In 2 Corinthians 1 we have the Holy Spirit as the anointing Spirit, the sealing Spirit, and as the pledge in our hearts (1:21-22). Concerning these aspects of the Spirit, Paul says, “But He who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God, who has also sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.” Because we have been attached by God to Christ, the anointed One, we are automatically anointed with Him by God. The anointing in 1:21 is the sealing in 1:22. Because God has anointed us with Christ, He has also sealed us in Him. Moreover, we have the Spirit as the pledge. The pledge of the Spirit is actually the Spirit Himself as the pledge. The sealing of the Spirit is a mark that we are God’s inheritance, and the pledging of the Spirit is a guarantee, an earnest, of God being our portion in Christ.
If we would enjoy the Triune God, we need to spend more time to pray. However, we should not pray in the sense of asking God for so many things; instead, we should pray in the sense of staying with God. We may say that God is a burning fire, and by prayer we should stay in Him as the fire and allow this fire to burn something of God Himself into our being.
If we stay with the Father through prayer, we shall experience not only the love of God but also the grace of Christ. We shall have the riches of the Lord’s grace for our enjoyment, and this grace will be abounding, enriching, and sufficient to us in our experience. This grace, in particular, will make us competent or sufficient in ministering and in dispensing Christ to others. This sufficiency comes from the abounding and enriching grace within us.
As we stay with the Father of love, enjoying the abounding grace of the Lord, we shall also be in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Actually, we shall be merged with the flowing Spirit. We shall have the sense deep within that something is flowing in us, even that the Holy Spirit is flowing in us. This is the enjoyment of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and this is also the dispensing of the Triune God into our being.
Day by day, we need to spend more time with the Father as the source. We need to pray in order to stay at the source. Today this source is in our spirit. If we stay in our spirit with God the Father for a period of time, we shall experience the divine dispensing. While we are remaining with the Father as the source, we should not pray in a way that will distract us from Him. If we find that our prayer is distracting us, we should not continue to pray in that way. The kind of prayer we need is the prayer that keeps us with the Father as the source.
Likewise, we should not be distracted even by reading the Word. If we find that the reading of the Word becomes a distraction that takes us away from the Lord Himself, we need to turn to our spirit again and say, “Lord, I praise You. How good it is for me to be here with You!”
We should not pray to the Lord in a religious way. Instead, we should talk to Him in an intimate way, in the way we speak to those who are close to us. I encourage you to go to the Lord and talk to Him as to an intimate friend. When the Lord was with His disciples, as recorded in the four Gospels, there is no indication that they prayed to Him in a religious way. The disciples prayed to Him as if they were speaking to a friend. They did not offer any religious prayer or religious worship. We need this kind of prayer, the prayer that keeps us in the presence of the Lord.
Actually, instead of speaking of being in the Lord’s presence, I would rather say that we should be in oneness with the Lord. We are not simply in the presence of the Lord—we are in oneness with Him. Speaking to the Lord in an intimate way keeps us in this oneness.
If we daily practice speaking to the Lord in this way, the fragrance of the divine incense will permeate us, the ointment will anoint and seal us, the “ink” of the Spirit will saturate us, and the divine light will illuminate us. As a result, we shall be thoroughly permeated with the Triune God. Then we shall enjoy the Father’s love, the Son’s grace, and the Spirit’s fellowship. This is what we need today.
It is crucial for us to realize that the ultimate Person of the Godhead is the Spirit. The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. In and through resurrection, Christ has become the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit, the Triune God is awaiting the opportunity to anoint us, permeate us, and illuminate us so that we may be thoroughly saturated with Himself. The more we are saturated with the Lord, the more we shall become His living witnesses. In Acts 1:8 the Lord Jesus told the disciples that they would be witnesses to Him. They would be living witnesses of the living Jesus, witnesses saturated by Christ and with Him.
Through the divine dispensing we enjoy the Triune God. We enjoy the Father’s love, the Son’s grace, and the Spirit’s fellowship. Through this enjoyment in the divine dispensing, we become one with the Triune God. Then we can dispense Him to others. Whenever we preach the gospel or teach the Word, we dispense Him. Whenever we fellowship with the saints, we dispense Him. This is the divine dispensing among the saints in today’s church life. May we all experience more of the Triune God in His dispensing.