In this one Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit, the believers in Christ were all baptized into one Body and were also given to drink one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). We all were baptized in one Spirit to drink one Spirit. Now we have the one Spirit outwardly and inwardly. To be baptized in the Spirit is to get into the Spirit and to be lost in Him; to drink the Spirit is to take the Spirit in and to have our being saturated with Him.
This one Spirit is the Spirit of the Body (Eph. 4:4-6, 11-16) as the essence of the Body. The essence is more intrinsic than the element. Every substance has some element, and within the element there is the essence. The Spirit is the essence of the Body, the Lord is the element of the Body, and God the Father is the source of the Body. All three are in the one Body for the organic building up of the Body.
The one Spirit is with one Bible as the one divine revelation.
The one teaching in the New Testament is the teaching of the apostles concerning God’s economy (Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4) according to the entire New Testament (Rev. 22:18-19) with the base of the Old Testament (2 Tim. 3:16-17). In 1 Timothy Paul charged Timothy to stay in Ephesus in order to charge certain ones not to teach different things (1:3), but to teach God’s economy (v. 4). I can testify strongly that over the past seventy years, both Brother Nee and I have never taught different things. We have given thousands of messages, but all the messages are one teaching, the teaching concerning God’s eternal economy, which includes Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). We have taught only the things according to the apostles’ teaching, which is the New Testament teaching. This one teaching is with the base of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the base of our New Testament teaching.
The New Testament ministry is of all the New Testament ministers (2 Cor. 3:8-9, 6; 1 Tim. 1:12). The New Testament ministry is one. Second Corinthians 4:1 says, "Therefore having this ministry as we [the apostles] have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart." The ministry in this verse refers to the New Testament ministry, and here it is being compared to the Old Testament ministry in the preceding chapter. The Old Testament ministry was a ministry of condemnation (3:7, 9a); the New Testament ministry is of the Spirit and of righteousness (vv. 8, 9b). The Old Testament ministry was a ministry of death (v. 7); the New Testament ministry is a ministry of life (v. 6). This unique ministry is common to all the apostles of Christ. Although they are many, they have only one ministry—the ministry of the new covenant for the accomplishing of God’s New Testament economy.
All the New Testament ministers are of the New Testament ministry, the one ministry in the New Testament, for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12, 16). Because there is only one ministry, if you consider that you have a ministry, you must be a minister of the New Testament who teaches the teaching of the New Testament ministry. This unique ministry is the ministering of Christ to people for the building up of His Body.
If you study the Scripture references, the outlines, and the fellowship in this small book, you will see the full scope of the one Body and the one Spirit in the Bible.
(One Body and One Spirit, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)