The New Testament believers’ living under the grace of God in God’s economy is a total living of experiencing the processed and consummated Triune God as grace; the total living of a Christian is the living of the Triune God processed to be grace to us. Amen!
This week we come to the topic, The Believers’ Experience of the Grace of God in the Economy of God Consummating in the Church as the Organic Body of Christ.
We need to see four main matters this week, the first being concerning God’s economy.
God’s economy is to work out and obtain an organism for the Divine Trinity, which organism is the church as the organic Body of Christ.
He does this by means of His divine dispensing; He dispenses Himself with all His riches and elements into our being to produce and build up the church as the Body of Christ for His corporate expression.
We further need to see grace in God’s economy; grace in God’s economy is the embodiment of God to be received by man, to be man’s enjoyment and supply.
The way God carries out His economy is in grace and by grace, that is, by Him going through a process to become the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit coming into our spirit to be the Spirit of grace imparting grace to us. Everything in God’s economy is a matter of grace and in grace.
The third item we need to see is the living of the New Testament believers; our living as believers in Christ is under the grace in God’s economy.
Such a living is a total living of experiencing the processed and consummated Triune God as grace. Day by day we need to live not in and by ourselves but in grace and by grace.
We need to enjoy the Lord as grace, contact the Lord and experience Him as grace, and have a living that is by grace and in grace.
Finally, we want to see the accomplishment of the New Testament believers’ experience of grace in the economy of God, which accomplishment is the organic Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem. Our Christian life is a life of grace, the experience of grace.
As believers in Christ, we need to realize that our entire Christian life is a life in the enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God coming to us to be grace to us.
Our Christian life is a life for the economy of God. We have two main aspects to our Christian life: the personal aspect and the corporate aspect; the personal aspect of our Christian life should be for the corporate aspect, which is the church life.
According to the New Testament teaching, our Christian life should ultimately be for the building up of the organic Body of Christ; we do not live a Christian life for our personal benefit or blessing but for the Body of Christ.
We don’t live a Christian life merely to have a life that glorifies God by an excellent living or good conduct; the goal of God’s New Testament economy is the Body of Christ, and our Christian life aims at this goal.
Amen, may we be enlightened and uplifted in our living of the Christian life for the church life!
The Believers living under the Grace in God’s Economy is a Total Living of Experiencing God as Grace
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit (Gal. 6:18), and we as believers in Christ need to daily come forward with boldness to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16).
The throne here refers to the throne of God in heaven, which is the throne of God’s authority; however, to us as New Testament believers, this throne is the throne of grace.
The way for us to come to the throne of grace is by turning to our spirit by the simple exercise of calling on the Lord’s name from deep within.
When we call on the name of the Lord, we can sense deeply that the throne of grace is in our spirit.
Whenever we turn to our spirit, we come to this throne of grace and we receive the supply of grace to be our timely help.
The New Testament believers’ living under the grace in God’s economy is a total living of experiencing the processed and consummated Triune God as grace. Hallelujah!
Rev. 22:21 says, The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
The whole book of Revelation and the entire Bible ends with grace; after we have seen all the visions and prophecies in the Holy Word, what we need is still grace.
It is only by our experiencing and enjoying God as grace that we can live and walk according to the visions and prophecies we have seen and thus be able to fulfill God’s eternal economy.
The Christian living must be the living of grace, the experience of grace; our entire Christian life is essentially a life of having God as our grace (2 Cor. 1:12).
Paul testified concerning his living saying that this is the testimony of his conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God he conducted himself in the world and more abundantly toward the saints.
On one hand, we need to learn to be single and sincere, living in singleness of heart and sincerity of spirit; on the other hand, we need to do all things by the grace of God.
In our Christian life and church life we should not play any politics, nor should we encounter anything by fleshly wisdom; rather, we need to do all things by God’s grace.
Our living as believers in Christ under the grace in God’s economy is a total living of experiencing God as grace.
A total living means that our entire living is a living of the Triune God processed to be grace to us (2 Cor. 13:14). Every aspect of our living needs to be in grace and by grace.
The Christian life is not a matter of doing things in a certain way, keeping certain regulations, and being mindful of others as we speak and do things.
The total living of a Christian is the living of grace. A total living is an entire Christian living which should be a living of the Triune God processed to be grace to us.
A total living is not a matter of whether we judge people or not; that is fragmentary living.
The so-called “total living of a Christian” is the 24h a day living, a living in which we always take the Triune God as our life and person, we follow Him and move with Him so that the two spirits become one spirit.
In our daily Christian life, we need to have the total living of experiencing the Triune God as grace.
Such a total living is not a living according to being right or wrong, doing good or evil, or any other criteria.
The living of all believers in Christ should be the living of the processed Triune God mingled with the transformed tripartite man.
In this living God comes to be our grace and we live in grace; this is the grace revealed in the New Testament.
Grace in God’s economy is the processed Triune God united and mingled together with us and thereby living together with us.
In such a living, we take the Triune God as our life and person, and we take the Triune God as the realm of our living.
