We are Kings in God’s Economy Reigning in Life by Enjoying the Abundance of Grace

The history of the kings of Israel is related to God’s eternal economy concerning Christ and the church; we as believers in Christ are to be kings reigning in life by enjoying the abundance of grace and by having the top enjoyment of Christ.

The Old Testament is a book of pictures, figurative pictures of what the New Testament speaks of in reality.

The fulfilment is in the New Testament and the pictures are in the Old Testament. There are many types in the Old Testament, and their practical application and fulfilment is in the New Testament.

The apostle Paul was masterful in applying the typology in the Old Testament to us as New Testament believers.

In the light of God’s New Testament economy, the entire history of Israel is a type of the church and of God’s economy.

What happened to the people of Israel in the Old Testament, the experiences they passed through, and the successes and failures they had, are all a type of our experience today.

Just like the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt by God’s mighty hand and with their cooperation to enjoy the Passover, so we today are delivered from the world and its usurpation by God’s mighty hand and with our cooperation by eating Christ as our real Passover.

Just as the children of Israel ate manna (the food from heaven) and drank water from the cleft rock (the living water) in the wilderness, we today have one diet: Christ as our daily manna and our living water.

Just as the children of Israel built the tabernacle and had God’s presence among them and God was their everything, we today are building up the church according to God’s instructions and we have God as our everything.

Just as the children of Israel were attacked by Amalek in the wilderness but they prevailed, so we are attacked, out of nowhere, by the flesh, but we can prevail by the interceding Christ and the fighting Spirit.

Just as the people of Israel failed in lusting after meat and in murmuring against God, so we fail in our lusting after things other than God and in murmuring before Him.

Just as the children of Israel entered into the possession of the good land by fighting and defeating the enemies, so we today are led by Christ to enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, and we fight against any evil forces that hinder us.

Just as the children of Israel were defeated by the Philistines and worshipped idols as they lived in the good land, so we today are defeated by the enemy when we linger in the land and do not actively enjoy Christ for the building up of the church.

Just as the children of Israel built the temple with all its glory and the glory of God filled the temple, so we today can cooperate with Christ, the real Solomon, to build up the church in its glory, and the Lord’s glory fills the church.

Just as the children of Israel disobeyed God, worshipped idols, and were mixed with the Gentile nations around them, so the church is mixed with the world, has some deep things of Satan in it to make it the religious great Babylon, and the church is taken into captivity and almost fully mingled with the world. Oh, Lord Jesus!

Just as there is a remnant from Israel that returned to the proper ground of oneness, while many remained in Babylon, so today the Lord is calling some who would pay the price to return to the ground of oneness and build up the church as the temple of God.

May we read the Old Testament with the glasses of God’s economy on and realize that all the types and figures in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the New Testament, and we as the church are typified by the people of Israel with their history.

The History of the Kings of Israel is Related to God’s Eternal Economy concerning Christ and the Church

The first two kings seen in 1 Kings are David and Solomon, and much of this book is dedicated to their history. David typifies the suffering Christ, and Solomon typifies the Christ glorified in the kingdom of God and its splendour (1 Kings 2:11-12).

David and Solomon are important types of Christ in two aspects: David typifies Christ in His suffering on earth, before His resurrection, while Solomon typifies Christ being glorified in the kingdom.

In David we see a person who suffered very much; he suffered from the time he was young, and his suffering was for the conquering of the enemies and the gaining of the good land.

He fought and suffered very much; he was persecuted by Saul and later even by his own people, but he established God’s kingdom and took the land.

The Lord Jesus also suffered; His whole life was a life of suffering. He suffered from being born in a manger in the lowest estate to His death on the cross.

Christ suffered for the release of the divine life and for redemption.

Solomon typifies the Christ glorified in the kingdom of God and its splendour, which is a prefigure of Christ in the millennium.

