John 14:17-20 indicates that the Spirit is the reality of Christ for the believers’ enjoyment. Because Christ Himself is reality (John 14:6), when He was with the disciples, reality was with them. However, this reality was only among them, not in them. Therefore, the Lord Jesus told the disciples that it was expedient for them that He go away (John 16:7). The purpose of His going was for Him to have a change from the form of the flesh to the form of the Spirit. As soon as this change had been accomplished, His reality would become the reality of the Spirit, and the Spirit would become the Spirit of reality. Then this Spirit of reality would come to abide in the disciples. The Lord Jesus said in John 14:17, “Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” Because the Spirit of reality has come into us, the reality of Christ now abides in us.
The Spirit as the reality of Christ includes all that the Spirit is in His person and symbols. With respect to His person, the Spirit is the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15b, 35; Matt. 1:18, 20; John 20:22; Rom. 15:16), the Spirit of God (Matt. 3:16; Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of the Father (Matt. 10:20), the Spirit of the Lord (Luke 4:18; 2 Cor. 3:17), the Spirit of the Son of God (Gal. 4:6), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9; 1 Pet. 1:11), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. 3:3), the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29), the Spirit of reality (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 4:6), the Comforter (the Paraclete, John 14:16), the Spirit of power (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8), the Spirit of glory and of God (1 Pet. 4:14), the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14), the seven Spirits (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6), and the Spirit (John 7:39; Acts 6:3; Gal. 3:2; Rev. 2:7; 22:17).
The symbols of the Spirit include a dove (Matt. 3:16; John 1:32), the fine woman seeking the lost treasure of God (Luke 15:8), clothing (Luke 24:49), the wind (pneuma, John 3:8), the living water (John 4:11, 14; 7:38-39), the breath (John 20:22), a rushing violent wind (Acts 2:2), the gift (Acts 2:38; 10:45), the firstfruit (Rom. 8:23), the cloud (1 Cor. 10:1-2), the spiritual drink (1 Cor. 10:4), the compound ointment (2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27), a seal (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30), a pledge (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14), the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God (Rev. 4:5), the seven eyes of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6), and the river of water of life (Rev. 22:1).
As the consummation of the divine Trinity in His fellowship, the Spirit works in, upon, and for the believers. The Spirit regenerates the believers (John 3:5-6), gives them life (2 Cor. 3:6c; John 6:63), saves them by renewing them (Titus 3:5), frees them by His law of life from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2), gives life to their mortal bodies (Rom. 8:11), puts to death the practices of their bodies (Rom. 8:13), supplies them with His bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19), leads them to live a life as sons of God (Rom. 8:14), washes, sanctifies, and justifies them (1 Cor. 6:11; Rom. 15:16; 2 Thes. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2), transforms them (2 Cor. 3:18), and indwells them (Rom. 8:9, 11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Tim. 1:14). The Spirit is the means for the believers to know that God abides in them and they in God (1 John 3:24b; 4:13). The Spirit fills the believers inwardly (Acts 13:52; 6:3, 5), teaches them (Luke 12:12), guides them into all the reality (John 16:13), searches and reveals to them all the things concerning Christ as the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:10-11), teaches them spiritual words for spiritual communication (1 Cor. 2:13-14), speaks in them (Matt. 10:20), speaks with them (1 Cor. 7:40), comforts them (Acts 9:31), gives them joy (Rom. 14:17; 1 Thes. 1:6), empowers them to abound in hope in God (Rom. 15:13), gives them love (Rom. 15:30; Col. 1:8), pours out God’s love in their hearts (Rom. 5:5), and mingles with their spirit in their faith (2 Cor. 4:13). The Spirit is the means for God the Father to strengthen the believers into their inner man that Christ may make His home in their hearts (Eph. 3:16-17). By the Spirit the believers live and walk (Gal. 5:16, 25). The Spirit fights for them against the flesh (Gal. 5:17), bears the fruit of life in many aspects in their life (Gal. 5:22-23), longs within them unto envy for God against worldliness (James 4:4-5), and is