The four spices plus the oil are five elements. The five hundred and two hundred fifty shekels also involve the number five. The number five signifies responsibility. This means that the compound Spirit is the One who bears all responsibility. Without this ointment anointing us, we cannot do anything for God. We cannot be responsible for anything pertaining to God. But with this anointing Spirit, we surely have the capacity to bear any kind of responsibility for God’s service.
The compound Spirit is the consummation of the processed, compounded Triune God. This Spirit is for anointing. Everything that is related to God’s worship, to God’s service, must be anointed by this compound Spirit. The compound ointment was used to anoint the tabernacle with all its furniture, the altar with all its utensils, the laver with its base, and the priests (Exo. 30:26-30). The function of the holy anointing oil as a compound ointment is to sanctify the things of God and the men of God, separating them from anything common and making them most holy for God’s service.
The word anointing is used in the New Testament. First John 2:20 says that we have received the anointing, and verse 27 says that this anointing will teach us in all things. Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 1:21 that it is God who has anointed us and that God has attached us to Christ, the anointed One. Since we have been attached to Him, His anointing becomes ours. We are under the anointing of Christ.
The anointing is the moving of the compounded, ultimately consummated Spirit. The compound Spirit is moving within us, anointing us. When the ointment anoints us, all the elements of the ointment become our portion. Anointing can be compared to painting. Paint is a compound, a kind of ointment. When something is painted, the elements of the paint are applied to it. We are being anointed, painted, with the compound ointment, and all the elements of this ointment are being applied to our inward being. This anointing is taking place within us day by day.
The mingled spirit is the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit (Rom. 8:4-6, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17). It is hard for Bible teachers to discern whether Paul is talking about the divine Spirit or our human spirit in Romans 8. Actually, Paul is talking about the mingled spirit. When Paul tells us to walk according to spirit in Romans 8:4 and to set our mind upon the spirit in verse 6, he is referring to the mingled spirit. To signify the mingled spirit, we may put a small letter s within a capital letter S. Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. The two spirits are working as one. First Corinthians 6:17 says that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. How wonderful it is that we are one spirit with the Lord! We are joined to the Lord, who is the Spirit, and we are one spirit with Him.
The seven Spirits are the sevenfold Spirit, typified by the seven lamps of the lampstand (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; Exo. 25:31, 37; Zech. 4:2, 10; 3:9). Matthew 28:19 says that we need to baptize the nations into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. When Revelation 1:4 and 5 speak of the divine Trinity, the Spirit is referred to as “the seven Spirits who are before His throne.” By comparing Revelation 1:4 and 5 with Matthew 28:19, we can realize that the seven Spirits are just the Holy Spirit. The seven Spirits are the Spirit of God because They are ranked among the Triune God in Revelation 1:4 and 5.
The seven Spirits are before the throne of God. The throne of God is for God’s move in His administration, in His government. We may also say that the throne is for God’s move in His economy. The word economy means arrangement, household administration, or household government. The seven Spirits actually are the one Spirit of God which is sevenfold for God’s move to carry out God’s administration. As seven is the number for completion in God’s operation, so the seven Spirits must be for God’s move on the earth. In essence and existence, God’s Spirit is one; in the intensified function and work of God’s operation. God’s Spirit is sevenfold.
Revelation 4:5 says that the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne are the seven Spirits of God. These lamps are the seven lamps of the lampstand. In the tabernacle in the Old Testament, there was a lampstand. In existence it was one lampstand, but in function it was seven lamps. Revelation tells us that the seven lamps are the seven Spirits. Based upon this, we may say that the lampstand signifies the Triune God. The gold as the nature refers to the Father. The form of the lampstand refers to the Son as the very form. The seven lamps refer to the Holy Spirit as the expression.
Revelation 5:6 tells us that the seven Spirits of God are the seven eyes of the Lamb. Christ as the Lamb of God for our redemption has seven eyes. Some say that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are separate. This is absolutely wrong. How could a person’s eyes be separated from him? The Holy Spirit is the eyes of Christ. Zechariah 4:10 tells us that these seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Lord. Then Zechariah 3:9 says that these eyes are the seven eyes of the stone. This stone is Christ.
Eyes are for observing and searching. Christ as the redeeming Lamb has seven observing and searching eyes for executing God’s judgment upon the universe to fulfill God’s eternal purpose, which will consummate in the building up of the New Jerusalem. Therefore, in Zechariah 3:9 He is prophesied as the stone, which is the topstone (4:7) with seven eyes for God’s building. These seven eyes are the “seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6), running “to and fro through the whole earth” (Zech. 4:10).
The Spirit is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God (John 7:39; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 22:17a). Genesis 1:2 says that the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters. At the end of the Bible, Revelation 22:17 refers to “the Spirit.” This verse mentions the Spirit and the bride. The Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God, and the bride is the consummation of the transformed, tripartite man. The processed God marries the transformed man. The husband is triune, and the wife is tripartite. They match each other. The Triune God has been processed, and the tripartite man will have been transformed. God was processed by putting on man’s nature, and man was transformed by partaking of God’s nature. God took man’s nature to get processed, and man took God’s nature to get transformed. Man and God are married in their nature. God’s nature becomes man’s nature; man’s nature becomes God’s nature. The conclusion of the entire sixty-six books of the Bible is the marriage of a couple. This couple is the processed Triune God and the transformed tripartite man.
John 7:39 says that “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). When Jesus was crucified and resurrected, He was glorified and the Triune God was consummated. After resurrection and in resurrection, the Lord Jesus came back to the disciples and told them to baptize people into the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The name of the Triune God was not revealed so completely until the resurrection of Christ was accomplished. It is in the resurrection of Christ that Christ became the life-giving Spirit, who is “the Spirit.”
First Peter 1:2 also mentions “the Spirit.” It says that we were chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit’s sanctification carries out the selection of God the Father that we may receive God the Son’s redemption. The sanctification of the Spirit separates us from the world that we may enjoy God’s full salvation. This Spirit is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God.