Prayer: Lord, we worship You from our depths. You are the Lord, the Source, and the Head. Thank You that You have gathered us into Your name once more tonight. We believe that You are here. We are here to seek You in Your Spirit. Lord, we believe that You will reveal Yourself to us in Your word. We are all here. May Your blood cleanse us in many ways, so that we may receive Your anointing and Your rich outpouring. Lord, calm our hearts, that we may be fully open to You, and may be fully delivered out of ourselves into Your Spirit. May Your Spirit grace every one of us here. Lord, operate in this meeting and in the depths of every one here, so that none would be left out and none would be left untouched, but that every one would have a word from You. Lord, may You be gracious to every one attending this meeting, no matter who he is. After this meeting is over, may we never forget it, but may we always remember our time of gathering here, and remember that it is here that we have met You and have been touched by You and have also touched You in our spirit. Lord, give us the living word and the rich supply. Transmit into us Your desire, Your love, Your thoughts, and even Your expression. Lord, may You be one spirit with us, and speak to us in our speaking. Lord, vindicate Your way, shame Your enemy, and bless every one who seeks after You. Amen!
In the last message, we saw two main points. The first is the Divine Trinity, and the other is the divine dispensing. The Divine Trinity is our unique true God. He is the One we believe in, and the One we worship. With Him there is the distinction of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is expressed in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. The Son is the manifestation of the Father, and the Spirit is the reality of the Son. These three are not three gods, but are one God. This unique God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit for a definite purpose, which is to dispense Himself into His believers. He is one Triune God, yet He can be dispensed into millions of people. This is a mysterious thing. Although we have illustrated the dispensing of the Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-into us in the way of a watermelon being cut into pieces and then pressed into juice, the fact of the matter is not that simple. It is too profound. It is so profound that we cannot fathom it or understand it. Yet there is such a thing in the universe.
This Triune God had a pleasure and a desire in eternity past before the creation of the world. According to this pleasure and desire, the Divine Trinity had a conference of the Godhead and made the decision to create man in His image and according to His likeness, so that from one created man, He could propagate many men. Long before time began, and before the heavens and the earth were created, He predestinated us according to His foreknowledge and foresight and marked us out. In this way, we heard the gospel one day, and without knowing why we did so, we believed. Moreover, the more we go on, the more firmly we believe. Even we ourselves marvel and wonder how this happened. Actually, the whole matter is not up to us. We have been chosen by Him. Even if we do not want Him, He still wants us.
As far as we are concerned, salvation is merely a small experience. But as far as God is concerned, it is not a simple thing. First, He had to create all things. Then He had to create man. After the creation of man, because of man’s failure, He had to wait four thousand years. In the end, He Himself became a man. In creating all things, He could call things not being into being. But in becoming flesh, He had to work according to the law of propagation which He created in man. One day, the Holy Spirit came to the virgin Mary, and a wonderful thing happened to her. A Holy One was conceived in her. The Holy One conceived in her was God, the eternal Word (Matt. 1:20). The God who was the Word entered the womb of the virgin Mary and remained there for nine months. At the completion of that time, He was born with a human nature. This was the Lord Jesus. What went in was God, and what came out at birth was God with humanity. This is what Isaiah 9:6 says, that a child is born to us, and a son is given to us. This child is the mighty God, and this Son is the eternal Father.
After the Lord Jesus was born, Herod tried to kill Him, and Joseph and Mary took him away to Egypt for refuge. Later they returned to a small village in Galilee, Nazareth, where He spent thirty years in the house of a poor family. At the age of thirty, which according to Scripture is the age for a priest to assume his duties, He was baptized and was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Moreover, He was tested. From that time on, He began to speak for God and to work. Everywhere He went He spoke about God, expressed God, and revealed God to men. After three and a half years, He was betrayed, bound, and condemned, and He was crucified on the mount of Golgotha outside the city of Jerusalem. John told us that this crucified Jesus has three statuses. First, He is the Lamb of God, to be our Redeemer, taking away the sin of the world. Second, He is the brass serpent, hanged on the tree to remove the satanic nature within us. Third, He is the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died, releasing the divine life and bearing the many grains.
Furthermore, His whole being-spirit, soul, and body- resurrected and was transfigured into the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is a compound life-giving Spirit. In this Spirit there is divinity, humanity, the human living of Jesus, and His all-inclusive death with His resurrection power. This is the holy ointment described in Exodus 30. It is the mingling of one hin of olive oil with four kinds of spices. The Spirit as the holy ointment anointing us within enables us to partake of all the elements of the Triune God. In this way, through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, the Triune God has achieved a great thing, which is to accomplish His divine dispensing. Today, our God is not simply the Word that was there in the beginning. He became flesh, worked for God on earth, went to the cross, accomplished the work of redemption, entered Hades, overcame death, and came out of death. In resurrection, He has become the life-giving Spirit. Now, He is so available to us. As long as we believe in Him and call on His name, He will dispense Himself into us. This is the gospel!
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