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Scripture Reading: Gen. 3:15; Heb. 2:14; Gen. 12:3b; Gal. 3:8; Isa. 12:3; Mark 16:15; 1 Tim. 2:4; Num. 6:24-27; Exo. 20:12; Deut. 28:3-6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 6:2-3; 1 Cor. 3:21-22; 3 John 2; Eph. 1:9-11; 3:9-11; Rev. 4:11; Gen. 1:26-27; John 1:14, 18; Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17-19; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Rev. 21:1—22:5
Prayer: Lord, every time we gather together, we are full of thanksgiving, praise, and worship. The present age is a dark and corrupted age, but You have saved us and have rescued us from all the preoccupations and ensnaring things and have gathered us into Your name. Lord, we believe that You are with us. You chose us before the foundation of the world, and You created us and called us. You have also redeemed us and have dispensed Yourself into us. Tonight we are meeting in Your name. You are in our midst. You are not only in our midst; You are in us as well. We do thank You for all Your provisions. We have Your precious blood, we have Your Spirit, and we have Your church. Lord, cleanse us, anoint us, enlighten us, and be with all of us. Help us to realize that Your work today is to make home in our heart and to saturate us with Yourself so that our whole being can be filled with You and so that the whole church can be filled unto the fullness of God.
Lord, may Your presence be with us in this meeting. Cleanse every one of us with Your precious blood. Cleanse even this meeting hall. May You pour out Your Spirit from on high. May He fill us within and without so that we can feel Your presence with us. We pray that You would not only speak to us but also dispense Yourself into us through Your rich word. We may forget the message that we hear, or we may not even understand it; but through this meeting we want to gain You and have Your element added into us. Lord, be gracious to all of us, that we would touch Your presence in one spirit and that we would be headed up in You even before all things are headed up so that You would gain the glory. Amen.
The general subject of the ten chapters in this book is “The Economy and Dispensing of God.” What is the meaning of the term economy, and what is God’s economy? What is God’s dispensing? The word economy in Greek is oikonomia. It means “household law, household administration, or household government.” It is used to denote a dispensation, a plan, or an economy in an administration. Hence, it is a household management. The Bible is composed of sixty-six books, and it includes many teachings. If we have the spiritual discernment and would study the Bible finely and carefully, we will see that God’s economy is the plan whereby He dispenses Himself into humanity. The focus of God’s accomplishments in His economy is His dispensing.
The Divine Trinity is for God’s dispensing. The matter of dispensing is revealed in Ephesians 3:2 and Colossians 1:25-27. In these verses the word stewardship has the sense of dispensing. God’s stewardship is the dispensing of the processed Triune God in Christ into His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people that He may be their life and everything, to produce the unique Body of Christ in the universe to be His corporate expression. This Body is the church in this age and the New Jerusalem in eternity.
In 1964 I released twenty-four messages during the summer training in Los Angeles. The general subject was “The Economy of God.” In 1983 and 1984 I released fifty-one messages on “God’s New Testament Economy” in Stuttgart, Germany, and in various places in the United States. Both series of messages speak of God’s dispensing in His economy. (The messages on these two subjects have been published by Living Stream Ministry in books under these two titles.) Later, in the fall of 1984 the Lord led us to pay our attention to the practice of the “new way.” I went to Taiwan in October of that year, and was prepared to stay there for a considerable time to study the new way with the brothers and sisters. I felt at that time that although we had seen God’s economy and His dispensing, we were still short in the matter of practice. Hence, I spent four years in Taiwan to study the way of practice according to the Bible in an attempt to find out the way to put into practice the dispensing in God’s economy. In spite of the fact that during this period there were many interruptions, today, according to my inner realization and feeling, the new way has become very clear. The new way that the Lord has led us to practice, that is, the God-ordained way, is a scriptural way. I believe that the Lord will gradually lead the churches on in this way. At present, the Lord has given me the burden to make a clear presentation to the brothers and sisters of the matter of God’s economy and dispensing. This chapter is on God’s economy.
There are three layers in the divine revelation of the Bible. We all know that anything that is noble and valuable is not simple but has more than one layer. Tsingtao in China produces a kind of crystal rock. If a person digs in the shallow places, he will be able to find only the coarse crystal. If he wants the precious crystal, he must dig in the deep places. There are three layers in the divine revelation of the Bible, and the kind of person we are determines what we receive when we read the Bible. The level at which we are determines the level of revelation we will find in the Bible. For example, there was a top philosopher in modern China called Hu Shih. According to his realization, the Bible is a superb literary work of the modern Chinese language. Some people who look for filial piety from their children find the Bible to be a book on honoring one’s parents. The sisters who want their husbands to love them find the Bible to be a book about husbands loving their wives. Those who expect their wives to submit to them find the Bible to be a book on wives’ submission to their husbands. Hence, the kind of person we are determines the kind of revelation we will find in the Bible.
