The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit with the humanity of Jesus; today the Spirit is constituted with the glorified humanity of Jesus; we can drink the Spirit of the glorified Jesus and flow Him out as rivers of blessing!
The Spirit of Jesus is a unique expression used in Acts 16, and it refers to a particular aspect of Christ as the Spirit; this expression involves more than the Holy Spirit does.
To one who doesn’t pay attention when he reads the Bible, he may read the Old and the New Testament and use God, Christ, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ interchangeably, but each of them refer to something very specific for our experience.
When it was time for Paul and Silas to go forth for the missionary journey, the Holy Spirit forbade them to go to a certain place, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go to another place.
Speaking from the point of view of outward activity, these actions are something negative, but speaking from the point of view of God’s propagation, this is something wonderful.
The move of the apostles was not according to their decision, feeling, or desire, neither was it according to some decision of a missionary board or council, but it was according to the Spirit.
And when the Holy Spirit forbade them, they didn’t go, and when the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them, they didn’t go. The Spirit was the direction, the living map, and everything to the apostles in their move and spread.
The Spirit of Jesus is the full realisation of the all-inclusive Jesus; Jesus went through incarnation, human living (with humanity), death, resurrection, ascension, and enthroning, and He became the Spirit of Jesus to supply and direct His believers for the spreading of Christ on earth.
The Spirit of Jesus involves His humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension; when we experience the Spirit of Jesus, we enjoy the totality and full realisation of the all-inclusive Jesus.
If we don’t have the Spirit of Jesus, then Jesus is not real to us, for the Spirit of Jesus makes Him real to us. Jesus is real to us because we have the Spirit of Jesus as the reality, the realisation of Jesus.
Hallelujah, we are one spirit with the Lord, and we can enjoy the glorified humanity of Jesus simply by drinking of the Spirit of Jesus! And as we drink of Him, we flow Him out for others to also drink of Him!
The Spirit today has been Constituted with the Glorified Humanity of Jesus
In John 7:37-39 the Lord Jesus said that whoever drinks of Him will never thirst again, but out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water; this His spoke concerning the Spirit, who was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The Spirit, who was not yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified in resurrection, is the Spirit with the humanity of Jesus; the Spirit today has been constituted with the glorified humanity of Jesus (Luke 24:26; Acts 16:7).
The Spirit of God was already there in Genesis, but it only had divinity; He was powerful, omnipotent, but this Spirit had no involvement with humanity – until Jesus came, He became a man, passed through human life, and went through death and resurrection.
It was in resurrection that Christ became the Spirit, and this Spirit is now constituted with the humanity of Jesus. Without the humanity of Jesus in the Spirit, the Spirit cannot be received by man or enjoyed by man.
The Spirit today is constituted with the glorified humanity of Jesus – this is a resurrected, uplifted, and glorified humanity.
The Spirit today is different from the Spirit of God; the Spirit of God is constituted only of the essence of God, but after the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit is now constituted with something more.
In the Spirit now there’s the human essence, even more, the glorified humanity of Jesus is in this Spirit! Wow!
Previously, the Spirit of God had only one element – divinity; as such a One, He could not be received by man, for He could not relate to man; now, however, in the Spirit there’s the element of humanity, and such a Spirit can be received, enjoyed, and experienced by man.
This is not something that someone called Witness Lee came up with; rather, many seeking believers and students of the Bible have come to the same conclusion.
Andrew Murray in his book, The Spirit of Christ, in ch. 5, had this to say concerning Christ and the Spirit,
“…the Spirit of God as poured out at Pentecost was indeed something new…When poured out at Pentecost, He came as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Spirit of the Incarnate, crucified, and exalted Christ, the bearer and communicator to us, not of the life of God as such, but of that life as it had been interwoven into human nature in the person of Christ Jesus.
Christ came not only to deliver man from the law and its curse, but to bring human nature itself again into the fellowship of the Divine life, to make us partakers of the Divine nature. He could do this, not by an exercise of Divine Power on man, but only in the path of a free, moral, and most real human development. In His own person, having become flesh, He had to sanctify the flesh…From His nature, as it was glorified in the resurrection and ascension, His Spirit came forth as the Spirit of His human life, glorified into the union with the Divine, to make us partakers of all that He had personally wrought out and acquired, of Himself and His glorified life. In virtue of His atonement, man now had a right and title to the fulness of the Divine Spirit, and to His indwelling, as never before. And in virtue of His having perfected in Himself a new holy human nature on our behalf, He could now communicate what previously had no existence—a life at once human and Divine.”
