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The economy of God with its mark was given at the beginning of this book, but after reading all these chapters, it is still possible to miss it. In simple words, God’s economy is to work Himself into us, and in order to accomplish this He must do it in three persons — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. From the beginning of this book we have spent much time in this economy of the Triune God. God never intended to give us the doctrine of the Trinity in the Scriptures. The doctrine only involves us in many different concepts. But the Scriptures do reveal how God accomplished His divine economy in three distinct persons.
We have pointed out that the word economy in Greek means “administration, stewardship, government, arrangement, dispensation.” The word dispensation is used without any thought of periods of time, but with the meaning of the dispensing of God into us. Again, we repeat, God’s intention is to dispense Himself into us. This plan is the center of His creation and redemption. God created and redeemed man for this purpose, that man might be the container into which He could dispense Himself. In the whole universe — time, space, and eternity — the center of God’s economy is to dispense Himself into humanity.
Eventually, the ultimate consummation of all God’s work of creation, redemption, and transformation is the universal mingling of God with man. Thus, the New Jerusalem comes into existence as the ultimate result of all God’s work as recorded in the sixty-six books of the Scriptures. This result is nothing other than the universal mingling of God with man. The New Jerusalem is a mingling of God Himself with a corporate body of people. At that time they will no longer be natural, but every part and every aspect will have been regenerated, transformed, and conformed by God and with God as life. They will have been transformed in nature and conformed in appearance to God Himself. If we are going to serve the Lord in a proper way, we need to have this vision. This vision is not new; it is the original vision from the beginning of the church age. But it must be new and renewed day by day in us. It must be the controlling vision of all our work, life, and activity.
What is the mark of this economy? First of all, the Father, who is the source, has been put in the Son. The Father with all His fullness has come forth in the person of the Son. The Son is both the embodiment and the expression of the Father; no one but the Son has ever seen God the Father. In the Son God has accomplished all that He planned by four major steps: incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. These four steps have fulfilled all that God planned in eternity.
By incarnation God was brought into man. God has been brought into the human nature and has lived in it for thirty-three and a half years on this earth. Whatever human sufferings there were on this earth, God has suffered. It was not merely a man by the name of Jesus who suffered, but it was God within Him who was suffering.
Next was the crucifixion. All the twelve negative items such as Satan, the fallen man, sin, the world, death, etc., have been brought to the cross and put to an end. All the negative things were terminated at the cross.
The resurrection followed the crucifixion. Resurrection recovered and uplifted the standard of humanity created by God and brought the human nature into God. By incarnation the divine nature was brought into man; by resurrection the human nature was brought into God. Now it is possible for man to have more than a created human nature, for his nature has been regenerated, uplifted, and brought into God. After the resurrection, Christ was exhibited to the whole universe as a “model.” In this model God is in man and man is in God. Since all the negative things have been dealt with and terminated by the cross, there is nothing negative in this model.
This model then ascended to the heavens and was enthroned with glory and authority. The human mind cannot apprehend this picture. At this point everything was accomplished; nothing was left unfinished. This model, which is God mingled with man and man mingled with God, ascended far above all things in space and in time. He transcended to the highest place in the universe and was enthroned with glory and authority.
Then from this glorified One the Holy Spirit came like the outflow of a liquid composed of many elements. The divine nature, the human nature, the human life, the human suffering, the death of the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, and the enthronement are all elements included in the Holy Spirit. As we have seen, this wonderful outflow is the all-inclusive dose — whatever we need is in this dose. As this outflow, the Holy Spirit has been poured into us. On the day of resurrection and on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit including all the elements, came into and upon the early Christians. On the one hand, He comes into us, and on the other hand, He comes upon us. God in His three persons mingles Himself with us.
The mark of God’s economy is this: God in three persons has come into us. The New Testament deals more with the fact that God in the Spirit has come into us than with the fact of His coming upon us. This little word in occurs many times in the New Testament — Christ “in” me, Christ lives “in” me, Christ formed “in” me, Christ makes His home “in” me, Christ abides “in” me and I “in” Him, etc. If you have time, count how many times this little word has been used in the New Testament. God made man purposely in three parts so that He could come into man and man would fit His purpose. Man, as we have seen, is a tripartite being — body, soul, and spirit — corresponding to the tabernacle with its three parts — the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Only the inmost part is the place where God’s shekinah glory dwells and where the Ark as the type of Christ stays. This shows us clearly that God and Christ have come to dwell in our spirit. Our spirit is the inmost part as the Holy of Holies.