If we read the Bible without prejudice, and study it again and again with a heart that fears God, we will see that the Bible is not simple and shallow. John 1:1-2 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” The wording of these verses is very simple, but the meaning is very profound. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (8:12). Which world ruler, sage, or wise man could say such a thing? Who can understand this word? In John 14—17 we have the Lord’s word of farewell to His disciples and His prayer on the night of His betrayal. This passage is even more profound and difficult to understand. I have been studying these four chapters for decades. Even today I still cannot say that I have exhausted the mystery in these chapters. After years of study and research on the Bible, I have arrived at the conclusion that the Bible is not simple; it is a book of three layers.
In the Bible the first layer of the divine revelation is the gospel and salvation of God. When Adam fell, God came to preach the gospel to him, saying, “Her [the woman’s] seed...will bruise you [Satan] on the head” (Gen. 3:15). After Adam fell, he both hated and feared the serpent. God promised Adam that the seed of the woman, Christ, who would be born of a virgin, would bruise the head of the serpent, Satan. At the fullness of time Christ Himself took on a body of flesh and blood to destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14).
Later, God preached the gospel to Abraham, saying, “In you [in your seed] all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3b; Gal. 3:8). The promise God gave to Abraham was the gospel He preached to him. God preached the gospel not only to the patriarchs but to the Old Testament saints as well, saying, “Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation” (Isa. 12:3).
In the New Testament we see the same thing. The redemption that Christ accomplished through His death and resurrection is not only for man, the chief object among all of God’s creation, but also for the entire creation. This is the reason that the Lord charged the disciples to “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation” (Mark 16:15) because our Savior God “desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4).
The second layer of the divine revelation in the Bible is the blessing and prosperity of God. God is a God of blessing. He continually blesses His people. In the Old Testament, God’s blessing to the people of Israel was threefold. Numbers 6:24-26 says, “Jehovah bless you and keep you; Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” Here we have the threefold blessing of the Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The first is the blessing of the Father: the Father blesses us and keeps us. The second is the blessing of the Son: the Lord Jesus makes His face shine upon us and is gracious to us; He is light and grace to us. The third is the blessing of the Spirit: the Spirit lifts up His countenance upon us and gives us peace; the Spirit is the presence of God with us, bringing with Him peace. This blessing of the Divine Trinity is not related mainly to material things; it is related mainly to the Triune God being gracious to us, appearing to us, and being seen by us.
In the Old Testament, God promised blessing to those who honor their parents, saying, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be extended upon the land which Jehovah your God is giving you.” (Exo. 20:12). In Deuteronomy 28:3-6 we see the blessing promised by God to the children of Israel: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your animals, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”
When we come to the New Testament, we see another threefold blessing of the Divine Trinity given by God to the believers. Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit speak of the Triune God being with us as our blessing. The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as our life for our enjoyment. The love of God is God Himself as the source of the Lord’s grace, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit Himself as the transmission of the Lord’s grace with the love of God to be our portion. When we partake of, experience, enjoy, and receive this processed Triune God, we have the blessing.
In the New Testament also, God promises blessing and longevity to those who honor their parents: “Honor your father and mother...that it may be well with you [that you may receive the blessing] and that you may live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:2-3). In 1 Corinthians 3:21-22 God promises blessing to the believers, saying, “All things are yours, whether...the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all are yours.” Third John 2 says, “Concerning all things I wish that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”
The third layer of the divine revelation in the Bible is the economy and dispensing of God. Most Christians can readily understand and accept the first layer, God’s gospel and salvation, and the second layer, God’s blessing and prosperity. In preaching the gospel, most people tell others that if they believe in Jesus, their sins will be forgiven, and they will enjoy blessing and peace in this life and eternal bliss in the life to come. Most believers remain in the second layer, but God does not want us to remain there.
After we believe in the Lord, we may experience blessing and peace initially. But gradually, the situation will change. All those who have believed in the Lord can testify that the Lord is indeed with us and is keeping us. But at the same time we also experience many trials, sicknesses, and sufferings. With every blessing there is also some amount of vexation. Without the blessing there would be no vexation. Having children is a blessing; however, it is also a vexation. Does anyone continually enjoy blessing, prosperity, and peace? If a man desires only blessing without desiring God, in the end all the blessings will become bitter. We must turn from God’s blessing and prosperity to God Himself. We are not here for blessing and prosperity but for God Himself and for His economy and dispensing. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” All things here refers to all men, all events, and all matters. It includes the good things as well as the adverse things. It includes the good children as well as the bad children. All things work together for good to those who love God. Good here, according to the context, does not refer to physical people, events, or things. Rather, it refers to the increase of Christ within us, with the result that we experience a metabolic change and are conformed, ultimately, to the image of the firstborn Son of God, which is the entrance into the full sonship.
