6

Manifestation of the Spirit of God

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are
differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are
diversities of activities, but it is the same God [Father] who
works all in all (1 Corinthians 12:4-6, emphasis added).

God is Spirit and the Spirit of God is God, three persons

yet one God. The Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of Christ
and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. Each Person of the
Godhead manifests Himself uniquely through His Spirit in
each member of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ as He
wills to the profit of all. There are three different levels of
the manifestation of spiritual gifts according to the
working of each Individual of the Godhead.

The first manifestation is the diversities of gifts of the Holy

Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit (1
Corinthians 12:4). The different gifts of the Holy Spirit are
described as follows in I Corinthians 12:7-11: But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of
all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to
another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to
another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by
the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another
prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different
kind of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one
and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each
one individually as He wills.

The Holy Spirit is the one who leads and guide us into all
truth. Through the revelatory gifts (word of wisdom, word
of knowledge, prophecy, discerning of spirits,
interpretation of tongues, dreams and visions) of the Holy
Spirit we come to the knowledge of the truth, which is
Christ. Through the power gifts of the Holy Spirit (faith,
gifts of healing, working of miracles) the Spirit of God
restores lives and creation. All these graces are manifested
by the Holy Spirit to establish the kingdom of God in all
the earth. Everything is about the Father’s business; Thy
kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

The second manifestation of the Spirit of God is the

differences of ministries by the Lord Jesus Christ. There are
differences of ministries, but the same Lord (1 Corinthians
12:5). This can be expanded as follows: For as the body is one
and has many members, but all the members of that one body,
being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we
were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slave or free – and have all been made to drink into one
Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the
foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,”
is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say,
“Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore
not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be
the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the
smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them,
in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member,
where would the body be? But now indeed there are many
members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I
have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no
need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which
seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body
which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater
honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but
our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body,
having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there
should be no schism in the body, but that the members should
have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all
the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and
members individually. And God has appointed these in the
church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, variety of
tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?
Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all
speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the
best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way (1
Corinthians 12:12-31).

Anything divorced or independent from Christ is futility,

which is death, darkness and earthy. A member in your
body cannot operate independently from your head. Every
action of each member of the body is a spontaneous
manifestation of the pleasure of your will, so is Christ.
Walking in the Spirit, as a member of the body of Christ is
the revelation of Christ made manifested in you. The
manifestation of Christ in the earth is to live and move and
have your being in Him. How tragic to start in the Spirit
and endeavor to search for perfection in the flesh through
the efforts of your own will, apart from the mind and Spirit
of Christ. This is to partake from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, which is death. A walk in the Spirit is a
constant search for Christ to be revealed in you according
to the anointing that is working in you as an individual
and specific member of His body and to search out the
glory of God in all His works and ways. You are not
speaking the word of God or doing good works to obtain
favor from God but because you have obtained mercy and
grace from God you confess the truth and do good works.
Maintaining this attitude or awareness ensures that your
spirit is constantly open to God, which is practicing His
presence.
Paul testified about the Spirit of Christ that was made
manifested in him. He said, “But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through
His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him
among the gentiles” (Galatians 1:15-16b, emphasis added).
God called Paul as an apostle of Jesus Christ and in this,
the apostleship of Jesus was revealed in Paul according to
the anointing that was working in him. We should always
search for the evidence of Christ to be revealed in the
redeemed and ourselves. Since you seek a proof of Christ
speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in
you (2 Corinthians 13:3, emphasis added).

The third manifestation of the Spirit of God is diversities of

activities by the same God. And there are diversities of
activities, but it is the same God who works all in all (1
Corinthians 12:4). The diversity of activities or power is
released by the fullness of God in the perfected believer.
This manifestation of the Spirit of God can be described
more completely as follows: Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding
brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and
though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but
have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but
have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is
kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed
up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not
provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoice
in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are
prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will
cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we
know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is
perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish
things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am
known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the
greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13).

We may have all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and a ministry
in Christ and have revelation that sparks of hope and faith
that creates a marvelous way of life and we may perform
great works and sacrifice our entire being to God; it will
profit us nothing if that lifestyle is not a manifestation of
the love of God. The gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable but it is no barometer of being in good
standing with God; love is. Many will say to Me in that day,
“Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out
demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”
And then I will declared to them, “I never knew you; depart from
Me, you who practice lawlessness!“

Without love you are in the flesh, isolated from God, and
you do not know Him since the flesh is dead toward God
because of sin and is in enmity with Him as it is not able to
know Him. Love is that which separates the truth from the
lie. Truth, which is Christ, manifests the fruit of the Spirit
and the lie manifests the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-
26). God knows you by your fruit. Resisting the work of
the flesh to bloodshed (Hebrews 12:4; Luke 22:44) in the
cross of Christ and to live the power of His resurrection is
God’s design to manifest His love in you. At the end of the
day it is not what you do or not do for God but what you
have become to Him as a son that bring Him joy and
fulfillment. Will He find the manifestation of Christ’s love
and life in you? Love is that which emphasizes your
relationship with God, each other and the rest of God’s
creation. God’s way is to rest in Christ’s perfect
relationships and not to manufacture your own imperfect
love.

