Living in the Divine History within Human History for the Manifestation of Christ

This week we are enjoying a wonderful topic, The Continuation of the Book of Acts – Living in the Divine History within Human History. We will see, in a way, a synopsis of the book of Acts in its intrinsic significance and its organic reality.

Our prayer should be that the Lord would open our mind to understand the Scriptures, as in Luke 24:45, so that we may see that we are living in the continuation of the book of Acts, and that there’s a divine history within human history.

What does it mean that we live in the continuation of the book of Acts? The book of Acts, essentially speaking, doesn’t have an end, because it is a record of the work of God, and God’s work doesn’t stop with Acts 28 but it goes on in Acts 29, which is the whole age of grace – including the day of today.

In the last verse in Acts we see that Paul was proclaiming the kingdom of God, teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, unhindered. It’s almost as if this is a statement requiring a “…”, for the work of God and the proclaiming of the word continued throughout the generations ever since.

Today we live in the divine history within human history, for the human history is like a shell, and the divine history is like the kernel within the shell.

May we be like the one hundred and twenty who gathered in the upper room in the beginning of the book of Acts, continuing steadfastly with one accord in prayer with all the saints, so that the Lord may carry out the divine history within human history.

May our attitude be of prayer before the Lord that we may be His continuation and reproduction on earth, those who cooperate with Him by living in the divine history within the human history today to propagate Christ for His increase and enlargement on earth.

Acts reveals a Group of People who Live in the Divine History within Human History as the Acting God

We should not think that men have a history but God doesn’t. Rather, we need to open to the Lord in prayer that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened to see the divine history within the human history.

The book of Acts clearly shows us a group of people who live in the divine history within human history as the acting God.

These were not just men but God-men, men who have become God in life, in nature, in expression, and in function, but not in the Godhead, for the spreading and building up of the church as the corporate manifestation of God. Hallelujah!

The disciples in the book of Acts have become so one with God that whenever they spoke, God spoke, when they moved, God moved, and whatever they did, God did – they became the acting God, the same as God not in the Godhead but in life, nature, expression, and function.

We are the Lord’s disciples, His witnesses today. The early disciples received power when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they became the Lord’s witnesses from Judea to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).

To be a witness literally means to be a martyr, which means to continually exercise to reject the self and live by another life, the divine life within our human life. When we reject our self and live by the divine life, we become the Lord’s witnesses on earth, those bearing a living testimony of the resurrected and ascended Christ.

When we function, our function is in the Body and for the Body, just as in Acts we see that Peter stood up to speak, and even though he was the one speaking, he stood with the eleven (2:14).

And when others interdicted the disciples to speak of the Lord Jesus, even though they saw that they were with Jesus, the disciples clearly said that they cannot but speak the things which they saw and heard.

This is to be a witness, one who lives in the divine history within human history: to love the Lord, see the Lord, hear from the Lord, and testify what He has shown us.

May we be like Peter to whom the angel said, Go and stand in the temple and speak the words of this life (Acts 5:20). The angels were so aware of the divine life in Peter, for his life and work made it so real and present in his situation that even angels saw it and pointed it out, that the angel told him to go and speak the words of this life.

As we live in the divine history within human history, we need to speak the words of the life we are enjoying, speaking, experiencing, and propagating.

When Peter first proclaimed the gospel in the book of Acts, he quoted from the book of Joel, and in this book we see the intrinsic, divine history within the outward, human history (see Acts 2:17-21; Joel 1:1-4; 2:28-32).

What the disciples were doing at Pentecost was part of the divine history within human history. What we are doing today is the divine history within the human history.

Joel prophesied that in the last days God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and the sons and daughters will prophesy, the young men will see visions, and the old men see dreams; and wonders will happen, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Hallelujah!

And in Joel 1:1-4 we see the four kinds of locusts which devastated Israel: the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, the licking locusts, and the consuming locusts.

Outwardly in human history, these four stages of locusts correspond to the four sections of the great human image in Daniel 2, representing the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Roman empire.

But within that human history there’s the divine history going on, for in Joel 2:25 we see that the Lord wants to restore to us the years that the locusts have eaten. Hallelujah!

