Be Satisfied with Normal Days under the Divine Dispensing for God’s image and Dominion

God’s original intention in creating man in His image and according to His likeness will be fulfilled in the millennium with the overcomers and ultimately in the New Jerusalem with all of God’s people who would have been transformed, renewed, and fully glorified to express God and represent Him corporately.

Right now, we are in the process of being renewed, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ, but in the coming age, the age of the millennial kingdom, God’s glorious kingdom will be manifested.

When the Lord Jesus returns, on the one hand He will come as a stone cut out without hands to crush the great human image from the toes to the head (see Daniel 2:35, 44), and on the other hand, He will come with His bride as His army (see Rev. 19).

After marrying His overcomers as His bride and after having a 1000 years wedding feast, the Lord Jesus with His overcomers will come to smash human government, destroy Antichrist with his armies, and fill up the whole earth as a great mountain, making the whole earth God’s kingdom. Hallelujah!

For eternity in the new heaven and the new earth the New Jerusalem will be the consummation of image and dominion: in the holy city God’s image will be expressed to the entire universe, and through the city God’s authority will be exercised in the universe (see Rev. 21:2, 10-11).

What a glorious destiny we have as children of God and members of the Body of Christ! But how is this to be worked out in our Christian life?

We don’t have to pray for more dealings, discipline, or breaking – even though we know we need these. We simply need to be satisfied and content with normal days in the divine dispensing, enjoying the Lord and loving Him with all our heart, and doing our best to cooperate with His inward work that matches the outward working in the environment.

May the Lord gain many brothers and sisters all throughout the earth who give the Lord their cooperation to grow in life little by little, day by day, until the Lord will rapture them as His overcomers, His bride, His army, and His New Jerusalem!

God’s Image and Dominion will be Seen in Man in the Millennial Kingdom and in the New Jerusalem

When the Lord Jesus returns, He and the overcomers as a corporate smiting stone will become a great mountain to fill the whole earth, making the whole earth God’s kingdom, His dominion (see Dan. 2:34-35, 44-45).

When Christ returns, the ones who have been matured and perfected to be overcomers will join Him to smash the human government – no more socialists, capitalists, communists, republicans, democrats, or any human government! Instead, the kingdom of God will fill the whole earth, making the whole earth God’s dominion!

For this, the Body of Christ needs to be built up today so that it would become the prepared Bride of Christ for whom the Lord is coming, and we get married to Him and enter into the wedding feast. At the end of the wedding feast, we as the overcomers will go with Christ to fight Antichrist with all his armies, and the wedding garment of the bride becomes the battle uniform.

During the age of grace we have learned how to fight, and now we follow Him in battle and deal with Antichrist and with his armies. Hallelujah, this will really happen!

The kingdom of God is a realm in which God exercises His power so that He can express His glory; God’s glory goes with His kingdom (Matt. 6:13; 1 Thes. 2:12).

In the millennium the overcoming believers will be with Christ in the bright glory of the kingdom, shining forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (see Matt. 13:43). The Lord Himself will be the sun of righteousness, and we as the overcomers will shine like the sun.

But this is not the end: there’s more! The New Jerusalem in eternity is the consummation of the image and dominion (see Rev. 21:2, 10-11). In the New Jerusalem all of God’s people will have been fully transformed and glorified, and this city will bear the image of God, expressing Him in glory.

The shining of the New Jerusalem is like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal, expressing the God who has the appearance of jasper on the throne in the middle of the city (Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11).

The New Jerusalem is the eternal kingdom of God, filled with the glory of God, expressing God in His image and representing God with His authority in the whole universe (Rev. 22:1, 5; 21:11).

Lord Jesus, give us the experiences we need so that we would be produced as overcomers to be with You in the millennial kingdom! Lord, build up Your Body in this age so that Your bride may be prepared for You to return and bring in the kingdom of God. Produce us as Your overcomers in this age so that we may be those who are raptured by You to be Your bride enjoying You in the wedding feast for one thousand years!

Being Satisfied with Normal Days under the Divine Dispensing for God’s image and Dominion to be Produced

God’s original intention in creating man is for man to corporately express Him and represent Him on earth. Bu how is God’s image and dominion worked out in our personal Christian life?

I was very much helped by a sharing by brother Ron Kangas on this matter. In order to bear the image of Christ and exercise dominion for God, each one of us must take the way of life, that is, the way of the experience and growth of the divine life. This is the central lane of the divine economy.

