I.　The consummated Spirit is one of the crucial points of the major items of the Lord's recovery; thus, we need to see a vision of the consum-mated Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God—John 7:39; Gal. 3:14; Phil. 1:19:

A.　The consummated Spirit is the Triune God after He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection—John 7:39:

1.　The process through which the Triune God passed to become the Spirit is an economical, not essential, matter—1:14; Heb. 9:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b:

a.　With God, change can never be essential; it can only be economical.

b.　In His economy God has changed in the sense of being processed; although God has changed in His economy, He has not changed in His essence.

2.　Processed refers to the steps through which the Triune God has passed in the divine economy; consummated indicates that the process has been completed; and the consummated Spirit implies that the Spirit of God has been processed and has become the consummated Spirit—John 7:39.

3.　The processes through which the Triune God has passed to become the consummated Spirit can be compared to cooking—1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b:

a.　Before His incarnation, the Triune God was the "raw" God, having only divinity.

b.　By the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Triune God was "cooked."

c.　Now in His economy God is no longer the "raw" God, God before His process, but the "cooked" God, God after His process; this "cooked" God is the consummated Spirit—Gal. 3:14.

4.　The consummated Spirit is the compound of the Triune God, the man Jesus, His human living, His death, and His resurrection—John 7:39; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:10-11; Phil. 1:19.

B.　Before the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the consummated Spirit was "not yet"—John 7:39:

1.　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.

2.　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.

3.　The last Adam, who was Christ in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection; since then, the Spirit of Jesus Christ has both divine and human elements, including the reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ—1 Cor. 15:45b; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9.

II.　The consummated Spirit was breathed as the holy breath into the disciples by the Son in resurrection—John 20:22:

A.　The Gospel of John reveals that Christ became flesh to be the Lamb of God and that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit; thus, in His resurrection He breathed Himself as the consummated Spirit into the disciples—1:29; 20:22:

1.　The Holy Spirit in 20:22 is the Spirit expected in 7:39 and promised in 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; and 16:7-8, 13; this indicates that the Lord's breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of the promise of another Comforter.

2.　Through death and resurrection Christ was transfigured into the Spirit—7:39.

3.　It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into His disciples, that He can live in the disciples and they can live by Him and with Him, and that He can abide in them and they can abide in Him—20:22; 14:19-20; 15:4-5.

4.　The Christ who breathed Himself into the disciples is the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b.

5.　By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord Jesus imparted Himself into them as life and everything.

6.　The Holy Spirit in 20:22 is actually the resurrected Christ Himself, because this Spirit is His breath; therefore, the Spirit is the breath of the Son.

B.　The Lord is the Spirit who gives life, and this Spirit is our breath—2 Cor. 3:6, 17; John 20:22:

1.　The Word, who was God, became flesh to be the Lamb of God, and in resurrection He became the holy breath for us to breathe in—1:29; 20:22.

2.　Christ is the Lamb-tree, for He is the Lamb for accomplishing redemption and the tree for imparting life; ultimately, the Lamb-tree is the holy breath—1:29; 11:25; 15:1; 20:22.

3.　Now we have Christ as the Word, the Lamb, the tree, and the breath: the Word is for expression, the Lamb is for redemption, the tree is for the impartation of life, and the breath is for our living—1:1, 29; 10:10b; 14:19.

C.　Paul's command to pray without ceasing implies that unceasing prayer is like breathing—1 Thes. 5:17:

1.　To live is to breathe; to breathe spiritually is to call on the Lord's name.

2.　We need to call on the Lord Jesus continually; this is the way to breathe, to pray without ceasing—Rom. 10:12-13.

3.　To pray without ceasing by calling on the Lord's name is to live Christ— Phil. 1:21a:

a.　If we would live Christ, we must breathe spiritually, and the way to breathe spiritually is to call on the name of the Lord—Lam. 3:55-56.

b.　By calling on the name of the Lord, we receive the consummated Spirit as the all-inclusive breath—John 20:22; Rom. 10:12-13.

D.　The consummated Spirit as the breath is everything to us in living the Christian life; only the breath, the Spirit, can be a Christian and be an overcomer—Gal. 3:2-3, 14; Phil. 1:19; Rev. 2:7.