmanuel, for Emmanuel is our life and person, and we are His organ for His expression. Hallelujah!

It is amazing to realize that we as believers in Christ are not here as orphans, while Christ our Savior is up there in heavens; rather, Christ is our Emmanuel, and He makes God real to us day by day and moment by moment.

God doesn’t want to remain in heaven away from us while we strive to do His will here on earth; rather, God’s intention is to dispense Himself as life into us to make us sons of God to constitute the Body of Christ so that we may become the New Jerusalem as the city of life.

In other words, we believers in Christ can daily participate and enjoy in God’s intention to dispense Himself into man simply by opening to Him and turning to Him in our spirit.

Romans chapter 8 shows us how God in Christ as the Spirit makes our whole being life; the Triune God dispenses Himself in His Divine Trinity into us to fill our spirit, soul, and body with life and make us beings filled with the divine life.

First, God comes as the Spirit in our spirit; our spirit is life because of righteousness, and the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:11, 16).

Then, as we set our mind on our spirit, our mind (the leading part of our soul) becomes life; our mind is not only filled with life but it becomes life itself (Rom. 8:6).

Through our cooperation with the Lord by setting our mind on our spirit, our soul is filled with life and saturated with life.

Finally, the One who raised Jesus from the dead will impart the divine life into our mortal body to cause our whole being to be filled and swallowed up in life (Rom. 8:2, 10-11).

This is not only that we may be fully saved and filled with life; this is for the purpose that we become functioning members in the Body of Christ, those who function in their measure to build up the Body as the expression of the Triune God on the earth.

As we live such a life and pass through such a process, we will slowly, gradually, and continuously be produced to be part of the New Jerusalem, the city of life.

It all takes place through God’s dispensing of Himself as life into our whole tripartite being, and through our cooperating with His dispensing by receiving it and enjoying it.

And the way God dispense Himself into us is by being our Emmanuel, God with us; right now, the practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of reality as God’s presence with us in our mingled spirit. Hallelujah!

The Practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of Reality as the Presence of the Triune God in our Spirit

The Lord’s presence is with us in our spirit; Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, and the practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of reality as the presence of the consummated Triune God in our spirit (John 1:14; 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Tim. 4:22).

The Lord’s presence is always with us in our spirit, not only day by day but also moment by moment.

Moment by moment, as we live our Christian life, the practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of reality with our spirit to bring in and be the presence of God with us.

The Spirit Himself is the presence of the Triune God with us.

Christ as the Spirit is now in us, and the Spirit who is in us is the very presence of the Triune God; the practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of reality dwelling in us.

In the Divine Trinity, God the Father is the source, God the Son is the course, and God the Spirit is the flow; the flow of the Triune God is the reaching of God to us.

This reaching of God is the presence of the Triune God, and the presence of the Triune God is the Spirit, the Spirit of reality, the life-giving Spirit.

One of the most simple ways we can enjoy the presence of the Triune God in our spirit is by gathering with the saints and being under the speaking and teaching of His holy Word (Matt. 18:20; 28:20; Psa. 119:130; Acts 6:4).

In our gatherings with much speaking of the Word of God, as we get together to hear the word and be under the hearing of faith, we can enjoy the presence of the Triune God, the practical Emmanuel.

The opening of God’s word gives light, imparting understanding not to the complicated ones but to the simple ones.

We want to be like children, simple believers, for only by having such a heart and attitude can we receive the opening of the word of God that gives us light.

The unfolding of the Lord’s word, when the Lord’s words are unfolded to us through our prayerful consideration and musing on the Word and the footnotes in the Recovery Version Bible, give us light and understanding.

When we know we are coming to the prophesying meeting and to any meeting, we need to prepare ourselves by being in the Word of God with much prayer; we need the prayer and the ministry of the Word so that we may be equipped to speak the word of God.

Prophesying takes a lot of prayer; it takes not only the knowledge of God’s word but also much prayer so that we may have the divine power when we speak the word.

We enjoy grace and peace through the Spirit as the presence of the Triune God (Gal. 6:18; Acts 9:31).

As we contact the Lord in spirit and are under the hearing of faith, we enjoy grace and peace through the Spirit; the Spirit is the practical Emmanuel, the presence of the Triune God with us.

The Spirit’s leading and witnessing are His presence; as we sense the Spirit leading us inwardly and witnessing to us what Christ is to us, we enjoy the presence of the Triune God, the practical Emmanuel.

We enjoy the dispensing of the Triune God through His presence as the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14); the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit are with us all through God’s dispensing.

How do we enjoy God’s dispensing? It is through His presence as the Spirit.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as the Spirit of reality to be the practical Emmanuel, the presence of the Triune God with us. Thank You for flowing out of eternity into time to reach us and come into us to bring the Triune God and make Him real to us. We open to You, dear Lord, and we come to Your word in fellowship and prayer, with a single and pure heart, so that You may give us light and understanding. Amen, Lord, we want to enjoy Your grace and peace through the Spirit of reality in our spirit as the presence of the Triune God! We treasure Your leading and witnessing in our spirit. We open to enjoy the dispensing of the Triune God through His presence as the Spirit!

