In this message we shall cover two matters: first, the believers’ becoming, as the bride, one with the Spirit; second, the believers’ looking to and waiting for the Lord Jesus’ coming back to usher them into their future.
In the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, the believers experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in His triune dispensing, they experience God’s redemption continuously, they enjoy the dispensing of the divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation, they experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately by entering into the kingdom of God, by living in the church, and by living in the Body of Christ, and they experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity in various other aspects. The issue of this experience and enjoyment of the divine Trinity is that the believers become, as the bride, one with the Spirit.
This oneness is indicated clearly in Revelation 22:17a, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” This verse reveals that the Spirit as the totality of the processed Triune God has become one with the believers, who are now fully matured to be the bride. Hence, the Spirit is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God, and the bride is the ultimate expression of the transformed tripartite man. By the time of Revelation 22:17, the processed Triune God-the Spirit-and the transformed tripartite man-the bride-will be one and speak as one.
The consummation of the divine dispensing of the processed Triune God will be a universal marriage (Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9). The Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God dispensed into His redeemed people will be the Bridegroom, and God’s redeemed people as the consummation of the redeemed, regenerated, and transformed humanity will be the bride. In Revelation 22:17 the Spirit and the bride together as a couple say “Come.” This verse does not tell us that the Bridegroom and the bride speak together but that the Spirit and the bride speak together. This is the consummation of what John the Baptist told his disciples in John 3:29: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” The end of the New Testament eventually reveals to us that the One who has the bride is the Spirit. This Spirit is the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God who, in Revelation 22:17, has become one with the believers as the bride.
The Spirit, as the consummation of the processed and dispensed Triune God, becomes one with the bride, the aggregate of all the regenerated and transformed tripartite men. The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. However, this is not the Triune God apart from the process through which He has passed. The Spirit is the Triune God after He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Having passed through this process, the Triune God is now this consummate Spirit. Therefore, in giving a full definition of the Spirit, we may say that the Spirit is the processed, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified, consummated Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God to be the eternal portion of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified tripartite people as their life, life supply, and everything.
The Spirit as the consummation, even the ultimate consummation, of the processed Triune God has been and is being dispensed into us. Eventually, this Spirit becomes one with the bride, the aggregate of all the regenerated and transformed tripartite men. This means that the Triune God, after being consummated as the Spirit, will “marry” the believers as the bride.
In Revelation 22:17 there are two consummations. First, the Triune God has gone through a process-through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension-to become the Spirit, the totality, the consummation, of the Triune God to be the Bridegroom. Second, the believers also have gone through a process-redemption, regeneration, and transformation-to become the consummation of God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people to be the bride. The consummation of the processed Triune God and the consummation of God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people will become one in a universal marriage. Therefore, the processed tripartite man will match the processed Triune God forever for His full expression and satisfaction.
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