The consummated Spirit is also the indwelling Spirit. In Romans 8:9 and 11 Paul speaks of the Spirit indwelling the believers. Verse 9 speaks of the Spirit of God dwelling in us, and verse 11 goes on to say, "If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you." As the Spirit indwells us, He is active to impart life to us. The indwelling Spirit imparts the divine life into our tripartite being (vv. 10, 6, 11). The purpose of the Spirit's indwelling is to impart, to dispense, life, which is actually God Himself, into the three parts of our being.
Finally, we need to know the consummated Spirit as the pneumatic Christ (Rom. 8:10). The pneumatic Christ is the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit. The Christ who was in the flesh went through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. Not only has Christ become the Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, but when He comes to us, He comes as the pneumatic Christ. Thus, when we receive Christ today, we receive Him as the pneumatic Christ, as the life-giving Spirit.
The next matter that we need to know is the church.
The church is the universal house of God to be God's manifestation in humanity (1 Tim. 3:15-16). In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul speaks of "the house of God, which is the church of the living God." As God's dwelling place, the church is both God's house and His household, His family. In the Old Testament the temple and God's people were two separate things, but in the fulfillment in the New Testament the dwelling place of God and the family of God are one. Verses 15 and 16 indicate that the church as the house of God is also the manifestation of God in the flesh—the mystery of godliness. God is manifested in the church, the Body of Christ and the house of the living God, as the enlarged, corporate expression in the flesh, that is, in humanity.
It is important that we know the church as the local churches to be the expression of the one church of God (Rev. 1:11; 1 Cor. 10:32). The church has both a universal aspect and a local aspect. In the local aspect the church is expressed in many localities as many local churches. The one universal church expressed in many places on earth becomes the many local churches. The expression of the church in a locality is the local church in that particular locality.
The universal church as the Body of Christ is expressed through the local churches. The local churches, as the expressions of the one Body of Christ, are locally one. Without the local churches there would be no practicality and actuality of the universal church. The universal church is realized in the local churches.