Probably from 1950 the light began to come about mingling. In the inner life teachings of past centuries, the main word used to describe our relationship with God is the word union. However, through the experience of the divine revelation in the Bible concerning the Triune God being our life, I came to realize that our relationship with God is not just a union; it is a mingling.
Then I began to see that the thought was there in typology. In Leviticus 2:4 we are told that the meal offering was made of fine flour mingled with oil. When I first began to minister on the matter of mingling, I didn’t realize the word was mentioned in typology; I thought it was a new term used in my message. It was later that I saw that mingling is found in typology.
When I was opposed for saying that we are mingled with God, I tried to find out why some opposed. In the early centuries there were some teachers who saw from the Bible, and I believe from their experience also, that there is such a thing as mingling. Because their teaching stirred up so much debate, however, the term was dropped and the word union was used all the time. I believe some of those who oppose us do so based upon this history.
The more I ministered on the matter of mingling, the more I got strengthened. The Lord being food and drink to us implies strongly the thought of mingling. Whatever you eat and drink mingles with your physical being. The eating of the tree of life and the drinking of the water of life from the throne of God illustrate God’s mingling with His redeemed people to the uttermost for eternity. So, I fully believe that the thought of mingling is scriptural; there is the need for such ministry.
The issue of these more than twenty years of ministering the Word with the focus on the Spirit is the matter of the divine dispensing.
Mingling is based upon dispensing. If God does not dispense Himself into us, there is no mingling. This dispensing is by the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In this dispensing, the Spirit as the very consummation of the Triune God is crucial. The Father is embodied in the Son; the Son is realized as the Spirit. All three, therefore, are consummated in the Spirit.
For what purpose is the Spirit the consummation of the Triune God? It is that He may dispense Himself into us. This dispensing is in accordance with His dispensation (Gk. oikonomia, arrangement or plan); it is not an accident. He does it according to His arrangement, His system, His household administration. God, according to such a dispensation, dispenses Himself all the time to us.
To do this, God uses two means, two instruments. The first is outward: the Bible, that is, the Word. The second is inward: the Spirit, which is just God Himself. These are the two great gifts God has given us.
There are two sister portions by Paul in the New Testament. Ephesians 5:18 says that we should be filled in spirit. Colossians 3:16 says we should be filled with the Word (“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”). These are sister portions, telling us we should be filled with the Spirit and with the Word.
To bring the saints under God’s dispensing we must stress two things: the inward gift, that is, the Spirit, and the outward gift, that is, the Word, the Bible. Especially we who are leading ones in the churches must have adequate experience of the inward Spirit. Actually, the inward Spirit is simply the practical God within us. God could not be present and practical if He were not such a processed, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, compound Spirit. If God has not become such a Spirit to us, then He is just objective, an external object; He is not practical, and we cannot experience Him.