Being those who are Walking in the Truth of the Heavenly Vision of God’s Economy

For the next eight or nine weeks we are enjoying a new topic called, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today. These crucial points are: the recovery of the economy of God, the Triune God, the supreme preciousness of the all-inclusive Christ, the consummated Spirit, the eternal life, the recovery of the church, the oneness of the Body of Christ, the local ground of the church, and the Lord’s recovery versus the present evil age and the eschatology of the church.

What is “the Lord’s recovery”? The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of the truth; it has nothing to do with certain persons (whom the Lord used to recover truths in His word) but it is a recovery of the truth in the word of God. Throughout the centuries the truths in the Bible have been lost, but in the Lord’s recovery the Lord has been recovering them.

We may be from different nationalities, we may speak different languages, and we may have different backgrounds and skin color, but we have the same truth. The truth has nothing to do with persons – the truth is the truth.

We are not here in the Lord’s recovery because of our family or because of some people that we like but because we have seen the truth and we are captured by the unveiled truth in the Lord’s recovery. We remain in the Lord’s recovery not because we are “more seeking” or that we are special but because we have seen the truth.

Seeing the Absoluteness of the Truth and being Uplifted by the Truth

Human beings may change, but the truth does not change. We follow not people but the truth; the Lord has used some people to recover the truth, but we follow not people but the truth, and we follow those who speak the truth and cut straight the word of the truth.

Watchman Nee released something in 1948 concerning this matter under the title, The Absoluteness of the truth, and there are a few quotes that really touched and inspired me,

We have to realize that the condition of an individual has nothing to do with God’s truth. If truth is affected by man, the truth is no longer the truth. If the truth is not something absolute for you, you do not know God, and you do not know God’s word….

What I am personally cannot affect what God’s truth is. We cannot say that a teaching is right simply because others are good to us, and we cannot consider the same teaching wrong simply because others are not good to us. Once the truth becomes affected by human factors, it is no longer the truth; it becomes something else. If the truth is not absolute in you, you cannot go on. The truth can never be controlled by man. I cannot say that something is right simply because you and I are from the same school or were born in the same place. So many problems in the world and so many disputes in teachings arise because of changes in human factors, not because of a change in the truth itself….

The reason for so much darkness today is that man sacrifices the truth and forces the truth to yield to him. If you can take the truth as the unique standard and if you have the courage to say that since the Lord has done such and such a thing, you admit that you are wrong, new light will come, and a new way will be opened to you. Otherwise, you will end up thinking that you are the only right Christian on earth and that everyone else has to go along with you…We have to see that God’s word is right and we are wrong. Personally, I can have problems with you, but this must not affect the truth. God’s work is always sacrificed because of human relationships. The reason the truth is not absolute is that problems have developed in human relationships. We can sacrifice God’s truth today, but what will happen to the next generation? What will happen to those a hundred years after us? If we sacrifice the truth, they will not be able to see the truth. In order to be absolute, a man has to pay a great price. But if we are willing to pay the price to drop ourselves, others will receive the blessing. (Watchman Nee, Collected Works, set 3, vol. 57, The Absoluteness of the Truth – online here by LSM)

May we see the truth in the Bible, may we be recovered back to the divine revelation in the Word of God, and may we allow the truth to uplift us and bring us on with the Lord so that we may enter into His blessing and accomplish His purpose.

The truth never changes simply because we have a personal relationship with someone, because we change, or because others speak it in a diluted and low way; the truth is the truth, and when we uphold the truth we are on God’s way, we have fellowship with one another, and we receive more light from the Lord.

When we follow the truth and allow it to uplift us in our experience of Christ, we will never get lost, we will not misaim concerning the truth, and we will be full of light and life.

Lord Jesus, cause us to see the absoluteness of the truth and never dilute or lower down the truth because of our experience, circumstances, or natural relationships. Lord, we want to uphold the truth, follow the truth, and allow the truth to uplift our experience and enjoyment of Christ. Lord, save us from walking in the darkness of lowering the truth or not going along with the truth. We don’t want to sacrifice the light because of our feelings, circumstances, or natural relationships. Praise the Lord, we have the truth in the Bible opened up in the Lord’s recovery today!