The first two layers, whether the gospel, salvation, blessing, or prosperity, are superficial. The deepest layer is God Himself, and not merely God alone but the economy and dispensing of God. The economy of God is His plan and arrangement out of His desire and purpose. The dispensing of God is His dispensing and distributing according to this plan and arrangement.
In Ephesians 1:9-11 and 3:9-11 God’s economy is mentioned. In eternity God had a good pleasure, a heart’s desire. According to this desire, He has a purpose. This purpose was hidden in Him; thus, it was a hidden purpose. This hidden purpose became His economy. Hence, there is the dispensation (the economy) of the mystery. This mystery was hidden in God throughout the ages but has now been brought to light for us.
God’s economy (arrangement) is according to God’s good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself (1:9). It is also according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ (3:11). It makes known to us the mystery of God’s will, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things (1:9a; 3:9). Its end is to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times (1:10) so that the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies (3:10).
Today we have not yet seen all things headed up under Christ. There is no oneness among men, between the races, and among the nations. But, praise the Lord, we who have been saved in the Body of Christ, through our willingness to be headed up in the church life, and by our growing in life and living in His light, are made to participate in this heading up.
For the accomplishing of God’s economy and His dispensing, first God became flesh to be a man. This wonderful God-man lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He accomplished redemption for us on the cross. Through His death and resurrection He became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Now He will enter into all those who call on His name, and He will become their life. This all-inclusive Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. As such, He contains all the riches of divinity and all the virtues of humanity. The more we call on Him and experience Him, the more we will receive His element. Spontaneously, we will live out a life of love, light, holiness, and righteousness and will be rescued from the heap of the universal collapse in death and darkness, which was caused by the rebellion of the angels and the rebellion of man, and will be able to participate in everything of Christ, the Head.
According to Paul’s teaching, Christians do not need to pay attention to outward blessings and peace. Instead, they should pay attention to the God who is within them. God has already put Himself into us. In addition, daily He is dispensing Himself within us. However, sometimes we are not willing to give Him the opportunity to do this. Although He is willing to dispense Himself, He cannot get through within us. If this is the case, we will not grow and will become a backsliding Christian. Eventually, when trying circumstances come upon us, we may be revived again. But we should not wait for trying circumstances to come before being revived. We should live a revived life every day. A Christian should have a dawning, a revival, and a new beginning once every twenty-four hours. God put into the laws of nature a dawning once every twenty-four hours. Dawn brings in a new beginning and new sunshine to all living creatures. This should be the way with our Christian life. Every morning we should have a rising up and a dawning. When we rise up early every morning to contact the Lord and to experience a certain amount of reviving, we allow the Lord to dispense Himself into us.
In the Old Testament we see that God created all things. God’s creation has to do with His will. God created all things according to His will (Rev. 4:11). Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that God created man in His image so that man may express Him and represent Him. At the end of Genesis, God gained Jacob, with Joseph, as His expression and representation. Jacob was a crafty person and a person who held on to everything. But after years of God’s dealing and transformation, in his old age Jacob became Israel, the prince of God. At the end of Exodus, God gained the people of Israel, who were built up to be His moving habitation, the tabernacle on earth, for the expression of His glory.
At the time of David and Solomon, God gained His permanent habitation on earth, the temple, for the full expression of His glory. The temple was filled with God within, and it expressed God without. Later, the temple was destroyed by the enemy of God, but at the end of the Old Testament it was rebuilt and continued to be God’s habitation for the expression of His glory on earth until the beginning of the New Testament.
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus came. He was the embodiment of God and was God’s tabernacle on earth. Through Him God was able to dwell on earth to express Himself (John 1:14, 18). He lived a human life on earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He was crucified in His flesh and was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. After His resurrection He charged His disciples to disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19), that is, to bring the believers into the Triune God and into an organic union with the processed God. Through this, God dispenses Himself into His believers to form the church. This church is the house of God, which is the habitation of God, and the tabernacle of God, the temple of God, as the expression of God’s fullness, to make known to His enemy the multifarious wisdom of God (Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17-19; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Eph. 3:10).
However, today we have not yet arrived at such a condition. Many people are not living in the spirit to allow God to carry out His dispensing; instead, they are still living in the soul and still have themselves as the center and the lord. For this reason we must help the brothers and sisters to allow the element of Christ to increase in them day by day. Eventually, we the redeemed, regenerated, and transformed saints will be prepared to be the bride and counterpart of Christ through partaking of the riches of Christ’s life and nature, and will become the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation of Christ and the church. The New Jerusalem will be the tabernacle for God’s dwelling and the temple for the saints’ dwelling in eternity and will be the ultimate and full expression of the processed Triune God, who is joined and mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite saints (Rev. 21:1—22:5). At that time all things will be headed up under Christ, and there will be full peace and harmony.