He takes the lead and we follow Him; He and we are moving together to live out a certain kind of life, which is the living of grace for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, may our living under the grace in God’s economy be a total living of experiencing the processed and consummated Triune God as grace! Amen, Lord, we come to You, again and again, to enjoy You as grace with our spirit. May our Christian living be the living of grace, the experience of grace. May our daily Christian life be a life of having God as grace involved with every aspect of our living. We don’t want to live merely according to right or wrong, good or evil; may our total living be the living of grace. Thank You for being with our spirit as grace, ready to impart God into all the parts of our being. May our daily living today be a living of the Triune God processed to be grace to us!
Being those who Receive Grace, Follow the Anointing, and have the Living of Grace
The compound Spirit is moving within us daily as the anointing so that we may enjoy the processed Triune God as grace (1 John 2:20, 27).
This compound Spirit is typified by the holy anointing oil in Exo. 30:2-25, the fragrant olive oil compounded with four kinds of spices.
The Spirit with our spirit is the compound Spirit, in whom are the Father and the Son with His all-inclusive and all-terminating death, His human living, His resurrection, and His ascension.
This Spirit moves in us and anoints us daily so that we may enjoy the processed Triune God as grace. This should be our experience today.
The Spirit moves in us as the anointing, both essentially to add more of the element of God to our being and economically to lead us and empower us for His work.
Everything we need is in this Spirit with our spirit; every day, we should live and move according to the anointing so that we may experience and enjoy the Triune God in us as grace.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of grace, is with our spirit, which has been regenerated to be the dwelling place and vessel of the Triune God (Heb. 10:29; Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23; Philem. 25; 2 Tim. 4:22).
May we be those who receive grace and continually receive grace day by day to have the living of grace, the experience of grace; may our Christian living be the living of grace, the experience of grace.
Grace is the Triune God – the Father given to us in the Son and the Son realized as the Spirit dwelling in our spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 6:17).
Eventually, the Spirit is grace and this grace is just the Triune God consummated as the Spirit now indwelling our spirit and being mingled with our spirit to be one spirit.
Our spirit is the only place where we can experience and enjoy grace. In order for us to receive and enjoy grace, we need to turn to our spirit.
As children of God and believers in Christ, we should exercise our spirit every day by praying and calling on the name of the Lord to receive, enjoy, and experience the processed Triune God as the Spirit in our spirit to be grace to us.
If we have this kind of living, gradually we will become one with the processed Triune God organically so that He becomes our inner constituent and we become His outward expression.
Because we are saints, the grace of the Lord must be with each one of us in every aspect of our daily life (Phil. 4:23; Eph. 4:7).
In big things and in small things, in all things of our daily life, we need the grace of the Lord to be with us.
We need to consider what is our real condition today.
Where are we today? What is grace to us? Paul counted all things as dung, and he counted only God in Christ as grace; by the experience of grace, he surpassed the others in the race.
Our living today and our work should be the same as the living and work of the apostle Paul, a living in which we experience and enjoy the processed and consummated Triune God as grace.
Such a total living is altogether not in the realm of right or wrong, good or evil, but in the realm of enjoying and experiencing the processed Triune God as grace.
In this kind of living, we only take life as the principle; God accepts whatever is of life and rejects what is not of life.
This life is this rich grace, having God the Father as its substance, God the Son as its element, and God the Spirit as its essence.
May our daily living be a living of grace, an experience of grace, and may we live under the grace in the economy of God so that we may experience and enjoy the processed and consummated Triune God as grace and consummate in the church as the organic Body of Christ!
Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for coming into us as the compound Spirit to be the anointing in us both adding God’s element to our being and leading us in our daily life. Hallelujah, the Spirit is moving within us daily as the anointing so that we may enjoy the processed Triune God as grace! Praise the Lord, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of grace, is with our spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to continually receive grace and experience the processed Triune God as grace with our spirit. May our total living be the living of grace, the experience of grace. May we be those who have the grace of the Lord with us in every aspect of our daily life. Keep us enjoying You as grace in all the details of our daily living until our living is of grace and our experience is of grace!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1991-1992, col. 3, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy“, pp. 328-330, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Grace of God in the Economy of God (2022 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 3, entitled, The Believers’ Experience of the Grace of God in the Economy of God Consummating in the Church as the Organic Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Paul the Apostle counted all as dung, / ’Twas only God in Christ he counted grace; / ’Tis by this grace-the Lord experienced- / That he surpassed the others in the race. / It is this grace-Christ as our inward strength- / Which with His all-sufficiency doth fill; / It is this grace which in our spirit is, / There energizing, working out God’s will. (Hymns #497)
– In the holiest place, touch the throne of grace, / Grace as a river shall flow; / In the holiest place, touch the throne of grace, / Grace as a river shall flow. / In the holiest place, live before His face, / Light of glory thru me will shine; / In the holiest place, live before His face, / Light of glory thru me will shine. (Hymns #770)
– Thy Spirit too anoints me here / And makes Thy very substance mine; / Thy very self I thus enjoy / And know Thy very heart’s design. / Thy Word I read before Thee here / E’en as the priests the lamp did light; / Thy Spirit is as oil to me / To light Thy Word and give me sight. (Hymns #813)
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