Now that we have seen the living of Christ for His ministry, we want to go on to see His moving for His ministry. His living for the ministry is concerning His life. His moving for His ministry is concerning His work. The cross was the center of Christ’s living. The Spirit was the center of His work. The cross came first, and then the Spirit.
Christ’s move in His work was altogether under the Spirit’s anointing.
After He was baptized in the water, God anointed Him with the Spirit descending upon Him as a dove (Matt. 3:16). His being baptized signifies that He took the cross to put the man of flesh to death for burial. After the cross, God anointed Him with the Spirit. This shows us the operation of the Divine Trinity. The Father anointed the Son with the Spirit descending upon Him as a gentle and meek dove. This anointing was to equip Christ for His work and to armor Christ for His fighting. The weapon for Christ’s fighting is not a bomb but a dove. Also, the instrument for His work is not an ax but a dove. Today we are fighting for the kingdom of God and working for Christ, but we must remember that a dove is both our weapon and our instrument. Christ was a dove as He was being arrested and as He was being judged before the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was a dove before Pilate and Herod, the Roman authorities. He fought with and worked with a dove. Today we are fighting, working, laboring, and struggling, but our weapon and our instrument should be a dove. A dove has two eyes but it can see only one thing at a time. This means that we should have a single view, focusing on God to trust in Him continually.
Christ was anointed by God with the oil of exultant joy above His partners (Heb. 1:9). If you have God’s anointing, you will be exultantly joyful. He was anointed with the oil of exultant joy above His partners. We cannot compare with Him. Even Peter and Paul cannot compare with Him. He is above all of us in this matter of anointing.
Acts 10:38a says that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power. Today the Spirit of God is so powerful. No one can measure His power to subdue the whole earth.
In Luke 4:18a the Lord said that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him.
In Matthew 12:18a God said concerning Christ, “I will put My Spirit upon Him.” God put such a powerful Spirit upon Christ in the flesh on the earth—a gentle, meek, and humble man.
He was not only under but also led by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil for forty days (Matt. 4:1-2; Luke 4:1). In the universe, only the devil can have a kind of transaction with God as His opponent. God sent His Son to be a man with the intention to defeat Satan, but the Spirit of God led this One to be tempted by Satan. This was a kind of a test for forty days. Every chosen slave, or servant, of God through the centuries has been firstly tested by the devil. We should not think that if we answer God’s call, we will be prosperous. The first thing we meet will not be prosperity but testing. Testing is not sweet but a difficult thing. We cannot escape. We have to pass the test.
As the One sent by God, Christ spoke the words of God and gave the Spirit not by measure (John 3:34). The Spirit was given by God to Him, and He gives the Spirit not by measure. The Spirit dwells within us unlimitedly. Christ is the One who speaks the word with the Spirit. When He speaks the word of God, He gives the Spirit without measure. When we speak the word, we should minister, dispense, the Spirit. Without the dispensing of the Spirit, our word is vanity and also death. Without the giving of the Spirit to accompany the speaking of the word, the word spoken by us is dead letters. We may hear just one message, but the Spirit we receive of the Lord in this message by His speaking is not by measure. To come to the meeting to hear the word is not vain. When we hear the word of God, the Spirit of God goes along with this word not by measure. We may hear only one message, but the measure of the Spirit we receive is without limitation.