It seems that the Lord spoke in John 14 without caring whether the disciples understood Him or not. I do not believe that any of the twelve understood what He was talking about. The Lord said that when He spoke, the Father who abode in Him did His works (v. 10). The Lord went on to say, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever" (v. 16). Eventually, He said, "The Spirit of reality...abides with you and shall be in you....In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (vv. 17, 20). This shows that the Spirit's being in the disciples is the Son's being in them.

This brief fellowship gives us an overview of the first twenty verses of John 14. What is the secret of the mystery of these twenty verses? The secret is that the three of the Triune God are one. The Bible scholars in the early church pointed out that God is triune, three-one. In mathematics there is not such a figure. Who understands what three-one is? Some teachers added the preposition in, saying that God is three in one. Something that is three in one must be some kind of compound. Three elements are compounded together to be one entity. To illustrate this we may consider water with tea and lemon added to it. These three elements are compounded together to be lemon tea. They are three in one. This may be a good illustration, but no illustration is adequate to explain the mystery of the Divine Trinity. The Divine Trinity is beyond the realm of human understanding. We simply have to take the scriptural revelation of the Triune God and experience it.

Not long after I was saved, I began to meet with a group of Brethren believers who taught strongly that we should pray to the Father in the name of the Son. They gave verses as a basis for their teaching, and I accepted it. I tried to practice what they taught. Formerly when I prayed, I simply said "Lord Jesus" or "Father" without thinking about whom I was addressing. After being taught that I should pray to the Father in the name of the Son, I corrected myself when I did not do this. Eventually, I was so bothered that it became difficult for me to pray. They stressed strongly that the Lord Jesus told us to ask the Father in His name. But in my experience, whenever I prayed, the Father was there, the Son was there, and the Spirit was there.

In my writing, I may need three helpers to assist me. Sometimes I need number one. Then after five minutes, I need number two. A little later I need number three. I have to make three phone calls to get these three helpers, but with the three in the Godhead, we do not need to make three calls. When one is here, all three are here. Our God is the three-one God. The all-inclusive Spirit is the Third of the Divine Trinity, and the Third today is the consummation of the three. If you have the Third, you have the Second and the First.