Receiving and Dispensing Grace through the Blood, the Word, the Spirit, and the Church

We thank and praise the Lord for saving us through His grace; even while we were sinners He showed us mercy and grace, and when we heard the gospel, faith was generated into us and we believed into the wonderful person of Christ, who is so full of grace and reality.

Now our Christian life is a life by grace: we receive grace, we stand in grace, we enjoy grace, we live by grace, grace reigns in us, and eventually everything that we do is not by ourselves but the grace of God who is in us.

Grace is not merely unmerited favor, neither is grace merely something outward like material prosperity; grace is God in Christ as the Spirit realized by us to be enjoyed by us as our life and life supply to be our everything. God doesn’t give us grace apart from Himself – grace is God Himself, the processed and consummated Triune God to be our enjoyment for our life supply.

We need to daily enjoy God and be filled with God so that we may live a life in oneness with God and express God. On His side, God is supplying the Spirit of grace bountifully, and on our side, we should be receiving and dispensing the Spirit of grace continually. He gives us the Spirit without measure, and this Spirit is of grace; we simply need to be open and receive grace!

One of the best way to receive grace and minister grace to others is to turn to our spirit, exercise our spirit, and enthrone the Lord. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit; whenever we turn to the spirit and exercise the spirit, we should also enthrone the Lord in our being, and out of this throne there will be a river of water of life flowing as grace to us to water us, nourish us, and transform us.

Whenever we call on the name of the Lord, Lord Jesus, we enthrone Him in our being, and the Spirit as rivers of living water will flow out from the throne of grace to supply us.

We need to daily practice turning to the spirit, exercising the spirit, and enthroning the Lord in our being so that we may receive grace and flow out grace! Today we want to see a further way of receiving and dispensing grace daily.

Receiving and Dispensing Grace through the Blood, the Word, the Spirit, and the Church

The Bible gives us many ways in which we can receive grace daily so that we may dispense grace to others, and four such ways are quite practical and enjoyable: the blood of Christ, the word of God, the Spirit of grace, and the church.

The redeeming blood brings sinful people into the eternal enjoyment of God. The redeeming blood of Christ – the blood of the covenant, God’s own blood – brings us, sinful and corrupted people, into the eternal enjoyment of God not only initially at the time of our regeneration but whenever we apply the blood (see Matt. 26:28; Lev. 16:11-16; Heb. 10:19-20; 1 John 1:7, 9).

If we don’t know our unworthiness and we don’t admit we need the cleansing of the blood, it will be difficult for us to have a good conscience to supply grace to others. We need the blood of Christ again and again; when we experience the redeeming blood, we stand in a humble position to be one who receives grace to dispense grace to others.

When we wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb we have the right to the tree of life: we can take God in as life to be our portion! Through the blood of Christ we have God Himself, the divine life, the divine nature, the inward law of life, and the ability to know God.

When we apply the Lord’s blood, we come into God’s presence to be infused with God and enjoy God; this is our experience both today and for eternity – today we have a foretaste of the full enjoyment to come!

Thank You Lord for Your redeeming blood, the blood of the covenant which brings us into the eternal enjoyment of God. Thank You for shedding Your own blood to bring sinful and corrupted people into God’s enjoyment. Lord, we need Your blood. We want to apply the blood every day so that we may have Your presence, Your enjoyment, and the rich supply of life. Thank You Lord for Your blood!

The word of God can be eaten by us to become the word of his grace as the gladness and joy of our heart (see Jer. 15:16). Jeremiah faced the degradation of the people of Israel, the unjust treatment of the kings, and the judgement of God on His people, but he testified that he found the Lord’s words, ate them, and they became to him the gladness and joy of his heart!

According to the entire revelation in the Bible, God’s words are good for us to eat, and we as His people should not merely study His word but eat His word to receive the divine supply (see Psa. 119:103; Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Pet. 2:2-3).

As we pray over God’s words and muse over the Bible in a prayerful way, God dispenses His riches into our inner being to constitute us with His element. Through eating His words, we are supplied with grace, and the word of God becomes the word of His grace to be our heart’s gladness and joy.

As we live and serve in the church life today we should not be disappointed by our environment or by the condition of the saints but we should enjoy God’s word more, and we will be inwardly supplied to also minister grace to others.

