When Christians are asked about the Holy Spirit, they often say that the Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead. They point out that the Godhead includes three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Although it is true to say that the Holy Spirit is the third of the Godhead, this understanding is not adequate. It is very important to see that the Father and the Son are fully realized in the Spirit as the third of the Godhead. This means that we cannot separate the Holy Spirit from the Son or the Father.
The three of the Godhead not only coexist, but They also coinhere. Hence, among the Father, Son, and Spirit there are both coexistence and coinherence. God is triune; He is three-one. Coexistence means to exist together at the same time. Coinherence is much more difficult to define or understand. Applied to the Triune God, this term means that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in one another. The Bible reveals clearly that when the Son came, the Father came with Him. Likewise, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Son and the Father. Furthermore, when the Son came, the Father came with the Son not in an outward way, but inwardly, subjectively, within the Son.
Regarding the relationship between the Father and the Son and between the Son and the Spirit, the Gospel of John uses a particular Greek preposition, a preposition which can be translated “from with” (6:46; 16:27). The Son came not only from the Father, but even from with the Father. He came from the Father and also with Him. This indicates that when the Son came, the Father came also. The Father came in the Son. Therefore the Lord could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He could also testify, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me” (John 14:10). On the one hand, the Father and the Son are two; on the other hand, They are one. Because the Father came not only with the Son but also in Him, the Son, the Lord Jesus, could say, “The words which I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father who abides in Me, He does His works” (John 14:10). Furthermore, according to the Bible, if we have the Son, we have the Father also (1 John 2:23). Because the Father is with the Son and even in Him, we receive the Father when we receive the Son. Moreover, when the Spirit comes, He comes with both the Son and the Father. Therefore, to have the Spirit is to have the Son and the Father.
The Holy Spirit is the ultimate and consummate reaching of the Triune God to us. Do not think that when the Holy Spirit reaches you, only He, the third of the Godhead, comes, and that the Father and the Son remain in heaven. Some Christians have such an understanding. Instead of believing that Christ is in us, they claim that Christ sent the Holy Spirit to function as His representative in us. This concept is altogether wrong. The Bible does not speak of the Spirit representing the Son in the believers. On the contrary, according to the Scriptures, when the Holy Spirit comes, the Son comes with Him and in Him. The Father also comes with the Son and the Spirit. This means that when the Holy Spirit comes to us, the entire Triune God comes. According to the Bible, we may say that the Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow. How marvelous that the Holy Spirit is the consummate reaching of the Triune God to you and me!
As those who believe in Christ, we may have the full assurance that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. However, concerning this there is much confusion among Christians today. Some insist that after a person has become a Christian, he must still pray to receive the Holy Spirit. Some go so far as to claim that speaking in tongues is the unique sign of receiving the Spirit. According to the Bible, when we believed in the Lord Jesus, called on His name, and received Him as our Savior, the Holy Spirit entered into us. From that time onward, we have been indwelt by the Spirit. We do not need to speak in tongues as a sign that we have received the Holy Spirit.
One definite indicator that we have received the Holy Spirit is that we have a sweet sense within when we call on God our Father. One day a young man asked Brother Nee about Romans 8:16, a verse which says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. He wanted help to understand what it means to say that the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit in this way. Since that young man was married, Brother Nee asked him if he sensed the same sweetness when he called his father-in-law “Daddy” as he did when he addressed his own father in this way. The young man testified that he did not have the same sense of sweetness in both cases. Brother Nee pointed out to him that he could call his own father “Daddy” in a sweet way because he had been born of him. Brother Nee then asked him if he had a sense of sweetness within when he called God his Father. The young man said with assurance that he did experience this sweetness. Brother Nee replied, “You are certainly saved. The reason you sense this sweetness is that you have the Spirit within. You now have the spirit of sonship. The sweetness you experience when you call on God the Father is a sign that you have received the Spirit.” Whether or not we ever speak in tongues, we may have the assurance that we have received the Holy Spirit and are now children of God.