We want to be those who cooperate with God’s economy by exercising our spirit day by day to receive God’s dispensing.
God’s eternal economy is His household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people so that He may have a house to express Himself; we cooperate with God’s economy by seeing it and by exercising our spirit to receive the divine dispensing so that we may be His house, the organism of the Triune God. Amen!
This week we start a new Holy Word for Morning Revival based on the 2024 April ITERO (International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones) with the general topic of, Being a Vessel unto Honor, a Fully Equipped Man of God, by being Empowered in the Grace which is in Christ Jesus to Fully Accomplish our Ministry in the Unique Ministry of God’s Economy. Amen!
This first week our topic is, Living in the Reality of God’s Eternal Economy for Its Fulfillment by Building Up a Habit of Exercising Our Spirit, Fanning Our God-given Spirit into Flame.
Amen, we need to exercise our spirit day by day, even fan our spirit into flame, so that we may live in the reality of God’s eternal economy.
God’s economy is in faith, and faith is in our spirit.
We want to go deeper into the book of 2 Timothy and see Paul’s dying word to the church; this is his last word to the church, so it is of utmost importance.
We want to see what kind of persons we need to be so that we may live in the reality of God’s eternal economy.
We want to be vessels unto honour, men of God who are fully equipped by being empowered in the grace which is in Christ Jesus, so that we may fully accomplish our ministry and the unique ministry of God’s economy.
The apostle Paul was a pattern to the believers; throughout the ages, we believers in Christ take Paul as our pattern, even as he took Christ as his pattern.
We may be young believers, but we should not let anyone despise our youth but rather, be a pattern to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity (1 Tim. 4:12).
It is important for us to follow the Lord’s pattern and Paul’s pattern. And it is important for us to be a pattern to the younger believers in the Lord.
Paul did not only preach the gospel to the unbelievers and teach the new believers the sound teachings of God’s New Testament economy; he fed them with his own living and experience of Christ.
In other words, Paul fed his spiritual children with his own living of Christ, showing them a pattern of one who lives Christ and magnifies Christ by his living.
This was a pattern to the believers. He could tell the Thessalonian believers, Remember the kind of men we were among you.
May we pay attention not only to what we speak, so that we speak God’s New Testament economy, but even more to what we are, how we are, and the kind of living we have, for we all need to be a pattern to others by taking the Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul as our pattern.
God’s Eternal Economy is His Household Administration to Dispense Himself into us to gain the Church, the Body of Christ
The subject of the entire Bible is God’s economy. God’s eternal economy is His household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people so that He may have a house to express Himself; this house is the church, the Body of Christ (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 3:15; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:10; 3:8-9; 2:10).
God’s eternal economy is His eternal plan, and His divine dispensing is the means by which He accomplishes His plan.
A country has an economy by means of which it dispenses the riches of that country to the people of that country.
God has an economy, a plan, to dispense and infuse all His riches into the people He has chosen, redeemed, and regenerated. God’s economy is wonderful and marvellous; it is a fascinating matter.
We should not take God’s economy for granted.
The center, circumference, element, sphere, means, goal, and aim of God’s economy is Christ Himself; in fact, all the contents of God’s eternal economy are simply Christ (Matt. 17:5; Eph. 3:6; Luke 24:44).
God has many riches, and all these riches are embodied in Christ; God’s economy is focused on Christ.
He is the Head of the Body and He is the Body of the Head.
When others want to know God and the prophets and the law, God focuses only on Christ; His word is that we should hear Christ.
In Christ the Father delights. We are in Christ, and therefore the Father delights in us.
In Luke 24:44, after the Lord resurrected, He walked with His sad and disappointed disciples on the way to Emmaus, and He opened the enter Old Testament for them to see that everything speaks concerning Him.
He also had to open their mind so that they would understand the Scriptures for them to see that everything is about Him (v. 45).
May we exercise to be poor in spirit so that the Lord would open our mind afresh to understand the Scriptures.
Unless we know God’s economy, we will not understand the Bible, for this is the only thing that the Bible speaks about.
The central subject of the Bible is the economy of God, and the entire Bible is concerned with the economy of God (Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9).
Many Christians today have come to the same conclusions as Job did in the Old Testament: if you are righteous and do what is right according to the Bible, God should bless you and give you prosperity.
But when God allows Satan to come and touch your possessions, your family, and your body, you will be puzzled, even perplexed, unless you know God’s economy.
The reason for everything that happens to us and around us is God’s economy.
The key to unlocking every book in the Bible is God’s economy.
Job 10:13 shows that there’s something hidden in God’s heart; there is something hidden in Him concerning us, something that He does and He has His own reason for doing it.
This is God’s eternal economy, which was hidden from the ages to those in the Old Testament and revealed to us in spirit in the New Testament.
The reason for our suffering is God’s eternal economy.
