Hallelujah, what a privilege to be daily in the divine transmission by receiving and dispensing grace continually!
It is so wonderful that we have been given the stewardship of grace, and day by day there’s a marvelous transmission taking place: God is flowing in us as the Spirit, and we receive and dispense the Spirit of grace continually!
Amen, the stewardship of grace was given to us for others, that is, we enjoy the grace of God and we also dispense grace into others for their enjoyment!
What is the meaning and implications of this word, stewardship?
We may not talk about it too much in our daily life and church life; rather, we may speak of fellowship, eldership, etc…but we all have been entrusted with the stewardship of God, which is the stewardship of grace.
A steward is not someone who owns the riches or the food; rather, someone else owns all the riches and the supply, and he appoints a trustworthy person or persons who can distribute these riches and this supply to the members of the household.
This is us: we don’t own the divine riches but rather, we receive these riches, we enjoy them, they constitute us, they build us up, and they fill us; then, we become stewards to distribute these riches into others by dispensing God into man.
Paul testified that he became a minister – a steward – according to the stewardship of God which was given to him for us, the believers in Christ (Col. 1:25).
The stewardship of the grace of God was given to Paul for us (Eph. 3:2), and he sought to be accounted in this way, as a servant of Jesus Christ and as as stewards of the mysteries of God, one who is faithful to God in His economy.
God has an economy; He has marvellous and unsearchable riches, and He wants to dispense these into man, so that man would become a channel, a steward, an administrator, a dispenser of the riches of Christ into others according to the stewardship of God.
When we receive and enjoy the divine dispensing, we not only grow in life and are constituted with the riches of Christ, but we are also entrusted with the divine stewardship so that we may dispense these riches into others.
Our rich God has a great family, and He wants all the riches of His being to be dispensed into His people for their enjoyment and supply; we as believers are, on one hand, the recipients of the riches of Christ, and on the other, we become the dispensers of these riches.
So on one hand we receive the divine dispensing, and on the other, we learn to dispense Christ into others for the producing and building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
Enjoying the Grace of God Daily and Dispensing the Spirit of Grace Continually
The stewardship of God entrusted to us is the stewardship of grace (Eph. 3:2); this stewardship of grace is the economy of grace to carry out God’s New Testament economy. What is God dispensing? He is dispensing grace.
What is grace? Many Christians think that grace refers mainly to material blessings; but the New Testament tells us that the law was given through Moses, but grace came through Jesus Christ.
So in other words, grace came in Christ – so before Christ, grace as God for our enjoyment was not there yet. God certainly bestowed material blessings on His people before Christ; grace is much more and much deeper than material blessings.
Grace is God Himself given to us, gained by us, and enjoyed by us. God came in Christ to be enjoyed by us, and in Christ God can be enjoyed by man. In Christ and through Christ we receive God, and God becomes our enjoyment; grace, therefore, is God being dispensed into us to be our enjoyment.
The stewardship of grace is the dispensing of God into people to be their enjoyment. Our stewardship therefore is to dispense grace into others.
The grace given to us was actually bestowed on us before the world began; this is a sure and unshakeable foundation that stands firm against the downward current and exposes the utter powerlessness of the enemy’s efforts to counter the eternal purpose of God (2 Tim. 1:9).
We believers in Christ should enjoy God as grace daily, and we need to dispense the Spirit of grace continually to those around us. We preach the gospel to carry out God’s economy by dispensing God into others.
When we go to school or to work, our purpose is the carrying out of our stewardship according to God’s economy for His dispensation. When we speak to others we don’t only do a work of gospel preaching but we are dispensing God into man!
Oh, what a glorious ministry we have, and what a wonderful stewardship was entrusted to us! It is our privilege to enjoy God in Christ as grace and to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ into others!
This grace came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17) – grace is not a thing but a person, the incarnated Triune God in Christ to be our enjoyment.
God, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time as grace for man to receive, possess, and enjoy; Christ made God contactable, touchable, receivable, experienceable, enterable, and enjoyable (see John 1:1, 14, 16-17).
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the bountiful supply of the Triune God – who is embodied in the Son and realized as the life-giving Spirit – enjoyed by us through the exercise of our human spirit (Gal. 6:18).
Grace is nothing else but the Divine Trinity transmitted into us for our enjoyment; grace is the manifestation of the Triune God in His embodiment in three aspects – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27; Psa. 36:8-9).
The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10); the source of the grace of the Lord is the love of God (which is God Himself, see 1 John 4:8, 16), and the transmission of the grace and the love for our participation is the fellowship of the Spirit (which is the Spirit Himself, see 2 Cor. 13:14).
