Excerpts from the CNT:

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 Spirit of Jesus is not only the Spirit of God with divinity in Him that we may live the divine life but also the Spirit of the man Jesus with humanity in Him that we may live the proper human life and endure its sufferings.

a. Being the Holy Spirit

We need to pay careful attention to two divine titles in verses 6 and 7—“the Holy Spirit” and “the Spirit of Jesus.” The interchangeable use of these two titles reveals that the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit” is a general title [3000] of the Spirit of God in the New Testament. “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. This indicates that 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. Such an all-inclusive Spirit was needed for the apostle’s preaching ministry, a ministry of suffering carried out among human beings and for human beings in the human life.

In Acts 16 Luke first speaks of the Holy Spirit and then of the Spirit of Jesus—two titles for the Spirit of God not found in the Old Testament. The title “the Holy Spirit” was used for the first time at the conception of the Lord Jesus. 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 term “the Holy Spirit” came into use (Luke 1:15, 35; Matt. 1:18, 20). 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. Hence, according to the principle of first mention, the Holy Spirit is related to Christ’s incarnation and birth. This title indicates God’s coming into man to be one with man in incarnation. In the New Testament, the title “the Holy Spirit” indicates that God is now mingling Himself with man.

In Acts 16:7 Luke turns from the Holy Spirit to the Spirit of Jesus. As a man, Jesus first lived a human life and then was crucified and resurrected, and He ascended to the heavens and was made Lord and Christ. Thus, the Spirit of Jesus implies the Lord’s humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension.

b. Guiding the Apostles in Their Ministry

In Acts 16 we see that the move of the apostles in their evangelistic work was, strictly speaking, not by the Spirit of God. Rather, it was by the Holy Spirit, who was involved with the Lord’s incarnation and birth, and by the Spirit of Jesus, who was involved with the Lord’s humanity, human living, [3001] death, resurrection, and ascension. These two divine titles indicate strongly that Paul’s move in his evangelical work was not something in the way of the old dispensation. If it had been a move in the old dispensational way, then the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Jehovah should have been mentioned. But in Acts 16 there is no mention of the Spirit of God or of the Spirit of Jehovah. Instead, we are told that Paul and his co-workers were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia and were not allowed by the Spirit of Jesus to go into Bithynia. The fact that Luke speaks of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus indicates that the evangelical work of the apostles was a new move in God’s New Testament economy.

God’s New Testament economy is carried out through the Lord’s incarnation, humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. The Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus include these matters. This means that the Spirit, who is now called the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus, is the totality and ultimate consummation of Christ’s incarnation, humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. When we have this Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus, we have Christ in His incarnation, in His humanity and human living, and in His death, resurrection, and ascension.

Elsewhere we have pointed out that after His resurrection and in His resurrection Christ became the pneumatic Christ. The pneumatic Christ is identical to the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). The Holy Spirit, who is also the Spirit of Jesus, is the totality of this pneumatic Christ. The pneumatic Christ is constituted of certain elements: incarnation, humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. In the entire universe He is the only One who possesses these six qualifications. Only He is qualified with incarnation, humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. Hence, the Spirit of Jesus is the realization of this qualified Jesus. The Spirit of Jesus is the totality of such an all-inclusive One. In Acts 16 Paul and his co-workers were moving under the direction of such a Spirit, the Spirit who is the totality of the all-inclusive Christ.

The Spirit of Jesus is the totality and realization of Christ as the uniquely qualified One, the One qualified through [3002] incarnation, humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of the One with humanity, who lived a human life on earth for thirty-three and a half years, who died an all-inclusive death, who resurrected from the dead to propagate the divine life by imparting it into all His believers, and who ascended to the heavens to be made Lord and Christ. The Spirit who did not allow the apostles to go into Bithynia was the Spirit of this Jesus. This Spirit is the totality and the full realization of the all-inclusive Jesus. These verses prove that the apostles were moving under the direction and guidance of such an all-inclusive Spirit.

The kind of work we do for the Lord depends on the kind of Spirit by whom we are guided, directed, instructed, and constituted. Paul was not constituted of the Spirit of God or of the Spirit of Jehovah but of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus. As a vessel containing the Triune God, Paul was fully constituted of the Holy Spirit, who was involved with the Lord’s incarnation and birth, and of the Spirit of Jesus, who was involved with the Lord’s humanity, human living, all-inclusive death, life-imparting resurrection, and ascension. Paul was a person constituted of this all-inclusive Spirit. Thus, when he came out to preach, he could truly preach Jesus Christ.

We need to be impressed with the fact that the kind of work we do for the Lord depends on the Spirit by whom we are guided and of whom we are constituted. Actually, this Spirit should become our constitution. Then our work will be the expression of this Spirit, and we will do a work for Jesus as the incarnated One with humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. If we are constituted of the Spirit of Jesus, we will do the work of ministering Jesus as the all-inclusive One and convey Him as such a One to others.