God doesn’t want us to be good men, good Christians, and good people who obey Him and do what the Bible tells us to do.
God wants us to be God-men. If we see God’s economy and know God’s economy, we will open to the Lord to receive more of His dispensing.
We may go through sufferings and hardships, but we will open to the Lord and be real with Him.
The more real we are with the Lord, the more real He will be with us and the more He will dispense Himself into us.
The more we open to the Lord, the more He will dispense Himself into us and reconstitute us with Himself to remodel us and rebuild us with Himself.
He will tear down our self-made perfection and will rebuild us with Himself.
May the Lord have mercy on us that we may see God’s economy and cooperate with God’s economy by being open to His divine dispensing to have God wrought into us and for us to be built with God, in God, and with the saints for the corporate expression of God, the church as the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, grant us to see a vision of Your eternal economy, Your plan to dispense Yourself in Christ into us so that You may have a house to express Yourself. Amen, Lord, we open to Your divine dispensing today. We open to enjoy You, receive You, and be infused with You. Cause us to see, Lord, that You arrange all things in our environment for the sake of Your economy. Hallelujah, Christ is the center of God’s economy, and all the contents of God’s economy is Christ Himself! Amen, Lord, may we know God’s economy so that we may have a way to unlock all the books of the Bible. Open our mind to understand and see Your economy. Grant us to be poor in spirit and pure in heart to see You, Lord Jesus, as the center, circumference, element, sphere, means, goal, and aim of God’s economy! Amen, Lord Jesus, thank You for doing all things in us and around us for the sake of Your economy! We want to cooperate with Your economy today!
Cooperate with God’s Economy by Exercising our Spirit to Receive God’s Dispensing
God’s economy is grand, lofty, and universal; however, as far as it relates to us, God’s economy is His divine dispensing. God’s economy is to dispense Himself into our being so that our being may be constituted with God, even with His very being.
This can be accomplished only by God’s dispensing Himself into us as the divine life (John 10:10; 14:6a; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11).
John 1:4 says that in Him was life, the divine, uncreated, eternal life of God.
He came that we may have life, the divine life, and may have it abundantly.
He said that He is life – He is the way, the reality, and the life.
For us to have life, he had to go through death and resurrection, and in resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit.
Now as the Spirit who gives life, the Lord comes into us as life.
He comes into us even as the law of life, a scientific, divine and mystical law in our spirit, to constantly impart the divine life into every part of our being.
Through regeneration we believers in Christ have God installed in our being as a scientific law, an automatic principle, to dispense all that God is in Christ realized as the Spirit into every part of our being.
Through regeneration, our spirit becomes life, and when we set our mind on our spirit, our mind becomes life.
Then, even our body will be swallowed up by life, for He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal body through His Spirit who indwells us. Hallelujah!
May we be those who cooperate with God’s economy today by exercising our spirit to receive God’s dispensing in our daily living.
May we set our mind on our spirit so that we may enjoy Him as life and peace even in our soul.
To set our mind on our spirit is to pay attention to our spirit, to use our spirit, to employ our spirit, and to exercise our spirit.
The leadership in the New Testament ministry is the leadership of the controlling, God-given revelation of God’s eternal economy (Acts 26:19; Prov. 29:18).
What leads us today in the church life in the Lord’s recovery is not a man, a teaching, or a group of leaders; it is the vision of God’s eternal economy.
And we want to cooperate with God’s economy by exercising our spirit to receive God’s dispensing day by day.
This is why we don’t want to give heed to myths, unending genealogies, or different teachings, which produce questionings, rather than God’s economy, which is in faith (1 Tim. 1:3-4).
Different teachings other than God’s economy separate us, the believers in Christ, from the genuine appreciation, love, and enjoyment of the precious person of the Lord Jesus Christ as our life and our everything (2 Cor. 11:2-3).
The dissenting ones teach different things and therefore cause envy and discord among the believers, which are contrary to love, the end of the apostle’s charge to remain in the teaching of God’s economy (v. 5; John 13:34; Gal. 5:13-14).
May we remain in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, the teaching of God’s eternal economy, and stay away from different teachings.
Under the teaching of God’s eternal economy, we love the Lord Jesus more and more, and we also love the brothers and the sisters more and more.
When we exercise our spirit to receive God’s dispensing, thus cooperating with God’s economy, we love the Bible more, we love the ministry more, and we love the church more.
The genuine ministry of the New Testament betroths us to Christ like a pure virgin is betrothed to one husband, and we love Him, even seek to maintain our purity toward Him.
May nothing corrupt our thoughts from the simplicity and purity toward Christ.
2 Cor. 3:14 shows that it is possible for our thoughts to be hardened and blinded by the god of this age (Satan).
It is also possible for our thoughts to be rebellious (2 Cor. 10:5). Oh Lord Jesus!
