We’re being Headed up through the Divine Dispensing, God’s Household Arrangement

God’s intention is to head up all things in Christ; He doesn’t do this in a forceful way or a sneaky way (as Satan does) but in a sweet and intimate way, for we are headed up through the divine dispensing! Amen!

God’s eternal will, which relates to what God wants and what He intends to do, is to head up all things in Christ – the things on earth and the things in the heavens, the things in our personal life and in our whole being, everything – in Him.

For this, He first heads up all things in the church, and when all things and persons are headed up in the church in Christ, then God has a way to head up all things in the universe through the church.

God wants to first gain a beachhead, a willing channel through which He can head up all things.

We as believers in Christ are following Christ, our Pioneer, who first was headed up in God and took Him as His source and everything; we also are being headed up in Christ.

God is the Head of Christ, Christ is the Head of the church, and we as the church need to practically and daily be headed up in Christ.

There are so many things in our personal life, in our being, in our church life, in our work life, and in other aspects of our life that we are still not headed up in Christ.

Are we headed up in Christ in the way we speak, the way we conduct ourselves, in the way we spend our free time, in the way we spend our time on our smartphone, or in the way we relate to others?

We all have to admit that we still need to be headed up.

The church life is the kingdom of God today in which we all, as the many believers in Christ and citizens of the kingdom of God are learning to be headed up in Christ.

We are taking the lead to be rescued out of the universal heap of collapse and be brought under Christ as our Head.

We are learning to give the Lord more ground in our being and give in to Him so that any barrier to His dispensing would be torn down, and any frustration to the flow from the Head would be removed.

Even in such a situation as the one we’re in today, in the pandemic and the lockdown, we need to seek the Lord in a particular way to be headed up in Him, so that He may gain the one church under the one Head, thus heading up all things in the church in Christ.

How we thank and praise the Lord for the church life, which is a life of being headed up in Christ!

Here we are under the divine dispensing day by day, and through the divine dispensing we are being headed up in Christ! Hallelujah!

We are Headed up in Christ through the Divine Dispensing of the Triune God

If we look at the family life, the mother doesn’t need to raise up her voice when the food is ready: she rules over the family not in an outward way but by the pleasant dispensing of food into all the members of the family.

The person who cooks and lays the food before the family members rules over them simply by the dispensing of food.

It is the same in the church: we are headed up in Christ not in an outward or organisational way, but through the divine dispensing.

God’s dispensing is His economy; in His economy God dispenses all that He is, all He has done, and all He has accomplished into His people.

As we receive the divine dispensing, as we remain as open vessels to the Lord to receive the divine dispensing of the Triune God, we are being headed up in Christ.

It is similar to what Eph. 4:15 says – as we hold the Head, Christ, something issues out of the Head for us to enjoy and be supplied, and we grow with the growth of God and are built up together.

As we enjoy the Lord, as we remain under His divine dispensing, we are automatically and spontaneously being headed up in Christ.

We need to realize that being headed up in Christ in this age of grace is not something unpleasant or something we should be afraid of; being headed up in Christ is not like being headed up in the world, for example in society or at work.

It is through the divine dispensing of the Triune God that we are being headed up in Christ.

So we just need to be open vessels to the Lord, never closing our being to Him, and we need to have ordinary days under the divine dispensing, for the divine dispensing issues in the heading up of all things in Christ.

God has an administration, and arrangement, according to which He carries out His will and dispenses all the riches of His being into His people.

In Eph. 1:10 we see this word “oikonomia” which can be rendered economy, stewardship, and household arrangement.

How does God head up all things in Christ? It is through His economy, His stewardship, His household arrangement.

The dispensation, the stewardship, the household arrangement of God will become an eternal administration.

Just as in the old times the steward in the royal family had a stewardship to take care of the household arrangement to dispense the food and the supply to all the members of the royal family, so we are stewards in God’s house.

On one hand we ourselves need to receive the divine dispensing of the Triune God, and on the other hand, we need to be faithful stewards in the house of God to dispense all that God is to His people.

We are not merely slaves in God’s house; we are stewards, intimately related to God, who carry out the household arrangement in God’s house to dispense and distribute the riches of Christ to the members of God’s household.

Such a household arrangement is sweet and such a stewardship is intimate. As we enjoy the divine dispensing, we are being headed up in Christ.

The heading up of all things doesn’t take place by a governmental administration; God does not come in to strike people down or discipline others publicly, so that everyone would fear Him and be headed up in Him.

