It is amazing to realize that the history of God in man continues today with us, for we are part of Christ’s goings forth from eternity into time!
Our God is a living and moving God; He moved with men and among men in the Old Testament (this was His indirect move), and He moves in man in the New Testament – He is continuing His goings forth in man and through man today. Hallelujah!
May we really see the universal history according to God’s economy – not only the human history and not only “all about God”, but the divine history within the human history.
There are three things taking place today: the consuming of the locusts (the outward human history with the four empires, and especially the Roman empire today), the suffering of Israel (who is being chastised by God through the nations), and the manifestation of Christ.
All the things going on today are for the manifestation of Christ; the locusts are consuming, Israel is suffering, and we go through sufferings and troubles for this one purpose, for Christ to be manifested in us.
The Roman empire has been given an extension for a time; the government today is the consuming locust, Israel is still suffering, yet God is moving today in a silent, mysterious, and hidden way for the manifestation of Christ.
Eventually the manifestation of Christ will result in a restoration, the full restoration in the coming age!
We see this in the Minor Prophets, in particular in the book of Joel. In Joel 1 we see the consuming of the locusts (the totality of the human government), and in Joel 2 we see the Lord’s promise that He will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh; this prophecy was fulfilled in Acts 2.
Today whoever calls on the name of the Lord is saved, and he receives the Spirit. What happened at Pentecost was not a news item – it wasn’t something that the worldly people took a note of, but that was God’s move, for the divine history was being accomplished within the human history.
In His sovereignty God brought together in Jerusalem Jewish people who were scattered throughout the nations, and He used the facilitation of the Roman empire with the roads, the safety of travel, and all their arrangements.
The facilitation brought about by the locust of the Roman Empire was for the manifestation of Christ!
Today it is very similar as in those days – because of the modern conveniences to travel and communicate, we can get together and fellowship for the manifestation of Christ!
Whenever we come together and enjoy the Lord, call on His name, and spend time in His presence, we live in the divine history within the human history, and we become the manifestation of Christ. Amen!
Seeing the History of God with Man in the Old Testament and the History of God in Man in the New Testament
Before Christ came, before God was incarnated, God moved with men and among men; this wasn’t His direct move to carry out His eternal economy for Christ and the church but His indirect move.
In the Old Testament God had an indirect move in His old creation for the preparation of His direct move in His new creation for His eternal economy.
For example, God moved with Samson, but He was not in Samson; Samson was used by God to be a judge in Israel, but he didn’t have God within him, and his personal life was a mess…but today in the New Testament age God moves in man!
In the Old Testament times God moved with man and among man; in the New Testament age God’s entire way changed, for He came into humanity and gave birth to the new creation.
So we can say that God’s history is in two portions – in the Old Testament we see the history of God with man, and in the New Testament we see the history of God in man.
IN man – this word, in, is one of the greatest words, for it changes everything. On the day that we have opened ourselves to the Lord and called on Him to receive Him, He came INTO us, and we were instantly brought into the divine history.
God’s history in man began with the incarnation of Christ and continued with His processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
Before Christ’s incarnation, there was not such a person who is both God and man; now, through incarnation, there was a God-man, a wonderful person who is the mingling of God and man.
At the end of His life and ministry on earth, the Lord Jesus willingly went to the cross; His death was a vicarious death, an all-inclusive death that terminated the old creation and solved all the problems.
After three days, He resurrected and was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:4; 8:29), He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and He regenerated the many believers for His Body (1 Pet. 1:3).
Many millions of believers were regenerated by God with His divine life and nature in the resurrection of Christ to become the enlargement of the manifestation of Christ, men who live not only in the human history but even more in the divine history within human history.
Christ as the first God-man is the beginning of God’s history in man; He was incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended, and He descended as the Spirit to produce the church as the corporate expression of the Triune God.
Today the church is the enlargement of the manifestation of Christ – the church is the continuation of the divine history within the human history, and we believers are part of the history of God in man.
This culminates in Christ as the Spirit, the processed and consummated Triune God, marrying the church as the bride, the processed and tripartite man (Rev. 22:17).
This part of God’s history within human history has been going on for more than two thousand years, and it will consummate with Christ returning with His overcomers as His army, the mighty ones (Joel 3:11) to defeat Antichrist and his army.
At Armageddon there will be the meeting of two figures from two different histories – the Antichrist as the leading figure in the outward, human history, will meet Christ with His overcomers as the Figure in the intrinsic, divine history.
Christ with His overcomers, the Figure in the divine history, will defeat Antichrist, the figure in the human history, and He will cast him in the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). Hallelujah!
After this, the thousand-year kingdom will come; this kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate, the consummate, step of God’s history.
May we have a clear view of God’s history in man and with man in the Old Testament, and the history of God in man in the New Testament! Hallelujah, we are part of the history of God with man!
Hallelujah, God’s history is not only with man or among men but even more in man, and we are part of the history of God in man! Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ came as God incarnated to be a man, and He brought God into man and mingled God with man. Amen, Christ became a life-giving Spirit to come into us and regenerate us to bring us into God’s history in man! Thank You Lord for making us part of Your history in humanity; now we are the church which will be Your bride, Your wife, to consummate in the New Jerusalem, the ultimate step of God’s history in man! Hallelujah!
Christ’s Goings Forth are still Continuing today: He draws us with Cords of Man and Bands of Love
God’s history in man began with Christ’s incarnation; the incarnation of Christ was one of the greatest events in history, yet no contemporary historian recorded it as being of great importance.
The history of God in man continued with Christ’s human living, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension; according to Hosea 11:4, these are “the cords of a man, the bands of love”.
