John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit.” First Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam, who is Christ the Son, became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection. Thus, the entire Triune God is the Spirit. Furthermore, the Spirit is the application of the Triune God. God is triune for a purpose. The Father is the source, the origin, the initiation; the Son is the course, the expression; and the Spirit is the application. The Father and the Son are applied to us by the Spirit. The Spirit comes to us with the Son (John 14:16-18), and the Son comes with the Father (8:29). Therefore, all three come together. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are distinctly three, but they are not separate, for they coexist and coinhere eternally. To coexist is to exist simultaneously, at the same time, and in the same place. To coinhere means to exist within one another. The Triune God’s coinherence is plainly revealed in the Bible (John 14—17). In John 14:11 the Lord said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” This shows that the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Moreover, the Father and the Son are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and in the Son. Thus, when the Spirit comes to us, the entire Triune God comes. When the Spirit is applied to us, we receive not only the Spirit but also the Son and the Father. We receive the Spirit with the Son and with the Father. For this reason, we can say that the Spirit is the application of the Triune God.
Though there is much electricity in a power plant, there must be a way for the electricity to be applied to buildings in a city far away. Electricity is conveyed through a wire. In the wire the electricity becomes a current. Actually, the current and the electricity are not two different things. The current of electricity is electricity in motion. Similarly, the Spirit is God applied to our being.
Once wires have been installed in a building, there is no need to petition the power plant for electricity to be applied to the building. There is only the need to switch on an appliance for the current of electricity to be brought into the building. The moment we believed in the Lord and called on His name, the Spirit entered into our being. Since that time, the Triune God has been installed in us. When the Spirit reached us at the time of our believing, the Father and the Son came with Him. Now that the Triune God as the Spirit has been installed in us, there is no need to fast and pray or petition God to receive the Spirit. Whenever we need the Spirit, we can simply “switch on” by calling, “O Lord Jesus!” After sincerely calling on the Lord a few times, we will feel comforted, encouraged, refreshed, watered, strengthened, uplifted, and nourished within because we have touched the Spirit. Romans 8:15 shows that we can also cry, “Abba, Father!” for God to be applied to our being as the Spirit.
The Spirit is for the dispensing of the Triune God. The Old Testament generally corresponds to God the Father, the four Gospels correspond to God the Son, and the books from Acts to Revelation correspond to God the Spirit. In the Old Testament God the Father, as Jehovah Elohim, reached people through His Spirit. Hence, we see titles such as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jehovah (Num. 24:2; 1 Sam. 10:10; Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29). In the four Gospels Jesus the Son reached people outwardly; He could reach people inwardly only by the Spirit (John 20:22). In the third section God the Spirit is altogether for application, for reaching man. In the Epistles Christ has become the Spirit. Many great teachers say that in the Epistles Christ is identical with the Spirit, that Christ and the Spirit are one. This fact is plainly revealed in 1 Corinthians 15:45, which says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit,” and in 2 Corinthians 3:17, which says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Eventually, in the last book of the Bible the Spirit becomes the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4). The entire Bible reveals that the Triune God must be the Spirit in order to reach people and dispense Himself into them. Today we are in the stage of the sevenfold intensified Spirit, who is the application of the Triune God, the Triune God reaching us. Today the sevenfold Spirit is within us as the ultimate expression of the Triune God and as the application and reaching of the Triune God.
Romans 8:9 and 11 reveal a threefold Spirit. Verse 9 mentions the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. According to verse 11, the Spirit is also the resurrecting Spirit. Everything that the Spirit does in us is to resurrect us. Just as He resurrected Jesus from the dead, He also resurrects us. Due to the fall, every part of our being was dead before we were saved. When we received the Lord, the Spirit resurrected our spirit, making our spirit life (v. 10). Since that time, He has been resurrecting our soul—our mind, will, and emotion (v. 6). Eventually, He will resurrect our mortal body (v. 11).
As believers, we are living, but we are not wholly living. Our spirit is living, yet our body, mind, will, and emotion remain dead. We need the resurrecting Spirit to impart life into our mind, emotion, and will and even into our mortal body to resurrect us wholly. Our mind may be living in a dead way. For instance, our mind may be very active and remember many worldly things, but we may not remember basic facts about the Bible. If we take the excuse that we do not know what to speak or how to function in the meeting, this indicates that our mind is dead. Likewise, our emotion may be fervent to love things other than the Lord. When we receive something worth a great sum of money, our emotions may rejoice. On the other hand, we may not adequately value the Bible and the ministry. This indicates that our emotions are living in a dead way. Similarly, we may complain that we are too tired to attend the meeting and insist that we need to stay home to rest. However, when we stay home, we may find that we have energy to do many things. This shows that our body also is living in a dead way. When the Spirit is truly working within us, we may not have the strength to do other things, but our mortal body will be energized and enlivened when we come to the meeting. Today the Spirit is resurrecting us.
We need to realize that we have a rich, powerful, and all-sufficient Spirit indwelling us and must pay our full attention to Him. We should not be distracted by our background or what we are by nature, culture, religion, and habit but only care for the Spirit. By doing this, we open the way for the Triune God to infuse us with all that He is as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. By continually receiving the Triune God’s dispensing, we will be infused with Him and live a life that expresses Him. We will live, walk, and have our being according to the Spirit.