the sword for them to fight against the powers of darkness and the evil things (Eph. 6:17). The Spirit is not to be grieved by the believers (Eph. 4:30), quenched by them (1 Thes. 5:19), or insulted by them (Heb. 10:29). As the means for the believers to pray (Jude 20), the Spirit helps them in their weaknesses (Rom. 8:26a), intercedes for them with groanings (Rom. 8:26b), and infuses His according-to-God mind into them in their prayer (Rom. 8:27). The Spirit is the means for the believers to guard the good deposit (2 Tim. 1:14), and unto Him they sow and of Him they reap in their life (Gal. 6:8). The Spirit confesses to the believers that Christ came in the flesh (1 John 4:2) and testifies together with the water and the blood that Christ is the Son of God (1 John 5:5b-9). The Spirit is the means for the believers to take Christ as their righteousness by faith (Gal. 5:5). He witnesses with their spirit that they are the children of God (Rom. 8:16), cries with their spirit, “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15), bears witness in their conscience (Rom. 9:1), anoints them (2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27), seals them (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30), and pledges in them (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14). The Spirit is the firstfruit (foretaste) of the believers’ divine inheritance (Rom. 8:23) and also the access for them to contact the Triune God (Eph. 2:18). The Spirit is partaken of by the believers (Heb. 6:4), and He is the fellowship-the participation in the enjoyment-of the Triune God to them (2 Cor. 13:14) and the oneness of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:3-4). The Spirit frees the believers from the letters of the law (2 Cor. 3:17), shows them the way of the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:8), and testifies to them the law of life of the new covenant (Heb. 10:15-16). The Spirit is the means for the believers to serve-worship-God (Phil. 3:3). The Spirit rests upon the believers as glory when they are reproached (1 Pet. 4:14) and vindicates the church as the manifestation of God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). As the consummation of the Triune God, the Spirit is for the believers to be baptized into the divine Trinity (Matt. 28:19). The Spirit comes, falls, upon them as power (Acts 1:8; 10:44), fills them outwardly (Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31), and is the element of the new covenant (2 Cor. 3:6) and of the ministry of the new testament (2 Cor. 3:8). The Spirit gives the believers utterance to speak in different tongues (Acts 2:4) and witnesses of the resurrected and exalted Christ (Acts 5:32). The Spirit is also the power for the apostles to preach the gospel of Christ to the nations (Rom. 15:18-19) and with power is demonstrated in the apostles’ preaching (1 Cor. 2:4; 1 Thes. 1:5). The Spirit is the means for the believers to speak for Christ (1 Cor. 12:3) and for them to prophesy (Acts 11:28). He gives them direction (Acts 8:29, 39; 13:2), tells them the things to come (Acts 20:23; 21:11; 1 Tim. 4:1), sends them out to spread the gospel (Acts 13:4), works together with the apostles and elders to resolve the problem of keeping the law (Acts 15:28), guides the apostles by forbidding them and not allowing them (Acts 16:6-7), establishes the elders in the churches (Acts 20:28), distributes gifts to the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:4; Heb. 2:4), manifests Himself in each one of the members of the Body of Christ through different gifts (1 Cor. 12:7-11), operates the gifts in each one of the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:11), warns the believers (Heb. 3:7-8), speaks to the churches (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 14:13), and speaks with the church (Rev. 22:17). All these are in the fellowship of the all-inclusive, consummated, life-giving, and indwelling Spirit.
After a person is saved and clears the past, he is ready to experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in His triune dispensing. As believers, we experience and enjoy God as the Father in His love, Christ as the Son in His grace, and the Spirit as the consummation of the divine Trinity in His fellowship. Verse after verse in the New Testament indicates that the processed Triune God is dispensing Himself into us in a triune way. The processed Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-is dispensing the divine element into our being, and this element makes us holy, spiritual, and victorious and causes us to be transformed. We all need to see the vital matter of the experience and enjoyment of the processed Triune God in His triune dispensing.
Home | First | Prev | Next