God’s operating in us is with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; in Acts 16:7 in particular we see that the Holy Spirit acted as the Spirit of Jesus to not allow the apostles – this is the Spirit of the man Jesus with humanity in Him so that we may live a proper human life and endure its sufferings.
Hallelujah for the Spirit of Jesus who is with our spirit! God is operating in us – He operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.
On our side, we need to cooperate by working out our own salvation; on His side, the Triune God is installed in our being to operate in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. Hallelujah!
The way God operates in us is not spectacular, mighty, or supernatural; He operates in the depths of our being. He operates in a quiet way, even in a normal and common way; it is miraculous that God operates in us, but it is so normal and quiet.
It is similar to the human life, which operates in a child to cause him to grow until he becomes a full-grown man.
The divine life, likewise, grows in us, operates in us, and works in us, not in an outwardly supernatural or spectacular way, but in an inward, hidden, and quiet way.
Day by day, as we go through things, as we do this and that, we can simply open to the Lord to enjoy Him, partake of Him, and experience Him.
As we enjoy the Lord in this way, as we take Him in as our bountiful supply, we can live because of Him, and He operates in our being.
We may not be willing to cooperate with Him, and we are not able to work out what He wants to work out in us, but as we remain open to His divine dispensing, His inner operation, He operates in us.
It is God who operates in us both the willing and the working.
We open to Him a little bit here and there, and He operates; even though we may not obey Him or follow His leading, as long as we have His speaking and open to Him, He operates in us both the willing and the working.
And the way He does it is by means of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t operate in us in a forceful way, causing us to do things we don’t want to do; rather, He supplies us bountifully with the Spirit of Jesus Christ to meet all our needs, and as we are inwardly supplied, He operates in us both the willing and the working according to His good pleasure.
His operation is not an overnight matter; we don’t get transformed in a week or in a month. Rather, He operates in us day by day, little by little, until we are willing to cooperate, and then He operates in us the working also. Thank You, Lord!
God’s Operating in us is with the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ
In Phil. 2:13 we see that God operates in us both the willing and the working; this is in relation to working out our own salvation.
In Phil. 1:19-21 we see that Paul knew that for him the situation he was in will turn out to salvation through the petition of the saints and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The salvation in Phil. 1 is the same as the salvation in ch. 2, for God’s operating in us is with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
This is not the eternal salvation, which is ours by faith and forever; it is about the daily salvation, about being saved by living Christ and magnifying Christ.
Paul desired that in all situations he was in, even though he was in prison, chained for the Lord and in much sufferings, he would not be found in his complaints, murmurings, or sighings, but in Christ.
He wanted that all his situation would turn out to salvation, and this he was assured of because he had the saints’ prayer for him and also the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
This bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ can be considered the bountiful groceries, the rich stuff we purchase from the store.
The operation of the Triune God can be considered with the cooking of these groceries.
We have the best cook – the Triune God Himself, and He operates in us with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Our God is the marvelous cook, ready to operate and cook, and He uses the groceries of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to supply us and operate in us.
The result is that all things turn out to our salvation, for we enjoy both the supply of the Body through prayers and petitions, and the supply of the Spirit.
This expression, “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” is a particular expression; it is not just the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
This is a unique mention in the whole of the New Testament. We know that, throughout the Bible, the Spirit has many designations.
Beginning from Gen. 1 we see that the Spirit of God was there, involved in God’s creation; then, after God brought forth the creation, especially in creating man, He desired to have a relationship with man.
Therefore, the Spirit of God is called the Spirit of Jehovah or the Spirit of the Lord, for this designation expresses God’s desire to have a relationship with man.
It is not until the New Testament, when Christ was to be born, when God came to be incarnated in humanity, that we see for the first time the Spirit of God being called, the Holy Spirit.
There was something holy about Christ, a holy essence, that was about to be brought forth in humanity; humanity is common and base, but something holy was conceived in the womb of a human virgin, and this One was Jesus Christ, the Holy One.
Later we see the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ; finally, we see the Spirit of God being called, The Spirit.
God’s operation in us is by means of and with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
This Spirit includes divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; everything we need is in this bountiful supply, and God operates in us with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!
As He operates in us, we work out our own salvation; our salvation is the working out, the issue, of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Such a salvation is something we work out in our living, as God operates in us with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus, we pray that all our situations would turn out to salvation through the petition of the saints and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen, Lord, we open to You and we allow You to operate in us with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We want to work out our own salvation, for it is God who operates in us. May our salvation worked out in our living be the result of our enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen, Lord, save us much more in Your life today. Amen, much more salvation today! May all things turn out to salvation day by day!
We need to Experience the Spirit of Jesus with His Human Living and Capacity to Withstand Suffering
The Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression used in Acts 16:7 referring to the Spirit of God; it refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross (Luke 1:31, 35; Matt. 1:21).
