God’s intention in creating man and God’s purpose in man’s suffering is God’s economy with His dispensing for Him to make us a God-man expressing God in His attributes; for this, He works around us and within us so that we may become the corporate expression of the Triune God.
Lord Jesus, we open to Your divine dispensing today. We want our vessel to be open to You. Have a way in our being. You see what the problems are in us. We say Amen to all Your dealings. Make us men of God filled with Christ to express God corporately. Gain Your full expression in us and through us. Amen, Lord, may we remain open to You even as we experience the stripping and the consuming. Add Yourself to our being. Constitute us with Yourself. Build us up with others to make us Your corporate expression on the earth! Amen!
So many times we believers in Christ pass through sufferings and hardships, and we may think as Job did, that God wants to test us or punish us for something we may have done.
It is true that God sometimes allows suffering and trials to come to us for this purpose, but we need to have a change in mind to see that God does all things for His economy.
He wants to carry out His economy, which is His divine dispensing into man to gain a corporate expression of Himself.
Sufferings are our portion in human life, and sometimes we have a larger portion of suffering, while at other times we have not so much suffering.
Throughout the suffering, however, as we go through sickness, trials, and difficulties, may we remain open to the Lord. May the Lord increase in us.
We may suffer blow after blow, but may we truly gain more of God as we suffer. More of God and less of us. More of Christ being wrought into us and less of our natural man.
God is not in the business of giving us more prosperity or material riches; He wants to give Himself to us, even to work Himself into us until we are a God-man expressing God in His attributes on the earth.
But we are so self-content and self-righteous that we do not see this; we may even want to argue with God about these things that befall us, thinking that God is unfair in what He does to us. Oh, Lord Jesus!
May we learn to open to the Lord as we go through all these things, and may we allow Him to work Himself into us a little more.
May we simply exercise our spirit, be poor in spirit, and allow the Lord to dispense Himself into us. May the quantity of God increase in us and may there be more constitution of God in our being.
God’s Economy is to make us Divinely Human and Humanly Divine, the Same as Christ, for the Building up of the Body of Christ Consummating in the New Jerusalem as His Eternal Glorious Expression
In the book of Job we see the sufferings and reasoning of this dear one, Job, who felt he was unfairly treated by God with all the things he went through, especially since he was a righteous man who had his integrity.
Job recognised that he was something rotten, something that would waste away (Job 13:28), but he continued to feel that he was not wrong in anything.
He realised that God had watched his paths and had set limits for him (v. 27), but he did not understand what was happening to him but rather, he wanted God to explain this situation.
Why the suffering? Why does so much suffering befall the seekers of God? We need to see the reason. The reason and purpose in God’s heart is God’s economy.
The purpose of suffering for a Christian is that God would dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into us, His chosen people, to be our life and nature so that we may become the same as He is for His fullness, His expression.
God has an economy, an arrangement, a plan for Him to dispense all that He is in His element, life, nature, and attributes, together with all He has done and achieved in Christ, into us.
He wants to dispense Himself into us to rebuild us by being constituted with Him, with His divine essence and element, so that we may no longer be merely human but also divine.
We are born of our human parents to be human beings, but we are reborn of God to be divinely human and humanly divine.
All believers in Christ have Christ in them as their life; they are regenerated with God’s life to be part of Christ, even to be the same as Christ, divinely human and humanly divine. Wow!
We are not just human: we are also divine, and we are not fully divine, but also human. Even as He is, a God-man, so we are on earth today.
If we look at the saints, we need to see that they are divinely human and humanly divine, and together we are an organism, the Body of Christ, which is the church of God!
Hallelujah, we together are the church of God as the new man in God’s new creation. Now we carry out God’s new “career”, that is, we build up the Body of Christ for the fullness, the expression of the Triune God.
Through regeneration we entered into the realm of God, and everything that happens to us, whether joyful or sorrowful, is for God’s economy so that we may be divinely human and humanly divine for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Hallelujah!
This organism of the Triune God, the Body of Christ, will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal and corporate glorious expression of the Triune God.
The New Jerusalem is the mingling of the Triune God and all His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite people.
The New Jerusalem is a constitution of God with man to express God for eternity.
It is the consummation of being divinely human and humanly divine, the consummation of the incarnation of God in man, and the consummation of the mingling of God with man for eternity.
If we see this, if we see what God’s economy is, we will realise that God does all things for this, for His economy to be carried out.
He wants to carry out His economy, and suffering helps us to open to Him for Him to work Himself into us little by little, day by day.
What we want is to get out of suffering and no longer experience trials and hardships; what God wants is to obtain an open vessel for Him to dispense Himself into us so that we may become His corporate expression, the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, we open to You. We just want to be an open vessel. Dispense Yourself into us. Work Yourself into us. We open to You even as we go through sufferings and hardships. Grant us to have a clear vision of Your eternal economy. Save us from trying to get out of sufferings and trials; may we learn to open to Your dispensing as we go through all things. Amen, Lord, dispense more of Yourself into us. Thank You for regenerating us with Your life to bring us into the realm of God. Continue, dear Lord, to transform us, conform us, and glorify us until You obtain what You are after, the Body of Christ as Your corporate expression! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You for Your building. Work in us and work around us for You to gain the building up of the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem! Make us a God-man expressing God in His attributes for God’s corporate expression! Oh Lord Jesus, reconstitute us with Yourself. Grant us to really open to You from deep within so that You may work Yourself into the depths of our being for Your Body!
All Things are for us to become a God-man Expressing God, Gaining God, and Becoming God
We human beings have three main questions related to our human existence, our daily life, and our purpose.
