God’s Economy and Goal are to Work Himself into Man and Build Man into Himself

In order for us to cooperate with the Lord for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ, we need to know the economy of God and allow God in Christ to build Himself into us.

First of all, the church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all, and all believers in Christ are part of the church and members of the Body of Christ.

If we would participate in the work of the divine building, we need to know what is God’s economy and what is God’s central work. God does many things, but the one central work He has been doing throughout ages and generations is to work Himself into His chosen people so that He may be their life, their person, and their very being; then, together with His people and through His people He accomplishes His purpose.

God is not first after accomplishing something big outwardly; He starts from within us, first by regenerating us, then by renewing us and transforming us, and finally by glorifying us to fully work Himself into us for His purpose.

God’s eternal purpose and His economy, which were hidden from the times of the ages but now revealed to the saints who are unveiled and exercised in their spirit (Eph. 3:9), is that God wants to work Himself into us as our life and our everything so that we may take Him as our person, live Him, and express Him. This is the focal point of the entire Bible, and this is the desire of God’s heart.

Throughout the ages God has been looking for people who are open to Him that He would work Himself into them, mingle Himself with them, and build Himself into them so that they and Him, Him and they, would be one in accomplishing God’s purpose.

In the age of the church today God is working Himself in a mysterious way into His chosen and redeemed people so that He would be mingled with them and built into them and they into Him, and together they would become a building, the church, the Body of Christ.

This building work will consummate in the New Jerusalem, the eternal mutual dwelling place and building of God with man where God dwells in man and man dwells in God in complete oneness and harmony for eternity.

God’s New Testament Economy is for God to be Wrought into us to Become our Life and our Very Being

All genuine believers in Christ have a deep yearning to be one with the Lord for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ. However, today there is not much building work because most believers don’t see or know God’s economy and God’s central work.

We can’t build up the church unless we know God’s economy which is to work Himself into His chosen people to become their life and their very being. God’s New Testament economy, which was hidden for the past ages but has been revealed to us today, is for the processed and consummated Triune God to be wrought into us to become our life and our very being (see 1 Tim. 1:4; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:16-17a; Rom. 8:9-10, 6, 11).

The Triune God has become the processed God: He became a man through incarnation, and He became a life-giving Spirit in His resurrection (John 1:1, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45). Now when we call on the name of the Lord, He comes into us as the Spirit and brings us into an organic union with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).

Throughout our Christian life, what God desires to do is to work Himself into our being to become our life, our person, and our very being. This is the most crucial and mysterious matter in the Bible.

God is not after improving our behaviour, getting some things done, obtaining an organized church, or improving our human relationships; He wants to work Himself into our being. However, we may limit God and hinder Him from accomplishing His central work.

The almighty God who spoke things into being (Gen. 1) and who doesn’t need anyone for His existence can be frustrated and limited by us in His desire to work Himself into us. Yet God is willing to be limited and frustrated in His central work as long as He obtains some men who cooperate with Him.

God is looking for an opening to work Himself into His chosen people, even at the cost of being willing to be delayed and wait a little longer in order to get what He’s after. His main concern is to get an opening in His people to dispense Himself into them.

But because we are so “whole” and hard, many times we don’t open to Him – this is why He may allow failures and defeats in our life so that we may be open to Him. Job in the Old Testament was righteous, complete, and perfect, but he had nothing of God in him; God therefore took him through a long process and was even willing to be “put on trial” by Job so that at the end He would have an open vessel into which He can work Himself.

God is willing to go through so much including being “put on trial” and questioned by His own people, until we realize that there’s something hidden in Him – the economy of God, His desire to work Himself into us. This is how the church is built up: by being open to God to allow Him to work Himself into us.

The building up of the church is not merely the necessary outward arrangements and activities but allowing God to work himself into us and pass through us so that He may build up the church through us. This is God’s economy, the central thought of the Bible, and the most crucial and mysterious matter revealed in the Bible.

Our best response should be to pray this back to God so that He would make us the open vessels He needs in this age for the building up of the church.

