John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, (17) Even the Spirit of reality... He abides with you and shall be in you. Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses...
Before the Lord's ascension He gave His disciples two great promises. The first was given before His death, and the second was given before His ascension. The first promise was that the Holy Spirit would abide in man, and the second promise was that the Holy Spirit would come upon man. This [first] promise is too wonderful-the Holy Spirit would abide within man. The Word becoming flesh was a wonderful event that occurred in the Lord Himself [when He was born], but the Spirit Himself living in the believers is an even more wonderful event. When did the Spirit begin to abide in man? In John 14:17 the Lord said that the Spirit "shall be" in the disciples. This word was spoken prior to the Lord's crucifixion. In John 20:22, He breathed a holy breath into the disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." This happened after the Lord's resurrection. After His resurrection, the Holy Spirit came and the disciples received the Lord's breathing. The Holy Spirit was the Lord's breath of life. This is like God's breathing of the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam after he was created out of the dust of the earth. The result was that he became a living soul. This is happening to us today. The Lord is breathing the Holy Spirit, the breath of life, into us. Without a breath from God, man is dead. Without a breath from the Lord to the church, the church is also dead.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Watchman Nee. The Works of the Holy Spirit. The Collected Works...vol. 41, pp. 158-159. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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