Being those who are Walking in the Truth of the Heavenly Vision of God’s Economy

We thank the Lord that, through His ministers, God has opened up the matter of the economy of God today in the church life in the Lord’s recovery. If we don’t know God’s economy, we don’t know what God is doing in the entire Bible, and we don’t know what’s God’s master plan.

We must walk in the truth of the heavenly vision of God’s economy; this vision must be renewed in us day by day until it becomes a controlling vision of all our life, work, and activity (see Prov. 29:18; Acts 26:16-19; 1 John 1:7; 3 John 1:3-4).

In 1 Tim. 1:3-7 Paul uses two important words: “economy” and “misaim”; if we don’t know God’s economy, we will misaim concerning the faith and we turn aside to vain talking, fables, myths, and unending genealogies. If we don’t pay attention to God’s economy, we focus on other things than what God is doing and we misaim.

What is God’s economy?

God’s economy in faith is His household economy, His household administration…, which is to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that He may have a house to express Himself, which house is the church (1 Tim. 3:15), the Body of Christ. The apostle’s ministry was centered on this economy of God (Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17), whereas the different teachings of the dissenting ones were used by God’s enemy to distract His people from this economy. In the administration and shepherding of a local church, this divine economy must be made fully clear to the saints. (1 Tim. 1:4, footnote 3, Recovery Version Bible)

There are many things – good things, spiritual things, or good practices in the church life – that can distract us from God’s economy; in the old times the Judaizers and the Gnostics came in, and many believers were drawn away from God’s household administration.

We need to spend time with the Lord and be recovered back to God’s economy, and we need to fight anything that cause us to be distracted from God’s economy, which is in faith. God has a universal plan unveiled from Genesis to Revelation; God the Father in Christ the Son as God the Spirit gives Himself to man to be one with man, be mingled with man, and be incorporated with man to become the New Jerusalem, God’s expression for eternity.

In His economy God not only saves man from sin judicially but also works Himself into man to become everything to man and in man for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Our God is exceedingly rich, and He is the most profitable and wise Businessman; His capital is God Himself with all His riches, and He invests all that He has and is into man free of charge, so that many people would receive God, be filled with God, be constituted with God, and become God’s corporate enlargement, reproduction, and expression in the universe.

God is Spirit (John 4:24); the nature of His essence is Spirit, and so He went through a long process to become the life-giving Spirit to dispense Himself into those who receive Him and become their life, their life supply, and their everything to produce, constituted, and build up the organic Body of Christ which consummates in the New Jerusalem. This is God’s economy; this is His master plan, His household arrangement and dispensation.

We need to see a vision of God’s economy, and we need to walk in the truth of the heavenly vision of God’s economy, forsaking anything that would distract us from it or cause us to go astray from it.

When we walk in the truth, in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from every sin (1 John 1:9); when we walk in the light of the vision of God’s economy, we have much fellowship with one another, we are cleansed by the blood of Christ, and the Body of Christ is built up!

Lord Jesus, grant us a clear controlling vision of Your economy, Your plan to dispense Yourself into us to be our life and life supply to produce and build up the Body of Christ! Lord, may such a vision of Your economy, Your master plan, govern and direct our heart! We want to walk in the truth of the heavenly vision of God’s economy and have this vision renewed in us day by day until it becomes the controlling vision of all our life, work, and activity! Lord, work Yourself into us more today for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1964, vol. 3, “The Economy of God,” chs. 1, 4-5, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 1 / msg 1, The Recovery of the Economy of God.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # The faith is the economy, the economy of God / The household administration, the dispensing of our God / The truth is the contents, the reality of the faith, / According to God’s economy. (Song on God’s economy)
  # Oh, may a clear, controlling vision of / The Lord’s economy direct my heart, / And burn in me until my spirit’s wholly set afire! / With spirit strong and active we’ll press on / To consummate God’s goal— / New Jerusalem, Hallelujah! (Song on a vision of God’s economy)
  # God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself / Into His chosen, predestinated, and redeemed people / As their life (as their life), their life supply, (their life supply) / And their everything / To produce (to produce), constitute (constitute), / And build up the organic Body of Christ, / Which consummates the New Jerusalem. (Song on What is God’s Economy)