In the age of grace it is through the divine dispensing that we are being headed up in Christ. May we open to the Lord and ask Him,

Lord Jesus, keep us under Your divine dispensing today so that we may be headed up in Christ in all things. Keep us enjoying Your riches and all that comes from You in the divine dispensing. Amen, Lord, we want to be open vessels to You, people who have ordinary days under the divine dispensing so that we may be headed up in Christ through the divine dispensing. Oh, how we love You, Lord, and how we love being under Your divine dispensing, Your household arrangement to dispense all the riches of Christ into all Your people so that all may be headed up in Christ!

Enjoying the Sweet Dispensing, the Intimate Stewardship, the Comfortable Household Arrangement of God to be Headed up in Christ

Our Triune God is working Himself into us, His chosen and redeemed ones, through an administration that is a sweet dispensing, an intimate stewardship, a comfortable household arrangement (see Eph. 1:10; 3:2; 1 Tim. 1:4; 3:15).

This is how He heads up all things in Christ in the church.

The atmosphere of a church that is headed up is that this church is filled with the sweet dispensing of God, there’s an intimate stewardship of the riches of Christ, and the saints enjoy a comfortable household arrangement for God to be dispensed into them.

In His divine administration God has set up elders in every church (Acts 14:23), that is, elders in every city (Titus 1:5); there is an administration in the church.

There are brothers whom God has set to oversee and shepherd the flock of God.

But what is this administration like: what is its flavor, and what is the atmosphere that the saints live in?

The atmosphere and flavor in a church being headed up in Christ should be a sweet dispensing, for it is through the divine dispensing that we are being headed up in Christ.

It should be an intimate stewardship of the grace of God, for we have been given grace by God for others to also enjoy.

It’s not just business; it is not something we do as a duty; it is not giving or distributing something to others without much feeling, but an intimate stewardship.

And this is a comfortable household arrangement. In such a church the saints are being headed up to live in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col. 1:13).

The heading up in Christ comes about by a sweet stewardship, a pleasant dispensation; it takes place through the dispensing of the abundant life supply of the Triune God into us.

Satan’s injection has no administration or stewardship; he doesn’t ask for our permission, he doesn’t have our cooperation, and he subtly injects himself into us.

But God wants us to be open vessels to Him to cooperate with Him, and He requires our cooperation for us to enjoy the sweet, intimate stewardship.

Paul was such a one; he remained under the divine dispensing, he received the stewardship of the grace of God to him for others, and he dispensed God as grace into others.

It is by this dispensation of grace, the dispensing of God Himself as our enjoyment, that the factor of life is ministered into the believers in Christ.

Such a factor of life causes the believers to be raised up and attacked to Christ in the Body, and it heads up all things in Christ!

The Lord Jesus was such a minister of grace; wherever He went, he dispensed God as the life supply to His chosen ones; such an intimate stewardship continued with the apostles, especially with the Apostle Paul.

May we all learn to live daily under the divine dispensing and have this sweet and intimate stewardship, carrying out the pleasant household arrangement.

May we learn to behave in God’s house (1 Tim. 3:15) by dispensing Christ to all the members of God’s household, for it is through the divine dispensing that we are being headed up in Christ!

It’s not by controlling others that the heading up is taking place; it is by the sweet dispensation of grace, the dear household administration, that we are being headed up in Christ in all things.

Thank You Lord for entrusting us with the divine stewardship of grace for us to enjoy the sweet dispensing of grace and also minister the riches of Christ to the other members of God’s household. Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying Your sweet divine dispensing so that we may carry out the intimate stewardship, the very dear household arrangement of ministering Christ to the believers in Christ. May the church life be filled with the atmosphere of the stewardship of grace of God, the sweet household arrangement for the dispensing of God into man!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 9 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 1, The Mystery of God’s Will in the Universe Ultimately Being to Head Up All Things in Christ through the Church as the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – In Christ as Spirit You dispense all to me, / Making me a steward in Your economy. / Ever faithful to the measure I have received / To impart You to others, life conceived. (Song on, O Lord, You have from days of eternity)
  – Little by little, / The Lord is cutting off all our natural life; / As we grow in Him, / He replaces us with more of His life divine. / It is our destiny, / To live a normal life in the divine dispensing, / It is a blessing, / To be satisfied with ordinary days / in the divine dispensing. (Song on, Ordinary Days)
  – So shall we not delight to give / Ourselves in every way, / And let the Lord dispense Himself / Into us more each day; / The grace that we receive each day, / Though hidden oft, and small, / Is God Himself wrought into us, / That day to shine o’er all. (Hymns #1321)