Ⅰ
We may experience and enjoy the resurrected and ascended Christ as the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6-7).
Ⅱ
We need to pay careful attention to two divine titles in Acts 16:6 and 7—the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus:
Ａ
The interchangeable use of these two titles reveals that the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit.
Ｂ
The Holy Spirit is a general title of the Spirit of God in the New Testament:
１
The title the Holy Spirit is used for the first time at the conception of the Lord Jesus (Luke 1:15, 35):
ａ
It was when the time came to prepare the way for Christ's coming and to prepare a human body for Him to initiate the New Testament dispensation that the title the Holy Spirit came into use (v. 35; Matt. 1:18, 20).
ｂ
In order to understand the first usage of the title the Holy Spirit, we need to see that this title is involved with the Lord's incarnation.
ｃ
According to the principle of first mention, the Holy Spirit is related to Christ's incarnation and birth.
２
In the New Testament the title the Holy Spirit indicates that God is now mingling Himself with man (Luke 1:35).
Ｃ
The Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression concerning the Spirit of God and refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross (vv. 31, 35; Matt. 1:21; Acts 16:7):
１
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.
Morning Nourishment
Acts 16:6 And they passed through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy thing which is born will be called the Son of God.
Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit with many wonderful elements added to Him. This is the Spirit in the book of Acts who was spreading to produce the Body of Christ....In the Acts the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, has become the Spirit of Jesus, who is Christ Himself. It is through the spreading of this wonderful all-inclusive Spirit that the church, the Body of Christ, came into existence.
We need a new understanding, comprehension, and view of all the matters in the book of Acts. What is taking place in this book is the spreading of Jesus as the wonderful Spirit to produce the Body of Christ, which is the church....This wonderful Christ mingled Himself with many human beings, including Peter, John, James, Paul, Timothy, and thousands of believers in the early days. All the believers in the Acts were joined to Christ and made one with Christ as the Spirit. (CWWL, 1966, vol. 2, "The Divine Spirit with the Human Spirit in the Epistles," pp. 256-257)
Today's Reading
First Corinthians 15:45 tells us that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit, and 2 Corinthians 3:17 says that the Lord is the Spirit. In addition, 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." I hope that you will keep all three of these verses in mind. Here we have Christ as the Spirit in our human spirit, and these two spirits are mingled as one. Christ today is not only the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God but also the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who gives life with many wonderful elements added to Him, including incarnation for redemption, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and even His enthronement, headship, and lordship. This Spirit comes into our spirit, and these two spirits become one. This oneness is the reality of the church, the church life, and the building up of the Body of Christ. In the early days Peter, Paul, and all of the apostles lived and worked in this oneness. In other words, they lived and worked in this Spirit, that is, in the mingled spirit—Christ as the life-giving Spirit mingled with our human spirit to be one spirit. (CWWL, 1966, vol. 2, "The Divine Spirit with the Human Spirit in the Epistles," p. 257)Acts 16:6-7 indicates that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, who guided the apostles in their ministry. Speaking of Paul and his co-workers, these verses say, "They passed through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." The move of the apostle Paul and his co-workers for the spread of the gospel was not according to their decision and preference or according to any schedule made by human council but by the Spirit of Jesus.
Just as the Spirit of Christ is the reality of Christ, so the Spirit of Jesus is the reality of Jesus. If we do not have the Spirit of Jesus, Jesus will not be real to us. But today Jesus is real to us because we have the Spirit of Jesus as the reality, the realization, of Jesus. Jesus was a man who continually suffered intense persecution while He was on earth. Therefore, the Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of a man with abundant strength for suffering. He is the Spirit of a man as well as the Spirit of suffering strength.
As an evangelist, Paul went out to preach, and he also suffered. In that suffering he needed the Spirit of Jesus because in the Spirit of Jesus there is the suffering element and the suffering strength to withstand persecution. In our preaching today we also need the Spirit of Jesus to face the opposition and persecution. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2999)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 293; CWWL, 1965, vol. 3, "The Spirit in the Epistles," ch. 8