Second Peter contains one reference to the Spirit. Verse 21 of chapter 1 says, “No prophecy was ever borne by the will of man, but men spoke from God while being borne by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit bore the prophets, just as wind carries along sailboats. As they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, the prophets spoke from God. Therefore, the Spirit in 2 Peter is the prophesying Spirit.
The subject of 1 John is the fellowship of the children of God with the Father and with one another (1:3, 6-7). This fellowship is first vertical, with the Father, and then it is horizontal, with one another. This is the “family fellowship” inthe household of God. In 1 John as a book of fellowship, theHoly Spirit is the anointing Spirit (2:20, 27). Fellowship is possible only by the anointing Spirit. The anointing is not only the ointment itself but also the action of anointing. The indwelling Spirit is constantly moving, working, and acting toanoint us. To anoint is to “paint” with an ointment, to applythe ointment to us. The Holy Spirit within us is always anointing us to put the substance, the divine element, of God into us. The more He anoints us, the more His divine element is “painted” into us. It is by this anointing that we maintain the fellowship between us and the Father and between one another.
The anointing is on the positive side. On the negative side, we also need the cleansing of the blood (1:7). This corresponds with the type in the Old Testament. In type, the blood was first sprinkled on the items of the tabernacle, and then the ointment was applied to the things sprinkled by the blood. In order to have the anointing, we must first have the cleansing of the blood. The sprinkling of the blood paves the way and lays the ground for the anointing. That is why the cleansing of the blood is mentioned in chapter 1, and the anointing of the Spirit is in chapter 2. The cleansing of the blood takes care of the negative things, such as our sins, transgressions, and shortcomings. Then the anointing of the Spirit brings in the positive matter, which is the substance and element of God. It is by the cleansing plus the anointing that we maintain the fellowship in the household of God. Therefore, the Spirit in 1 John is the anointing Spirit.
Verse 24 of chapter 3 tells us that the anointing Spirit is for the mutual abiding between us and God. This verse says, “He who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.” Then verse 13 of chapter 4 says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.” The Lord’s abiding in us is by the anointing Spirit.
This anointing Spirit is also the Spirit for our discernment. Verses 1 through 3 say, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. In this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and now is already in the world.” Every spirit that confesses the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, that the Lord Jesus was God incarnated to be a man, is of God. Whoever cannot confess this is not of God. The Spirit of God here is the testifying and discerning Spirit.
Verse 6 continues, “We are of God; he who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.” The Spirit of truth is the Spirit of God who testifies and confesses that Christ came in the flesh as God incarnate. This is the work of the Spirit which is contrary to the deceitfulness of the false spirits. Many times when a person has a “Pentecostal” experience, he does not feel that it needs to be tested. However, this is against the word of God in 1 John. We need to receive the word that certain manifestations that seem to be of the Spirit should actually be tested.
We saw a particular case like this almost forty years ago in the place where Brother Watchman Nee was. One day while a brother was praying, a voice came to him from the corner of the ceiling, speaking in Chinese. He was very excited, so he called others to come hear that voice speaking. They also became excited and went to Brother Nee. However, Brother Nee read this portion of the Word to them: “Do not believe every spirit.” He told them to go back to test the spirit by asking whether or not he would confess that the Lord Jesus came in the flesh as God incarnated to be a man. The next time the voice came, they said to it, “Do you confess that the Lord Jesus came in the flesh, that He was God incarnated as a man?” The answer came back: “Read 1 Corinthians 13.” The brothers were very happy since this is a chapter about love. However, Brother Nee said, “He must answer your question yes or no. If he does not answer, he is of the devil” (Matt. 5:37). The brothers went back and told the spirit, “In the name of the Lord Jesus we ask you, do you confess that the Lord Jesus came in the flesh?” At this point the voice said, “Jesus is cursed.” Those who were present had an indescribable evil sense. Brother Nee personally told me this story, and many years later another brother who had been there confirmed it. We must not do anything that is not according to the Word. The Word tells us not to believe every spirit but to test them. In particular, we need to test certain so-called manifestations of the Spirit.
In 1 John 5 the testimony of God is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (vv. 1, 9-11). Verses 6 through 8 say, “This is He who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood; and the Spirit is He who testifies, because the Spirit is the reality. For there are three who testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are unto the one thing.” Spirit, water, and blood correspond to the major events in the life of the Lord Jesus: His birth, His baptism, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. At the conception of Christ, the Holy Spirit declared that He was the Son of God (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35). Then at His baptism, the water bore witness that Christ was the Son of God (John 1:31). When Jesus was baptized, a voice out of heaven proclaimed, “This is My Son, the Beloved” (Matt. 3:16-17). At His crucifixion, the blood also bore witness that Christ was the Son of God (John 19:31-35; Matt. 27:50-54). When Christ was crucified, the centurion declared, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). Then in His resurrection, He was designated the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness (Rom. 1:4). In this principle, the anointing Spirit constantly witnesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Jude 20 says, “You, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit in Jude is the Spirit for our prayer. We need to pray not in ourselves but in Him. Verse 19 says, “These are those who make divisions, soulish, having no spirit.” The people in the world are soulish, not caring for their spirit or using it; they live and walk in the soul. We the believers must use our spirit by praying in the Holy Spirit. However, we may be the same in principle as the worldly people, walking and living in our soul. If this is the case, it will seem that we do not have a spirit. What distinguishes the believers from the unbelievers is that the latter are soulish, not using their spirit, while the former care for their spirit and pray in the Holy Spirit.
We may illustrate the difference between believers and unbelievers in the following ways. When an unbeliever is about to travel, he exercises his mind as to whether he should go by bus or by airplane. This means that he is soulish. However, when a believer is about to travel, he should make his decisions by exercising his spirit to pray. Similarly, the unbelievers exercise their mind and live in the soul to make decisions about their schooling. The believers, though, behave in a different way. Because they have the Holy Spirit within them, they make all their decisions by exercising their spirit to pray in Him. It is regrettable, though, that we sometimes behave the same as the unbelievers do. It seems that we do not have a spirit, that we are soulish. In everything, even in our shopping for example, we need to pray in the Spirit. We should not exercise our mind to buy things in the soul. We need to exercise our spirit to do our shopping with prayer. Unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit in their spirit, but wethe believers do.