We must turn away from traditional theology and come back to the pure Word of God. According to the Bible, the Triune God has been processed to become the life-giving Spirit. Based upon the revelation in the Word, we may say that today our God is the processed God. He is no longer unprocessed, or “raw.” To say that God has been processed means that He became a child born of a virgin and that, as a man, He was crucified, buried, visited Hades, and entered into resurrection. This certainly was a process. Therefore, we may speak of our God as the processed God.
From the time of His birth through His resurrection, Christ was being processed. The entire span of His human life, from incarnation through resurrection, was a period of process. Now, having entered into the state of resurrection, He has become the life-giving Spirit.
Because Christ is the life-giving Spirit, it is easy for us to breathe Him in. According to Romans 10, God is not far from us. On the contrary, He is very near, even in our mouth. All we need to do is breathe Him into us. This surely is good news, glad tidings.
The gospel is that the unique God, the Creator, one day became a man and passed through a process in order to become the life-giving Spirit for us to breathe in. The letter kills, but this Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6).
Our God has done everything necessary to become the life-giving Spirit. Now we not only have God and the Savior—we also have the life-giving Spirit. The Jews do not know that God has become a man named Jesus Christ. Instead, they know God as the Creator and fail to recognize Him as the One who has been incarnated to be the Savior. Even many Christians today only know God and Christ in an objective way. They do not realize that, as the very God Himself, Christ today is the life-giving Spirit. We cannot separate God, Christ, and the Spirit. These three are one. We may enjoy the three-one God as the Spirit because He has come into our spirit and has made us one spirit with Him. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” How wonderful!
The consummation of God’s deeds, of all He has done, is the life-giving Spirit. First, God created all things. Second, through incarnation He became a man. Third, through death and resurrection He was processed to become the life-giving Spirit. Now God is not only the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Savior. Ultimately and consummately, He is the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is an all-inclusive drink for us to enjoy. Praise the Lord for the revelation in the Word that the very One who is our God, Creator, Savior, Redeemer, Lord, and Master is also the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit!
In addition to the doings of God, the Bible reveals God’s speaking. God is a speaking God. Hebrews 1:1 and 2 say, “In many portions and in many ways, God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” As a result of God’s doings, we have the life-giving Spirit, and as a result of God’s speaking, we have the Word. Furthermore, the Word is the word of life.
We may use electricity as an illustration of the Spirit and the Word. With the application of electricity, there is often the need for an antenna and a ground wire. By means of an antenna and a ground wire electricity may be applied in different ways and the electricity will flow. The Spirit may be compared to the antenna, and the Word, to the ground wire. Many Christians today concentrate on the Word as the ground wire, but they neglect the Spirit as the antenna. Many, especially those in the seminaries and Bible colleges, study the Bible, but neglect the Spirit, the antenna. At the other extreme are the Pentecostalists who emphasize the Spirit, the antenna, but do not adequately care for the Bible, the ground wire. We in the Lord’s recovery should be balanced and have both the antenna and the ground wire, both the Spirit and the Word. If we are balanced concerning the Spirit and the Word, we shall experience the transmission, the flowing, of the divine electricity.
As the heavenly electricity, God has been installed in us for our enjoyment. However, in order to enjoy Him, we need the Spirit and the Word. Praise Him that in our hands we have the Word and that in our spirit we have the life-giving Spirit! The Spirit and the Word are two great gifts.
It is important for us to realize that the Word is the embodiment of the living God. Furthermore, the Word is spirit and life. The Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). We should never separate God, the Spirit, and the Word. These three are one. God is the Word, and the Word is the Spirit.
If God were not the Word, He would remain a great mystery as far as we are concerned. For example, if a person does not speak out what is in him, he will be mysterious. But if he speaks, he will make himself known, and what is in him will be revealed. By His speaking, God has revealed Himself. Because God is a speaking God, He is transparent. The more a person speaks, the more transparent he becomes.
We praise the Lord that through His doings He has become the Spirit and that through His speaking He has become the Word. Day by day we need to come to the Word with an open, exercised spirit. Then we shall not only receive light from the Word; we shall enter into a realm, a sphere, of light. Whenever we come to the Bible with a pure heart and a right spirit, we enter into a sphere of light. Then instead of simply receiving enlightenment, we shall be in a realm of light. Simply to see light from the Word is not adequate. We need to be in the sphere of light.