May we learn to set our mind on our spirit and exercise our spirit to receive God’s dispensing all the time.
God’s divine dispensing deifies the believers in Christ, making them God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and for the preparation of the bride of Christ to usher in the kingdom of Christ. Amen!
For this purpose, God became a man to man-ize Himself, and now He is dispensing Himself as life into us to God-ize us in His life and nature but not in His Godhead. Amen!
God’s intention in His economy is to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – into us, His chosen people.
Day by day, God’s only goal is to dispense Himself into us.
How can we cooperate with God’s economy?
It is by exercising our spirit to constantly receive God’s dispensing.
We can open to Him day by day, even moment by moment, to receive His dispensing into us.
If we miss God’s dispensing, we miss the meaning of our human life.
If we do not open to the Lord for Him to dispense Himself into us, we won’t cooperate with God’s economy.
May we learn to exercise our spirit day by day and be open to the Lord to receive His divine dispensing into us moment by moment.
Lord Jesus, we open to You. Dispense Yourself into us a little more today. Amen, Lord, we open to Your divine dispensing right now. May we be those who know God’s economy and cooperate with God’s economy by exercising our spirit to receive God’s dispensing. Amen, Lord, keep our being open to You throughout the day. Save us from giving heed to different teachings which separate us from the genuine appreciation and enjoyment of the precious person of the Lord Jesus! Dear Lord Jesus, we love You! You are the most precious One! We love You and we love Your economy. We open to You and we exercise our spirit to receive Your divine dispensing. Hallelujah, God’s dispensing deifies us to make us the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, we open to You and we allow You to dispense Yourself into us. We set our mind on our spirit. Work Yourself into us and dispense all that You are into every part of our being. Hallelujah for God’s dispensing!
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 in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Job, msgs. 9, 16, 19, 21, 24, 27-28 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Being a Vessel unto Honor, a Fully Equipped Man of God, by being Empowered in the Grace which is in Christ Jesus to Fully Accomplish our Ministry in the Unique Ministry of God’s Economy (2024 april ITERO), week 1, Living in the Reality of God’s Eternal Economy for Its Fulfillment by Building Up a Habit of Exercising Our Spirit, Fanning Our God-given Spirit into Flame.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– God’s economy, a portion from, Basic Lessons on Life, Chapter 18, by Witness Lee.
– What is God’s Economy in the Bible? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– The crystallization – God’s economy, God’s dispensing, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
– Our Spiritual Remedy: The Spirit as an All-Inclusive Dose, via, Bibles for America blog.
– God’s dispensing being for God’s economy, a portion from, The Economy and Dispensing of God, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
– Living and Serving according to the Heavenly Vision of God’s Economy, outline via, Puget Sound Blending.
– The working of the law of the Spirit of life to dispense the life of the Triune God into the tripartite man, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
– The faith is the economy, new song via, Hymnal.net.
– The cross and the soul-life, a portion from, The Economy of God, Chapter 13.
– The Recovery of the Eternal Economy of God, outline via, New Zealand Training Centre.
– God’s Economy, Different Teachings, and the Central Line of the Bible, via, Shepherding Words.
– What is the Function of Your Spirit? More via, Holding to Truth in Love. - Hymns on this topic:
– 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. (Hymns #1199, stanza 1)
– But in th’ economy of God / There is not one, but many sons. / One is the firstborn Son of God / With many other living ones. / Christ will inherit all God’s things, / And we’re the heirs of God with Christ. / We’re growing now to be matured; / As heirs we’ll soon be legalized. / We’re joint-heirs with the firstborn Son, / Inheriting the universe. / We’re in this corporation vast— / All partners of Christ and the church. (Hymns #1322 stanzas 5-7)
– God has worked in three directions / For His plan so marvelous: / As the Father, Son, and Spirit / To dispense Himself to us! / All creation gives the setting— / Heav’n and earth are for this plan; / ’Tis for this God made a body, / Soul and spirit—three-part man. / As the center, as the kernel, / Of God’s plan our spirit is; / Calling on the name of Jesus / Makes our spirit one with His. / From the center to circumference / God would saturate each part; / Feeling, mind, and will renewing, / Making home in all our heart. (Hymns #1325 stanzas 3-5)
Life-study of Job, pp. 57-58, by Witness Lee
Unless we know God’s economy, we will not understand the Bible.
God’s economy is to dispense Himself into our being so that our being may be constituted with His being.
We need to not only know but also cooperate with God’s economy by exercising our spirit to receive the divine dispensing.
When we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, we receive God’s divine dispensing and become the church, the organism of the Triune God.
Amen, brother, yes, Lord dispense yourself a little more into us today for the church, the body of Christ.
Aaaaameeen!
His dispensing produces a life of godliness, such a life depends upon the exercise of our spirit, amen, our spirit is the organ for God’s dispensing!!
