BASIC WORD THE HEART OF THE BIBLE AND THE CENTRAL REVELATION OF THE BIBLE

The Heart of the Bible and the Central Revelation of the Bible

   The Pneumatic Christ Visiting His Disciples to Enter into and Abide in Them

In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Abode here refers to a mutual abode. Hence, the word spoken by the Lord in this verse means that the Father and the Son will not only visit but also abide in the Son’s lover, and he will abide in Them. Also, the word abode used in John 14:23 is the noun form of the word abide used in John 15, which reveals the mutual abiding of the branches and the vine. Verse 4 says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” The mutual abiding in this verse corresponds to the mutual abode in 14:23.

John 20:19 says, “When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and while the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be to you.” According to this verse, the Lord did not come in by knocking on the door. He simply came and stood in their midst. Then verse 22 says, “He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word translated “Spirit” in this verse can also be translated “breath.” The Lord seemed to be saying, “Receive the holy breath. I am no longer in the flesh; I am now the breath, the life-giving pneuma. Now you must receive Me as the holy breath, the Holy Spirit.” After the Lord breathed the Holy Spirit into His disciples, there is no record in John’s Gospel that the Lord left the disciples. This indicates that the Lord never left His disciples; instead, He entered into them as the Spirit and remained in them. This was the fulfillment of His word in John 14:16-17 that another Comforter, whom the disciples already knew, would abide with them and be in them.

About fifty years ago my young mind could not understand how I, a branch, could abide in Christ, the vine, and He in me. But after I saw that Christ as the life-giving Spirit had entered into my spirit to be one spirit with me (1 Cor. 6:17), I realized that the mutual abiding of the branches and the vine takes place not in our mind, emotion, or will but in our regenerated human spirit, which is indwelt by the divine Spirit (Rom. 8:16; cf. Eph. 2:22). For this reason 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.”

The Lord today is the life-giving Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17, 6). Regarding [171] His ascension and exaltation, He is the Lord in the heavens, but concerning His indwelling, He is the life-giving Spirit, the holy breath. Since He is in our spirit, we are one spirit with Him, and this mingled spirit—the divine Spirit mingled with the human spirit—is the vine tree, with the divine Spirit as the vine and the regenerated human spirit as the branch. These two spirits are one in the divine life and in the divine nature. Now that we have received the Lord, all we need to do is abide in Him. This abiding takes place in our regenerated spirit. According to our experience, it is difficult to know when we are abiding in Christ, but it is easy to know when we are not abiding in Him. Whenever we criticize others or lose our temper, we know that we are not abiding in Christ, and sometimes when we do something that appears to be good, we know that it is not the issue of abiding in Christ.

Anything related to the physical life that is functioning normally produces no feeling or sensation. For instance, when we have a feeling in our stomach, it means either that we are hungry or that we have eaten wrongly. We know that our stomach is well when we do not feel anything. Similarly, when we are abiding in the Lord, we may have no sensation. But once we are outside of Him, we know immediately that something is wrong. Whenever we sense that something is wrong, we need to stop whatever we are doing. This is a secret on the negative side to abiding in Christ. For instance, when our spouse gives us a difficult time and we begin to respond, we may immediately sense a spiritual “stomachache.” At such a time we need to stop our response. At other times, when we love someone but our love is not from our abiding in the Lord, we have a sense that something is wrong. We need to respond to this sense by ceasing such a love. If we practice this secret, we will abide in the Lord.

                             ABIDING IN THE LORD BY PRAYING UNCEASINGLY

We believers who have been born of God have experienced a divine birth. This divine birth mingles the divine Spirit and our human spirit into one. This spirit becomes the factor of our genuine worship of God, who is Spirit. This factor within us loves and enjoys the instant, practical, and present word spoken by the Lord, and it causes us to love the Lord. As a result, God the Father and God the Son have come to make an abode with us, and They are abiding in us and we in Them. Today we must become sensitive to the Lord’s [172] abiding so that when we utter a word, express an attitude, or have an intention that is not of the Lord, which causes the abiding to stop, we can immediately pray, “Lord, forgive me and cleanse me; I do not wish to stop abiding in You. I want to remain in the vine.” This is the way for us to abide, and it is related to praying unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17). In order to abide in the vine, we need to pray all the time. Actually, our prayer is our spontaneous trust in the Lord. If we practice abiding in the Lord by praying unceasingly, the Lord will gain a group of people who are one with Him practically in the mingled spirit. They will not speak, act, or express anything apart from their remaining in the mingled spirit, the issue of the divine birth.