Lord, we want to not merely read or study Your word but eat Your word until it becomes the word of Your grace as the gladness and joy of our heart! Your word is our food, and You are our constant supply through Your living word. May we find Your words, pray-read Your words, muse on Your words, and be filled with gladness, rejoicing, and inward life supply! Praise You Lord for Your word – our daily food!

The Spirit of grace is the oil of exultant joy with which we’re anointed as the partners of Christ (Heb. 1:9; 10:29; Zech. 12:10). On the one hand at Pentecost the Spirit of power was poured out upon the disciples for their work, and on the other hand God’s intention is to pour out the Spirit of grace upon His people so that they would enjoy God and be filled with God.

Eventually, the Lord will pour out the Spirit of grace upon the remaining people in Jerusalem who survive the attack of Antichrist and his armies, and they will receive the Triune God as their enjoyment (Zech. 12:10). Today as God’s spiritual people, the believers in Christ, we are the partners of Christ who are anointed with Him with the oil of exultant joy.

Hallelujah, the Spirit of grace is the bountiful supply of the processed and consummated God to be the oil of exultant joy anointing Christ and His partners! Who are we to receive such grace, to be in the same economy of God and have the same goal as Him? What a grace!

God’s economy has become our stewardship, we are the Lord’s partners, and the secret to being His partners is to be filled with the Spirit, the oil of exultant joy! When we are filled with the Spirit, we are His partners in God’s economy together with Him.

Lord, thank You for anointing us with the Spirit of grace, the oil of exultant joy! Hallelujah, the Spirit of grace as the bountiful supply of the processed and consummated God is the oil of exultant joy with which we are anointed as partners of Christ! What a mercy and what a grace to be partners of Christ, those who daily seek to be filled with the Spirit and participate in God’s economy, God’s universal enterprise!

The church experiences the fresh and refreshing grace of God as the descending dew (Psa. 133:3). How good it is for saints to dwell together in oneness: it is like the dew of Hermon coming down on the mountains of Zion, and like the anointing oil descending on Aaron; there we have God’s commanded blessing, life forever!

Where do we have the descending grace from God? In the church. To enjoy more grace we need to stay in the church and meet with the saints. As we stay in the church, we will have a greater grace, and our measure will be enlarged to receive and enjoy more grace.

The refreshing grace of God, God’s presence, is in the church when the saints meet together in oneness to practice the church life. We may have our meetings in the evening, but our feeling is that we’re in the morning, enjoying the freshness, the newness, and the refreshing of the Lord’s presence.

When we come together with our experiences of Christ in our daily life, when we all have something of Christ wrought into us and ready to dispense to others, we have the Lord’s fresh presence, we have newness, and there’s much refreshing; there the Lord commands the blessing: life forever, life eternal!

Hallelujah, in the church we enjoy God’s grace descending! Through God’s compassions, we enjoy the fresh and refreshing grace of God descending on the church to water and transform us (see Psa. 133:3; Lam. 3:22-23; 2 Cor. 13:14; Acts 11:23).

Lord, keep us in the church life enjoying and experiencing the fresh and refreshing grace of God as the descending dew! Thank You for Your compassions: they are new every morning, never-failing. Through Your compassions we are not consumed but are experiencing the fresh and refreshing grace of God as the descending dew upon the church, the saints dwelling in oneness. Lord, keep us in the place of Your commanded blessing: keep us in the church in oneness!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the sharing in the message for this week, and The Life and Way for the Practice of the Church Life, pp. 145-146 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 2 / msg. 2, The Gospel of Grace.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version. Recommending in particular the footnotes on Jer. 15:16, Psa. 133, and Zech. 12:10.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # We are washing all our robes the tree of life to eat; / “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!”—Jesus is so sweet! / We our spirits exercise, and thus experience Christ. / What a Christ have we! (Hymns #1151)
  # Jesus, living Word, / My heart thirsts for Thee; / Of Thee I’d eat and drink, / Enjoy Thee thoroughly. (Song on eating the Lord)
  # What we are, we’re Christ’s partners: / We share the same anointing. / No longer we’re just serving Him; / His riches we may all share in. / We’re His partners, glorious! (Hymns #1279)