The divine element was interwoven with the human element, and the divine nature is mingled with the human nature; this happened in the Lord Jesus as the first God-man, and through death and resurrection He became the Spirit, who now has the glorified humanity of Jesus included in it. Hallelujah!
We can now drink this Spirit, and God in Christ as the Spirit can flow in us and out of us for His propagation on earth!
Hallelujah, the Spirit is constituted with the glorified humanity of Jesus, and we can now drink and flow this Spirit! Thank You Lord for passing through a process to bring God into man through incarnation, and bring man into God through death, resurrection and ascension. Thank You for mingling the divine life with the human life and the divine nature with the human nature. Hallelujah, now Christ is the Spirit, and in this Spirit there’s the resurrected humanity of Jesus! Lord, Amen, we want to enjoy You as such a Spirit with our spirit today!
Drinking the Spirit of the Glorified Jesus and Flowing Him out as Rivers of Blessing
When the Lord spoke of the Spirit whom the believers would receive, drink of, flow in them, and flow out from them, this Spirit was not yet in John 7; however, today this Spirit is, for Jesus had been glorified.
The Spirit, who is the living water that we drink and who is flowing out from within us, is constituted with the humanity of Jesus; without the humanity of Jesus, there could never be such a Spirit.
For the Spirit to come into our innermost being and flow in us, water us, quench our thirst, and flow out from within us, this Spirit had to have the element of humanity; therefore, after Christ’s resurrection the Spirit had the glorified humanity of Jesus.
Now through His death and resurrection, the Spirit of the glorified Jesus came into us to become the living water.
Without the glorified humanity of Jesus being added to the Spirit, God could never be the living water to us.
This humanity was borne by Jesus, the first God-man; He is now the glorified Jesus, and the Spirit of this glorified Jesus was dispensed into us, imparted into our being, for us to drink of Him and flow Him out.
Without the human essence the Spirit of God could not be the flowing water of life; if God would be a flowing river of life, He must be constituted with the human nature of Jesus.
We need to see a revelation concerning this; we can’t just read this, analyse it, and understand it.
God’s desire is to impart Himself into us and dispense His very being into us; He did this through the Spirit of this glorified Jesus, who is the totality and reality of all that Jesus is.
Now God in Christ as the Spirit can be received and enjoyed by us as living water, and He can flow out of us. There is now the Spirit of the glorified Jesus; we have received Him as a living river in us to flow in us, flow through us, and flow from us in rivers of blessing.
Christ went through a process – He was mingled with man, He brought humanity into divinity, and He mingled divinity with humanity; He glorified His humanity, and now the Spirit of the glorified Jesus is our supply to quench our thirst and flow out from within us as rivers of blessing.
Just as you can’t serve tea without water, so you can’t drink the Spirit without the humanity of Jesus. It is in the humanity of Jesus that we have the life, the growth of life, and the flowing of life; this kind of flowing life quenches our thirst and satisfies others.
We need to daily drink of the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit that contains the glorified humanity of Jesus, and He will flow into our inner being, quench our thirst, and flow out from us as many rivers of living waters to bless others and quench their thirst.
Such a flow of life is not a matter of speaking in tongues or having the manifestation of supernatural gifts; such a flow is not a matter of power, knowledge, or teaching.
The flow of the Spirit of the glorified Jesus from within our inner being is manifested in a human way, for we drink Jesus as the Spirit, and we flow Him out as the Spirit for others to drink and for the Lord to spread.
Lord Jesus, we want to drink of You as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus. Hallelujah, God in Christ has become a man, and through death and resurrection He became a drinkable Spirit, for in this Spirit there’s the glorified humanity of Jesus! Amen, Lord, You are the living divine stream in us and through us to stream forth from us in rivers of blessing for Your spreading and propagation on earth! Keep us drinking of You today, enjoying Your humanity and being saturated with Your divinity, and flowing You out as many rivers of living waters to bless others with the Spirit and make them part of the propagation of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1971, vol. 2, “Christ as the Reality,” ch. 12, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 7, The Spirit of Jesus.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God’s intention in this universe is with humanity, / So the Lord became the Spirit just with man to mingled be. / We rejoice that we can all partake of His economy. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
# Thou art the living water too / Which full revival doth bestow; / I wish to pray and drink e’en more / That through me living rivers flow. (Hymns #813)
# Let us drink Jesus till we see / That we are human, Jesusly! / Till rivers flood the barren ground / And quench the thirst of all around. / Drink, drink more of Jesus! / Drink, drink more of Jesus! / Why should we ever thirsty be / When we have His humanity? (Hymns #1146)
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