We need to be Constituted with the Truth to have the Divine Reality Wrought into us

We need to be constituted with the truth – the truth has to become our very constitution, even to be constant and long-term nourishment, not merely an inspiration or temporary nourishment. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, Being Constituted with the Truth and Being Absolute for the Way of the Truth and the Propagation of the Truth for the Consummation of the Divine Economy.

The church is both the church of the living God and the pillar and base of the truth; especially in this age of the degradation and decline of the church, for us to be normal, we need to be constituted with the truth.

Both Paul and John stressed this matter very much. In his epistles to Timothy and in Titus, Paul stressed the truth very much, even more than stressing life.

There are more verses speaking of the truth in these three epistles than the verses speaking of the divine life.

Paul saw that the church is in a state of decline and degradation, and he knew that the remedy was the truth.

We do have the foundation of life, and we stress the matter of enjoying and experiencing Christ as life, but there’s a shortage in the matter of the truth.

Rev. 2-3 reveals how the church has degraded throughout history, little by little; these two chapters are the Lord’s speaking and His prophetic word.

The first church, Ephesus, left her first love and was degraded, so the Lord asked them to return to the first love and do the first works.

If we read 1 and 2 Timothy, however, we see the deeper cause of the degradation of the church in Ephesus, and that is the forsaking of the truth, the forsaking of the healthy teaching of God’s economy.

This is why Paul left Timothy in Ephesus, to charge certain ones not to teach different things but rather teach God’s economy, which is in faith.

For us to be guarded in the experience of life, we need to have the truth, the healthy teaching. We need to first know the truth and arrive at the full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4; 4:3) so that we may be the church, the pillar and the base of the truth (3:15).

Many believers, however, are deprived of the truth (1 Tim. 6:5); this doesn’t mean that they never had the truth but that they lost it or forsook it, and now they are deprived of the truth.

How shameful it would be for us who are in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, with so much truth in the ministry, having the ministry of the age, to be in a situation where we are deprived of the truth!

Some misaim concerning the truth (2 Tim. 2:18); they have the word of God, emphasize the word of God, but they don’t emphasize the right thing – they misaim.

Even worse, some oppose the truth (2 Tim. 3:8); this happens both in Christianity and in the world – people know the truth but they willingly oppose it. Oh, Lord!

Some truth away their ear from truth to myths and genealogies and other things (2 Tim. 4:3-4); they have itchy ears, inclining their ears to hear myths and other things, rather than God’s economy which is in faith.

There’s warfare related to the truth, a fight over the truth; we need to come to the Word of God in a living way and seek to be constituted with the truth.

For the Consummation of the Divine Economy, we need to be Constituted with the Truth

God has an economy, and His intention in His economy is to dispense Christ with all His riches into us, His believers, for the constitution of the Body of Christ, the church, to express the processed and consummated Triune God (Eph. 3:8-10).

God desires to gain the Body of Christ for Him to be expressed in a corporate way through His people, the church; the way He gains this is His economy.

God’s economy is a matter of the divine dispensing, God dispensing the riches of Christ into us, His chosen people, for us to be constituted with the very Triune God and become His corporate expression.

The fulfillment of God’s intention in His economy depends on each one of us daily receiving the riches of Christ being dispensed into us and enjoying them so that we may live Christ and express Him.

In practicality, this has very much to do with the Word of God, the Bible, and our coming to the Lord in His word every day to open to Him and receive Him.

For the consummation of the divine economy, we need to be constituted with the truth (1 John 2:4; 1 John 1-2).

To be constituted with the truth doesn’t merely mean that we read the Bible according to a schedule or simply to have a solid time of enjoying the Lord in the morning revival.

We do need these things, but we need to pay the price to get the truth infused into us and constituted into our being; for this, a cost is required.

If we say that we know Him but do not keep His commandments, we are a liar and the truth is not in us.

This means that, if we say that we know God yet we are not constituted with the truth in our very being, having His living word constituted into us, we are a liar.

The Lord is faithful to speak His word to us, but are we faithful to get into the truth and be constituted with the truth?

Do we walk in the truth by having the truth constituted into our being to become our constitution?

The divine reality needs to be constituted into us; if we say we know God yet we don’t allow His word to dwell within us and be wrought into us so that it is constituted into us, we will only get some inspiration, something temporary, or some nourishment for our going on with the Lord, but the truth is not in us.

For the truth to be in us means that the truth is constituted into our being.

We may be inspired by the sharing in a certain meeting, but after the meeting is over, the inspiration may also go away.

We need constitution, not merely inspiration; we need something deeper, not just a mere understanding of the truth.

Some Christians attend Christian services, hear sermons, and go to Sunday school, but nearly nothing gets into them.

Even in the church life, it is so enjoyable to be in the meetings, enjoy the Lord with the saints, and join the home meetings, the young people meetings, and the group meetings.

But what about our constitution with the truth? For the consummation of God’s economy, we need to be constituted with the truth.

For God to carry out and consummate His economy, the divine reality contained in the Word of God needs to be wrought into us to become our very constitution.