Now remain faith and hope that is worked through love in

our relationship toward God, which is the only way to
walk and live in the Spirit. When the fullness has come and
Christ has subjected all things to His and our Father only
love will remain. To conform to the image of the Son of
God, who is the fullness of the godhead bodily, is to
conform to the love of God. Love is merciful, gracious and
compassionate. Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least
of the Lord’s and our brothers you did it to Him. Therefore
you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect
(Matthew 5:48). A new commandment Christ gave us that
we love one another even as He has loved and gave His life
for us. In the same manner that Christ loved us we aught
to love one another by becoming the servant of one
another.

When Jesus ministered to the people He ministered

through the Spirit of God. He did nothing of Himself.
Whatever the Father does, the Son does in like manner.
The acts of Jesus were made manifest in the love and
power of the Spirit of God, which is the mercy and grace of
the Father.

The fullness of the Spirit of God in us reveals the miracle

power of God, which is the love of Christ that is at work in
us and compels us to wonders and mighty deeds. All of
His glory is His entire character and power made manifest
in us who believe to the Father’s eternal glory and praise.

The picture of the manifestation of the Spirit of God started

in 1 Corinthians 12 and finds its climax in 1 Corinthians 13.
We start out with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and grow and
develop into ministries of Christ. Presently, we are
standing at the dawn of the Kingdom of God where the
fullness of God will indwell us and His love and power
will be revealed in us. This is the third day, the day of the
Spirit, where we live in the sight of the Lord to the glory
and praise of His name.

Jesus has provided all things that pertain to the fullness

that God has in mind for us. We do not need to strife to
enter into the glorious realm of God’s fullness. Through
faith in Christ we are appropriating the fullness of the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the fullness of the godhead bodily
and not by our own efforts. We have no confidence in the
flesh. We do not follow regulations and laws but believe
God to fulfill what He has promised. All of our efforts, no
matter how big or how small accounts for nothing but is a
futile waste of energy. Only through faith in God we can
please Him. Faith in Christ’s abilities in us is a gift from
God and do not originate from within our flesh. Faith
came by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The
word of God is Spirit and life and by the integrity of His
word He brings to pass His promises.

The Spirit of the Father that indwells us makes our mortal

bodies alive toward God. The Biblical explanation for
anointed signs in the body is the quickening of our mortal
bodies through the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
When you start to worship God, the palms of your hands
or lips may begin to burn because of your expressions of
love toward Him. This mortal body is started to experience
life. You may also experience signs in the body when you
minister to somebody because of God’s compassion that
compels you. How do you explain this? You are moving
toward resurrection life. The Spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead, which is the Spirit of the Father, is starting to live
in you. You are experiencing the beginning of the
redemption of your body. This is getting toward the
manifestation of the sons of God for which all creation is
groaning. The evidence of a future breakthrough into the
first resurrection is the proof that the Spirit of the Father is
already at work in your mortal body. An indication of the
manifestation of the final phase of the redemptive work of
Christ is the anointing that is experienced in the mortal
body. Whenever you receive an anointed sign in the body,
it is a sign that the Spirit of God that indwells you desires
to dominate and is the evidence that He is imparting life to
your mortal body. What glorious transformation awaits us!
Anointed signs in the body is evidence that your basic
bodily senses are in the process of being quickened.

Paul was also reaching through faith into resurrection life.

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, being conform to His death, if by
any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead
(Philippians 3:10-11, emphasis added). He ended 1
Corinthians 13 with an interesting comment where he said,
“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of
these is love.” Only through faith, hope and love, which are
the different dimensions of our relationship with God, we
will enter into the fullness of God.

The restoration of your body start out with you presenting

your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which
is an expression of love and worship toward God (Romans
12:1). In the time of Paul slaves were also called bodies.
This word body is written in that context. So you must
present yourself as a slave toward God as an act of love
and worship toward Him, which is the standard of a slave
of God. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be
your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew
20:27-28). Without faith, hope and love you cannot please
God who lives in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13). Inasmuch
as you serve one of the least of the brothers of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you have done it unto Him. Love is a
manifestation of the Spirit of God and the doorway to
experience signs in the body, which is an indication that
the Spirit of God is busy to quicken your body to Him that
is dead because of sin.