To be sure, the breaking will come, there will be the unending discipline of the Spirit, there will be the loss of our natural choice, we will pay the price for maturation, etc – but we should not focus on this or pray about this. Rather, we should have an overwhelmingly positive pursuit in the way of life. We need to learn to personally do this.

After God created man in His image, He put him in front of the tree of life, indicating that in order for man to express God and represent Him, he needed another life, the divine life. It is the divine life who produces image and dominion.

Even though man fell, Christ as the first God-man came and fulfilled Genesis 1:26. He became our Redeemer, shed His blood for our redemption, fulfilled the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and he opened the way to the tree of life. Now we are blessed if we wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb so that we may have the right to the tree of life (Rev. 22:14).

In order to have the image of Christ, we need to be saved in life (Rom. 5:10), being transformed and conformed. The image of Christ is formed within us as we allow the Lord to save us in life. If we want to do this, why not tell Him, Lord, save me in life. Sanctify me, renew me, transform me, and conform me to Your image!

In order to exercise dominion we need to reign in life by living under the rule of the divine life. We can do that by receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness so that Christ would reign in us.

Remember, the demand of the law of the kingdom of the heavens (spoken of the Lord in Matt. 5-7) is the highest demand, but the effect of this demand is to open the inner being of the regenerated believers to show them what kind of life they have within them.

We need to have our inner being be opened up positively in order to realize that we have the divine life in us! The very life of God with the nature of God is now in us, and this life enables us to exercise God’s dominion!

We need to know of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the way of life; we need to know the God of Abraham as the Father, the source of life; we need to know the God of Isaac as the Son, the grace of life; we need to know the God of Jacob – the Spirit for transformation in life.

If this is to be really worked out in life, we need to realize that it will be gradual, little-by-little, day-by-day, in the midst of our ordinary routine unspectacular daily life. We need to learn to be satisfied with a life of ordinary days under the divine dispensing.

The Triune God is in us – but not in a spectacular way; we hardly know He’s in us, but He constantly imparts Himself into us little by little, in small amounts, and His desire is that we have peaceful and calm, receiving His dispensing.

Then, when the Lord comes to rapture us, we will be working in the field or grinding at the mill (going about our normal daily activities), but we will be in the reality of the kingdom, living an ordinary life in the divine dispensing.

We should not be disillusioned with our ordinary life. God’s gentle dispensing is taking place in us. We should not pray for more breaking, for the discipline of the Holy Spirit, for the death of Rachel, or for the loss of Joseph. All of this is up to our sovereign God.

Our part is simple: just love the Lord, open to Him, live under the divine dispensing, and in this way, we will be normal and grow in life. And we can be assured: we will bear the image of Christ and we will represent God and exercise His dominion, because this is God’s purpose, this is the Lord’s recovery, and this is our destiny!

Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying Your divine dispensing daily. Thank You for our ordinary days under the divine dispensing. Keep us under Your gentle dispensing all the days of our life. Lord, may our days be filled with Your dispensing as we do our daily activities. Keep us growing in life. Bring us on to maturity and build us up with the saints. Keep us loving You, opening to You, and living under Your divine dispensing all the days of our life until we become the reality of kingdom and bring in the manifestation of the kingdom!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msgs. 245, 247-249), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 12 / msg 12, Image and Dominion – the Heart of Genesis.
• Picture credit for Matt. 4:13 and more spiritual quotes via, Christian Pictures Blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God’s Kingdom on the earth is now / His sovereign government within; / ’Tis Christ Himself in us to live / As Lord and King to rule and reign. / His life with His authority / Enthrones Him now within our hearts / To govern all our words and deeds / And regulate our inward parts. (Hymns #942)
  # It is our destiny, / To live a normal life in the divine dispensing, / It is a blessing, / To be satisfied with ordinary days / in the divine dispensing. / Day by day, / Our inward parts are being renewed by the Lord; / Every day, / Fresh and rich supply to us He does afford. (Song on the Divine Dispensing)
  # Lord, grant me today’s supply of grace; / May Your divine life grow apace; / Little by little, day by day, to grow / More and more, into You. / Day by day, bit by bit, life will grow as is fit, / Increasing gradually until, / However imperceptibly, / Your life matures within me. (Song on Growing in Life Daily)