The Spirit not only witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God but also cries with our spirit, “Abba, Father!” Galatians 4:6 says, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” God gave His Spirit to us when we were regenerated to become sons of God. Romans 8:15 says that we “have received a spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!” The spirit of sonship here denotes our regenerated human spirit mingled with the Spirit of the Son of God. Sonship in this spirit includes the life, the position, the living, the enjoyment, the birthright, the inheritance, and the manifestation of a son. Such a Spirit with the all-inclusive sonship, which is also the Spirit of God’s Son, is now in our spirit and cries with our spirit, “Abba, Father!”
Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 are parallel verses. The former says that we who have received a spirit of sonship cry in this spirit, “Abba, Father!” whereas the latter says that the Spirit of God’s Son is crying in our hearts, “Abba, Father!” This indicates that our regenerated spirit and the Spirit of God are mingled as one, and that our spirit is in our heart. When we cry, “Abba, Father!” He cries with us in our crying. Such a crying expresses our strong affection to the Father; it also implies an intimate relationship in life between us and God our Father. When we are in the fellowship of the Triune God, the Spirit brings us into the enjoyment and experience of such sweetness and intimacy.
As the Spirit works in us, He bears witness in our conscience. In Romans 9:1 Paul said, “I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit.” Here it says that our conscience bears witness with us in the Holy Spirit, whereas Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. This proves that our conscience is in our human spirit. The Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God is indwelling our spirit and is mingled with our spirit, and our conscience is a part of our human spirit. Hence, the spirit is mingled with our conscience. When we live in the fellowship of the Triune God and speak, walk, and behave by the Spirit, the Spirit bears witness with us in our conscience.
Second Corinthians 1:21 says, “The One who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God.” This shows us that God establishes the apostles with the believers in Christ. This means that God firmly attaches the apostles together with the believers unto Christ, the anointed One, through the anointing Spirit, that the apostles and the believers may also be anointed with Christ by God.
Two verses in 1 John refer to the work of the Spirit in anointing the believers. First John 2:20 says, “You have an anointing from the Holy One.” The anointing is the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit, who is the processed Triune God. According to the type in Exodus 30:23-25, the compound Spirit includes the processed Triune God and all that He does and is, having the elements of the divine nature, human nature, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
First John 2:27 says, “The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things....” The teaching by the anointing is not objective; rather, it is very subjective. It is not an outward teaching by words but an inward teaching through our inner spiritual consciousness. This teaching by anointing adds the divine elements of the Divine Trinity, which are the elements of the anointing compound Spirit, into our inner being to be our elements. This kind of anointing is going on in us all the time. It is like the repeated painting of some article: The paint not only indicates the color, but also by coat upon coat being added, the elements of the paint are added to the thing painted. It is in this way that the Triune God is transfused, infused, and added into all the inward parts of our being that our inner man may grow in the divine life with the divine elements.
Home | First | Prev | Next