Having a Clear Vision of God’s Economy and being Governed and Directed by this Vision

In the Lord’s recovery today the Lord is recovering God’s economy, which is God’s eternal purpose and intention to dispense Himself into man to be man’s life and life supply for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ.

The matter of God’s economy is in the Bible – the Old Testament saints have tried really hard to look into it (the purpose hidden in God’s heart is something that many sought after in the Old Testament but didn’t get it) and in the New Testament Paul spoke concerning it.

Paul was entrusted with a stewardship – which is God’s economy – to minister the riches of Christ to the believers so that they would be built up as the Body of Christ expressed in many localities as the local churches.

Even though God’s economy has been unveiled through the apostles, throughout the ages this has been lost and even the proper understanding of God’s economy has been missed and lost; therefore, God today needs to have a recovery of God’s economy.

If we see God’s economy, God’s eternal purpose, the whole Bible makes sense, but if we don’t have a vision of God’s economy, it will be easy for us to be distracted by many teachings from the Bible and be divided in the Body of Christ based on them.

We pray and believe that, before His return, the Lord will bring many of His believers all throughout the earth into a seeing of God’s economy so that they may be open vessels to God’s dispensing and be built up in the Body of Christ, function in their measure, and be produced as God’s overcomers.

May the Lord have mercy on us in the church life in the Lord’s recovery to never lose sight or have a diminished vision of God’s economy! May we be recovered by the Lord back to His original intention, realizing that the Lord’s recovery is not a movement, an organization, or a thing that happens in Christianity but a recovery of what was lost, a recovery back to the beginning, back to God’s economy.

The Need for the Recovery of God’s Economy – Going Back to God’s Original Intention

God’s economy was definitely unveiled through the apostles (see Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4), but because the believers have lost the proper understanding of God’s economy, there is the need for it to be recovered by the Lord.

In the Lord’s recovery God is recovering us back to God’s economy, back to God’s original intention to dispense Himself into us to be our life and life supply for the producing, constituting, and building up of the organic Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

With God this is a matter of His economy, but on our side it is a matter of recovery – the words “recovery” and “economy” refer to one thing as seen from two different viewpoints. On His side, God has a universally great enterprise in which He is manufacturing and reproducing Himself in humanity to obtain a corporate great enlargement of God in man; on our side, we on earth need a recovery back to God’s economy so that we may see what He is doing and be part of His economy.

“Recovery” means that something was there in the beginning but was lost, misplaced, misunderstood, or misused, and therefore we need to go back to the beginning. Today we need to receive the Lord’s grace to go back to God’s original intention, that is, go back to what God has ordained in the beginning.

When the Pharisees came to the Lord asking concerning marriage and divorce, the Lord simply told them, In the beginning it was not so (Matt. 19:8). Because what was there in the beginning was lost, God wants us to be recovered back to His original intention, back to God’s economy.

There is a strong and solid principle in the Bible and throughout history that, whenever the majority of God’s people fail to carry out God’s purpose, God comes in to have a recovery, and His recovery is always with the minority, with a remnant.

God comes in to do a work of recovery whenever His people discover His word, read His word, and simply go back to what God has spoken in His word; if you read 2 Kings 22:8, Ezra 2:11, and Neh. 2:11, 17 you will see that God’s great work of recovery came in among His people whenever they went back to God’s word.

We shouldn’t worry that in the recovery we don’t have large numbers to fill a stadium but we should worry about any natural tendency of “mixing in with the others” or “maybe something is missing, since we are so small a number”. Big or small numbers don’t matter to the Lord; the Lord Jesus gained a small number of faithful disciples through whom He could work, and with these He turned the whole world upside down.

God wants to gain some who are faithful to Him and go back to His word, back to God’s original intention, His eternal economy; when He gains such a group of people, He can do His work. May we be unveiled and have spiritual sight to see God’s economy, and may we be the overcomers of today who are faithful to God’s speaking in His word.

Lord Jesus, recover the matter of God’s economy among us today in the church life. Lord, we want to go back to the beginning, back to God’s original intention as revealed in His word. We don’t want to be swept away by the degradation in Christianity today but be God’s overcomers who are faithful to God and remain in His word. Lord, recover us back to the beginning, back to Your purpose and economy with man. May we have a proper understanding of God’s economy as unveiled through the apostles in the New Testament!

Having a Clear Vision of God’s Economy and being Governed and Directed by this Vision

As believers in Christ who have seen something of the truth of God’s economy in His word, we need to have our vision governed not by the present situation and condition nor by any traditional practice but by God’s original intention and standard as revealed in the Bible, according to the present advance of His recovery.

