Let me tell you something of my own history. I was born into organized Christianity. After I was saved, I came to love the Bible. During my years with the Brethren, I acquired a considerable amount of Bible knowledge. Eventually, I met Brother Nee, one who knew both the inner life and the church. He helped me to experience the inner life and also the church life. Then in 1936, along with others, I began to pursue the so-called Pentecostal experiences, in particular, the experience of speaking in tongues. For a period of time, I was bold and strong in this matter. However, I came to realize that nothing can compare with the experience of the inner life in the church, and I gave up my involvement with the Pentecostal things. I spontaneously dropped those things in favor of enjoying the inner life in the church life. We did not receive any benefit from the Pentecostal things. On the contrary, those things only caused problems.
In 1943 the church in my home town, Chefoo, was carried away from the proper inner life to the excesses of the Pentecostal things. I was ill at the time, and the leading ones did not know how to handle the situation. We realized that this problem was related to the power of darkness and that the only way to deal with it was to pray. Awhile later, a sister in the church died of tuberculosis. Immediately, a sister who took the lead among those who spoke in tongues prophesied that the deceased sister would be raised from the dead at noon the following day. This particular sister went on to tell the husband of the sister who had died that there was no need for him to make funeral arrangements since his wife would be raised from the dead. The next day hundreds of people gathered together, waiting for this miracle to take place. They waited until twelve noon, but nothing happened. Finally, about three o’clock in the afternoon, one of the elders told the people that they should pay no further attention to the nonsensical prophecy which had been given. He further advised the husband of the deceased sister to make the necessary arrangements for the funeral. The crowd was dispersed, and everyone went home, disappointed and dejected. This one incident caused the church to come back to the proper experience of the inner life, and to turn away from the Pentecostal things.
As the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the processed Triune God inspires His servants to preach the good word of the gospel. As people listen to this well-speaking, spontaneously an appreciation for the Lord Jesus is stirred up within them. They also appreciate Christ’s redemption, eternal life, and the precious forgiveness of sins. Out of their appreciation they call on the Lord and thereby receive the Spirit as the full blessing of the gospel of God. The experience and the expression may differ, but we all are the same in having received the Spirit. No matter how we were brought to the Lord, we all have received the Spirit as the blessing of the gospel through the hearing faith.
In God’s New Testament economy, the principle of the hearing of faith replaces the law. By faith we are brought into an organic union with the Triune God. If we had not been frustrated by religion with its teachings, this organic union would have been fully developed by now. Today in His recovery the Lord is developing this organic union, and He will cause it to be developed to the uttermost. The more this union is developed, the more we enjoy the total blessing of the gospel.
The Spirit we have received as the blessing of the gospel is the all-inclusive, compound Spirit typified by the compound ointment in Exodus 30:23-25. The compounding of the spices with the olive oil to produce the ointment typifies the compounding of Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection with the Spirit of God to produce the all-inclusive Spirit. This Spirit is the bountiful supply to the believers in God’s New Testament economy (Gal. 3:5; Phil. 1:19). By faith we have received this Spirit as the blessing of the gospel promised to Abraham by God. As the processed Triune God, the Spirit is the full realization of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land. This is the Spirit as the total blessing of the gospel.