Both those who bear responsibility in the churches and all the saints need to participate in the stewardship of God, for we all need to be faithful stewards in God’s economy being conscious of the one new man.
On God’s side, He has an economy, which is to dispense Himself into man; on our side, when God dispenses Himself into us by means of His word spoken by a faithful steward, we are entrusted the stewardship of God, which is also the stewardship of the grace of God.
God’s economy and our stewardship are one; on His side there’s God’s economy, and on our side it is our stewardship. What we are doing in our stewardship should be the same thing that God is doing in His economy; this is our stewardship to minister God into man.
As believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ, we are carrying out God’s economy by our stewardship of God’s grace; such a stewardship is for the dispensing of God Himself as grace into all His chosen people.
The apostles carried out their stewardship, and the epistles are filled with God’s dispensing; when we read the epistles, we don’t get mere knowledge but the divine dispensing (if we exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord).
It is now our turn, the many believers in Christ; our ministry must correspond with God’s dispensing of Himself into His chosen people for the producing of the Body of Christ. This is God’s ministry given to us as our stewardship.
This is the unique economy of God. God doesn’t have “two economies” or “two stewardships”; rather, He has only one economy and one stewardship, and out of this stewardship is the one, unique ministry of the apostles to dispense Christ as God’s grace into His chosen people.
Out of God’s economy issues our stewardship of grace to first enjoy God in Christ as grace and then dispense Christ as God’s grace to His people for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
Hallelujah! What an economy! What a stewardship! What a privilege we have, and what a great responsibility lies on our shoulders!
God entrusts His economy to us, His people; when we move, He moves, when we speak, He speaks, and when we minister Christ as grace to others, He does it in us.
When we share in the stewardship of God by being faithful stewards in God’s economy, being conscious of the church as the one new man, the church as the Body of Christ becomes the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God for His full and eternal expression. Amen!
We all Share in the Stewardship of God as Faithful Stewards being Conscious of the New Man
All the saints need to share in the stewardship of God, and especially those who bear responsibility in the churches need to share in it (Titus 1:7, 9).
This stewardship started with Paul (in his case), and then it went to others, and then from others it went to many others; the stewardship of God is first with those who bear responsibility in the churches.
They have to take the lead to be stewards, that is, they have to complete the word of God, have the enjoyment of grace, dispense God as grace to others, and learn to minister Christ to the saints.
An overseer must be unreprovable as a steward of God (Titus 1:7); steward is a synonym for overseer in this case.
The main job of the elders is not mainly administration, finance, or practical affairs; even though all these are taken care of in a good way, if there’s no dispensing of God into man through the elders, they do not carry out their stewardship.
The number one job in eldership is to dispense Christ; in a sense, it is OK if the administration is not perfect, but it is not OK if there’s no dispensing of Christ, for the dispensing of Christ is the primary matter.
The elders need to take the lead to dispense the riches of Christ into others.
All those who take the lead in the Lord’s recovery and bear responsibility for the care of the churches need to realize that they have a part in such a divine stewardship. Amen!
Looking at Paul, because he was such a faithful steward in God’s economy, he was conscious of the one new man, so what was in his heart was not simply one particular local church or a certain saint but the universal one new man (see 1 Cor. 4:1-2; 9:16-17; Col. 3:10-11; 4:7-17).
Paul was conscious of the one new man; are we conscious of the one new man?
We may meet some visiting saints from different countries or we may visit a certain place for a conference or holiday, and we may be aware of what the Lord is doing there; but are we conscious of the one new man?
We need to always have the consciousness of the one new man. Whatever we do, wherever we go, whatever work we are involved in, and whatever we speak, we need to be conscious of the one new man.
Even in the matter of carrying out our stewardship of grace, we need to be conscious of the one new man. Oh, we are so short of this!
If we are conscious of the one new man, we will no longer think that our local church or the churches in our country have nothing to do with the churches in other nations; instead, we will realize that ALL the churches are the one new man today!
If we have the consciousness of the one new man, we will not be sectarian either individually as believers or corporately as local churches; rather, we will just be the one new man together with all the saints!
The Lord is working this out among us; He has taken us thus far, and more and more we realize that there’s the one new man on the whole earth!
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory to see the saints all over the earth, and we become more and more conscious of the one new man as we are faithful stewards in the economy of God!
When we have the consciousness of the new man, we will rejoice that on earth there’s such an entity as the one new man that includes all the believers, and we will realize that this new man is spreading and growing throughout the earth!
