Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 4:16; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; 1 John 2:20, 27; Exo. 30:23-25; Phil. 1:19; Rom. 8:28-29
Ⅰ
The work of the Spirit on the new covenant ministers is to tear down every natural aspect of their old being through their environment:
A
The ministry is produced by revelation plus suffering—2 Cor. 1:8; 12:7.
B
All persons and situations related to us are arranged by the Spirit of God to match His work within us that we may be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God—Rom. 8:28-29; 2 Cor. 4:10-11, 16.
Ⅱ
The work of the Spirit within the new covenant ministers is to constitute them with the riches of Christ to make them a new being by the anointing, sealing, and pledging:
A
The anointing is the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit to impart God's elements into us—Exo. 30:23-25; Phil. 1:19:
１
The anointed One, Christos, became the anointing One who entered into us to become the anointing, chrisma, in us—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27.
２
The reaching of the anointing accomplishes the central purpose of God's salvation to anoint the compounded God into us that we may be united, mingled, and incorporated with Him:
a
The more we apply the blood of Christ, the anointed One, and allow it to wash us continually, the more we will experience the anointing and sense the inward living presence and moving of God—Lev. 14:14-18, 25-29; 1 John 1:7; 2:20.
b
When we call on the Lord's name, He is anointed into our being because Christ's name as His person is the anointing ointment—S. S. 1:3; 1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:12-13.
c
When we receive the Lord's word by means of all prayer, we receive the Spirit as the anointing ointment because the compound Spirit is embodied in the word of God—John 6:63; Eph. 6:17-18.
d
To enjoy the anointing of the bountiful compound Spirit, we need to be in the Body and in God's service, as typified by the compound ointment being used to anoint the tabernacle and the serving priesthood—Exo. 30:26-30; Psa. 133.
３
The teaching of the anointing is the feeling generated by the moving of the Spirit within us, enabling us to know God's mind and to live in Him, teaching us the things concerning the Triune God and His activities—Acts 16:6-7:
a
If we obey the teaching of the anointing and live in it, the result will be more love for the Lord and a deeper fellowship with Him.
b
To follow the Lord as the Spirit, to walk according to the spirit, is to obey the teaching of the anointing—2 Cor. 2:12-13.
B
The sealing forms the divine elements into an impression to express God's image—2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13:
１
The sealing Spirit saturates the believers continuously unto the redemption of their body—Eph. 4:30.
２
This sealing transforms the believers into a treasure to God as His inheritance—Eph. 1:11.
３
The more we are sealed, the more we bear the image of God to be constituted into the masterpiece of God—2 Cor. 3:18b; Eph. 2:10.
C
The pledging gives us a foretaste as a sample and guarantee of the full taste of God—2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5:
１
The Spirit's pledging guarantees that God is our inheritance—Eph. 1:14.
２
Christ as the pledging Spirit is in us for our taste, for our enjoyment of Him as our divine inheritance, our allotted portion, through the exercise of our spirit—Psa. 34:8; 1 Pet. 2:3; Col. 1:12.