The third way in the book of Galatians to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is by being born according to the Spirit and by being given the Spirit of God's Son into our hearts (Gal. 4:29b, 6). Galatians 4:29 refers to being born according to the Spirit. This being born surely refers to our regeneration. Our regeneration was according to the Spirit; that is, it was accomplished according to the Spirit within us.
At one time you had never believed in the Lord Jesus because you had never heard about Him. However, one day you did hear. While the preacher was speaking, something was going on within you. The Spirit within you either showed you the preciousness of the Lord Jesus or convicted you of your sins or showed you how pitiful you were in your human life. As a result, you regretted and repented. Even before anyone asked you to do anything, something within you spontaneously brought you to pray and to say, "O Lord, I want to believe; I want to take You. You are too good." You might also have said, "Lord, I am an evil person." This was your repentance. Your repenting just this much was sufficient for you to be saved. Or you might have said, "Lord Jesus, You know my situation. Look at my situation. How pitiful I am!" Just by saying this much, you were saved.
This is to be regenerated according to the Spirit. We were not regenerated merely by the Spirit; we were regenerated according to the Spirit. After the gospel meeting you might have gone back home, and your inward feeling continued. Actually, that was not your feeling; that was the moving of the Spirit. This might have continued for a week. According to the recollection of my experience, this moving of the Spirit within me lasted quite a long time. As a result, I began to lose my taste for all the worldly things. I began to think about my attitude toward my mother. That was not just my thinking or my feeling by myself; that was the moving of the Spirit. Perhaps after one week or after ten days, you thoroughly realized your regeneration.
It is right to say that regeneration is instantaneous. However, regeneration is also a process. This process is the moving of the Spirit within us to regenerate us. Therefore, we were regenerated according to the Spirit. To be regenerated by the Spirit is instantaneous, but to be regenerated according to the Spirit implies a process. I do know of some who were regenerated not just in one week but in six months. The Spirit began to move in them a little, but they did not pay much attention to that. However, the Spirit continued to move within them. This process lasted for quite a time, until they fully realized that they were regenerated.
Doctrinally speaking, regeneration is immediate and instantaneous. However, although regeneration is instantaneous, with some persons the process is not quick but, rather, very slow.
It was according to the process of the Spirit's moving within us that we were regenerated. Therefore, our regenerated being is absolutely spiritual. Immediately after this regenerating birth, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts (Gal. 4:6). We were born according to the life-giving Spirit, and immediately after our birth, God gave us the life-giving Spirit. This is a double portion. We were born according to the life-giving Spirit, and God gave us a gift—the Spirit of sonship. This gift is also the life-giving Spirit, and this life-giving Spirit is the consummated Triune God. Therefore, we were born according to the consummated Triune God, and after our birth we received the gift of the consummated Triune God. This One is the threefold seed in humanity. Every aspect of our spiritual experience is nothing less than the processed and consummated Triune God.