Christ was appointed in eternity past and anointed in time (1:9). That anointing was the initial heavenly, divine inauguration. God has initially inaugurated His appointed Heir into His office by anointing Him. God the Spirit poured Himself out as the anointing oil upon this appointed Heir, anointing Him to be the operator of God’s divine operation.
As the partners of Christ, we are partners in His anointing. He was appointed in eternity past and anointed in time. His anointing includes us. I would refer you to Psalm 133 where we see that the ointment poured out upon the head of Aaron, the high priest, flows down upon the whole body to the skirts of his robe. This signifies that all the members of the body of the high priest share his anointing. We, the partakers, share the anointing of the unique Heir. As I have already mentioned, the anointing was the initial inauguration. Therefore, we all share in His inauguration. In this heavenly, divine, and eternal inauguration, we are His partners. He has obtained the anointing, and we share it with Him because we are His partners. This means that we all have been anointed. We all have been put into office. We are not only the partakers of Christ who enjoy Him but also the partners of Christ who share in His operation. I have the full assurance that in giving this message I am sharing in His operation. He is going to accomplish a full expression of God in glory, and we are now cooperating with Him in this operation. I have heard many testimonies concerning being a partaker of Christ and enjoying Him, but I have not heard one concerning being a partner of Christ. From now on, in the churches we need to hear more testimonies concerning being partners of Christ and sharing in His operation. Recently, many of us have been touched to go to the campuses and preach the high gospel. That kind of preaching should be the sharing in the operation of the anointed Heir. We are Christ’s joint-heirs and partners, cooperating with Him and sharing in His operation. His office must also be our office.
Hebrews 1:9 says, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of exultant joy above Your partners.” Notice that this verse says, “God...Your God.” Whose God is this? We have seen that the Son is God. How many gods are there? There is only one. Some of those reading this message may unconsciously still hold the concept that there are three gods, but they dare not say that there are three gods. According to the truth of the Bible, there is only one God (1 Cor. 8:4). We cannot say that there is more than one God. Nevertheless, deep within, many Christians unconsciously hold onto the concept of three gods, the so-called tritheism. I ask you to forget about your traditional teachings. We do not have more than one God. God is one, yet He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). But this does not mean that there are three different gods.
Isaiah 9:6 and 2 Corinthians 3:17 prove that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one. Isaiah 9:6 says, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given...and his name shall be called...The Mighty God, the everlasting Father.” If you believe that the child born in the manger was the Mighty God, then you must also believe that the Son given to us is the everlasting Father. There are two lines in Isaiah 9:6: the child born to us is the Mighty God, and the Son given to us is the everlasting Father. All fundamental Christians, including us, believe that that child was the Mighty God. But, sorry to say, many Christians only believe the first line in 9:6 but do not believe the second.
Some Christians dare not to touch the matter that the Son is called the everlasting Father. Some have twisted it to fit in with their traditional concept. We are not smart enough to understand the Trinity fully. God did not make us that smart. This matter of the Trinity is beyond our understanding. We cannot even understand ourselves as tripartite men. For instance, where is your heart? Where is your conscience? People think that they are clear about the Trinity, but they are not even clear about themselves. Where is your soul? What is the difference between your spirit, soul, heart, mind, will, emotion, and conscience? If you do not even understand yourself, how can you think that you are able to understand God?
We need to forget about tradition and return to the Bible. I beg you to take the whole Bible. This matter of Christology has been the subject of debate since the last part of the first century. No one can solve this problem. No one can understand it thoroughly. We should just humbly accept everything that is in the Bible whether or not it fits in with our concept. Isaiah 9:6 says that a child is called the Mighty God and the Son is called the everlasting Father, and 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “Now the Lord is that Spirit.”
When I was young, I was under the Brethren teachers who taught the truth according to their knowledge of the Bible. They taught us not to pray to the Son but to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. We were told not to pray to the Spirit. They said that under certain circumstances we might pray to the Lord Jesus but that it should not be often. We must pray to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Later the Lord led me to stay with Brother Nee. One day he invited a Chinese preacher from the China Inland Mission to speak in our meetings. In his message the preacher said, “Don’t consider that the Lord Jesus is another One from the Holy Spirit.” When that speaker went on to say that the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit, Brother Nee said, “Amen.” After the meeting, I went to Brother Nee, and he said, “This is just what we need. This is what we should take.” That was revolutionary to me. At that time I certainly crossed the river of the Brethren teaching into the good land of the truth. Not long afterward, Brother Nee spoke to a small group of us on John 14, pointing out that today the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit. He said, “The ‘He’ in verse 17 is the ‘I’ in the next verse.” My eyes were opened and the light shone. Then verse 17 says that the Spirit will be in us and verse 20 says that the Lord will be in us. Are there two or one in us? Surely one. Who is this One—the Lord Jesus or the Spirit? Both, for They are one. Then verses 9 through 11 tell us that the Lord Jesus is not only the Spirit but also the Father. We should not be so foolish as to be today’s Philip. When Philip asked the Lord to show them the Father, the Lord said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” for He and the Father are one (John 10:30).
Prior to his imprisonment, Brother Nee published a large hymnal containing a thousand and fifty-six songs. Some of the best hymns in our hymnal were taken from that source. One of the hymns in our hymnal, number 490, was written by Brother Nee and translated by us for inclusion in our hymnal. The fifth stanza says,
Thou, Lord, the Father once wast called,
But now the Holy Spirit art;
The Spirit is Thine other form,
Thyself to dwell within our heart.
The original Chinese, which is much clearer than the English, says “Once You were the Father; now You are the Spirit.” Now you know from where I derived the truth that Christ is the Spirit. This truth has been practiced, testified, and fully proved by my own experience. I say once again that we don’t care for doctrine; we care for experience.
The word, “O God...Your God,” in 1:8-9 refers to the Son. Since the Son is God Himself, He is God; therefore, it says, “O God.” Since the Son is also man, God is His God; therefore, it says, “Your God.”