Our abiding in Christ, the vine, by being one with the Lord in our mingled spirit is not only a divine fact but also a spiritual factor that affects our entire spiritual life. It is in and by abiding that we have the genuine holiness, spirituality, and victory over sin, the world, Satan, our flesh, and the self; it is in and by abiding that we become practical members of the Body of Christ; and it is in and by abiding that we live the normal Christian life and church life. When we are abiding in the vine, we have no problems, because we are one with the Son of God, who has conquered every enemy and dealt with every negative thing. When we abide in the Lord, we lack nothing, and we need to do nothing other than enjoy what He has accomplished, because all that He has accomplished becomes our experience when we are one with Him.

To abide in the Lord by unceasing prayer means that we have a constant and unceasing trust in the living One, who is one spirit with us. We need to see this. More than fifty years ago I spent much time seeking holiness, a victorious life, and spirituality. I bought all kinds of books and spent time reading them and practicing what they outlined. However, nothing that I practiced was effective. Through the years the Lord in His mercy allowed us to discover the secret for all the “how-tos.” This secret is to abide in the mingled spirit.

When we abide in our mingled spirit, holiness, victory, power, spirituality, and every kind of spiritual blessing are ours, because all the New Testament blessings are in Christ, who is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. In such an all-inclusive One we have the processed Triune God, an uplifted humanity, an all-inclusive death, a wonderful resurrection, and a marvelous ascension. Everything is in Him. Thus, all that we need to do is abide in Him and enjoy all His riches. [173]

                                        REQUIREMENTS FOR ABIDING IN THE LORD

Loving the Lord Constantly

Abiding in the Lord requires two things. The first is a constant love toward the Lord. To fear God and to believe in God are inadequate; we must love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). Believing in the Lord is sufficient for us to experience the divine birth, but in order to abide in the Lord, we need a constant love toward the Lord. John 1 says that we should believe into the Lord’s name (v. 12), but after we believe, 14:23 tells us that we should love Him. The Father and the Son making a mutual abode with us depends on a constant love on our side toward the Lord Jesus.

Seeing a Vision concerning the Divine Birth  and the Two Spirits

The second requirement related to abiding in the Lord is to see a vision concerning the things covered in this chapter: the divine birth with the two spirits and the mingled spirit as the place in which we can worship God, receive His words, and dwell together with Him. We should never be veiled or distracted from these things by anything. Instead, we should care for nothing other than abiding in the vine.

The life supply and the riches of life that we enjoy by abiding in the vine can easily be cut off. A little criticizing, murmuring, or complaining can cut us off from the vine. We should not be distracted by the condition of the church, whether the church is high or low, or by the situation among the saints, whether or not the saints are spiritual. Our unique concern should be to abide in Him. Then if the church is in a poor and low condition, our abiding will help the church be uplifted and enriched. The real remedy to the church’s poor condition comes from our abiding in the Lord. Today the reason there is much spiritual death among the saints is that we do not abide in the Lord by remaining in our mingled spirit to worship God, receive His instant word, and dwell with Him.

We should know nothing and care for nothing other than our abiding in the Lord and His abiding in us. This is the mutual abiding, which becomes a mutual abode in which we dwell in God and He dwells in us. This is the secret to enjoying Him. When we enjoy Christ in the way of abiding in Him, we are able to testify to everyone [174] that our Christ is not a doctrinal Christ but a present and practical Christ whom we can experience all the time. We are also able to testify that we are genuinely one with Him, and He is one with us, because we are abiding in this oneness.

I believe that many of us have some measure of the experience of abiding in the Lord to be one with Him; however, the problem is that we do not maintain or keep this experience constantly. Our abiding in Christ must be a principle. If we keep our abiding constant, every negative thing will be under our feet, and whatever we are, do, express, or speak will be Christ. Then we will genuinely be able to say, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21a) and “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). We will testify that Christ and we are one. This is to abide in the Lord. Today what we are lacking in the Lord’s recovery is the abiding life to enrich the church life. May we all look to the Lord that He will grant us grace to abide in Him.