While Paul was on a missionary journey, he was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and then the Spirit of Jesus didn’t allow them to go into Bithynia (Acts 16:6-7).
These two – the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus – are not two spirits but one spirit.
In that difficult, challenging missionary journey of Paul, he experienced the Spirit of Jesus not allowing him to go somewhere and the Holy Spirit forbidding them to speak somewhere else.
The Bible is exact and economical in its wording; there is a difference between the Spirit of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of Jesus is a designation connected to the Lord’s human living, Jesus as a man.
He came to be a man and accomplish God’s work of redemption, live a life of suffering, and eventually die on the cross.
On his side, Paul encountered persecution and suffering, so he identified with Jesus’ living.
The Spirit was operating in him at that moment as the Spirit of the man Jesus with the suffering capacity; he experienced the suffering Jesus, thus being able to pass through the sufferings in the human life.
As the Lord’s servants, we need to experience the Spirit of Jesus with His human living and His capacity of withstanding suffering.
Jesus, the man, is our Savior; He is Jehovah becoming our salvation, Jehovah our Savior (this is what Jesus means).
As a man, Jesus did not have a joyful or pleasant living, but a life full of suffering.
In the Spirit of Jesus, there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death as well.
We may not be in a situation like Paul, suffering for the Lord’s sake as we preach the gospel, but we may also go through sufferings, for all human beings go through sufferings.
In our sufferings, the Spirit can be experienced by us as the Spirit of Jesus with His human living and His capacity to withstand suffering.
The Spirit of Jesus is the reality of Jesus; if we don’t have the Spirit of Jesus, Jesus will not be real to us. Jesus is real to us because we have the Spirit of Jesus as the reality, the realization of Jesus.
![Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped, But emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men; And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and [that] the death of a cross. Phil. 2:5-8. Amen for the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ with and in our spirit!](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Let-this-mind-be-in-you-which-was-also-in-Christ-Jesus-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped, But emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men; And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and [that] the death of a cross. Phil. 2:5-8. Amen for the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ with and in our spirit!")
It is amazing to realize that the Spirit of the man Jesus, which includes the divine life and nature, the human living of Jesus, the sufferings of Jesus, and His capacity to endure sufferings, now is in us, and we can experience Him as such a One.
On one hand, we can enjoy and experience the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in whatever situation to be saved much more in the life of God.
On the other hand, in our sufferings and persecutions, we can experience the Spirit of the man Jesus, the Spirit of a man as well as the Spirit of suffering strength, to supply us.
And as members in the Body, when one member suffers, all members suffer; when the members of the Body of Christ living in Ukraine suffer because of the war, we all suffer.
So our prayer is for them these days, that they would experience the Spirit of Jesus with the supply to endure sufferings so that Jesus would be living again even in their specific situation.
In this Spirit of Jesus, we have not only the Spirit of God with divinity in Him so that we may live the divine life, but also the Spirit of the man Jesus with humanity in Him, so that we may live the proper human life and endure its sufferings.
Human life is full of suffering, and some of us have more sufferings than others; in all our sufferings, we can experience the Spirit of Jesus to endure the sufferings and to magnify Christ, expressing God in our human living.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being so available to us as the Spirit of Jesus – the Spirit of the man Jesus with His human living and the capacity to endure sufferings. Amen, Lord, we want to experience You as the Spirit of Jesus even in our human sufferings so that we may be able to endure sufferings and magnify Christ. Save us from going through sufferings on our own, gritting our teeth and being brave; may we identify ourselves with the suffering Christ to enjoy His supply and His living in our living. Amen, Lord Jesus, we pray for ourselves and for all the saints who are suffering, that we would enjoy and experience the Spirit of Jesus – the Spirit of the man Jesus with humanity in Him so that we may live a proper human life and endure its sufferings!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 1, “The All-inclusive Spirit of Christ,” pp. 551-570, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living In and With the Divine Trinity (2021 Thanksgiving Day Conference), week 5, entitled, Living with the Divine Trinity (2) God Operating in us.
- Hymns on this topic:
– The Spirit of God today / The Spirit of Jesus is, / The God-man who died and rose, / Ascending to glory His. / ’Tis from such a Jesus came / The Spirit of Jesus to us, / To make His reality / Experience unto us. (Hymns #242)
– In the Spirit of this Jesus, / Every step God took became / Elements that we experience / And apply through Jesus’ name. / Christ’s humanity and living, / With the cross as our release, / Brings in life in resurrection / For our one accord in peace. (Song on, The Humanity of Jesus)
– His grace is sufficient to save me,
And cleanse me from guilt and from sin; / Sufficient to sanctify wholly, / And give me His Spirit within. / His grace is sufficient for trials, / No matter how hard they may be, / This promise stands over against them, / My grace is sufficient for thee. (Hymns #721)
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