How then do we drink this spiritual water? Both milk and honey are not solid, but are liquid food. There is rich nutrition in the milk, but it is all in the liquid. Likewise, all the riches of honey are in the liquid. Today, all the riches of Christ are in the Spirit. However, in Christianity the question of the Spirit has never been resolved during the past two thousand years. This is because the Spirit is too mysterious and deep. Many Christians do not have an adequate knowledge concerning the Spirit; hence, they have no way to experience the Spirit. For this reason they are constantly in poverty.
Thank the Lord that by His mercy I was saved sixty years ago. After I was saved I loved the Bible to the uttermost. There was hardly a day when the Bible was not in my hand. I read it every day. Later the Lord called me and gave me grace to give up my job, and from then on I did almost nothing but study the Bible. After all my studying plus my experience, I arrived at a conclusion: first, in order to enjoy this Spirit we must believe what the Bible says.
The Bible tells us first that the God in whom we believe and whom we worship, serve, and enjoy, is a Triune God. In the Triune God we have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the consummation. Although the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are distinct, They are not three Gods. They are still one God. There is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, with one source, one course, and one consummation. In the consummation there is not only the Spirit, but the Son and the Father as well. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not only coexistent; They are also coinherent. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Both the Father and the Son are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in both the Father and the Son. The Lord Jesus said clearly in John 14 that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Hence, His speaking is the Father’s working. He said that when men see Him, they see the Father, for the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father (vv. 9-11). Therefore, the Father and the Son cannot be separated. Although there is a distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, They are inseparable.
God is triune because He desires to work Himself into His created and redeemed people, that is, into us who have believed. How then does the Triune God work Himself into us? First, He accomplished creation. In His creation, the Father, Son, and Spirit were there together. The Triune God worked together to accomplish creation. In creation His main goal was to create man as the center, so that man could become the object of His dispensing. But after He created man, man fell. Because of man’s fall, the Triune God became flesh (John 1:1, 14). It was not merely the Son of God who became flesh. The Lord Jesus told us that when He came, He brought the Father with Him (John 8:29). This is contrary to the concept of most Christians. Their concept is that when Christ came to put on the flesh, He left the Father in heaven. The fact is that when the Son came to be incarnated, the Father came also. Furthermore, the Son became flesh in the Spirit. That is, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit through Mary (Matt. 1:18, 20). Hence, the Father, Son, and Spirit were all involved in the incarnation. For this reason, the Bible does not say that the Son became flesh. Rather, it says, “Who (God) was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). It was not a partial God, but a complete God, who was incarnated.
The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—became flesh and lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. He passed through the human life and tasted all the joys and sufferings of the human living. At the end of His human life He went to the cross to accomplish the all-inclusive death. Then He was buried. He entered into Hades, but death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24); neither could Hades detain Him, for He is life (John 11:25). He came triumphantly out of death, and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This Spirit has passed through creation, incarnation, human living, and death, and has entered into resurrection. This Spirit, who is the very consummation of the Triune God, has passed through so many processes and steps to become the life-giving Spirit. In this life-giving Spirit there is the Son, and there is also the Father; there is God, and there is also man. The Bible tells us that this Spirit in resurrection is the resurrected Christ (John 14:17, 20), who is also the pneumatic Christ. It was this pneumatic Christ who came into the midst of the disciples on the night of His resurrection to breathe into the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:19-22). From that time on, the Triune God has entered into His chosen people. This is what happened on the day of resurrection.
Essentially speaking, the Triune God entered into the disciples on that day to become their life and life essence. Economically speaking, forty days later He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9). This does not mean that in His ascension He left His disciples. He was still within the disciples as their essence. Ten days after He ascended, He poured Himself out from the throne (Acts 2:1-4, 16-18). This is the Spirit at Pentecost. By this time, you can see that this Triune God has become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. On the one hand, He entered into His believers to be their life essence. On the other hand, He fell upon them to be their power for work.
What should we do with such a record of the Scripture? We must believe! We need to say “Amen” to every point recorded in the Bible. The Bible says that God is triune— the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. To this we should say “Amen.” The Bible says that this Triune God created the heavens, the earth, and all things, including us. To this we should also say “Amen.” The Bible also says that the Triune God became flesh and lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. Again we should say “Amen.” The Bible says that this Triune God died on the cross for our sins, and dealt with sin, the world, Satan, and all the negative things. We should say “Amen” to this. The Bible says again that He rose from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit, and that He has entered into those who believe in Him. Again we should say “Amen.” If you believe in Him, He will enter into you. There is no need to analyze with your mind. Simply “Amen” what the Bible says from the depth of your being. Do not be deceived by your unreliable feelings. If you say “Amen,” you will realize that He is in you. This is real.
Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” What is faith? Faith is the substantiating of the substance. Let me explain this with an illustration. Suppose that in a certain house there is a sweet fragrance, but you cannot see it, nor can you touch it. How then can you substantiate this fragrance? All you need to do is to exercise your nose a little, and the fragrance will be substantiated. You must use the right organ to substantiate a particular substance. For example, you must use your ear to hear. The hearing of the ear is the substantiating of sound. Likewise, faith is the substantiating of spiritual things. All spiritual things are substantial, but we must use our spirit to believe in them. This believing is the substantiating of the substance of spiritual things.
