In this message we have covered three crucial points: first, that the entire God is Spirit; second, that the Triune God reaches us as the Spirit; and third, that through resurrection Christ, the last Adam, has become the life-giving Spirit.
The Father and the Son do not reach us directly. Rather, it is the Spirit who reaches us. When the Spirit reaches us, the Father and the Son also reach us, because the Three of the Godhead cannot be divided or separated. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit not only coexist eternally but also coinhere. The Father, Son, and Spirit exist in one another. Hence, when the Spirit reaches us, the Father and the Son also reach us.
We have seen that the Lord is now the Spirit. He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. Now as regenerated ones, we have this Spirit dwelling in us.
For some readers, what we have been speaking in this message may be new. Actually, what I have been giving you is not my word or teaching, but quotations from the New Testament. The New Testament reveals that God is Spirit, that the Third of the Trinity is the Spirit reaching us with the Son and the Father, and that today the Lord is the Spirit. At least two verses in the New Testament indicate this. First Corinthians 15:45 reveals that through resurrection and in resurrection Christ has become a life-giving Spirit. He has not become merely a Spirit; He has become the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who gives life. Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 3:17 definitely says, “The Lord is the Spirit.”
However, some would try to twist this verse and say that the Lord here is not the Lord Jesus Christ, but merely the Lord God. If we study the book of 2 Corinthians carefully, we shall see that the title “the Lord” is always attached to the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 1:2, 14; 4:5; 13:14), and God is called “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:3; 11:31). Therefore, the Lord in 2 Corinthians 3:17, as in verses 16 and 18, undoubtedly refers to the Lord Jesus, not to God the Father. To say that the Lord in this verse refers to God and not to the Lord Jesus is a twisting of the verse in order to cover over the revelation here that the Lord is the Spirit.
The New Testament reveals that our Triune God has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the Spirit dwelling in our regenerated spirit. Hallelujah for the wonderful Spirit within us! Hallelujah for the mingling of the divine Spirit with our regenerated human spirit!
To say that our spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit does not mean that we shall ever be deified. To say that the two spirits, the Spirit of God and the regenerated human spirit, are one does not mean that we believe we shall become God as an object of worship. It is blasphemy for anyone to say that a person can become God and be worshipped as God. According to the Scriptures, we believe that our Triune God is the all-inclusive Spirit dwelling in our spirit and mingled with our spirit. This is the significance of Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
For what purpose has the life-giving Spirit come into our spirit? The life-giving Spirit has come into us for the purpose of the divine dispensing. In order to experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we need to turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit by praying in a proper way and by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. We can testify from experience that when we pray in our spirit, we enjoy the supply of the Triune God. The more we pray by exercising our spirit, the more we have the sense deep within that we are being saturated with the Triune God. We have the sense that we are being soaked in the life-giving Spirit. This saturating and soaking is a matter of life-dispensing.
The dispensing of the Triune God into us causes us to be members of the church who are growing and being transformed. Through this divine dispensing we shall eventually reach maturity. Through the divine dispensing we have received our divine birth, and through this dispensing we have growth and enjoy transformation. Now we are one spirit with the wonderful Triune God. This is the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, a dispensing that issues in the practical life of a local church.