Now that we have seen something concerning the sense of life, we need to go on to see the dispensing function of the Triune God.

Once in 1933 or 1934, Brother Watchman Nee spoke with me concerning the basic truths. At that time I did not see the Divine Trinity in His dispensing of Himself into our being. In my talk with Brother Nee, a number of times I did not refer to the Lord Jesus or Christ. I mostly used the title God. Brother Watchman Nee frankly told me that to merely use the title God was something according to the Old Testament. The orthodox Jews use the title God, but they do not refer to the Lord Jesus or to Christ in their worship.

At another time Brother Nee pointed out to me that the Catholic Church is a mixture of the New Testament with the Old Testament. What they practice in the Catholic Church in their services, their masses, is mostly according to the Old Testament forms, ordinances, and rituals. The priests in the Catholic Church burn incense and wear the priestly robes according to the practice of the Old Testament, yet they presume that they are practicing a New Testament service. Catholicism has this mixture also in their teaching. They do not discern the New Testament teaching from the Old Testament. The teaching of the Seventh-day Adventists is similar in the sense that their teaching is nearly altogether according to the Old Testament.

We need to be fully transferred out of all mixture into the pure New Testament revelation of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Romans 8:9-11 unveils the dispensing of the Triune God absolutely according to God's New Testament economy. These verses refer to the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ Himself. This indicates that Christ is the Spirit of Christ and that the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God. Verse 10 says that Christ is in us, and verse 9 says that the Spirit dwells in us. The Greek word for dwells here means to make home, or reside.

God can dwell in us only through His Trinity. Without being the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—God cannot dwell in us. Eventually, the New Testament strongly tells us that it is the Spirit who dwells in us, who inhabits us. The sense of life actually is the issue of the dispensing function of the Triune God. Because the Triune God is dispensing Himself into our being, we have the sense of life within us.

Very few Bible readers have seen the dispensing function of the Triune God in Romans 8:9-11. Verse 9 says, "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." In verses 7 and 8 God is mentioned, but in verse 9 we see that it is the Spirit of God who dwells in us. Verse 9 continues, "Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him." The Spirit of Christ is interchangeably used with the Spirit of God. Thus, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ.

Verse 10 continues, "But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness." This shows that the Spirit of Christ is just Christ Himself. Verse 11 says, "And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you." The Spirit of the resurrecting One, the One who raised up Jesus from the dead, dwells in us. This is the Divine Trinity not only functioning but also dispensing.

Romans 8:10 says that our spirit is life; verse 6 says that our mind can be life; verse 11 goes on to say that this very life can be dispensed into our mortal body. This is the Triune God dispensing Himself as life into our whole being—the spirit, the mind, and the body. He gives life to our mortal body through His Spirit who indwells us. The entire Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—function together to dispense Himself as life into our being. This is the dispensing function of the Triune God to dispense Himself as life into His believers.