Within the outward human history there’s the divine history taking place, and whenever we call on the name of the Lord, we live in the divine history within human history!

Lord Jesus, we want to be part of the group of people who live in the divine history within human history for Your propagation and expansion on earth. O Lord Jesus, we call on Your name to be saved and enjoy all Your riches. Restore to us the years that the locusts have eaten, and keep us enjoying You with all Your riches. Lord, we want to be Your witnesses, those who exercise daily to deny ourselves, live by the divine life, enjoy the divine life, and testify of the divine life we are enjoying and experiencing! Amen, may we speak the words of this life for the propagation of God in humanity!

The Divine History within Human History is Christ’s Goings Forth to be Dispensed into Man for His Manifestation

The divine history within human history is Christ’s “goings forth…from the days of eternity” (see Micah 5:2) across the bridge of time into eternity future (Psa. 90:2) so that He may be dispensed into us, His chosen people for His corporate manifestation and His full glorification.

In Micah 5:2 we are told that the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, will be born in Bethlehem, and His goings forth are from the days of eternity.

The Lord planned to come into time with divinity into humanity, stepping from eternity on the bridge of time, to carry out the divine history within the human history. His goings forth are in His incarnation, His human living, His all-inclusive death, His all-surpassing resurrection, and His all-transcending ascension.

Then, His goings forth include His coming into us to be dispensed into us; in us the divine history within human history is going on as we are redeemed judicially and saved organically.

Christ’s goings forth in us include His coming into our spirit to regenerate our spirit, sanctify our soul, renew our whole being, transform us, conform us, and glorify us. Christ’s goings forth – the divine history within human history – is to make us the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead.

He is the desire of all the nations (Hag. 2:7); all nations desire Christ – they may not realize this, but as they desire such things as the wonders of creation, peace, good life, love, patience, humility, endurance, joy, righteousness, etc – all these things are Christ as the Desire of the nations.

Unconsciously all nations desire Christ; peace is Christ, and a good life is a God-man life, which is to live Christ. Christ in His divine attributes mingled with His human virtues is the Desire of all the nations.

In Joel we see the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh; this Spirit is the processed, consummated, compound Spirit, who was poured out on the day of Pentecost (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:1-4, 16-21).

The Spirit is the consummated Triune God and the realization of Christ for the manifestation of Christ (1 Tim. 3:15-16).

The manifestation of Christ started with the incarnation of Christ and has been confirmed and strengthened by the outpouring of the Spirit, for through this outpouring the individual Christ became the corporate Christ (see 1 Cor. 12:12-13), the church as the great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh.

The church is the manifestation of Christ, and the church will bring in the glorious day of restoration – the age of the millennial kingdom (Joel 3:16-21), in which Christ will be manifested in a fuller way.

The restoration will consummate in the fullest manifestation of Christ in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (see Rev. 21:1-2). Hallelujah, we are the church, the Body of Christ, a group of persons on earth who have the Triune God within them as their life and upon them as their authority!

We have the Lord as our inward power and as our outward clothing for spreading Him, and we can speak the words of this life to others to bring them into the divine history within human history!

We all need to speak forth Christ to propagate Him and have Him as the development of the kingdom of God; for this we need to speak Him with the divine and mystical fire of the Triune God so that others may be drawn and brought into the divine history within human history!

Thank You Lord Jesus for going forth from eternity into time to reach us and come into us as the all-inclusive Spirit! Thank You for dispensing Yourself into us as the Spirit for our life within and clothing us as the economical Spirit for us to have the authority to speak Your word. Amen, Lord, we want to speak Christ forth to propagate Him as the development of the kingdom of God so that many would touch and enter into the divine history within human history! Amen!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Acts, msgs. 70-71 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 2, The Continuation of the Book of Acts — Living in the Divine History within Human History.
• 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)
  # God eternal has a purpose, / Formed in His eternal past, / Spreading to eternal future; / ’Twixt these ends all time is cast. / For with time there is the process, / Time for His accomplishment; / And in time we’re merely travelers— / For eternity we’re meant. (Hymns #1325)