Seeing and Enjoying God’s Dispensing through the Ages until the Fullness of the Times

At the fullness of the times, all things will be headed up in Christ; today we are in the process of being headed up in Christ so that through the church God would head up all things in Christ.

According to the Bible in God’s eyes there are four main ages in the span of time: the age of sin (starting from Adam), the age of the law (starting from Moses), the age of grace (starting with Christ), and the age of the kingdom (in the millennium kingdom).

Starting from Adam we have the age of sin, since Adam sinned and all his descendants were sinners. Starting from Moses we have the age of the law, since God gave the law through Moses. When the Lord Jesus came, grace came: now we are in the age of grace. Soon, the age of the kingdom will come when the Lord Jesus returns.

Throughout the ages God has been dispensing Himself into man to head up all things in Christ, and today in the age of grace we enjoy the highest and greatest dispensation of God into man.

God dispensed Himself into Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Moses, David, the prophets, and the Lord Jesus. His dispensing was greater and greater, and He dispensed Himself more in and through the Apostle Paul.

Today, however, we enjoy the greatest dispensation until now, and in the millennium we will enjoy even a greater dispensing of God into us. Eventually, in the New Jerusalem, at the fullness of the times, all the time will be wrapped up and we will enjoy God’s dispensing in full for eternity.

As God’s people enjoy God’s dispensing, they are being brought under Christ as the Head so that God would be expressed in them and rule in them and through them.

The New Jerusalem will be full of light: the glory of the Triune God will shine in us and through us, and we will be fully headed up in Christ.

In the New Jerusalem God in Christ as the Spirit shines out through His people as the holy city, and there will be no more darkness and confusion; rather, the whole universe will be brought under Christ as the Head and there will be order, peace, and harmony. Praise the Lord!

Seeing God’s Dispensing through the Age of Sin, the Law, Grace, and the Kingdom

The Bible speaks of four ages: the age of sin (starting with Adam, in which death reigned), the age of the law (starting with Moses who gave the law from God), the age of grace (grace came when the Lord Jesus came), and the age of the kingdom (starting from the Lord’s second coming, the 1000 year kingdom).

In Rom. 5:14 we see that death reigned from Adam until Moses, and in John 1:17 we see that the law was given through Moses but grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. Adam is related to sin, Moses is related to the law, and Christ is related to grace.

There is a theological teaching that further subdivides time in “seven dispensations”: the dispensations of innocence, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace, and the kingdom. This teaching is not incorrect, but according to the Bible and without inferring too much, there are four main ages in time.

And throughout these ages God has been dispensing Himself into His people all the time. Our God is a dispensing God: He flows as the Father in the Son and through the Spirit, and He flowed from eternity past into time to first create everything (including man, Adam), then work upon man and with man (see Enosh, Enoch, Noah), call man out (Abraham, Isaac), transform man (Jacob), and dwell among man and have a kingdom among men (the people of Israel).

God flowed through many people in the Old Testament, and He flowed much through the psalmists and the prophets.

Finally, God flowed through the Lord Jesus, and after becoming the life-giving Spirit He flows continually as the Spirit into man and through man. God’s dispensing continued through the Epistles in the New Testament, and today God’s dispensing is even greater than it was at the time of the Apostle Paul.

Today we enjoy a deeper, higher, and wider dispensation of the grace of God, and God flows in us as grace for others to also enjoy Him (see Eph. 3:2; 1 Pet. 4:10). Today we enjoy the dispensing of God in Christ as the Spirit coming to us to be our life, our life supply, and our everything for our enjoyment.

Christ is our daily supply of grace for us to live the Christian life, and as we enjoy Christ, He is “to me for you” – He flows in us and through us into others. In little ways, here and there, in the meetings and informally, Christ is “grace to me for you” as we remain in the divine dispensing.

Our precious Triune God is moving, dispensing, and supplying us with Himself to make us one with Him for Him to be dispensed into others for the heading up of all things in Christ.

