THE WRITING SPIRIT
Paul went on to tell the Corinthians that they were the letters of Christ who had been inscribed by the apostles with the Spirit of the living God as the divine, heavenly ink (3:3). The Spirit is neither the writer nor the pen but the writing ink to write Christ into our being. The more we are written on with the Spirit, the more of the heavenly ink we have. This writing is like the anointing, the painting. The Spirit as the ink brings the heavenly element into us to make this element one with us.
Paul was anointed, so he was an apostle; the Corinthians had been inscribed with the Spirit, so they were the letters. Without being anointed, he could not have been an apostle. Without being inscribed with the Spirit as the ink, they could not have been letters. To anoint is with ointment; to write is with ink. Actually, the ointment is the ink. The ingredients and the elements within the ink are the same as those within the ointment.
Writing brings ink to the paper; it does not correct the paper. The Spirit is the ink, and the content of the ink is Christ with His person, work, and attainments. This heavenly ink is a compound of all the elements of Christ. The more we are inscribed with this ink, the more we have the elements of Christ dispensed into us. Then we become a letter of Christ with Christ as our content.
The more I write on a piece of paper, the more the essence of ink saturates the paper. The Spirit as the compound ink adds the substance of Christ into us and saturates us with the essence of Christ. Then we have the substance of Christ to really express Christ. There may not be much of Christ in our mind, emotion, and will. But when we are written on with the Spirit again and again, the essence of Christ is dispensed into us. Then our mind, emotion, and will express Christ because Christ has been inscribed into these parts of our soul. The essence and elements of Christ are added into us by the writing of the heavenly ink, the compound Spirit.
THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT
Next Paul spoke of the life-giving Spirit (3:6). The Spirit does not give knowledge but life. While we are being written on with the heavenly ink, the compound Spirit, this Spirit imparts life to us. The more ink we get, the more life we get, and the more the essence of Christ is added to us. Then we have the real growth in life. The more we are written on with the heavenly compound Spirit, the more we receive the essence of the life of Christ. This life is real, living, strengthening, energizing, satisfying, and fruit-bearing. The writing Spirit is the life-giving Spirit. He writes on us by imparting life into us.
(The Experience of Christ as Life for the Building Up of the Church, Chapter 12, by Witness Lee)