The intrinsic element of the divine revelation has to be wrought into our being day by day, week by week, and year by year, so that we may have a solid constitution of the truth in us; then, we can walk in truth and we can truly say that we know Him, for we have His word abiding in us.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be constituted with the truth. Save us from merely having a temporary inspiration and nourishment in the Word of God; may the truth be constituted into us. Work Yourself into us, Lord, as we get into the Word of God to have the divine reality infused and constituted into our inner being. May we pay the price to go deeper into the word of God and dig in the riches in Your word so that the intrinsic element of the divine revelation may be wrought into us. Amen, Lord, may we be those who are constituted with the truth for the consummation of the divine economy!

To be Constituted with the Truth is to have the Divine Reality Wrought into us to be a Constant and Long-term Nourishment

What does it mean to be constituted with the truth?

1 John 1:8 says that, if we say we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

In a book in which he stresses the fellowship of life, John also stresses the truth in a practical way.

The truth is the realization and expression of the divine light; when the light of God reaches us, it becomes truth to us.

God is light, and when we move out of ourselves and into the Triune God by the sanctification of the truth, He shines on us, and He both shows us His riches for our enjoyment and He shines to expose us of what we are.

Many times we can testify that, as we enjoy the Lord in His word, He as the Spirit of reality guides us into the reality of what He is, and we enjoy His riches in a deeper way.

At the same time, however, He exposes us and shows us our sins and trespasses; this leads us to confess our sins and to more shining of the light.

We need that the Word of God would be not just a “news report” but a “live television”, a live televising of what God is into us.

We need to have the Word of God become the Spirit to infuse something of God into our being.

The word of God shouldn’t just be a doctrine to us; when the Lord’s light shines on the truth, the truth is constituted into our being.

We need the Spirit-word to operate in us; then, the Spirit, who is called the Spirit of reality, can guide us into all the reality.

We should not be afraid of the Lord’s shining, for this shining simply removes the obstacles within us for us to live in the reality.

The Spirit is using every opportunity, every discrepancy, and every little storm that comes up in our family life, our marriage life, at work, and at school, to both expose us and to shine on the divine riches to guide us into all the reality of what God in Christ is to us.

The Spirit of reality wants to apply the truth we have enjoyed and work it into our being in a deeper way, eliminating the things that need to be eliminated and depositing the truth into our being.

On one hand, the truth sets us free from the bondage of sin and from our way of thinking; on the other hand, the truth sanctifies us both by separating us unto God and by saturating us with the element of God.

The solid truth that is constituted into us becomes in us a constant and long-term nourishment.

It is not that difficult to be inspired by what the word of God says or what the saints share in the meeting; however, a price needs to be paid if we want to be constituted with the truth.

As we have experiences with the Lord and He shines on us, we confess our sins, and the Lord is able to go deeper in us; the truth is being dispensed into our being to become not just an inspiration but long-term nourishment.

Such experiences equip us to minister to others.

In 1 Tim. 4:6 Paul says that, if we lay these things before the brothers, we will be good ministers of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching.

The first person who gets nourished with the words of the faith and of the truth is not others but ourselves; we need to enjoy these words and have them as reality being wrought into us, and then we can speak them to others.

In this way, we can both be nourished and can give others food at the proper time.

How do we have or get the food that we minister to others?

It is by the experiences throughout our life, as we come to the Lord in His word again and again to have the divine reality wrought into us to become constant nourishment, long-term nourishment.

If we come to the word of God in a consistent way day by day, praying and reading the word, even musing on the word of God throughout the day, and if we read the footnotes in the Recovery Version Bible and the life-studies, something of the truth is wrought into us.

We need to take the Bible and the footnotes with the life-studies as our textbook, study them, and pray over them so that the truth would be wrought into us.

When what we read becomes a truth in our being, this nourishment remains forever; if it remains only as an inspiration, however, it is like vapour that will go away.

The truth – the divine reality in God’s word containing the Triune God with His riches – needs to become our constitution so that it would remain in us forever and constantly supply us.

Lord Jesus, may the intrinsic element of the divine revelation be wrought into us to become our constituent. Amen, Lord, we come to You in Your word not only to be inspired or nourished but to be constituted with the truth in our intrinsic being. May the divine reality be wrought into us to become our organic constitution. Amen, Lord, may the truth be part of us, even us; may the solid truth be constituted into us to become in us a constant and long-term nourishment. Shine on Your word as we come to You day by day; may anything of sin, the self, and the old man be exposed and eliminated, and may Your riches be wrought into us day by day. Amen, Lord, give us the experiences we need for the truth to be wrought into us and become our very constitution.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” pp. 312-313, 336, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 3, Being Constituted with the Truth and Being Absolute for the Way of the Truth and the Propagation of the Truth for the Consummation of the Divine Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – This good deposit is the mark / Of God’s economy, / Without it we will miss the aim / Of His recovery. / The myst’ry of the common faith, / A conscience pure requires; / A holy, separated life / For us the Lord desires. (Hymns #1285)
  – God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself / Into His chosen, predestinated, and redeemed people / As their life, their life supply, / And their everything / To produce, constitute, / And build up the organic Body of Christ, / Which consummates the New Jerusalem. (Song on, God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself)
  – God’s word is a bounty of food for our eating; / This food constitutes us, through prayer, hour by hour; / By this constitution we’re readied for battle, / And, led by the Spirit, we speak with His pow’r! (Song on, The church is the Bride, the new man, and the warrior)