Chapter two indicates that this dispensing takes place by the unveiling and communicating Spirit. In 2:9 and 10 Paul speaks of the unveiling Spirit: “But even as it is written, Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not come up in man’s heart, how much God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” How do we know that God has called us? How do we know that God has put us into Christ and that God is making Christ our power and wisdom? We cannot know these things by our mental ability. We can know them through the unveiling Spirit. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, God put His Spirit into us, and this Spirit is the unveiling Spirit.
When the Spirit functions as the unveiling Spirit, the Spirit removes the veils, the covers, that keep us from seeing Christ as our portion. If we have a sincere heart to seek the experience of Christ, the Spirit will continually reveal Christ to us. In our spirit the Spirit shows us the secrets of Christ as our portion.
In chapter two of 1 Corinthians, the Spirit is not only the unveiling Spirit but also the communicating Spirit. This is implied by Paul’s word in verse 13: “Which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual things.” The thought here is to speak spiritual things by spiritual words. The emphasis is not on the person to whom the speaking is addressed, but rather on the means by which the spiritual things are spoken. Paul speaks the spiritual things, which are the deep things of God concerning Christ, by the spiritual things, which are the spiritual words taught by the Spirit. This implies that the Spirit is the communicating Spirit.
The communicating of the Spirit involves transmitting. While the indwelling Spirit is unveiling the riches of Christ, He transmits these riches into our being.
Thus far, we have the extract of 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. This extract includes God’s calling us into the enjoyment of Christ, God’s putting us into Christ, God’s making Christ wisdom and power to us, and the Spirit’s revealing and communicating to us the things concerning Christ.
In chapter three we see the matter of the growth in life. In 3:6 and 7 Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow; so that neither is the one who plants anything nor the one who waters, but the One who makes to grow, God.” It is by the divine dispensing that God causes us to grow. He gives life and the growth in life through His dispensing. Eventually, through the growth in life we shall be transformed into precious materials for God’s building. Concerning this, in 3:9 Paul tells us that we are God’s farm, God’s building. Then in verse 12 he goes on to speak of precious materials, of gold, silver, precious stones. In these verses we have the essence of chapter three.
The unveiling and communicating Spirit within us is actually Christ Himself. First Corinthians 15:45 tells us that the last Adam, Christ in the flesh, became a life-giving Spirit. We who have been put into Christ by God have actually been joined to this wonderful Spirit. In 6:17 Paul says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” We are joined to the Spirit, who is the resurrected Christ with the reality of His resurrection life. Now that we have been joined to Him to be one spirit with Him, we are one in essence with Him. We not only enjoy Him and not only have God’s dispensing of Him into us as our power and wisdom so that we may have righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; we have actually been joined to the very Christ who is the life-giving Spirit with all the riches of resurrection. How marvelous!
What does it mean in a practical way to be one spirit with the Lord in our daily life? We all need much more experience of this. In recent years I have been endeavoring to practice to be one spirit with the Lord day by day. However, I must confess that I still do not have that much experience. Doctrinally, it may be rather easy to understand the meaning of being one spirit with the Lord. But it is another matter to experience this. We all need more practical experience of being one spirit with the Lord.