In this chapter and in the following chapters, we want to see the practical experience of living in and with the Divine Trinity. The Lord Jesus told us in John 15 that He is the vine and that we are the branches of the vine. As the branches of the vine we should abide in Him. Then He will abide in us. To abide in Christ is to live in Christ, and to live in Christ is to live in the Divine Trinity. To have Christ abide in us is to have the Triune God living in us. This is to live with the Divine Trinity. Therefore, to abide in Christ is to live in the Divine Trinity, and to have Christ abiding in us is to live with the Divine Trinity. The book of John is a book on living in and with the Divine Trinity. The truth concerning living in and with the Divine Trinity is greatly expounded in the Epistles, especially in those written by Paul. In the Epistles we can see all the practicalities and details of living in and with the Divine Trinity. We need to be brought into the experiences of living in the Divine Trinity and with the Divine Trinity. When we abide in Him, we live in Him. When we have Him abide in us, we live with Him.
To see our living in and with the Divine Trinity, we have to know, to realize, and to apprehend our initial experience of the Divine Trinity. Anything that is in the initial stage is a foundation.
We have a foundation as a strong base for us to have a life of living in the Divine Trinity and with the Divine Trinity. The sanctification by the Spirit is the very start of our initial experience of the Triune God (1 Pet. 1:2). This corresponds with our experience. We were chosen before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). Our being chosen transpired in eternity past. Then in time God called us. God's calling is implied in our being sanctified by the Spirit.
Before we were saved, we were wandering without any meaning or purpose. Somehow we were able to hear the preaching of the gospel. Actually, this preaching was a sounding of God's call. When we go out to visit people to preach the gospel to them, this can be considered as a kind of calling to them. However, merely our preaching alone cannot constitute God's calling. God's calling includes our preaching plus the sanctification of the Spirit.
When we go out to preach the gospel, we are sounding the trumpet of God's call. Furthermore, the sanctifying, the separating, and the seeking Spirit cooperates with us. We are preaching, and He is seeking. We are preaching, and He is separating. We are preaching, and He is sanctifying. Then our candidates repent, and their repentance is an answer to the sounding of God's call. Their repentance comes out of the Spirit's separation. The work of the Spirit is a seeking work, a separating work, and a sanctifying work. Our preaching plus the Spirit's separating is the call, and the people's repentance is the answer to the call.
This is fully portrayed in Luke 15. In Luke 15 there is a parable of a fine woman seeking a lost coin. She did a fine work by enlightening the room and searching everywhere. Due to the enlightening and searching of the Spirit depicted by this fine woman, the prodigal son in the following parable came to himself. Verses 17 and 18a say, "But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have an abundance of bread, but I am perishing here with famine! I will rise up and go to my father..." His being awakened was the issue of the Spirit's fine seeking and the Spirit's finding. Due to the Spirit's fine seeking, the prodigal son woke up and made up his mind to return to his father. The Spirit's enlightening, searching, and seeking brought him to repentance. Although this happened to him, I do not think that the prodigal son knew that this was due to the Spirit's sanctifying work. It was the same with us in our experience. We did not realize that our repentance was the issue of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work. Unconsciously, we experienced the sanctifying Spirit of the Divine Trinity.
I was born into Christianity and was raised in it for at least nineteen years. During that time I had not received the Lord Jesus. One day out of curiosity I went to listen to a young lady preaching the gospel. In that meeting, I was caught by the Lord. No doubt, the Holy Spirit was working on me, seeking me out, separating me, and sanctifying me. The message I heard was concerning the type of the children of Israel enjoying Christ as their Passover and passing through the Red Sea into the wilderness to escape the usurping hand of Pharaoh, who typifies Satan. As a result of this word, I declared that I wanted to go out of the world and not be under the usurping hand of the evil one, Satan, any longer. All of us who are regenerated Christians have experienced the Spirit's sanctifying work in this way. This is the first step, our initial experience, of the Triune God.