Although Jesus’ sacrifice was made manifested in the

natural only 2 000 years ago, the Lamb of God was actually
slain from the foundation of the earth and He gave His life
a ransom for many. From the foundation of the earth all
things were reconciled to God. From the foundation of the
earth a new creation with a new heaven and a new earth
was created in Christ. The separation between the natural
and spiritual realms that came about with Adam’s
transgression was taken away when God created the one
world of Christ. The heaven and the earth is one in Christ
because God is one. He who dwells in the Spirit reconciled
all things to Himself in Christ Jesus and removed the
separation from God that Adam brought about. All things
were made new and were filled with life, light and truth.
Since the foundation of the world the saints were
wonderfully made perfect in Him. Enoch (without the law)
and Elijah (under the law) saw Christ’s day and they
believed God and their faith in the Fountain of life gave
substance to their hope so that they did not see death.
Before God took them into the unseen realities of their
faith where they dwell with God in the one world of
Christ, they had a testimony that they pleased God.
Without faith they could not please Him. God honored the
substance of their lives in the Spirit that they have created
through faith and captured them in glory so that they
could not be found among the sons of men. They overcame
the last enemy, which is death by living in the Spirit. The
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed them from
the law of sin and death.

Enoch and Elijah did not see the manifestation of Christ’s

day yet they believed God who gave life to the dead in
contrary to hope, in hope believed so that they did not
experience death. They did not consider their bodies of
death, which were dead toward God because of sin, but
they did not waver at the promise through unbelief, but
was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. They were
fully convinced that what God had promised He was also
able to perform and that was accounted to them as
righteousness. As a result of their constant faith they
received the testimony they pleased God. Their faith
elevated them to a level of blamelessness before God and
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, whom
indwells them made their mortal bodies alive toward God.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, as it is
dead toward God because of sin. This is the reason why
those who sleep in Christ could not take their bodies with
them to heaven. At the last trumpet the dead in Christ will
be raised incorruptible and the living mortals in Christ will
put on immortality. However, Enoch and Elijah is living
proof that we can live the future today and before the
appointed time attain to the resurrection from the dead.
The saints die because they believe they have to die. Fear
of death is giving substance to their believe and so they are
dying.

What if you believe God that you will never see death but
eventually die? God will never ignore your faith that
created the substance of immortality. It will be reckoned to
you as if you have attained to the resurrection from the
dead. Your expressions of faith toward Him pleased Him.
Because you have believed Him you will be counted
among those that have never tasted death. Paul was such a
person. That I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being
conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the
resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11). It pleased
God in His infinite wisdom and immeasurable love that for
Paul’s own good he should suffered martyrdom for His
name’s sake.

People die because they are living according to the dictates

of the flesh as they are setting their minds on death. This is
a life separated from the Fountain of life, which is the
Source of all light and the embodiment of all truth. To be
carnally minded is death because the carnal mind is
enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God,
nor indeed can be. In the darkness of their carnal minds,
independently from God, they seek knowledge of good
(law or legalism) and evil (lawlessness). Good is better
than evil but it is still from the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil whereby death was
introduced into this world. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, which is the flesh, produces fruit of death,
darkness and the lie because it has no excess to God in the
Spirit who is life, light and truth. Those who are in the
flesh cannot please God because faith, hope and love are
only found in the realm of the Spirit. Without faith it is
impossible to please God. Unless you live in the Spirit you
cannot please God but you are suppressing the anointing
that is at work in you.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed us from

the law of sin and death. The righteous requirement of the
law could never have been fulfilled in the flesh but in the
Spirit. Eternal life is only found in the Spirit because Christ
who indwells you lives in heaven, which is Spirit. Those
who walk according to the Spirit are spiritually minded
and they are continuously renewed in the spirit of their
minds resulting in being changed from glory to glory into
the image of Christ as they behold Him in the Spirit. For
this reason, Enoch and Elijah attained to the resurrection
from the dead and were made perfect before the appointed
time.

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the

profit of all. Therefore do not neglect the anointing that is
in you, which you have received by the Spirit of God.
Meditate on the anointed areas in your life; give yourself
entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.
Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in
them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and
those who hear you (1 Timothy 4:14-16). Do not say to
yourself, “I am too old, I have not enough time.” Consider
that Jesus’ ministry on earth lasted only three and a half
years and He saved the world. It is the same One that lives
in you and is one Spirit with you. In all this we live not our
lives unto ourselves but unto God for the benefit of all.

The Spirit of God is given that we may know God as

Father and that we may be His sons by manifesting His
Son in us. Sonship is the manifestation of the Son of God in
us through His eternal Spirit. It is only through the Spirit
of God that we can live in the Spirit. Through the eternal
Spirit of God we offer our bodies that are dead toward
Him because of sin as being alive unto Him so that by faith
we procure the substance of Christ’s bodily perfection. We
are members of His body, His flesh and His bones
(Ephesians 5:30). He is the fullness of the godhead bodily;
so are we, His brothers, because we live and move and
have our being in Him. It is through the Spirit of God that
the manifestation of the Spirit of Christ is released in us. It
is through the Spirit of God that we are made conform to
the death of Christ and live the power of His resurrection.
Though we have not yet attained to this reality in the
natural realm or have been made perfect or we do not yet
see all things put under man, these things are very real in
the Spirit if our faith give substance to this hope. We only
posses what our faith embraces.