A.B. Simpson was one of the most spiritual persons the United States has produced in the past one hundred years. He enjoyed breathing in the Lord's fullness and breathing out all the negative things within him. His mentioning of "fulness" in the chorus was a reference to John 1:16. The way to receive the Lord's fullness is by breathing Him. This renews, sanctifies, transforms, and conforms us. Eventually, this will glorify us.
God gives Himself to us by breathing Himself out, and we receive Him by breathing Him in. Physically, the secret to a long life is proper breathing, eating, and drinking. The One who gives Himself to us is the breath, the food, and the water, and we receive Him by breathing, eating, and drinking. This is the way John shows us to receive the given One, who is the processed Triune God in His trinity, the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God. This is the highest understanding of the Gospel of John.
All the churches should learn how to "cook" something of the Triune God for their supply. When we come to the Bible, we must learn to exercise our spirit not only to read but also to pray-read. We may not understand a portion of the Word, but we can eat it. We can pray-read John 1:1, saying, "In the beginning was the Word. Amen! Oh the Word! Hallelujah for the Word! The Word was with God. Hallelujah for the beginning, for the Word, and for God! Although I do not understand these things, I have God, the Word, and the beginning." Pray-reading in this way will be a morning revival and a real "breakfast" to us. Pray-reading will also help us to have the proper understanding of the Word.
In the remainder of this message we shall consider another twelve ways revealed in the Gospel of John to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit—the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God.
To receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, we must hate our soul-life in this world that we may keep it unto eternal life (John 12:25). Our soul-life is our self. Thus, to hate our soul-life in this world is to hate our self in our daily living. If we love our soul-life we will lose it, but if we hate our soul-life we will keep it. The word for unto in Greek carries the notions of for, with a view to, and resulting in. Hence, to keep our soul-life unto eternal life is to keep it for, with a view to, and resulting in eternal life.
We all have three lives. Our physical life is the life in our body. Our psychological life is the life in our soul. This is the natural life. The spiritual zoe life is the eternal life, the divine life in our spirit. The way to enjoy the divine life in our spirit is to hate our soul-life. If we hate our soul-life, we will keep it, resulting in the enjoyment of the eternal life. The more we hate our soulish life, the natural life, the more we will keep it, resulting in more enjoyment of the eternal life. This enjoyment will extend for eternity. We have this eternal life, but we often do not have the enjoyment of it because we do not hate our soulish life. If we hate our self, we will keep our soul-life to enjoy and experience the divine life, which is in us from now unto eternity.