Hymns, #212 in the Chinese hymnal was written based on the spiritual vision in Ezekiel 1 concerning four things—the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. If you read The Visions of Ezekiel, you will understand the meaning of this hymn. Hymns, #250, which is comparatively simple and easy to understand, was written based on Numbers 21:16-17. Stanza three says, “I will dig by praying, / Dig the dirt entirely, / Thus release the Spirit, / Let the stream flow freely.” To say that we “will dig by praying” to “release the Spirit” may sound rather strange. It is common that we obtain water by digging a well, but how can we get the Spirit by digging? This matter is both wonderful and mysterious.
I wrote both these hymns in 1961. This strongly proves that we have put much emphasis on the filling of the Spirit since very early in our history. In the table of contents of our hymnal, the fourth category is “Fullness of the Spirit.” The Chinese hymnal lists the following headings under this category—“As the Spirit of Reality,” “As the Indwelling Spirit,” “As the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” “As the Comforter,” “As the Spirit of Gifts,” “As the Spirit of Life,” “As the Living Water,” “As the Fire,” “As the Breath,” “As the Wind,” “As the Ointment (the Anointing),” “The Filling,” “The Baptism,” “The Two Aspects (the Spirit of Life and the Spirit of Power),” and “By the Cross.” There are over thirty hymns in this category, and I wrote more than half of them. In Christianity there are only a small number of hymns on the Spirit, and the truth in these hymns is unclear and vague.
From this we can see that even since the beginning of the Lord’s recovery among us, we paid much attention to the matter of the Spirit in the New Testament. The New Testament contains a great revelation concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. But the only way for Christ to be realized in a practical way in the believers’ living and experience is through the Spirit. The Spirit is the realization of Christ. Hence, the Spirit is mentioned in every book of the New Testament. Moreover, in his Epistles Paul repeatedly refers to the Spirit and to our spirit. In Romans 8:16 He says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God,” and in 1 Corinthians 6:17 he writes, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Paul makes a particular point to connect these two spirits together. However, even Christian groups that are orthodox, such as the Baptist Church, do not dare to say much about the Spirit. Although the people in the Pentecostal movement do speak about the Spirit, they neglect this truth. In fact, they have made the matter of the Spirit difficult for people to understand because their speaking is without proper discernment and is often rather foolish.
Thank the Lord that when He raised us up over sixty years ago, we began to pay much attention to the Spirit. We particularly paid attention to this matter in all of our reading of the Bible. We also focused on this matter when we studied church history and read others’ writings. Then based on our knowledge of the Bible, the help that we received from the writings of others, and our own research, we have published many books concerning the Spirit. Our hymnal is an excellent example of this. However, over the past twenty years, I still feel we have neglected this. This lack is most manifest in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. To neglect the matter of the Spirit is a great mistake.
For this reason we are endeavoring to change the basic form and way that we meet in the church and are focusing on our propagation. This is the change of system that we are trying to implement. The way for the church to propagate and for us to have an increase in numbers is to spread the gospel widely, and the secret for us to be able to do this is the filling of the Spirit. Hence, at this critical juncture, I hope that you young people will pursue the filling of the Holy Spirit so that your gospel may be powerful.
The substance, the essence, of our God is Spirit. The Bible says that God is Spirit (John 4:24), love (1 John 4:8, 16), and light (1:5). In depicting God’s nature, the New Testament emphasizes only three things—God is Spirit, God is love, and God is light. Regarding these three matters, note 3 of 1 John 1:5 in the New Testament Recovery Version says, “Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression.” God Himself is a person, and with this person there is an essence and an expression. The nature of God’s person is Spirit, the nature of God’s essence is love, and the nature of God’s expression is light. God Himself is Spirit, and the third person in His Trinity is the Holy Spirit. Moreover, He became the life-giving Spirit after passing through the processes of incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. This shows us that the story of our God is altogether a story of the Spirit.
We need to know at least three things concerning God— first, God’s substance is Spirit; second, the ultimate consummation of the person of the Divine Trinity is the Spirit; and third, God became flesh, passed through various processes, and eventually entered into resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, who includes the elements of His divinity and His humanity, plus His incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. These three items are like three steps. The first step is concerning God’s substance; the second is concerning God’s person; and the third is concerning His ultimate expression after passing through all the processes. These three steps, or layers, are all related to the Spirit—the substance of God is Spirit; the ultimate expression of His person is the Spirit; and after He became flesh and passed through various processes, His ultimate expression is still the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit. This is the God who is revealed in the New Testament. He is such a Spirit.