Solomon spoke words of wisdom and build up the temple with all its splendour. Christ is the real Solomon, and He speaks the word of God and builds up the church as the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God.

Christ is the real King; He is the king without any imperfection and failure, and He came to bring in the kingdom of God, fight for the kingdom, and build up the church as the kingdom of God.

This shows us that the history of the kings is related to God’s eternal economy, which concerns Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the organic Body of Christ.

Furthermore, the temple typifies Christ and the church as the unique building of God in the universe (Matt. 12:6; 16:18).

The prophet Elisha represents God’s New Testament economy in typology; he is a type in the Old Testament who typifies the real things in the New Testament (2 Kings 4:9).

Elisha was considered a prophet with a ministry of grace. Jezebel, a most hateful person, the pagan wife of Ahab, is a type of who Jezebel is in the New Testament reality; Jezebel is a type of the apostate church (1 Kings 16:31; 19:1-2; 21:23; Rev. 2:20-23).

In typology, the kings’ palaces and God’s temple were separate, whereas in the New Testament reality these two are one building (1 Kings 9:15; Eph. 2:21-22).

On the one hand, we, the New Testament believers, are priests to serve and worship God (1 Pet. 2:9).

On the other hand, we are God’s kings to reign for God (Rev. 1:6, 9; 5:10). In the book of 1 and 2 Kings, Solomon built the temple and the king’s palaces; those were separate when Solomon built them.

But in reality, in the fulfilment of the type, they are together, for we as believers in Christ are both priests (in the temple of God) and kings (in the palaces of God).

We believers in Christ are the priests who serve God in the temple, and we’re also kings, ruling and reigning with Christ in the palaces.

Our destiny is forever to be priests and kings to God, serving God and enjoying God, ruling and reigning with God, in and as the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord!

Lord, we praise You for being the real David who suffered for our redemption and for the bringing in of the kingdom of God! We praise You for being the real Solomon, the glorified King in the kingdom of God who builds up the church as the temple of God! Hallelujah, we today are the church, the unique building of God in the universe! We are a kingdom of priests, a holy priesthood, a chosen race, to tell out the virtues of Him who has called us. We praise You, Lord, for making us kings and priests to our God. Hallelujah, we are priests serving God and worshipping Him, and we are kings reigning for God!

All Believers are Saved by God to be Kings Reigning in Life by Living the Divine Life

The whole people of Israel were enjoying the good land, but the top enjoyment of the land, the enjoyment on the top level, belonged to the king.

The kings in the books of 1 and 2 Kings are a type of the New Testament believers, because all the New Testament believers were saved by God to be both priests and kings to God. Every New Testament believer is to be a king and a priest (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:12).

In the Old Testament, God’s deputy authority was with the kings and the priests. God’s deputy authority was composed of God’s oracle to speak (the prophets and the priests) and God’s authority to rule (the kings).

When the priests spoke for God, they became God’s spokesmen, and therefore they prophesied; the prophets spoke for God.

When the kings ruled for God, they expressed God’s authority, and the kingdom of God came in.

We in the New Testament are both kings and priests and prophets; the kings, priests, and prophets in the Old Testament were the type, and today we are the reality.

For us to function as priests, kings, and prophets, we need to be those who enjoy Christ to the uttermost; we need to enjoy the top portion of Christ.

Rom. 5:17 says that he who receives the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life.

Grace is God incarnated in Christ to be our enjoyment; when Christ came, grace came (John 1:14, 17).

Grace is the Triune God coming to be our enjoyment; we need to not only enjoy the Lord but receive grace in abundance.

The grace we enjoy is not only abundant but also abounding, that is, increasing grace.

We need to enjoy the increasing grace all the time, and this grace is freely given to us by God. If we sin, we can come to the Lord to receive the gift of righteousness in abundance, and then we can enjoy abounding and abundant grace.

Hallelujah, we have received these two things, grace and righteousness, in abundance, and we can enjoy grace and righteousness and reign in life!

