1. “Begotten...of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:20; see also Luke 1:35).
The Lord Jesus was conceived and born of the Holy Spirit. No one can doubt that the life in Him was fully of the Holy Spirit. Before He was baptized at the age of thirty, He was filled inwardly with the Holy Spirit. He was full of the Holy Spirit; thus, He was able to live for God and to be occupied with the things of God (2:49).
2. “He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him”; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel” (Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18).
The Lord was conceived and born of the Holy Spirit and His inward life was fully of the Holy Spirit. Although He was filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly, the Holy Spirit did not descend upon Him until His baptism. At the time of His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. Prior to His baptism, He lived before God, but He was not yet working for God in His ministry. After the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, He began to work for God on the earth. These verses clearly show that there are two aspects of Lord’s experience of the Spirit, an inward and an outward aspect. On the one hand, He inwardly received the Holy Spirit as life at the time of His conception and birth. He was filled with this Holy Spirit of life so that He could live before God. On the other hand, He outwardly received the Holy Spirit as power at the time of His baptism at the age of thirty so that He could work for God. Since the Lord Himself experienced the inward and outward aspects of the Holy Spirit, should we not as well? It is a pity that many have not seen this point and confuse the two aspects.
1. “While the doors were shut where the disciples were...Jesus came and stood in the midst and...He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:19-22).
On the day of resurrection, the Lord breathed into the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The disciples certainly received the Holy Spirit at that time. The Lord’s speaking was surely not an empty promise nor was the Lord’s breathing into them merely a lifeless demonstration. The Lord truly caused the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. After this event, the living of the disciples before the day of Pentecost was different, proving that the disciples had inwardly received the Holy Spirit of life and reality as the Comforter. Before the Lord’s death they argued about who would be the greatest; after the Lord’s resurrection and before the day of Pentecost, they met together and prayed in one accord for ten days (Acts 1:14-22). Furthermore, these Galileans were able to keep the Lord’s commandments, staying in Jerusalem, a place full of opposition and threatenings, far from their homes and relatives. They had no concerns or fears. They simply waited single-heartedly for God to fulfill His promise. They could not have done this without being inwardly filled with the Holy Spirit of life. In addition, Peter, who rarely understood the Lord’s words and could not clearly speak of them, was able to understand the Bible and to explain it very clearly even though he had not received the Holy Spirit in the aspect of power at Pentecost (vv. 16-22). This proves that he had the Holy Spirit of reality as the Comforter within him. The record in Acts 1 concerning the disciples’ experiences in the upper room in Jerusalem proves that they received the Holy Spirit as the Comforter and as the Spirit of life and reality before the day of Pentecost.
2. “You shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now”; “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”; “As the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled...they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5, 8; 2:1-4).
Although the Holy Spirit entered into the disciples on the day of resurrection, the Holy Spirit had not descended upon them. Although they had the Holy Spirit of life inwardly, enabling them to have the Lord’s life and the supply and sustenance of the Lord’s life, they did not have the Holy Spirit of power outwardly, which would enable them to testify for the Lord and preach the gospel. Although they could live in the Lord’s life and understand the Lord’s word because the Holy Spirit of life and reality was in them, they were unable to release the Lord’s life to others or preach the word of the Lord. For this, they needed the Holy Spirit to descend upon them outwardly as the Spirit of power. Therefore, at the time of His ascension the Lord commanded them to wait for the experience of the Holy Spirit of power, even though He had already given them the experience of the Holy Spirit of life on the day of His resurrection. They experienced the Holy Spirit of life inwardly, but they had to wait to experience the Holy Spirit of power outwardly. Even though they had the Lord’s life within, they still needed to testify and work for the Lord outwardly. Their inward life was not enough to enable them to testify and work for the Lord outwardly; they needed outward power. They received this power on the day of Pentecost. On the day of resurrection the Holy Spirit entered into them to be their life, and on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell upon them to be their power. On the day of resurrection they experienced the Holy Spirit of life. On the day of Pentecost they experienced the Holy Spirit of power. Thus, their experience of the Holy Spirit also reveals the inward aspect of life and the outward aspect of power. This is very clear in the Bible. We should not confuse these facts.