This indicates that God loves us with His divine love on the level of humanity, not on the level of divinity.
God’s love is divine, but this divine love reaches us in the cords of a man – through Christ’s humanity.
His cords of a man include Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; by all these steps of Christ in His humanity, God’s love in His salvation reaches us (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10). Hallelujah!
God’s unchanging love is prevailing because it is a love in Christ, with Christ, by Christ, and for Christ; apart from Christ, God’s unchanging, everlasting, and subduing love could not be prevailing in relation to us (see Hosea 11:4 and footnote 1 in the Recovery Version Bible).
How can we enjoy or touch God’s love, the nature of His essence? It is by Him becoming a man; it is in and through humanity that we are drawn with cords of a man and bands of love.
As we open to the Lord and receive Him, we become part of the history of God in man; His history in man continues with His indwelling us through God’s organic salvation!
Through the process of regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification, we are made into the glorious bride of Christ to be fully one with God in the history of God in man (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 5:27; Rev. 19:7-9).
As Micah 5:2 says, Christ’s goings forth are from ancient times, from the days of eternity.
Although Christ came forth from Bethlehem, His goings forth were from ancient times, from the days of eternity; in eternity, before the creation of man, Christ was preparing to come forth!
From ancient times, from the days of eternity, the Triune God was preparing to come forth out of eternity into time, with His divinity into humanity, by being born in Bethlehem as a man.
He created all things for this purpose, for His comings forth so that He may bring man into the history of God in man.
Christ’s going forth, His appearing, is a continuous matter. At the time of His incarnation He began to come forth. After His incarnation, He continued to go forth through His human living, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His outpouring of the consummated Spirit (who is the reality of Christ Himself), and His spreading through the preaching of the gospel to the whole inhabited earth. All these are great steps in Christ’s going forth. His going forth has not ceased but is continuing today. Christ’s going forth, His manifestation, will consummate when He comes back with the overcomers as the mighty ones (Joel 3:11) to defeat Antichrist and cast him into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:19-20), when Satan is cast into the abyss (Rev. 20:2-3), and when Christ sets up His throne to reign as King (Matt. 25:31, 34, 40). At that time His appearing will be complete. Micah 5:2, footnote 1 (part 2), Recovery Version Bible
In eternity past the Triune God planned to go forth; He wanted to go forth out of eternity and step onto the bridge of time to accomplish His economy.
From eternity to eternity He is God (Psa. 90:2), and He stepped onto the bridge of time to become a man, live a human life, die on the cross, resurrect, ascend, descend, be poured out as the Spirit, and enter into man as the Spirit.
Christ continues is goings forth in our being; His goings forth in our being is our inclusion in the divine history.
First Christ comes into our spirit and His desire is to continue to go forth into our soul, eventually into our mortal body to fully save our whole being!
His goings forth include His organic salvation starting with regeneration and continuing with His sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, glorification, and all the way until He gets His bride!
We need to let Him go forth in our mind by abiding in His word and letting Him renew our mind as His word abides us richly.
May we not be caught in the operation of the locusts in the human history, how the market is doing, and what’s going on outwardly, but may we give the Lord the ground in our being to go forth further and further in us.
The culmination of this process is Christ as the Spirit (who is the processed and consummated Triune God) marrying the church as the bride (the processed and transformed tripartite man).
And when Christ returns to deal with Antichrist and his armies, He will not come alone – He will come with His overcomers!
Until then we need to mature by growing in life until we become the bride of Christ, the mighty ones who descend with Him to defeat Antichrist!
May we pray for maturity in life for us and all the saints, and may we enter into the word of God daily, being filled with the word, saturated with the word, and supplied by the word, until we marry the One who is the Word of God!
May we allow Christ as the Word of God to deal with anything of the Antichrist and of Nebuchadnezzar in us until we are like Daniel, standing on the earth for God, praying one with God for what He wants to do!
When things get heated and we’re about to argue, when something wells up in us to have an exchange of words with our spouse, or when we’re about to burst with anger, we need to turn to the Lord and allow the sharp word of God to cut off the enemy in us.
May we be those who learn to live in the divine history within human history, the history of God in man today!
Thank You Lord for regenerating us with the divine life to bring us into the history of God in man! Hallelujah, Christ’s goings forth from the ancient times includes us, for He as the Spirit has come into us to bring us in the divine history within human history. Amen, Lord, we open to You to be renewed, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified until we become the mature and pure bride of Christ to match You for that wedding day, and to descend with You to defeat Antichrist and his armies! Keep us in Your word, Lord, allowing Your word to saturate us, operate in us, and kill the enemy in us; Your word sanctifies us, beautifies us, and prepares us to be Your bride.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Life-study Joel, msgs. 6-7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery (2020 Memorial Day Conference), week 3, The Universal History according to God’s Economy — the Divine History within the Human History.
- Recommended reading: Micah 5:2 and Hosea 11:4 with the footnotes in the Recovery Version Bible.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Christ is the hope of glory, He is my history: / His life is my experience, for He is one with me; / He comes to bring me into His glorious liberty, / That one with Him completely I’ll ever be. (Hymns #949)
– Blessed be the Lord forever: / Day by day He loads with good, / E’en the God of our salvation— / Spread His worthy praise abroad. / His the goings forth from death, / Every foe He conquereth! / Hallelujah, hallelujah, / Hallelujah, Amen! (Hymns #1100)
– Thine am I by all ties, / And chiefly Thine, / For through Thy sacrifice / Thou, Lord, art mine; / By Thine own cords of love, so sweetly wound / Around me, closely I to Thee am bound. (Hymns #454)
About aGodMan