When you pray, do not exercise your mind as you do when you recite something from memory. Neither should you preach to the Lord in your prayer. The Bible has no preaching prayers, but it has prayers of confession, where a person confesses his failures. D. L. Moody said a hundred years ago that long prayers kill the prayer meetings. The most living prayers are those with two or three sentences. I can still remember a story about Moody. One time in a meeting, a person began to pray a long prayer. Moody said, “While our brother is still praying, let us go ahead to do such and such.” Sometimes I think that this is a good way. If someone should pray without stopping in our prayer meeting, we should say, “While our brother is praying, let us all have some fellowship.” We do not want any long prayers.
Once a blind man came to the Lord and cried, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The Lord said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The answer was simple: “Lord, that I may receive my sight!” (Luke 18:35-43). That is enough. If the Lord asks you today, “What do you want?” and you say, “Lord, I am thirsty today; I want the Spirit,” that is very good. All you need to pray in the prayer meeting is “Lord, I want the Spirit! I am so thirsty. I want a drink.” Do not say, “Lord, You know that I am very thirsty, and because I am thirsty, I need a drink. The drink today is the Spirit, and without the Spirit there is no drink. Only when I have the Spirit can I have the drink.” This is preaching prayer. You are praying as if God needs you to preach to Him. When God asks, “What do you need?” you should say, “Lord, we need a revival! We are all nearly dead. We want to be alive. We are neither hot nor cold. We want to be hot. Lord, burn us!” Do not say, “Lord, You know that unless You do the burning, nobody can burn. Even if we try to be burning, we cannot burn. Only You can burn. If You do not burn us, what can we do? For this we come to beseech You.” Simply say, “Lord, burn us at once!” Do not preach so much doctrine. The Lord will do the burning.
When we were in Shanghai we had a slogan which had been developed through the years. Some brothers and sisters would come to every meeting, and at every meeting they would pray. Furthermore, every prayer they prayed was long. We tried for some time to find a way to help these saints. Eventually, we found the way from Moody’s story. We do not need to pray for so many things. God knows that we lack clothing or food. We should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto us. We should especially avoid praying for big houses or fancy cars. We should say, “Lord, I am not burning today. Burn me!” or, “Lord, I am half dead now. Make me alive!”
If you sense that there is a lack of air in a particular room, open the windows. Once you open the windows, the air will come in. Although you cannot see the air, you can feel it. Likewise, when you wake up in the morning, simply open up the window of your being to the Lord and say, “Lord, I am open to You. Breathe on me. Lord, I want You to fill me. I want to walk this day according to the Spirit.” If you would pray this way for a few sentences, you will feel that the Spirit is moving in you. Brothers and sisters, if you have breathed deeply, how can you not feel anything? Surely you will feel refreshed. The Lord Jesus Christ today is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). This is why the Bible says, “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Try it! You will receive the Spirit. You need to believe the words of the Bible, and you need to claim them by living prayer.
Then you must pray according to the words of the Bible. The more you do this, the better it is. You should do this ten times, even twenty times, a day. You need to spend time on this, the more the better. Our prayer to the Lord is our breathing of the Lord. Spend five minutes before the Lord to breathe and pray, and you will feel like a tire having air pumped into it at a gas station. You will be filled with the spiritual pneuma. The Spirit in you will become your inward constituent, and in this Spirit Christ comes and is added into your being. In other words, the reality of the Spirit is Christ. Hence, Christ today is the pneumatic Christ. This Spirit will fill you from within, and the elements of Christ will be constituted into your being. You will no longer be a natural man. Rather, you will be a man of Christ. You will be one who is constituted with Christ. Only then will you be a living member of the Body of Christ, and only then will you be a part of Christ as His member.
For this reason, 1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “Even as...all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ.” We must be constituted with the elements of Christ, so that we may become the members of Christ. The elements of Christ are constituted into us by the Spirit. How do we receive this Spirit? To receive this Spirit we need to believe the words of the Bible, and every day we need to come before the Lord to open up to Him. You need to open up yourself like opening up a window. Let the Spirit come in; then breathe Him in by prayer. The more you pray the more you will be filled.
Verse 3 of Hymns, #841 says:
Thy anointing Spirit
Me shall permeate,
All my soul and spirit
Thou wouldst saturate...
When this pneumatic Christ operates in you, He will move into your mind, into your emotion, and into your will. When He moves, and if you would give ground to His moving, He will permeate your whole being with His elements, and you will be transformed into His image, full of His stature. This is like taking food into you. After a few hours of softening up by water and digestion by the stomach, the food will permeate into your cells and blood stream. After the completion of this process, the food will become your constituent. This is our need today. I hope that all of you will exercise yourself in this way, so that you will be full of the Spirit and full of Christ within. In this way our lives will be filled with the Spirit and with Christ, and whether we go to the small group meeting or to other meetings, we will go with the supply. In fact, we will all become a supply to others. This is my burden in this message. May the Lord be merciful to us.