The divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity issues in the functions of the members in a local church. The functions of the members are the spiritual gifts, and these gifts are related to speaking in the Spirit of God.
In 12:1 Paul says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” Then in verse 3 Paul goes on to say, “Wherefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed; and no one can say, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit.” This verse indicates that it is easy to function in the church meetings. We can function in the Spirit simply by saying, “Lord Jesus.” In addition, we may say, “Lord Jesus, I love You. You are my life and my comfort. Lord Jesus, You strengthen me inwardly.” How many things we can say concerning the Lord Jesus!
In the meetings of the church we can speak the name of the Lord. We can say, “Lord Jesus, Your name is Jehovah, the great I Am. Lord, You also are called Jesus, Christ, Emmanuel, the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the Redeemer. Lord, You are the Lamb of God, and You are even the door.” As we mention the names of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit who dwells in our spirit will come in to function. Then the Lord will follow the Spirit to minister, to serve. The Lord will serve you, and then through you He will serve others. Furthermore, God will operate. He will accomplish something for the fulfillment of His purpose. By this we see that our speaking in the Spirit is a great matter.
In 12:1-3 Paul’s intention is to impress us with the importance of speaking in the Spirit. However, some saints have been deceived concerning the matter of functioning in the meetings and think that they are not gifted and therefore cannot function. They may consider a certain experienced brother in the Lord and say, “This is one very gifted. Through his years in the Lord, he has been equipped. But there is no way I can be like him.” Actually, this way of thinking is a sign of unbelief. The truth is that we all can function. We can at least exercise our spirit to say, “Lord Jesus.” I can testify that when the saints exercise to speak in the meetings, it is much easier for me to give a message. Their speaking of the Lord stirs me up and inspires me to speak in the Spirit. We all need to speak in the meetings, and we all can speak. We can call on the Lord Jesus, and we can speak concerning Him.
As we pointed out in the foregoing message, in 12:4-6 we have diverse distributions of gifts by the same Spirit (v. 4), diverse distributions of ministries by the same Lord (v. 5), and diverse distributions of operations by the same God, who is operating all things in all (v. 6). In 12:1-6 there are four parties. We ourselves are the first party, and the other parties are the Spirit, the Lord, and God. We have seen that when we exercise our spirit to speak, the Spirit functions, the Lord serves, and God operates. In a very real sense, we are crucial, and our part is a crucial part. The Spirit’s functioning, the Lord’s ministering, and God’s operating require our speaking. Once again we see that we all need to speak in the Spirit.
We have heard much concerning the Lord Jesus, God’s salvation, grace, redemption, justification, sanctification, and many other matters. Now we need to respond to what we have heard by speaking. A genuine Christian is a speaking Christian. Actually, we should speak not only in the meetings, but at home and on the way to the meetings.
It is possible that the Holy Spirit will be poured out through our speaking. We may compare our speaking concerning the Lord to the striking of a small match. We know that a single match can start a fire that will burn an entire building. therefore, we should not despise a little match. In a similar way, we should not despise our speaking, for it may cause many others to be set on fire in the Spirit.
We need to be impressed with the fact that when we speak, the Spirit functions, the Lord serves, and God works. This is the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. This is the Triune God dispensing His riches into us.