THE LORD BEING WITH OUR SPIRIT
Second Timothy 4:22 says, "The Lord be with your spirit." Today the Lord Jesus is no longer on the cross nor is He merely in the heavens, but He is right now in you and me—in our spirit. If He were not the Spirit, how could He be in our spirit? The Lord be with your spirit. The Lord today is with our spirit because He is the life-giving Spirit. He is in the heavens, and at the same time, as the omnipresent Spirit, He is in our spirit to give us life and also peace. This is for the dispensing of the Triune God into our being.
HOW THE LORD, AS THE LAST ADAM,
BECAME THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT
Now we need to see how the Lord, as the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit. To know that the Lord became a life-giving Spirit is relatively easy because the Bible tells us this directly. But to know how He became a life-giving Spirit is not an easy matter. In the Gospel of John we are told how the Son came with the Father (8:29) and in the Father’s name (5:43). He was one with the Father (17:22). The Father was in Him and He was in the Father (14:10-11). He did not seek His own will but the Father’s will (6:38). He did not do His own work but the Father’s work (17:4). He did not speak His own word but the Father’s word (14:24). He did not seek His own glory but the Father’s glory (7:18). The Son came in the Father’s name and lived by the Father, not by Himself (6:57). He acted, moved, and worked altogether by the Father. When the people saw the Son, they saw the Father (14:9). The Son and the Father are one (10:30). This is clearly revealed in the Gospel of John. How the Son became the life-giving Spirit is also revealed in John. First, the Son came with the Father and in the Father’s name. Second, the Son became the life-giving Spirit.
In John 7:38 the Lord Jesus said that whoever would believe in Him would have rivers of living water flowing out of his innermost being. Then verse 39 says, "But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified." Verse 39 does not say the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, or the Holy Spirit. It simply says, "the Spirit." In God’s creation in Genesis 1, the Spirit of God was there already (v. 2). Then after God’s creation, God came to contact man, so the Spirit of Jehovah is revealed (Judg. 3:10; 6:34). The Spirit of God is for God’s creation, and the Spirit of Jehovah is for God’s contact with man. These are the two main titles ascribed to the Spirit in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is not mentioned. In Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10-11 "the Holy Spirit" should be translated "the Spirit of holiness." The Holy Spirit began to be used for the initiation of the gospel of God, to prepare the way for the Savior’s coming (Luke 1:15) and to prepare a human body for Him (Matt. 1:18, 20). When Jesus was conceived and born, the Holy Spirit is mentioned.
The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit are just one Spirit. But in John 7 it says that the Spirit was not yet. The Spirit of God was there from the beginning, the Spirit of Jehovah was there in God’s contact with man, and the Holy Spirit was there at the Lord’s conception and birth. But why would John 7 say "the Spirit was not yet"? John goes on to say that the Spirit was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified. For Jesus to be glorified is the way for the last Adam to become a life-giving Spirit. The Lord Jesus as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit by being glorified.
Andrew Murray talks about John 7:39 in his book The Spirit of Christ. The subject of chapter five in that book is the Spirit of the glorified Jesus. Andrew Murray points out that the Spirit of the glorified Jesus is different from the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and even from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God was there in creation, the Spirit of Jehovah was there in God’s contact with people, the Holy Spirit was there in Christ’s conception and birth, but the Spirit of the glorified Jesus was not there until Jesus was glorified. From the creation of God to the resurrection of Christ there were mainly four great things in the universe: God’s creation, God’s contact with man, the birth of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus. For God’s creation there was the Spirit of God, for God’s contact with man there was the Spirit of Jehovah, for Christ’s birth there was the Holy Spirit, and for Christ’s resurrection there was the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.
(The Divine Economy, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
