Answer: We may use a table with four legs to illustrate this matter. We can say that the four legs of the table are the four substances. Each piece is a substance. The table, however, has only one essence. In the same way, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three substances, but the Triune God has only one essence.
Question: I have a question concerning note 3 in 1 John 1:5 of the Recovery Version. This note says, “In His nature God is Spirit, love, and light. Spirit denotes the nature of God’s Person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression.” This note says that Spirit denotes the nature of God’s Person, while John 4:24 reveals that Spirit is the essence of God. Can you share more concerning this?
Answer: God being Spirit refers to His person. God being love refers to His intrinsic essence. God being light refers to His expression. In the person is the essence, and outside of the person is the expression. God’s being is Spirit; God’s essence is love; and God’s expression is light. From within, God is love. From without, God is light.
Spirit is the nature of God’s person and also the essence of the nature. God is a person, a being. This person, this living being, has a nature. That nature is Spirit. In the person is the nature, and in the nature is the essence. The person, the nature, and the essence are all the Spirit. The divine essence has different aspects. The essence of God is not only Spirit but also love. Actually, the Spirit of God is the love of God.
The Spirit is the person of God, the nature of God, and the essence of God. If you call on the name of Jesus, you get His person. His person is the Spirit. The Spirit is not only the person of God but also the person of Christ. This Spirit is also the nature of God and the essence of God. That means that the Spirit is God. God is Spirit, God is love, and God is light. Light is God’s expression, expressing God as love, and this love is just the Spirit. Eventually, God, love, light, the Spirit, and Jesus Christ are all one. This is our wonderful God!
Question: Are the economical Spirit and the essential Spirit the same Spirit?
Answer: The economical Spirit and the essential Spirit are two aspects of the same Spirit. The same Spirit has two kinds of functions. Inwardly for our life and living, the Spirit is essential. Outwardly for our ministry and work, the same Spirit is economical. Jesus had the Spirit essentially from His birth. Suddenly, when He came out of the water of baptism, the Spirit descended upon Him. This is not another Spirit, but the same Spirit in the economical sense. The Bible tells us that Christ was born of the Spirit. He was full of the Spirit all the time. But still the Spirit descended upon Him. The Spirit was with Him already essentially, but in the sense of economy for God’s administration, God’s arrangement, the Spirit was not with Him. Economically speaking, the Spirit came upon Jesus when He was baptized. These are not two Spirits, but the same Spirit in two aspects.
When a brother exercises his spirit to deal with his wife by the Spirit and not by himself, he is enjoying the essential aspect of the Spirit. When a brother exercises his spirit to minister the Word by the Spirit and not by himself, he is experiencing both the essential and the economical aspects of the Spirit. Because the experience of the Spirit is altogether abstract and mysterious, we need to exercise our faith. In Ephesians 3 Paul asked the Father to grant us to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ might make His home in our hearts through faith (vv. 16-17). We should not neglect this small phrase— “through faith.” We have to believe. If we say that we do not feel that Christ is in us, we have annulled this fact by our unbelief. Instead we should say, “Praise the Lord! Christ is in me.” In spite of not having any feeling, we can still exercise our spirit of faith to declare that Christ is in us. When we do this, we confirm this fact by faith.
We need to experience the Spirit by faith. When we go out to preach the gospel, we should not say that we do not feel that we have the economical Spirit. Sometimes we may not even feel that we have the essential Spirit. The more we pay attention to our feelings, the more we lose everything positive. Instead we should pray, “Lord, thank You that I am saved. Thank You that You are in me and that I am in You. Thank You that I am abiding in You and that You are abiding in me.” The more we speak this way, the more we confirm the divine facts by faith. We may even shout, “Hallelujah! The Lord dwells in me! Hallelujah! I have the power of the economical Spirit!” When we declare the facts in this way, the facts become ours. I admire Paul’s writing in Ephesians 3— “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith” (v. 17). If the two words “through faith” are deleted, everything positive is gone. Our experience of Christ is altogether a matter of the Spirit through faith.