Verse 34 says, “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure.” In this verse we see two things: the Lord Jesus ministers the words of God to His people, and He gives the Spirit to God’s people without measure. Some versions render this verse incorrectly, saying that God the Father gives the Spirit to the Son without measure. However, if you study the best manuscripts, you will see that it means that the Son gives the Spirit without measure to God’s people. The Lord Jesus ministers the living Word and the immeasurable Spirit.
In the local churches we need just two things—the living Word and the immeasurable Spirit. Today, as the Head of the church, Christ is still ministering these two things. I believe that He has especially burdened us with the ministry of the living Word. Although we speak the Word, it is not we who minister the Word. We speak, but He ministers. He ministers His rich Word in our speaking. He is the divine speaker and the divine dispenser. He ministers the rich Word and dispenses the living Spirit without measure. He is the One who ministers the living Word to nourish all of His members. He is the One who dispenses the Spirit into all His members in order that they might function in a full way. No one else can do this. He is the all-inclusive Spirit and the all-inclusive Christ. He is unlimited.
In these last days the Lord is going to vindicate His way by means of the rich Word and the living Spirit. Where is the Lord? He is wherever there is the rich Word and the living Spirit. Nothing else can be considered as signs of the Lord’s presence. If we meet without the riches of the Word and without the livingness of the Spirit and yet claim to meet in the name of the Lord, our claim is meaningless. It is vanity. There is no confirmation, no reality, to back up what we say. There is no need for us to claim that we are the church. As long as we have the rich Word and the living Spirit, that is the vindication that we are the church. Where the Lord Jesus is, there you will find the rich Word and the living Spirit.
People often talk and argue about the church. Eventually, most of the people who talk and argue about the church are afraid to say anything about it. They just shut their mouths and become unwilling to even use the term church. They say, “Don’t talk about the church. The church is a troublesome thing.” It is difficult for people to say what is right or wrong as far as the church is concerned. What is the church? The church is Christ increasing and all the leaders decreasing. Whenever you see that the leaders are increasing and that Christ is imprisoned, that is not the church. The church is something in which Christ is continually increasing and the leadership decreasing.
The church is the Body of Christ. We know that the ointment of the high priest was poured upon his body and flowed down to his skirt (Psa. 133:2), indicating that the rich, living Spirit is not a matter of gift or miracles, but a matter of the anointing in life (Psa. 133:3). In the church, Christ, as the all-inclusive Head, gives the Spirit of life without measure. I like to hear the saints praying freely. But what would happen if the Head withheld the anointing and we still tried to pray? If He recalled the anointing, although we might try our best to pray, we would be unable to pray in a living way. We could only pray in a very dry and formal way. In these days I have been watered by listening to the prayers of the saints because those prayers have been filled with the anointing. This anointing comes from the all-inclusive Head. As long as we have the anointing, we are the Body. The ointment was poured out upon Aaron’s garments, meaning that it was poured upon the Body of Christ. If we have to arrange ahead of time for people to pray in a certain meeting, that is an organization, not the Body. An organization does not need the anointing, the immeasurable Spirit. A meeting which is filled with prayer from beginning to end would be a proof of the presence of the Head, proving that the whole Body is under the anointing of His immeasurable Spirit. There would be no need for someone to ask us to pray for two and a half hours, for that would be our doing, not the doing of the Head. Where is the church? Who are the church? What is the church? Where the Spirit is, there is the church.
Another sign of the church is the Word. If you read the book of Acts, you will see that in the early days of the church there were the Spirit and the Word. But it was not the Word in black and white letters. In Acts the church had the living Word, the Word full of life, light, anointing, and watering. The church has the living and instant Word, the Word that the Lord speaks today. Where there is the living Word, there is the church.
Praise the Lord that since the day that He raised us up, His holy Word has been open to us in a living way. As the days go by, I believe that the Word will open to us more and more. We do not need the outward things, because the presence of the Lord is in the church. His living Spirit and His living Word are in the church. This proves where the church is and it also testifies that the Head of the church is the unlimited Christ.
It is blasphemy to keep a following under our control. All the following must go to Him. The more we let go of our following, the more the Bible will be open to us, and the more the anointing will be on the Body. Brothers and sisters, now is the time that the Lord is going to vindicate His way on the earth, not only in this country, but throughout the world. His divine Word will be open to His Body more than ever before. And the anointing of the Spirit will be intensified sevenfold (Rev. 1:4). The all-inclusive Christ, the living Word, and the intensified Spirit will vindicate the way of the church. Otherwise, it is difficult for people to know who, where, and what is the church.
Hallelujah, we are regenerated people! We have been regenerated for His increase. His increase is for the all-inclusive Christ. John chapter three has three main points: regeneration, the increase, which is the bride of Christ, and the all-inclusive Christ.
The Father loves the Son (3:35). The Son is the object of the Father’s love. In love, the Father has made the Son to be above all and to be all in all. The Son’s all-inclusiveness is a matter of the Father’s love.
Verse 35 also says that the Father has given all into His hand. Again the “all” here does not mainly mean all things or all matters, but all people. The Father has given all people to the Son. The Father never gave anyone to John the Baptist. He has given all His chosen people to His Son. None of the chosen people of God belong to John the Baptist or to any Christian worker. John and all the Christian workers should not accept any of the people of God. God the Father has given all His elect to the Son. Everyone must go to Him. He is above all, and over all. All have been given to Him. All must be under His hand.
Verse 36 says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life.” In John 3 we see both the Person and work of Christ. All that He is and all that He does is for us to be saved and regenerated that we might be His bride as His increase. Oh, He is such a wonderful One and He has accomplished such a marvelous work! Therefore, we must believe in Him. By believing in Him we receive the forgiveness of God and have the divine life, which is the eternal life. By believing in such a One, we receive God’s forgiveness, the release from God’s condemnation through His redemption, and eternal life, the uncreated life of God, through the Spirit’s regeneration. Thus, we are born of God and are delivered from the evil power of Satan and translated into the kingdom of God. Otherwise, we shall remain poisoned by Satan and continue under the condemnation of God which will eventually bring His wrath to us. Formerly, we were serpents poisoned by Satan, the enemy of God, and condemned already under the judgment of God. But now, thank the Lord, by His death and resurrection, we have been saved and regenerated to be parts of His bride. Therefore, we are His increase, His reproduction, which is His bride, His counterpart.
If anyone disobeys this Christ, he will remain under the wrath of God unto perdition. But we are not the disobeying ones, but the believing ones. We shall never perish. We have been saved from God’s condemnation and from Satan’s serpentine nature and we have been regenerated with God’s eternal life to be the bride of the all-inclusive Christ as His universal increase.