THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The Divine Trinity
Message Four—Living a Mingling Life with the Divine Trinity
Scripture Reading: Col. 1:19; Phil. 2:6-8; John 5:19, 30b; 10:25; Heb. 10:7; John 15:26
I. The Son came in the Father’s name, and that the Son did things in the name of the Father; John 14:26 says that the Father sends the Spirit in the Son’s name; then when the Spirit comes, He testifies concerning the Son; this shows the oneness of the wonderful divine Trinity; the three Persons of the Godhead are mingled as one—John 5:43a; 10:25; 15:26. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
II. Due to the warfare within us, we must learn to cooperate with the divine Trinity; the divine Trinity is the model of our Christian life—Rom. 7:23-24; 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:6-8: (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
A. Unlike the divine Trinity, within the “human trinity” there is always fighting; therefore, we need a Savior—Rom. 7:23-24: (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
1. The Bible says that the flesh, our body, lusts or fights against our spirit which is mingled with the divine Spirit—Rom. 7:18-21, 23. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
2. Our flesh also fights with our mind; whenever our soul desires to do good, the sin in our evil flesh rises up to fight against our soul—Rom. 7:18-21, 23. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
3. We also have the Lord Jesus within us, dwelling in our spirit—2 Tim. 4:22. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
B. This Savior is the divine Trinity, who has come into our spirit—1 Cor. 13:14. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
C. After we are saved, our “human trinity” needs to follow the indwelling divine Trinity—Phil. 2:2; Rom. 8:4, 6: (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
1. The divine Trinity was added to our tripartite being; instead of exchanging lives with the divine Trinity, we have been and are being mingled together with Him—Rom. 8:9-11. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
2. The life of the soul must be denied; the functions of the soul—the mind, the will, and the emotion—must be renewed and uplifted by being subdued to be used by the spirit; our soul should be submissive and obedient to the spirit, even becoming one with the spirit—Matt. 16:24-25, 1 Cor. 10:4-5. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
3. Furthermore, when the divine life is imparted into our body, it becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit—1 Cor. 6:19. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
D. Eventually, our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—will glorify the divine Trinity; this cooperation with the indwelling Trinity will result in His glorification, His expression, and His manifestation—Rom. 8:3, 28-30; 1 John 3:2. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
III. The revelation in Ephesians concerning the producing, existing, growing, building up, and fighting of the church as the Body of Christ is composed of the divine economy, the dispensing of the Triune God into the members of the Body of Christ; thus, the crucial focus of Ephesians is the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity into the believers—Eph. 1:23; 4:16; 6:10-11: (2001 WT, msg. 3)
A. Chapter one unveils how God the Father chose and predestinated the members in eternity, God the Son redeemed them, and God the Spirit sealed them as a pledge, thus imparting Himself into His believers for the formation of the church, which is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all—Eph. 1:3-14, 18-23: (2001 WT, msg. 3)
1. A fundamental truth in the Lord’s recovery is that the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—has wrought Himself into us through the Father’s predestination, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s sealing and pledging—vv. 3-14, 18-23. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
2. The Body of Christ comes into being by the dispensing of the Triune God as life and life supply into the believers. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
3. The threefold mentioning of the praise of God’s glory signifies the threefold dispensing of the Triune God—vv. 6, 12, 14. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
B. Chapter two shows us that in the Divine Trinity all the believers, both Jewish and Gentile, have access unto God the Father through God the Son, in God the Spirit—v. 18: (2001 WT, msg. 3)
1. Through God the Son, who is the Accomplisher, the means, and in God the Spirit, who is the Executor, and application, we have access unto God the Father, who is the Originator, the source of our enjoyment. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
2. We are a poem written by the dispensing of the Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the Spirit as the flow—v. 10. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
3. The Father’s dispensing to produce the masterpiece, the Son’s dispensing to produce the new man, and the Spirit’s bringing us to the Father in one Body result in the building up of the church and the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy—vv. 10, 15, 21-22. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
C. In chapter three the apostle prays that God the Father will grant the believers to be strengthened through God the Spirit into their inner man so that Christ, God the Son, may make His home in their hearts, that they might be filled unto all the fullness of God—vv. 16-19. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
D. Chapter four portrays how the processed God as the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father is mingled with the Body of Christ so that all the members of the Body may experience the Divine Trinity—vv. 4-6: (2001 WT, msg. 3)
1. The Body of Christ is the sphere for the development of the Triune God. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
2. The divine dispensing of God the Father in His being over all, of the Son in His being through all, and of the Spirit in His being in all enables all the members of the Body of Christ to experience and enjoy the Triune God. (2001 WT msg. 3)
3. These verses reveal four persons—the one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God the Father—mingled together as one entity to be the organic Body of Christ; thus, the Triune God and the Body are four-in-one. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
E. Chapter five exhorts the believers to praise the Lord, God the Son, with the songs of God the Spirit, and give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, to God the Father—vv. 19-20: (2001 WT, msg. 3)
1. This is to praise and thank the processed God in His Divine Trinity for our enjoyment of Him as the Triune God. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
2. Through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we are constituted as children of God, walking in God as love and light—vv. 2, 8. (2001 WT, msg. 3)
IV. In our Christian life, God uses four instruments to mingle us with the divine Trinity: the divine life, the cross, the Spirit, and the Word—1 John 1:2; Heb. 12:2; Rom. 8:13; 1 John 2:14: (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
A. We must always have fellowship with the Spirit in the divine life through the cross and through the Word. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)
B. We must join ourselves to the holy Word every day, accept the dealing of the cross, and be one with the Spirit that we may participate in the divine life. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 6)