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Although God is eternal and unchanging in His nature and substance, He has passed through a process in His economy (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b).
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Before His incarnation God was unprocessed, having only the divine nature, but through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Triune God was processed and consummated to become the Spirit (John 7:39).
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The Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God (Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 5:5, 16, 18, 25; 6:8):
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The processed and consummated Triune God is the Spirit (3:2, 5, 14):
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We all need to receive a vision of the Spirit—the compound of the Triune God, the man Jesus, His human living, His death, and His resurrection (John 7:39; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9-11; Phil. 1:19; Gal. 3:14).
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The Spirit is the processed, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified, consummated Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God to be the eternal portion of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite people as their life, life supply, and everything.
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Before the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the consummated Spirit was "not yet" (John 7:39):
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The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:2), but the Spirit as "the Spirit of Christ" (Rom. 8:9), "the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:19), was "not yet" at the time of John 7:39, because He was not yet glorified.
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The Lord Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected, and through this glorification the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ (Luke 24:26; Phil. 1:19).
Morning Nourishment
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.7:39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Some find fault with the word processed and argue that it is impossible for God to be processed because He is eternal and unchanging. Although God is eternal and unchanging, He has nevertheless passed through a process. Was not incarnation a process? From eternity past until the incarnation of Christ, God did not have a body of flesh. But when He was born in a manger, He was the mighty God incarnated as a baby. According to Isaiah 9:6, the child born to us is called the mighty God....This child, God incarnate, lived in a carpenter's home for years. Imagine that the Creator of the universe lived in the home of a carpenter in Nazareth! Was that not a process? Likewise, were not the crucifixion and resurrection a process? God certainly was processed through Christ's incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. (Life-study of Galatians, pp. 290-291)
Today's Reading
The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but at the time the Lord spoke this word [in John 7:37-38], the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), was not yet, because the Lord had not yet been glorified. Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). After Jesus' resurrection, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ, who was breathed into the disciples by Christ in the evening of the day on which He was resurrected (John 20:22). The Spirit is now the "another Comforter," the Spirit of reality promised by Christ before His death (14:16-17). When the Spirit was the Spirit of God, He had only the divine element.After He became the Spirit of Jesus Christ through Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Spirit had both the divine element and the human element, with all the essence and reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. (John 7:39, footnote 1)
The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). Eventually, God is called the Spirit, and the transformed tripartite man is the bride (Rev. 22:17a)....Consummation means completion. Our God has been completed because He has been processed and compounded. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, "The Spirit," p. 590)
I hope that we all would receive a vision of the Spirit—He is the compound of the Triune God, the man Jesus, His human living, His death, and His resurrection. All the positive things in the universe are compounded in this one Spirit, which is the Spirit. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, "The Divine Economy," p. 65)
We may give a full definition of the Spirit. The Spirit is the processed, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified, consummated Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God to be the eternal portion of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified tripartite people as their life, life supply, and everything.
John 7:39 speaks of the Spirit, telling us that before the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected the Spirit was not yet....After His resurrection, that is, after He had been glorified, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ. Even though, before Christ's death and resurrection, the Spirit of God was the Spirit of Jehovah and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit was not yet. This term—the Spirit—is often used by Paul in his Epistles and by John in the book of Revelation. In speaking of the Spirit, John and Paul are referring to the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of the Triune God. Therefore, eventually and ultimately the Spirit of God is the Spirit. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 870, 869)
Further Reading: Life-study of Galatians, msgs. 32-33, 38; CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, "The Divine Economy," chs. 9-10