THE SPIRIT AS THE REALIZATION
OF CHRIST AS THE EMBODIMENT OF
THE PROCESSED TRIUNE GOD
IN OUR EXPERIENCE OF THE DIVINE LIFE
To Experience the Divine Life Being to
Experience Christ in the Holy Spirit
Christ is the embodiment of God, and the Spirit is the realization of Christ. Christ is realized as the Spirit. To experience the divine life is to experience Christ in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9a), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), and the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). The Spirit of God refers to God, and the Spirit of Jesus refers to Jesus as a man. The Spirit of Christ refers to Christ as the resurrected man. The Spirit of Jesus Christ refers to the Spirit of God with divinity after the Lord’s resurrection, compounded with the Lord’s incarnation (humanity), human living under the cross, crucifixion, and resurrection.
The Holy Spirit is also the realization of Christ as the embodiment of the processed Triune God (John 14:16-20). Such a One is the witness of Christ (1 John 5:6-8; John 16:13-15). He is also the Spirit compounded with God as the oil and with Christ in His humanity, death, and resurrection, as the compound ointment to anoint us, seal us, and be a pledge to us (Exo. 30:23-25; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; Eph. 1:13-14).
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit as the firstfruit—the foretaste of God as our heritage (Rom. 8:23). God is our portion, yet God being our portion is very abstract and mysterious. The Spirit in us is the pledge, the guarantee, of God being our portion (Eph. 1:14). The Spirit also seals (v. 13) and anoints us (1 John 2:20, 27) with whatever God is and has. The Spirit is also the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God (Matt. 28:19; Rev. 22:17). In Matthew 28:19, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are mentioned. The Father is the source, the Son is the course, the flowing out of the source, and the Spirit is the consummation of the Father and Son to reach us. The Spirit reaches us with the reality of God in order for us to contact, receive, enjoy, and experience God. This Spirit is the realization of Christ. When we enjoy and experience the Spirit, we enjoy Christ in a practical and direct way.
Such a Spirit is the all-inclusive, indwelling, life-giving, inscribing, freeing, strengthening, and leading Spirit to us, with us, and in us (Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 3:6b; Eph. 3:16; Rom. 8:14). He is also the Comforter and the Advocate (John 14:16; 1 John 2:1). The word Comforter in Greek is paracletos. It means one who is at your side taking care of you. If you feel bad, he comforts you. If you need something, he serves you with whatever you need. He is always with you, going along with you, standing by you, taking care of you, and looking after you. This is the Spirit as the Comforter. Paracletos also has the meaning of an advocate as in a court of law. The Spirit is our attorney, our advocate in the heavenly court.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) who imparts the divine life into us. He is the Spirit of the Son of God (Gal. 4:6). He is not only the Spirit of God the Father (Matt. 10:20), but also the Spirit of God the Son. He enters into us making us God’s sons. By such a Spirit we cry, "Abba, Father." The Holy Spirit is the Spirit mingled with our spirit as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), making us one with the processed Triune God.
The Spirit is the seven Spirits—the sevenfold intensified Spirit to meet the need of all the degraded churches in their seven stages (Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). The churches in Revelation 2 and 3 not only represent seven actual churches but also represent the progress of the church in seven stages. The church in Ephesus represents the church in its initial stage at the end of the first century, Smyrna represents the stage of persecution, Pergamos represents the stage of the marriage of the church with the world, Thyatira represents the stage of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, Sardis represents the stage of the Protestant Reformation, Philadelphia represents the stage of the recovered church, and Laodicea represents the stage of the degraded recovered church. For all of these stages, God has prepared and provided the sevenfold Spirit to meet the need.
(The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
