THE DIVINE DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY FOR THE DIVINE ECONOMY
Message Four
Experiencing the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity by Breathing the Spirit, Drinking the Water of Life, and Eating the Bread of God
Scripture Reading: John 20:22; 6:33, 57; 1 Cor. 10:3-4; Rev. 2:7, 17; 3:20
I. The consummated Spirit was breathed as the holy breath into the disciples by the Son in resurrection—John 20:22:
A. The Gospel of John reveals that Christ became flesh to be the Lamb of God and that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit; thus, in His resurrection He breathed Himself as the consummated Spirit into the disciples—1:29; 20:22:
1. The Holy Spirit in 20:22 is the Spirit expected in 7:39 and promised in 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; and 16:7-8, 13; this indicates that the Lord's breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of the promise of another Comforter.
2. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into His disciples, that He can live in the disciples and they can live by Him and with Him, and that He can abide in them and they can abide in Him—20:22; 14:19-20; 15:4-5.
3. By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord Jesus imparted Himself into them as life and everything.
4. The Holy Spirit in 20:22 is actually the resurrected Christ Himself, because this Spirit is His breath; therefore, the Spirit is the breath of the Son.
B. The Lord is the Spirit who gives life, and this Spirit is our breath—2 Cor. 3:6, 17; John 20:22:
1. The Word, who was God, became flesh to be the Lamb of God, and in resurrection He became the holy breath for us to breathe in—1:29; 20:22.
2. Now we have Christ as the Word, the Lamb, the tree, and the breath: the Word is for expression, the Lamb is for redemption, the tree is for the impartation of life, and the breath is for our living—1:1, 29; 10:10b; 14:19; 15:1.
C. The consummated Spirit as the breath is everything to us in living the Christian life; only the breath can be a Christian, and only the breath, the Spirit, can be an overcomer—Gal. 3:2-3, 14; Phil. 1:19; Rev. 2:7.
II. If we would experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we all need to drink the same spiritual drink, Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 10:3-4:
A. The spiritual drink in 1 Corinthians 10:4 refers to the living water that flowed out of the cleft rock; this rock typifies the crucified and resurrected Christ, and this water typifies the Spirit as our all-inclusive drink—Exo. 17:6; John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13.
B. The spiritual drink, the living water, is the water of life in resurrection; when we drink the water of life in resurrection, we become persons in resurrection and of resurrection—10:4; John 14:20; 2 Cor. 1:9.
C. By our drinking of Christ as the life-giving Spirit, God works Himself into us, for by drinking we take the Lord in, and He becomes one with us organically to be our life and constituent—1 Cor. 10:4; Col. 3:4, 10-11.
III. God's economy is that we eat Christ as the bread of God and become constituted with Him in order to express Him and represent Him—1 Tim. 1:4; John 6:35, 41, 57; Gen. 1:26:
A. God's eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead; we become God in life and nature by eating Christ as the bread of God—John 6:33.
B. God's intention in His economy is to work Himself into us and to change our constitution by changing our diet and feeding us with Christ as the heavenly food—Exo. 16:14-15; John 6:27, 32, 35.
C. John 6 unveils Christ as our bread—the heavenly bread, the bread of life, the living bread, the true bread, and the bread of God—vv. 32-33, 35, 41, 48, 50-51.
D. The Lord Jesus wants us to eat, digest, and assimilate Him as the bread of God, the bread of life, and the living bread—vv. 33, 35, 51:
1. The bread of life is the life supply in the form of food—v. 35.
2. The bread of life refers to the nature of the bread, which is life; the living bread refers to the condition of the bread, which is living—vv. 35, 51.
E. God's economy is a matter of Christ coming into us inwardly; for this, we need to take Christ by eating Him—Eph. 3:17a; John 6:57:
1. The record regarding spiritual eating in the Bible reveals that God intends to dispense Himself into us by the way of eating—v. 57; 1 Cor. 10:3; Rev. 2:7; 22:14.
2. To eat is to contact things outside of us and to receive them into us, with the result that they become our constitution—Gen. 2:16-17.
3. To eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life—John 6:56-57.
4. Eating is the way to experience God's dispensing for His expression and representation—Gen. 1:26; 2:9; John 6:51a, 53-57.
5. The food eaten, digested, and assimilated by us actually becomes us; this is a matter of mingling—1 Cor. 10:17.
6. The oneness that God desires with man is illustrated by what takes place when we eat, digest, and assimilate food—John 6:57.
7. We are what we eat; therefore, if we eat Christ as the bread of God, we will become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
F. According to the Lord's word in Revelation 2 and 3, the overcomers have been recovered to the proper eating of the Lord as their food supply; they eat Him not only as the tree of life and the hidden manna but also as a feast full of His riches—2:7, 17; 3:20.