The Holy Spirit is the One who brings in the Triune God for our experience and enjoyment. Therefore, we should also know Him that we may richly experience Him.
I. THE ULTIMATE EXPRESSION
OF THE TRIUNE GOD
1) “Baptizing them into... the Father and... the Son and... the Holy Spirit”(Matt. 28:19).
In the divine Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God, is listed last, showing that He is the ultimate expression of the Triune God.
II. THE TRIUNE GOD
REACHING AND ENTERING
INTO THE BELIEVERS
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1) “The Father... will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever; even the Spirit of reality”(John 14:16-17).
It says here that the Holy Spirit is the Triune God reaching man, that is, the Triune God becoming the Spirit to reach man and be with him forever.
2) “The Spirit of reality... shall be in you... and I [the Son] in you”(John 14:17 , 20).
This word further shows us that the Holy Spirit, who reaches us with the Father and the Son, will also enter into us. This indicates that He is the Triune God entering into the believers. When He enters into us, the Father and the Son enter into us (John 14:23).
III. WHAT THE HOLY
SPIRIT IS
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1) The “Spirit of God”(Gen. 1:2), participating in God’s work of creation.
2) The “Spirit of Jehovah”(2 Chron. 20:14), participating in God’s relationship with man (Gen. 2:7).
3) The “Holy Spirit”(Luke 1:35), participating in Christ’s incarnation to sanctify man unto God.
4) The “Spirit of Jesus”(Acts 16:7), participating in the birth, the living, and the sufferings of Jesus.
5) The “Spirit of Christ”(Rom. 8:9), participating in the resurrection of Christ and the impartation of life.
6) The “Spirit of Jesus Christ”(Phil. 1:19), participating in the birth, living, and death of Jesus, as well as in the resurrection of Christ and the impartation of life, with a bountiful supply that the believers may be saved in all things.
7) The “Spirit of life”(Rom. 8:2), “the life-giving Spirit”(1 Cor. 15:45), participating in Christ being man’s life and giving man life.
8) “The Spirit... for the Spirit was not yet [before the resurrection of Christ], because Jesus was not yet glorified [through resurrection]”(John 7:39).
The Spirit here is the issue of the Holy Spirit having passed through all the items of what He is, mentioned above. Thus, He is the all-inclusive and consummated Spirit as the ultimate expression of the Triune God to reach and enter into those who believe into Christ.
9) The “seven Spirits”(Rev. 1:4), referring to the sevenfold intensified Spirit, that the church in desolation may receive the sevenfold riches of grace and power.
Oh Lord you are the Spirit! You are so rich and available. You are one with me. We can not be closer. How near and dear you are to me! The Lord really brought this truth out and emphasized it in the 60’s and 70’s. I would say It was the foundation of Brother Lee’s (this is what we called him at that time) ministry at that time. This is the Spirit who is bringing us out of the world and religion. It is the Spirit that leads the church. “Now the Lord is that Spirit”. We must experience Him now as our life and everything. This is the highest human living and it is worth dying for both spiritually and literally.
Wonderful hymn! The Chinese Hymnal has a 6th verse:
The center of my being art Thou;
My heart became Thy home.
Now stage by stage, from glory to glory
All that I am transform.
Caleb Lin translated this in about 1999, and I polished it into metric, rhyming form. At one time everyone in Wilmington had a slip of paper with this verse pasted into their hymnal. Now, few paper hymnals are used.
In today's Christian meetings, we mostly use the New Testament. But when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 14:26, there was no New Testament as we know it. What they had was mostly the Old Testament. In the ancient times, the time of the first apostles, although the Christians did not have the New Testament, they had many new psalms, hymns, and songs written according to the apostles' teaching. First Timothy 3:16 was probably a quotation of a short song that was very popular in the apostles' time. When they met together, they used these psalms, hymns, and songs very much. Some teachers would say that psalms also refer to the old psalms in the Old Testament. I do not disagree with this, but I believe they used more psalms, hymns, and songs written according to the apostles' teaching for the purpose of meeting. I am very thankful to God that we have a New Testament and a hymnal. Our hymnal is very good for speaking.
We need to learn to speak the stanzas of the hymns in our hymnal. Hymn #539, "O Lord, Thou art the Spirit," is an excellent hymn for speaking to one another. I enjoy singing this hymn, but we also must learn to speak it. The first two words of this hymn—"O Lord"—will stir up the meeting...