Thank You Lord for entrusting us with the stewardship of God for us to dispense God into man for the building up of the Body of Christ. We want to be the faithful stewards in God’s economy who minister Christ to others having the consciousness of the one new man. Amen, Lord, may our heart be not only for our local church or the saints we know but for the universal one new man! Praise the Lord, on the earth today there’s another man – the new man – that includes all the believers, and this man is now spreading and growing throughout the earth! Hallelujah, we all are part of this one new man!
How we can Cooperate with the Lord to Participate in the Stewardship of God today
After going through such a wonderful matter of the stewardship of God and realizing how much this relates to the one new man, we realize there are a few practical points on our cooperation.
We need to do some practical things in order to cooperate with the Lord in order to enter into the stewardship of God; most of these were already mentioned, but it is good to have them and remember them.
First, we can cooperate with the Lord to participate in the stewardship of God by remaining under the divine dispensing!
We need to remain under the dispensing of grace every day; we should be good receivers of grace. This is the first and the foremost matter; if we don’t receive grace, nothing else works.
Second, if we want to participate in the stewardship we need to read what the steward wrote down; we need to read the Bible and the ministry to know God and the divine revelation!
We may think we’re not good readers, but for us to have something to minister to others we need to read the Bible and get into the ministry publications.
Our responsibility is to daily read the word of God, consider it prayerfully, and allow the Lord to speak to us and infuse us with His thought and His element.
Also, we need to read the ministry of the age, the ministry that opens up the word of God and dispenses life into us. When we read it and open to the Lord as we do this, we will have something to minister to others also; we should read the ministry and dispense the ministry.
Third, we need to have a particular kind of prayer in order to participate in the stewardship of God; this prayer is the one in Eph. 3:16-21.
This particular kind of prayer is needed for us not only to enjoy God but to allow Him to dispense Himself into us, make His home in our hearts, build us up together, and cause us all to enjoy and apprehend the all-inclusive Christ for the Body.
Fourth, we need perfecting; if we’re going to enter into the stewardship of God, we need to be perfected by the stewards.
There are a lot of ways to be perfected in the Lord’s recovery, including trainings (such as the brothers training – ITERO, the full-time training, the semi-annual trainings), conferences, blending times. We need to pay the price and give ourselves to be perfected by the stewards.
Fifth, we need to pursue and care for the growth in life, for if we don’t grow, we can’t function (Eph. 4:15-16).
Our function as stewards comes out of the growth in life; without growing in life, there’s no function. We need to care for growth in life; this is why we need to be under the divine dispensing every day.
Sixth, after we pay attention to growth in life, we need to function in our measure (Eph. 4:16). If we all function in our measure, the stewardship we all carry out will cover all of the needs in the Body.
Seventh, for us to participate in the stewardship of God we need to be coordinated and built up with others in the Body.
Eighth, each one of us has received a gift, so we should minister to one another the varied grace of God (1 Pet. 4:10). Because we enjoy grace, grace is varied according to our situations; so we need to minister to one another the varied grace of God.
May we take every opportunity to minister grace to others for their growth in life.
May we all rise up and be faithful stewards of God in His economy, having a consciousness of the one new man, so that we may become dispensers of life and factors of life and stewards of grace.
Lord, we want to participate in the stewardship of God by daily remaining under the divine dispensing, reading the Word of God prayerfully, praying the particular prayer needed, being perfected, and growing in life so that we may function in our measure. Amen, Lord, may we be those coordinated and built up with others in the Body, and may we minister the varied grace of God which we enjoy and experience. Have mercy on us, that we may be dispensers of life, factors of life, and stewards of grace in Your economy!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, pp. 91-92 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 8, Carrying Out the Stewardship of God for the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– This grace, which is the living Christ Himself, / Is what we need and must experience; / Lord, may we know this grace and by it live, / Thyself increasingly as grace to sense. (Hymns #497)
– Our spirit You have filled / At our regeneration, / But mind, emotion, will / Await Your saturation. / How much of You is built in us / To make our heart Your home? / O Triune God, we welcome You. / Come build, oh, build in us. (Song on, Recall how David swore – Adapted)
– Our doubts and fears are now all gone. / We’re for Thy purpose and Thy plan. / Whatever may befall us— / The Great I Am, we fully trust. / Where’er Thou wilt send us, we’ll go. / Whate’er Thou dispensed, we’ll outflow. / Beget, nourish, perfect, and build, / Till Thy divine plan is fulfilled. (Song on, Blessed to Bless)
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