May we advance in our enjoyment of Christ in our Christian life; may we advance to the level of a king so that we may reign in life through Christ, the reigning One.

Christ is unlimited, but our enjoyment of Him may be only “one inch high”; our enjoyment of Christ needs to come up to the kingship level so that we may rule and reign with Christ as kings.

May we realize that we believers in the New Testament are the fulfilment of the typology of the kings in God’s economy.

How can we reign as kings? It is by receiving and enjoying the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.

Also, we can be kings reigning in life by being regenerated with God and transformed with Him as the element so that we live not by our own life but by the divine life.

It is actually the divine life that reigns in us, and we reign in life by being under the reign of the divine life.

When we allow the Lord to rule and reign in us, when we live no longer by the human life but by the divine life, we reign with Christ as kings.

Our life as believers in Christ should be human yet divine, divine yet human; we need to live by the divine life, enjoying the divine life, and expressing the divine life in our human life.

It is in and by this life that we can be kings reigning in life to enjoy our God-ordained portion, which is Christ as our good land.

The highest point of God’s organic salvation is not just to save us from sins, from perdition, or from the negative things, but to save us all the way to the throne that we may be reigning with Christ.

The Lord’s return is very soon, and He is coming back not only to straighten or solve all our problems but for His bride, His counterpart, and He’s coming back to bring in and set up His kingdom on the earth.

Knowing that the coming kingdom is just around the corner, we should not be satisfied with just being a good brother or sister in the church life; we need to realize that our destiny is to be a king, to reign and rule with Christ.

In order for Christ to have His kingdom, there has to be the co-kings, the realm where He can rule and reign freely.

In our daily living, in the way we talk and conduct ourselves, are we kingly or just common?

God wants to gain His kingdom; He is seeking to gain His overcomers who live a kingly life on the earth.

May we be those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life through Christ.

We need to reign not only over the sins, the negative sins but also over the troublesome environment, and all the difficulties and complications in our human life. God rules, but He doesn’t rule directly but through us, the believers, as kings (Rev. 20:4, 6; 3:21).

We were regenerated with a divine, spiritual, heavenly, kingly, and royal life and this life enthrones us to reign as kings over all things.

Lord Jesus, we come to You to receive and enjoy the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness so that we may reign in life. We give ourselves to You to be the co-kings with Christ ruling and reigning in life one with the Lord! Amen, Lord, You desire to gain Your kingdom: gain us as Your overcomers, those who live a kingly life on earth. Make us those who reign not only over sins but also all the difficulties and complications of our human life. May we live a kingly life in our daily life. May our daily living be kingly and not common. Amen, Lord, save us to the highest point, to the uttermost, until we reign in life one with You! Keep us enjoying the top portion of Christ as the good land until we reign and rule with Christ over all things!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 181-182, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 1, entitled, The Intrinsic Revelation in 1 and 2 Kings concerning the Economy of God Unveiled and Conveyed through Typology.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Blest constituents of Zion, / Washed in the Redeemer’s blood; / Jesus, whom their souls rely on, / Makes them kings and priests to God. / ’Tis His love His people raises / Over self to reign as kings: / And as priests, His worthy praises, / Each his thankful offering brings. (Hymns #977, stanza 3)
  – God’s Kingdom today is a real exercise, / But when Christ comes to reign it will be a great prize; / It is wisdom divine that we now may be trained / That His plan be fulfilled and His justice maintained. / God’s children, we’re born to be kings with His Son, / And we need to be trained that we may overcome / And to know how to rule in His kingdom as kings, / That His kingship thru us be expressed o’er all things. (Hymns #947, stanzas 1 and 2)
  – How I love Your reigning life, Lord. / How I love abundant grace. / How I love to have Your presence, / As I live before Your face. / By Your life, Lord, I am reigning. / I am over, over everything. / As I’m joyfully confessing, / Jesus, as my Lord and King. (Song on, Reigning Life)