First, we all wonder why do we live here; that is, what is the meaning of our human life? Second, we experience all kinds of things, and many sufferings come our way; we wonder what is the purpose of all these sufferings? Is the purpose to test us, punish us, correct us, or do we have an ill fate?
The third question is, where are we going? What is our future? What is our destiny?
Everyone asks these three questions: what is the meaning of our human life, what is the purpose for our sufferings, and what is our destiny.
Among different civilisations, races, and countries, each had its own way to interpret these things. But thank the Lord that we have the Bible, the word of God.
What is the meaning of our human existence? As seen in Genesis 1:26, the meaning of our human existence is for us to express God. We are created in God’s image and according to His likeness for us to express God.
Many philosophers, scholars, and academics ask this question; according to God, the Creator, the meaning of our human existence is to express God.
Why does suffering come? Why do we have sufferings, illnesses, and hardships? The simple answer is that we may gain God. All things happen to us so that we may gain God.
If we see this, we will no longer try to merely do this or that to escape or cope with things; we will open to the Lord to gain more of God in all things.
The third question is, What is our future? What is our destiny and destination? According to the Bible, our destiny as human beings is to become God (John 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:4; 1 Tim. 3:16).
God created us in His image and according to His likeness for us to become the same as God in life, nature, expression, and function.
The purpose for our human existence is to express God. The purpose of suffering is to gain God. Our destiny is to become God.
If we don’t express God, our human life is altogether meaningless. Look at Job: he had everything, including wealth, houses, possessions, children, grandchildren, and fame.
Even more, he had so many virtues, uprightness, etc. But he did not express God, so he was short.
God was lovingly concerned for him, so He allowed Satan to deal with him until Job was an open vessel for him to gain God, for God’s purpose and desire is not to gain a good man but a God-man expressing God.
If we are to compare Job with Solomon, we may say that Solomon also was very smart and had many riches, being the richest king with God-given wisdom; we realise that Solomon was not that moral but rather, he was bankrupt in morality, while Job was a perfect man.
God used Satan as an ugly tool to take all of Job’s possessions in one night, then He allowed Satan to even touch Job’s health and make him suffer even more, yet not take his life.
Job was stripped of everything he possessed and was reduced to nothing. Yet he still thought he had something: his uprightness, his perfectness, and his morality.
He did not allow these to go from him. Actually, these are the things that God wanted to strip him off, not just the outward possessions.
When Job saw God, he simply denied himself, repented in dust and ashes, and gained God. He did not fully understand that it was because of the economy that God was dealing with him in this way, but we today can see this.
We may ask ourselves why so many bad things happen to us. A strange sickness may come upon us, or one of our children is particularly difficult and gives us a hard time. Our boss at work may pressure us very much, or our spouse at home may be extremely difficult.
As Paul said, All things work together for good to those who love God (Rom. 8:28-29). This good is not us having more material possessions after we suffer; it is for us to gain more God so that we may become God.
God does a work of stripping and consuming in us to cause us to be open to Him for Him to infuse us with Himself and for us to gain God so that we may become a God-man expressing God.
This is the main content of the New Testament: God’s economy, His good pleasure to dispense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people in His life and in His nature to make them all the same as He is as His duplication so that they may express Him (Eph. 2:21-22).
God is not cruel; this is what Satan wants us to think. There’s something hidden in His heart, which is His economy, and He wants us to be a God-man expressing God in His attributes.
He wants us to express God, gain God, and even become God. What a glorious destiny we have!
May we open to the Lord for His divine dispensing day by day so that He may gain in us what He is after today and every day until we express God, gain God, and become God!
Lord Jesus, unveil us to see the purpose of our human life, the purpose of suffering, and our destiny as human beings according to God’s word. May we realise that we were created in God’s image and according to His likeness so that we may express God! Hallelujah, we are God-men who express God by His life and nature! Amen, Lord, may we see that the purpose of sufferings is that we may gain more of God. May we be open to You to gain more of You day by day, even as we go through sufferings. Hallelujah, our destiny is to become the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead! Wow, what a glorious destiny we have! What a wonderful economy God has for Him to dispense Himself into us and make us part of His corporate expression, even the same as Christ in every possible way! Amen, Lord, we open to You today. We open to Your divine dispensing. Make us part of Your enlarged corporate expression today and for eternity! Praise the Lord for God’s eternal economy!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Job, msg. 12 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Noah, Daniel, and Job – Patterns of Living an Overcoming Life on the Line of Life to Fulfill the Economy of God (2026 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 5, God’s Intention with Job— That a Good Man Become a God-man – day 4.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, I’ll praise Thee, e’en if weeping / Mingle with my song. / Thine increasing sweetness calls forth / Grateful praises all day long. / Thou hast made Thyself more precious / Than all else to me: / Thou increase and I decrease, Lord— / This is now my only plea. / Each blow I suffer / Is true gain to me. / In the place of what Thou takest / Thou dost give Thyself to me. (Hymns #626 stanza 5 and chorus)
– God’s intention in this universe is with humanity, / So the Lord became the Spirit just with man to mingled be. / We rejoice that we can all partake of His economy. / Yes, mingling is the way. / From the fruit of daily living, New Jerusalem we’ll see, / It’s the ultimate in mingling—it’s divine humanity. / And what joy that we can share it all, and share it corporately. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199 stanzas 1 and 6)
– It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ make home in me; / Not just outwardly to serve Him, / But Christ dwelling inwardly. / It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ my hope may be; / It is not objective glory, / But ’tis Christ subjectively. (Hymns #538 stanzas 4-5)
