God’s great will in His New Testament economy is to have a Body for the enlargement and expression of Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God; it is for Him to gain the church as the enlargement and expression of God.
This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, Living a Life According to God’s Heart and Will.
The Bible says that David was a man after God’s heart and who carried out God’s will (Acts 13:22); in him God found a man according to His heart who will do all His will.
First God has a will, and out of this will issue a good pleasure; having a heart according to God’s heart enables us and prepares us to be persons who can carry out God’s will and live according to His will.
Being according to God’s heart and doing God’s will is the secret for us to carry out and progress in the practice of the God-ordained way to meet and to serve.
For us to be brought into the realization and practice of the way ordained by God to live and to serve, we need to be persons according to the heart of God and carry out His will.
We need to be today’s David, those having a desire according to God’s heart.
We need to know that God’s will is to have a Body for Christ to be expressed and enlarged; as we long for Him to have this Body, we realize that there are some practical keys in obtaining it.
First, we need the blending of the Body and in the Body, and then we need to realize that Christ is the replacement of all the offerings in the Old Testament typology, showing that we need to enjoy Christ as our everything.
As we enjoy Christ and take Him as everything, we become those who live in the revealed will of God – the Body of Christ; we have the Body life, we carry out the God-ordained way, and we bring forth the vitalized church life.
May we come to the Lord to be calibrated in our present experience of Christ and may we be brought into an intimate adjustment that will allow us to have a living according to His heart and will.
Being the David of Today, Men according to God’s Heart who do the Will of God in this Generation
When we speak of men according to God’s heart, we see David in the Old Testament who was a man according to God’s heart and who did the will of God and served in his own generation by the counsel of God (Acts 13:22, 36).
It was in David’s heart that he would build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.
Today God is blessing us in every way for the fulfillment of His economy to build up the Body of Christ (see 1 Sam. 13:14a; 1 Kings 8:17; 1 Chron. 22:7; 28:2; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20-22; 4:16).
In the uncertainties and turbulence and the questions of the situation in the world today, we have to realize that we need to be men according to God’s heart, the Davids of today, so that God would bless us in every way to enable us to fulfill His economy to build up a Body for Christ.
When we look at David and his positive pattern as a man according to God’s heart we will realize what kind of person we have to be to live a life according to God’s heart and will.
We need to be persons who aspire to be according to God’s heart.
For us to be today’s present-day-David, we need to realize that – just like David – we were divinely prepared to live this kind of life today, to be the David of today.
We love David with the many aspects of his glorious course (though he also had some great failings); one of the main aspects regarding David is that he was prepared by God to be a man according to God’s heart.
If God didn’t prepare him, he could not have been such a one; in a very real sense, he was created by God to be such a man.
We were prepared beforehand by God and we were created by Him to live a life according to His heart and for His will; we have to believe this fact, and we have to fulfill our role of being the David of today.
Don’t we have a sense that we are involved in something great related to God’s will?
We are here not for this or that but for the will of God. We are here for a cause; God prepared us that we may be the David of today, men according to God’s heart who do the will of God in this generation.
So we need to set our heart and our being to be persons who are according to God’s heart and will, living such a life before the Lord.
We have to respond to His preparation of us, to His sovereign arrangement (Acts 7:26, 36).
For us to be a present-day-David we need to live with Him a kind of life of romance – we love the Lord, He loves us, He draws us, we run after Him, and He makes us the same as He is until we correspond to Him in every way.
We have to speak to the Lord, engage with Him, having a loving relationship with the Lord.
Paul was besides himself unto God (2 Cor. 5:13), just as David was dancing with all his might before Jehovah, leaping and dancing with rejoicing (2 Sam. 6:14-16).
We need to have a heart according to God and have the same kind of demeanour, disposition, and feeling toward Him.
Lord Jesus, we aspire to be men according to Your heart who do the will of God and serve our own generation by the counsel of God! Thank You for choosing us and preparing us beforehand so that we may be those who are according to God’s heart and who do God’s will in our generation. We respond to You in love, Lord, and we seek after You; we love You, Lord Jesus, we are drawn by You, and we allow You to transform us and conform us to Your image. It is our desire to build a house for You so that You may gain the church as the Body of Christ, the enlargement and expression of the embodiment of the processed Triune God!
God’s Great Will is to have a Body for the Enlargement and Expression of Christ
Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him; In whom also we were designated as an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will…And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, Which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all…And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, In order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church, According to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eph. 1:9-11, 22-23; 3:9-11
In His New Testament economy God has a will; God’s great will, His good pleasure, the counsel of His will, and His purpose are to have a Body for the enlargement and expression of Christ, the embodiment and expression of the processed Triune God (Eph. 1:9-11, 22-23; 3:9-11).