Our present situation may be likened to the stock market: sometimes we feel good (the stock goes up) while at other times we may feel down (the stock goes down), but we should never give up or leave the church life when we feel down (sell the stock when the stock is down).

We should not be governed by how we feel, where we are, or traditional practices but by God’s original intention, the vision of God’s economy. In His recovery today God is recovering three main items:

1. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of Christ of Christ as our center, reality, life, and everything! In the Lord’s recovery we are recovered back to Christ as our everything; He is our life, our peace, our joy, our comfort, our rest, our enjoyment, our satisfaction, our love, our living water, our bread of life, our spiritual air, our Shepherd, our King, our Master, our Friend, our Savior, our inner Guide, our Counsellor, and our everything (see Col. 1:17b, 18b; Rev. 2:4, 7, 17; 3:20; Psa. 80:1, 15, 17-19).

We love Christ, we enjoy Christ, we abide in Christ, we walk in Christ, we fellowship with Christ, we call on His name, we talk to Him, we open to Him, we allow Him to make His home in our heart, we take Him as our center, we enthrone Him in our being, we take Him as our person, we give Him the preeminence, and we really love the Lord Jesus Christ!

2. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the oneness of the Body of Christ. What is in God’s heart is to have a Body for Christ as His expression, and the oneness of the Body is something very dear and precious to us – we love the Body, we care for the Body, and we want to pay any price for the keeping of the oneness of the Body.

In the Lord’s recovery today God is recovering the oneness of the Body, for which Christ prayed when He was on earth (John 17:11, 21-23), of which Paul spoke (Eph. 4:3-4), and which is expressed in all the local churches (Rev. 1:11). We love and guard the oneness of the Body with our life because this is the Lord’s desire, His recovery.

3. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the function of all the members of the Body of Christ. We stand against any clergy-laity system, hating the works of the Nicolaitans, and learning to function in our measure in the Body of Christ. No matter how small a talent we have, we all have at least one talent with which we can make business for the Lord; we can all prophesy by speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into people (1 Cor. 14:4, 26, 31).

We are not satisfied with the situation in today’s degraded Christianity but we want to see a recovery of the function of all the members in the Body of Christ! We may not be a great apostle or evangelist, but we all can practice to function as those who preach the gospel, care for the new believers, minister the word of God to people, and shepherd others according to the Lord and under the perfecting of the gifted members (Eph. 4:15-16).

In the Lord’s recovery we must have a clear vision of God’s economy and then be governed by this vision, controlled by this vision, and directed by this vision; we are here not for great Christian work or to gain masses of people but to carry out God’s economy in His recovery (Acts 26:18-19; Prov. 29:18).

There is only one ministry in the Body of Christ – the ministry of the apostles – and we all have different functions such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers.

We ALL are apostles (the ones sent by God with His message and life), prophets (those who speak God’s word to minister God into man), evangelists (one with the Lord to go and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel), shepherds (cherishing others according to God and nourishing them with Christ) and teachers (speaking the truth in God’s word) to a certain measure, and we are all being perfected to function in God’s economy.

Lord Jesus, may a clear controlling vision of Your economy direct us, control us, and govern us in the church life in Your recovery. Lord Jesus, we love You and we take You as our life, our center, our reality, and our everything! We love Your Body, we care for Your Body, and we are willing to pay any price for the oneness of Your Body. Lord, recover the function of all the members of Your Body until there’s a normal function of each part in its measure for the building up of Your Body! Oh Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!

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 The Basic Principles for the Practice of the God-ordained Way (by Witness Lee), 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:
  # I’ve found the One of peerless worth, / My heart doth sing for joy; / And sing I must, for Christ I have: / Oh, what a Christ have I! / My Christ, He is the Lamb of God, / Who full salvation brings; / He is the Sun of Righteousness, / With healing in His wings. (Hymns #510)
  # We’ve seen the vision of Christ and the church. / Reckoned the cost; all things are but loss. / Will pay the price — give all of our lives; / We’re burning bridges, left the world behind. / On God’s economy our hearts are set / We’re living a life… / On God’s economy our hearts are set, / We’ll live a life of no regrets. (Song on a vision of God’s economy)
  # All the saints of Christ are / Members every one; / All coordinating / Into oneness come. / Though the gifts are many, / Yet the Spirit one; / Many too the functions, / But one Lord, the Son. (Hymns #854)