The ministry that we have received is not of knowledge or of the law but of grace; when we receive the ministry, we leave happy, supplied, joyful, and loving the Lord – this is the ministry of grace, not of doctrine.
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming as the embodiment of the Triune God to make God contactable, touchable, receivable, experienceable, enterable, and enjoyable! Hallelujah, God in Christ came to be received, possessed, and enjoyed by us! Lord, we exercise our human spirit to enjoy the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the bountiful supply of the Triune God. Amen, Lord, may our enjoyment of God in Christ as grace fill us unto overflowing so that we may overflow with the riches of Christ to others for the dispensing of God into man!
Being Daily in the Divine Transmission by Receiving and Dispensing Grace Continually
Realizing that God’s desire is to dispense Himself into man in Christ as the Spirit, we should daily be in this divine transmission, receiving and dispensing grace continually!
Day by day a marvellous divine transmission should be taking place – God is supplying the Spirit of grace bountifully to us, and we should be receiving and dispensing the Spirit of grace continually (Heb. 10:29; Gal. 3:2-5; Eph. 3:2; 4:29).
The Triune God dispenses Himself into us to be our portion of grace so that we may enjoy Him as our everything in His divine Trinity. When we partake of God as our enjoyment, we can dispense Him as grace into others; this is the dispensation of grace.
We should be receiving and dispensing grace continually. The only way we can dispense grace continually is if we are receiving grace continually.
We have many opportunities every day to dispense grace to others; not only in the meetings should we dispense grace to others, but also outside the meetings, when we have a meal together, when we receive or give hospitality, when we clean the meeting hall, and in many situations, we need to be those receiving and dispensing grace continually.
If we are those receiving and enjoying grace continually, we will dispense this grace to others spontaneously wherever we are, at any time, and to whomever we meet.
May we be receiving grace all the time, and may we allow grace to flow out through us to others.
The gospel of the grace of God is the stewardship of grace to dispense God into people for their enjoyment; Paul, in his ministry, solemnly testified of the gospel of the grace of God to minister God into people (Eph. 3:1-2; Acts 20:24).
Even preaching the gospel starts with the stewardship, for the gospel of the grace of God is the stewardship of grace to dispense God into people for their enjoyment.
Even those who are recently saved among us can preach the gospel to dispense God into man, and they can boldly say, God can be your enjoyment – God wants to get into you if you call on Him to enjoy Him!
We can participate in such an elementary form of the gospel of the grace of God. Even more, our Christian living is the living of grace, the experience of grace, so that we may carry out our stewardship of grace, the dispensing of grace (2 Cor. 12:9; 2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 3:2).
Unless in our daily living we have the experience of grace and the enjoyment of grace, how can we minister grace to others? If we don’t enjoy God as grace, how can we minister Him as grace to others?
We need to be those receiving and dispensing God as grace into others. If we don’t enjoy grace, we may minister the law or regulations to others. But if we are a person living in grace and enjoying grace, we will dispense to others the grace that we have enjoyed and has become our life.
The practical life and building up of the Body of Christ comes forth out from the inward enjoyment of Christ as the grace of God (1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 13:14). May we be those receiving the abundance of grace every day and dispensing this grace to others, so that we may carry out our stewardship of grace.
Lord Jesus, keep us under this marvellous divine transmission daily, receiving and dispensing the Spirit of grace continually! Amen, Lord, may we grasp every opportunity to receive and enjoy God in Christ as grace, and may we seek to minister the riches of Christ as grace to others so that they may also enjoy God! May our Christian living be the living of grace and the experience of grace so that we may carry out our stewardship of grace, which is the dispensing of grace! Amen, Lord, may our inward enjoyment of Christ as grace and our dispensing grace into others contribute to the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 8, Carrying Out the Stewardship of God for the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Grace in its highest definition is / God in the Son to be enjoyed by us; / It is not only something done or giv’n, / But God Himself, our portion glorious. / God is incarnate in the flesh that we / Him may receive, experience ourself; / This is the grace which we receive of God, / Which comes thru Christ and which is Christ Himself. (Hymns #497)
– The Father, who is veiled in light, / The Son to man hath fully shown; / The Spirit then transmitteth Him / That He may inwardly be known. (Hymns #610)
– The love of God, the grace of Christ, / The Spirit’s flowing free, / Enable us God’s wealth to share / Thru all eternity. / The Father, Son, and Spirit-one, / So richly care for us; / Thy love with one accord we sing / And e’er would praise Thee thus. (Hymns #12)
About aGodMan
