The Spirit of Jehovah, the Spirit of the Lord, is the reaching of God (Judg. 6:34; Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18; Acts 5:9; 8:39; 2 Cor. 3:17). “The Spirit of Jehovah” in the Old Testament is “the Spirit of the Lord” in the New Testament. This is proven by comparing Isaiah 61:1 with Luke 4:18. Isaiah 61:1 says, “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me” (ASV). When this verse is quoted in Luke 4:18, it says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.” These two verses show that the Spirit of the Lord in the New Testament is the same as the Spirit of Jehovah in the Old Testament.
The Spirit of the Lord, or the Spirit of Jehovah, is the reaching of God to us. When God comes to us, that means He reaches us. In His reaching, He is called the Spirit of Jehovah, the Spirit of the Lord. Two verses in the book of Acts confirm this. In Acts 5:9, Peter said to Sapphira, “Why was it agreed together by you to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter’s word to Sapphira indicates that the Spirit of the Lord is in the church. His presence, His reaching. His coming, is in the church. He is not far away. This was Peter’s thought. It was as if he were saying, “Don’t you realize that the Spirit is here? I have the reaching, the presence, of the Spirit of the Lord. When you deceive me, you deceive Him.” Acts 8:39 tells us that “the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip.” The Spirit of the Lord reached Philip and took him away. Second Corinthians 3:17 says that the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is,” is the reaching of the Spirit.
The New Testament reveals that Jesus was born of the essential Spirit and filled with the essential Spirit. Luke 1 and Matthew 1 unveil to us that Jesus was born of the Spirit. The Spirit was the very essence of the person of Jesus. Therefore, this Spirit is the essential Spirit. From the birth of Jesus, this essential Spirit never left Him. Actually, the essential Spirit could not leave Him because this Spirit was His essence. The essence is the very intrinsic matter of a substance. A piece of wood, for example, is a substance, and in this substance there is an essence. The essence could never leave this substance. We may say that Jesus is the substance. Within Jesus is His essence, and this essence is the essential Spirit. He was born of the essential Spirit, and He was also filled with this essential Spirit.
Jesus was born of the essential Spirit and filled with the essential Spirit. Then when He came out to start His ministry at the age of thirty, He needed another aspect of the Spirit. This was the economical aspect of power for the work. The essential aspect of the Spirit is for the intrinsic nature within. The economical aspect of the Spirit is for the power without. He needed both aspects for His living and for His ministry.
Jesus was born of the essential Spirit and filled with the essential Spirit, but when He went out to minister. He needed the power. Thus, when He came out of the water of baptism, the Spirit as the economical Spirit descended upon Him (Matt. 3:16). According to Luke 4:18, He was anointed by God with this economical, descending Spirit. Within, Jesus was constituted and filled with the essential Spirit. Without, Jesus was anointed and empowered with the economical Spirit. Therefore, He was a person wrapped up with the Spirit. The Spirit within Him was essential, and the Spirit outside of Him was economical. The essential Spirit is for life and nature, and the economical Spirit is for power to do the work. Jesus was wrapped up with the Spirit of God in these two aspects.
Today we need the same two aspects of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is God reaching us to be life and nature to us and also to be power to us. We must be filled with the essential Spirit and anointed with the economical Spirit.