To Live with Christ as Emmanuel, we need to be in His Presence and Take Him as our Life and person, Living Together with Him as one person

When God was incarnated to be a man, He became Emmanuel – God with us; He was in a physical form and could be among His disciples, but He could not get into them.

However, after passing through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, He could become the practical Emmanuel, the Spirit of reality inside His believers.

His incarnation fulfilled the first part of His intention in being with us, and His resurrection fulfilled the second part; His being with us outwardly doesn’t fulfill His purpose to dispense Himself into our being, but His becoming the Spirit does fulfill it.

Hallelujah, through death and resurrection, Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and as such a One, He is the practical Emmanuel, the presence of the Triune God with our spirit.

To live with Christ as Emmanuel, we need to be in His divine presence, which is the life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God; we need to live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25).

We see this in Gal. 2:20 where Paul speaks of two “I” – the first I, the old I, has been crucified with Christ, and the new I, the I that still lives, is the new I who has been resurrected and now lives with Emmanuel, in spirit.

We need to realize that we have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us; however, the life which we still live in the flesh, we live in the faith, the faith of the Triune God who loved us and gave Himself up for us.

The book of Matthew is a book on Emmanuel – God incarnated to be with us; the practical Emmanuel is the Spirit of reality (John 14:16-20).

How can Christ be with us today, after His death and resurrection? It is in and as the Spirit; the Spirit of reality is the practical Emmanuel, for He is our Comforter, that is, Christ Himself in another form.

Today the Spirit of reality is the practical Emmanuel, the very presence of the Triune God with us.

For us to live with Christ as Emmanuel, we need to be in His presence and take Him as our life and person, living together with Him as one person.

Emmanuel is our life and person, and we are His organ, living together with Him as one person; the One who lives in us is the Spirit of reality, the practical Emmanuel, and we are His organ, the one He expresses Himself through.

We can testify that, when we have the Lord’s presence, there’s no problem with anything; though the sky may be dark and stormy, when we have the Lord’s presence we have everything.

We need to realize that all day long, from morning to evening, and every moment of the day, Christ as the Spirit lives in us; He is not only with us outwardly but also with us inwardly, in our spirit, every minute of the day.

We are not on our own; we do not live the Christian life by ourselves, for we have the practical Emmanuel in our spirit as the Spirit of reality.

If we realize that Christ as the Spirit of reality lives in us, we will not do many of the things that we do today; gossip, for example, will no longer practiced, and idle words will not be uttered anymore.

We need to have more experience of Emmanuel, living with Christ, realizing that He is the Triune God with us, the tripartite men.

The more we try to live in and by ourselves, the more we are defeated; the more we try to live alone, the more we fail.

We have the practical Emmanuel with us, for the presence of the Triune God is with us in our spirit.

We no longer live alone: Christ is living with us and in us. When we realize this and have this sensation, our life will be revolutionized.

We will see that we need to live with Christ, not by ourselves but by Christ living in us as Emmanuel.

As we live with Christ and by Christ, we become His organ, living together with Him as one person; our victory depends upon Emmanuel, the presence of Jesus.

Lord Jesus, we want to live with Christ as Emmanuel by being in His divine presence. Hallelujah for the life-giving Spirit in our spirit who is the practical Emmanuel to be the presence of the Triune God with us! Amen, Lord, may we be in the reality of being crucified with Christ in our old man and having the new man living in resurrection with Christ so that Christ may live in us! We come to You, dear Lord, and we open to You; we don’t want to live alone, on our own, but with Christ, the One who lives in us. May Emmanuel be our life and person, and may we be His organ to express Him. Hallelujah, the Triune God lives with the tripartite man, and we are victorious when we have the presence of Jesus with us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1990, vol. 1, “The Triune God to be Life to the Tripartite Man,” ch. 9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living In and With the Divine Trinity (2021 Thanksgiving Day Conference), week 4, entitled, Living with the Divine Trinity (1) Living with Christ as Emmanuel and Having the Resurrected Christ Living in us, by Living Christ for His Magnification, and by the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in Our Spirit.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – There is a name to Jesus given, / His matchless love its accents tell; / For it declares: He is my Brother, / And this His name—Emmanuel! / The Lord, by angels worshiped yonder, / Has stooped to earth with men to dwell, / Incarnate God, and man forever— / Our own beloved Emmanuel. (Hymns #74)
  – Lord Jesus, I long in Thy presence to live, / From morning to evening my one world Thou art; / O let not my heart be contented or rest / When loving or seeking what with Thee doth part. / Each moment, each day, throughout suff’ring and pain, / When nought in the world can give comfort or cheer, / When sighing and weeping encompasses me, / Lord, still all my sighing and wipe every tear. (Hymns #389)
  – Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace! / The Christ who’s all within me lives. / With Him I have been crucified; / This glorious fact to me He gives. / Now it’s no longer I that live, / But Christ the Lord within me lives. (Hymns #499)