KNOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT
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
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
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.
IV. THE TWO ASPECTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
In the New Testament, there are two aspects of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God, related to the believers. On the one hand, He is the Spirit of life in us to be the essential Spirit of God that we may have the divine life to live and to exist. On the other hand, He is the Spirit of power upon us to be the economical Spirit of God that we may have the divine power and gift to work for God.
1) “The Spirit of reality…shall be in you” (John 14:17).
This is the Holy Spirit as the essential Spirit of God in the believers that they may have God’s life to live for God.
2) “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
This is the Holy Spirit as the economical Spirit of God upon the believers that they may receive God’s power to work for the Lord.
V. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
1) “The Spirit of reality who proceeds from the Father, He will testify concerning Me [the Son]” (John 15:26).
This is the Holy Spirit becoming the transfiguration and reality of Christ in His resurrection to testify concerning the reality of Christ in resurrection.
2) “And having come, He [the Holy Spirit] will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment” (John 16:8).
This is the Holy Spirit coming to convict sinners of their sins that they may repent and believe into Christ to obtain eternal life.
3) “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).
This is the Holy Spirit, as God’s essential Spirit of life, regenerating the repentant sinner in his spirit that he may have the life of God and become a child of God.
4) “He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
This is also the Holy Spirit, as God’s essential Spirit of life, renewing man through regeneration that man may receive God’s salvation of life.
5) “The Holy Spirit who dwells in us” (2 Tim. 1:14).
This is the Holy Spirit, as God’s essential Spirit of life, abiding in us to continually supply us with God’s life and riches.
6) “The anointing which you received from Him [the Son with the Father] abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him” (1 John 2:27).
This is the Holy Spirit, as the essential Spirit of God, anointing the essence (element) of God into the believers, thus producing a teaching for them that they may abide in the Lord according to the teaching of God’s essence.
7) “Having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:16).
This is also the Holy Spirit, as God’s essential Spirit of life in the believers, supplying them with God’s holy nature, that is, the divine essence.
8) “Being transformed into the same [the Lord’s] image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
This is still the Holy Spirit, as the essential Spirit of God in the believers, transforming them metabolically with God’s divine essence into the Lord’s image from one degree of glory to a higher degree of glory.
9) “I am sending forth the promise [the Holy Spirit] of My Father upon you…until you are clothed with power from on high [the heavens]” (Luke 24:49).
This is the Holy Spirit, as the economical Spirit of God, being the power on the believers for them to work for God.
10) “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit...” (1 Cor. 12:7-11).
This is the Holy Spirit upon the believers, as the economical Spirit of God, giving them diverse gifts to work for God.
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