Lord Jesus, we open to You: work Yourself into us. It is Your heart’s desire and Your economy to work Yourself into our being: do it, Lord! We open as wide as we can; Lord, turn our heart to You, and cause us to be open vessels for Your divine dispensing! We don’t want to hinder You or limit You in Your intention to work Yourself into our being. May we be the ones who are open and allow You to work Yourself into them in this age so that Your church may be built up.

God’s Goal is to Build Himself into Man and Build Man into Himself

God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us, His chosen and redeemed people, to be our life and our everything so that we may take Him as our person, live Him, and express Him (see Eph. 1:9; 3:11; Phil. 1:20-21).

The desire of God’s heart and the focal point of the Bible is that God is working Himself into His people to be their life, their person, and their very being so that they would corporately express Him. This is the church that He is after.

I was helped very much by this portion in the life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel on this matter,

Christ came into us as the Spirit to be life to us. On the one hand, He is working within us to transform us into precious stones; on the other hand, He is building with Himself (divinity) and with us (humanity) to produce a home, a dwelling place. Eventually, this dwelling place, which is a mutual abode, will issue in the New Jerusalem.
This view of God’s building in the Bible indicates that God’s economy and goal according to His heart’s desire are just to build Himself into man and to build man into Him….God in Christ is within us to build Himself into our being and to build us into His being. He builds His divinity into our humanity and builds our humanity into His divinity in order to mingle and blend His divinity with our humanity into one entity.
God’s unique work in the universe and throughout all the ages and generations is to work Himself in Christ into His chosen people, making Himself one with them. This involves the mingling of divinity with humanity. (Witness Lee, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 186-187)

In 2 Sam. 7 David wanted to build God a house where He can dwell among His people, but God told him that, before David could build Him a house, God will build David a house by working Himself into him so that his seed would build a house for God, and his seed would be the Son of God (not just the son of David).

Solomon was the result of David’s sin with Bath-Sheba plus his repentance marrying God’s forgiveness; this one built the physical temple of God. Spiritually, Christ is the seed of David according to the flesh, and through His resurrection He was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness (see Rom. 1:3-4).

The principle is that before we can build a house for God, before we can build up the church, we need to have God work Himself into us and build Himself into us. We need to allow God to build Himself into us, and something will come out of us – Christ Himself will come out of us as the mingling of God and man to build up the house of God, the church.

If we don’t allow God to build Himself into us, we are not qualified to build anything for Him, and whatever we build is worthless. Only what we build with what He has built into us can be considered as part of His building. Throughout all ages and generations, God’s central and unique work in the universe is to work Himself in Christ into His chosen people, making Himself one with them (Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17).

In His economy, God intends to build Himself in Christ into our being. Everything that Christ is and everything He has accomplished are for this one thing: for God to work Himself in Christ into us. Christ is so rich: He is our life, our food, our drink, the air we breathe, our clothing, our rest, and the reality of all positive things.

Christ is not merely the One on the throne for us to bow down to but the One who became a man and passed through human living, death, resurrection, and ascension so that He can get involved with us in our daily and ordinary living.

The processes He went through qualify Him to be close to us, make us one with Him, minister to us, and work Himself into us. We need God to build Himself in Christ into our humanity, working Himself in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our person; then, we are qualified to build up the church with the Christ that has been built into us.

Oh Lord, how we need that God would build Himself in Christ into our humanity to become our life, our nature, and our person! Lord, we want to cooperate with Your central work by enjoying You, opening to You, and allowing You to build Yourself into our being and build us into the Triune God for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ. Lord, this is Your economy and Your goal: do it in us! Build Yourself into us. Work Yourself into our being until You become our life, our person, and our very being.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msgs. 24-25, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 8 / msg 8, The Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ (2) – Through the Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # 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 (one entity)— / The Body of Christ, / Which consummates the New Jerusalem, / Which consummates the New Jerusalem (Song on God’s Economy)
  # God’s eternal purpose / Is to join with man, / Causing man, His vessel, / To be born again, / His own life imparting, / Filling to the brim; / Man may thus express Him, / And be one with Him. (Hymns #971)
  # Make us those who’re one with You in prayer, / Echoing the things for which You care. / Lord, do make us one so that Your heart’s desire we share; / In this age, Lord gain Your men of prayer. (Song on Cooperating with God)