When our spirit opens wide, our whole being opens!!
God wants to dispense in us who already have our own taste, choice, preference, feeling, thinking, mentality, will, etc.
If we do not exercise our spirit strongly to cooperate with the Lord, God cannot dispense Himself into us. ….When our spirit opens wide, our whole being opens. Then God has a way to impart Himself into us.
God’s dispensing depends upon our coordination, and our coordination is the exercise of our spirit
Amen brother thank you for your sharing.
May we be those who really see, that the eternal economy of God, which is God’s eternal intention with His heart’s desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature that they may be the same as He is for His fullness, His expression.
Hallelujah.
Brother, to live in the reality of God’s economy requires our coordination with God, and our coordination is the exercise of our spirit.
Only God’s dispensing into our being can produce a life of godliness; a life that’s divinely human and humanly divine.
It’s so crucial for God’s people to shun different teachings and return to God’s economy, God’s arrangement to carry out His dispensing.
We must turn away from our likes & dislikes, our will, mentality & feeling, and open our spirit wide for God to impart Himself into us.
Also, we need to read the Bible through the lens of God’s economy.
If we don’t know God’s economy, we will not truly understand the Bible.
Praise the Lord! 🙌😃🙋🏼
God’s goal in time is to dispense Himself as life into us.
This is God’s eternal economy which is His household administration, plan in becoming a man – to be man-ized – that we would be God-ized – made the same as He is in life, nature and expression but not in the Godhead.
This is for the producing and building up of the church.
To experience such a divine dispensing of the divine life we must exercise our spirit.
07/22/24 Living in the Reality of God’s Eternal Economy for Its Fulfillment by Building Up a Habit of Exercising Our Spirit, Fanning Our God-given Spirit into Flame (Week 1, Day 1)
When there is an arrangement or a plan, there is a purpose, and this arrangement or plan with a purpose constitutes a household administration. The arrangement of a household administration is mainly for distributing. What does it distribute? It distributes the riches of the family for the family’s use. This word was used in relation to the big families in ancient times, which were similar to big Chinese households composed of a whole clan living together.
When a big clan lives together, surely there are household laws and regulations, and surely there is the arrangement of the household administration. This arrangement is mainly to distribute the riches of the family for the living of the family members. This kind of distribution is a dispensing.
In like manner, God too has a very big family, which includes all of God’s chosen people from the Old Testament times and the New Testament times. For such a great family, God had made a plan for the distribution of His spiritual riches through Christ as the Spirit into all His many members of His one big Household. This plan is called God’s economy.
The Bible is all about God’s economy. Without relating everything written in the Bible to God’s economy, we cannot fully understand the Bible. Ephesians 1:9-11, Ephesians 3:9-11, and 1 Timothy 1:4, particularly, are all concerning God’s economy. According to Ephesians 1:9, Paul testified that God has made known to us, His New Testament believers, the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.
In the Old Testament time, God’s economy was yet a mystery hidden from the ages in Himself, who created all things (Eph 3:9a, 5b), but in the New Testament time, it was then revealed through His holy apostles and prophets in spirit [mingled with the Spirit] and was brought to light to all men (Eph 3:5b, 9a). Such a mingled spirit is the means by which the New Testament revelation concerning God’s economy was revealed to the apostles and prophets, and now, being revealed among us, His believers. We need to be in our mingled spirit (our regenerated spirit joined to the Lord Spirit) to see such a revelation (1Cor 6:17).
The Greek word for economy is composed of two words:
1.) “oikos” means “house” or “home,” denoting a household or a dwelling place; and
2.) “nomos” means “law.”
When these two words are combined together, it means “household law,” and it may be explained further to mean “household administration.” Hence, the word economy means “household law,” “household management,” or “household administration.” Since God’s economy is a household administration, which implies an arrangement or a plan to distribute Himself in Christ into His chosen people.
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.
God’s eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead, and to make Himself one with man and man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues.
God’s economy and goal according to His heart’s desire are to build Himself into our being and to build us into His being in order to mingle His divinity with our humanity into one entity — the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem.
The purpose of God’s distributing Himself into His chosen people, the many member in His Household, is to dispense and to constitute them with His life, His nature, and all His spiritual riches into their tripartite being so that they may become the Body of Christ, the church, as God’s Dwelling Place to be His corporate expression (Eph 3:16-17a; Rom 8:2, 6, 10-11).
God’s divine dispensing deifies the believers, making them God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and for the preparation of the bride of Christ to usher in the kingdom of Christ; for this purpose God became a man to “man-ize” Himself; then He dispenses Himself as life into us to “God-ize” us in His life and nature but not in His Godhead.
In our reading of the Bible, we need to focus our attention on God’s eternal economy for the divine dispensing.
HWMR – W1D1
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1 Tim. 1:4, footnote 3 on “economy,” Recovery Version Bible