The great will of God is to have a Body for Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God; His purpose is to have a Body to enlarge and express Christ, and this Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God.
This is a wonderful picture and a mystery of the dispensing Divine Trinity: first God embodies Himself in Christ, and He desires to have an enlargement for His embodiment in Christ.
We could say this is a two-step embodiment: first God came in Christ, His embodiment, and we can say that Christ is God’s man-ward embodiment, God becoming man, the God-man.
Then, through His death and resurrection Christ is man’s God-ward embodiment, man becoming God as the Body of Christ, as man is brought into Christ.
Christ is God’s man-ward embodiment through incarnation, and Christ is man’s God-ward embodiment through death and resurrection.
The Christ in whom all things are headed up and who is the secret of God’s will, the mystery of God, is the One in whom we come to be His embodiment, while He is the embodiment of the Triune God.
This can be imperfectly illustrated by a couple coming together in the way of courtship; there’s a distance between them, but they come to meet one another at a particular place, and the brother puts on the best suit to attract her, while she puts on the best garment to be pleasing to him.
In Christ God put on the suit of humanity to be embodied in Christ, and now we, coming to meet Him, we put on Christ as our garment, we put on divinity as our garment, to meet God in Christ.
When we do this, we are brought into a meeting place, where God and we come together in Christ, and Christ – God’s embodiment – is enlarged in us to have His embodiment.
When He has this in Christ by us being brought into Christ as His embodiment, He has the Body of Christ for Christ in His enlargement and expression.
Through this embodiment God in Christ has an expression that is recognizable.
Many times we may see someone walking in the distance while he’s with his back toward us, but simply by seeing the frame of the person, we know who he is.
By being brought into Christ to be His Body, now God in Christ is recognizable through us as His enlargement and expression.
May we be today’s David, those filled with a feeling for the Body of Christ, a longing for the Body to be brought forth in practicality for the fulfillment of the will of God!
The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, man is for the producing of the church, and the church is the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God (Zech. 12:1; John 1:12-13; Eph. 5:26; 2 Cor. 4:16; 3:18).
God’s great will is to have a Body composed of human beings who are regenerated, sanctified, renewed, and transformed into the image of the processed Triune God.
It is because of God’s will that all things were and were created (Rev. 4:11); therefore, the heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, man is for the church, and the church is the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God!
We were made with a spirit so that we would know, contact, and receive God, and so that we may be renewed and transformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, and thus become His enlargement and expression.
Have you ever considered what is the top item produced by God in this universe?
God produced the earth, the heavens, man, and thousands of items; but what is the ultimate outcome of God’s working? It is the Body of Christ.
What will ultimately come out of God’s working throughout all the centuries and all the generations is to have a Body; the top point of God’s entire revelation is the Body of Christ.
God’s great will is to have a church to be the organic Body of Christ for the manifestation of His multifarious wisdom (Eph. 3:9-10).
The Body becomes a display of God’s multifarious wisdom to all the principalities and powers in the entire universe, and God’s will is to have this declaration of His wise intent in His will.
In Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden; when through His working we are brought into Him to be the members of His Body, we become part of that wisdom, the treasury of wisdom.
As we partake of His wisdom, we enter into Him to be the church as the Body of Christ for the manifestation of His multifarious wisdom to the entire universe! Hallelujah!
Thank You Lord for revealing to us the great will of God, His good pleasure, the counsel of His will, and His purpose to have a Body for the enlargement and expression of Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God! Hallelujah, the heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, man is for the producing of the church, and the church is the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God! Wow, Lord, thank You for creating us with a spirit to contact You, receive You, and know You, so that we may be renewed and transformed to be part of the church, the organic Body of Christ, for the manifestation of God’s multifarious wisdom! Hallelujah!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Rick Scatterday for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” pp. 273-275, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 4, Living a Life according to God’s Heart and Will.
- Hymns on this topic:
– O Lord, against these days, / Inspire some for Your building, / Just as in David’s day— / A remnant who are willing / To come and work in Your house, / Oh, what a blessed charge! / Your heart’s desire, is our desire— / We come, O Lord, to build. (Hymns #1248)
– In order that now to the rulers / And authorities in heavenlies / The multifarious wisdom of God / Might be known through the church, / According to the eternal purpose / Which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Scripture song)
– In God’s house and in Thy Body / Builded up I long to be, / That within this corporate vessel / All shall then Thy glory see. (Hymns #840)
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