In the age of the kingdom this dispensation will continue for a thousand years until the fullness of the times. When the new heaven and new earth will come and the New Jerusalem will be here, there will be the ultimate and consummate dispensation of the Triune God to the whole universe (Rev. 22:1-2), and all things will be brought under Christ as the Head.

In the New Jerusalem at the fullness of the times God’s dispensing will be the fullest, deepest, and broadest ever, and all things and beings will be brought under Christ as the Head as He shines through the Holy City in the entire universe.

Enjoying a Foretaste of the Consummate Dispensing of the Triune God in the Church Life Today

Today in the church life we can enjoy a miniature of the consummate dispensation of the Triune God in the New Jerusalem.

In the New Jerusalem the Father in the Son as the Spirit is flowing as the river of water of life to supply the whole city, and through the gates He will flow out to the new heaven and new earth to bring life wherever the river flows.

In the church life we can drink the Lord as the Spirit, the water of life, by calling on the name of the Lord, and we will have a foretaste of that consummate dispensing of the Triune God in the New Jerusalem.

In the New Jerusalem Christ is the tree of life growing on both sides of the river of water of life to supply God’s people with life. Today in the church life we can eat Christ as the tree of life by pray-reading His word with the exercise of our spirit, and we will have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem.

In the New Jerusalem there is a golden street in the middle of the city, spiraling down the mountain from the throne until it reaches all the gates. Today we can walk according to the divine nature and do everything according to God’s nature in our spirit, and we will have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem.

At every moment we are in the spirit and walk by the Spirit we are in the reality of the New Jerusalem at least in a foretaste.

As we enjoy the Spirit as the living water and eat Christ as the tree of life in the church life, we are awaiting the consummate dispensation in the New Jerusalem where we will be fully saturated and permeated with the Triune God!

In the New Jerusalem God in Christ shines as the light, and life will be there; the New Jerusalem is full of light, and there’s no need of the light of the sun or of the moon. The glory of the Triune God will be our shining light, and under this light we receive the divine life and are controlled and headed up in Christ (Rev. 21:23).

Today we are still in a dark world; everything and everyone is in a universal heap of collapse, but God’s purpose for the church is that it would stay in His divine dispensing to be filled with Him as life and be one with Him to be headed up in Christ, and through the church God will head up all things in Christ.

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In the New Jerusalem there will be no more night, no death, and no darkness; the whole city will be filled with life and light, and everything will be headed up in Christ, in a good order, and in harmony.

Today we can have a foretaste of this: as we experience Christ as life, something is rising up in us to bring us under Christ as the Head, and there is an automatic attachment to the other members of the Body.

Hallelujah, we all are being headed up in Christ as we remain in the divine dispensing in the church life today until all things will be headed up in Christ in the New Jerusalem – the fulfillment of the heading up of all things in Christ spoken of in Eph. 1:10!

Lord Jesus, thank You we in the church life can enjoy a foretaste of the consummating dispensing of the Triune God in the New Jerusalem. Lord, as we exercise our spirit to drink You as the life-giving Spirit through calling on the name of the Lord we have a foretaste of the flowing river of water of life in the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah, we can eat Christ as the tree of life and have a foretaste of the tree of life in the New Jerusalem! Lord, we want to be in our spirit and walk according to the spirit so that we may have the life of the New Jerusalem today in the church life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians (msg. 10), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 3 / msg 3, God’s Purpose for the Church (3) – To Head Up All Things in Christ.
• Picture credit for 1 Peter 4:10 and more spiritual quotes via, Christian Pictures Blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Drink! A river pure and clear that’s flowing from the throne; / Eat! The tree of life with fruits abundant, richly grown; / Look! No need of lamp nor sun nor moon to keep it bright, for / Here there is no night! (Hymns #1151)
  # A mighty flowing-out is God, / He flows throughout the ages. / And so to flow Himself to man / He is in many stages; / Yet still one God is He, / One flow eternally; / His stages pave the way / To flow through man today, / And now He flows within us! (Hymns #1198)
  # Thy Spirit will me saturate / Every part will God permeate, / Deliv’ring me from the old man, / With all saints building for His plan. (Hymns #501)