We can trace this from the Scriptures very clearly, especially in 2 Timothy 4:22, which says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Also, according to Ephesians 4:6, God the Father is in us; according to 2 Corinthians 13:5, God the Son is in us; and according to Romans 8:11, God the Spirit is in us. The Triune God in the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is now in our spirit. Here is the mark of God’s economy: the Triune God is in our spirit to be our life and everything. How God’s economy has been neglected in the past centuries by His children! We must recover this mark of God in our spirit.
Using our spirit as His center, God works Himself out through us. The Triune God is in the center of our being. This is most wonderful! God came into the human nature, brought the human nature into the divine nature, and put an end to all negative things. Now the Triune God and all that He has accomplished are in our spirit as our life and everything. From this central point the Triune God spreads out to saturate the inward parts of our being with Himself. The human spirit is the very spot of the mark of God’s economy. If we miss this spot, we simply miss the mark of God’s economy. I do not say that this is the goal of God’s economy, but the mark. This mark has been neglected by most Christians today. We may talk about many Scriptural things and not hit this spot. In fact, we must realize that all the teachings of the sixty-six books of the Bible are for this mark. All the different gifts and all the different functions are for this mark and must be centered upon this mark.
How can we realize the Triune God indwelling our spirit? How can we experience this indwelling Spirit in our spirit? We must realize that the Triune God is always operating within us (Phil. 2:13). He is operating within us, not without us, and He is even operating within us more than upon us. The Greek word operates is equivalent to the English word energizes. The indwelling God is energizing within us all the time. He is also living within us through Christ who “lives in me.” In other words, the Triune God is within us today as our life. With this life there is also the inner law, the living law — not the law of letters but the law of life. This divine law of life is always regulating us from within (Heb. 8:10). Besides inwardly regulating us, the indwelling Triune God is also anointing within us all the time (1 John 2:27).
Let us consider these four words further — operating, living, regulating, and anointing. How much the church needs the inner revelation and experiences of these four things! We should not consider them as teaching, but we should experience the Triune God every day operating in us, living in us, regulating us, and anointing us. We should allow this wonderful Triune God to continually regulate us in our thinking, in our motives, in our words, in our attitudes, and in our relationships with others. Even our eating and our clothing should be regulated by Him. We must experience Him to such an extent and in such a practical way. This must not be degraded into a doctrine; doctrine does not work. When this is practiced, it will be revolutionizing. We must realize that such a wonderful Christ is indwelling our spirit for the purpose of operating and living in us and regulating and anointing us.
If we do not experience Him in such a practical way, it is absolutely impossible to build up the church. This is illustrated in the type of Eve, who was brought into being by coming out of Adam (Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:30-32). Eve was a part of Adam, something out of Adam. Only that which came out of Adam could be the wife to Adam. Every part and every aspect of Eve were something of Adam. This confirms that the church can only be built with that which is out of Christ. Doctrines and gifts do not build the church. Christ Himself in the saints is the only material with which the Body of Christ is built. If we lack the experiences of practically living by Christ, we will only be a certain kind of “religious church.”
Furthermore, we must learn to experience Christ not only as our life but also as our food, the bread of life. He is the food supply within us. Day by day we have to feed on Christ and be nourished by Him. This must not be merely a teaching to us but our daily and hourly experience. In John 6:57 the Lord said that he who eats Him will live because of Him. If we are going to live by Christ, we must eat Him; then He will be so real to us. It is sorrowful that many Christians are not eating Christ daily.
Let me illustrate in this way. When you were born, you probably weighed between six to eight pounds, but now you are over one hundred pounds. Your body has been built up, but please tell me, by what means? Was it by going to the restaurant and looking at menus? Of course not. Your body was built up by the things that you ate, by many eggs, chickens, potatoes, apples, bananas, and so forth. How, then, can the Body of Christ be built up? It is not by teaching, for the more you are taught how to eat, the more you will be reduced. In fact, if you only learn the art of eating, we will soon have a funeral for you. You may learn many things and even be the best dietitian, but you will soon die. Similarly, you may know all the good, scriptural, and even spiritual teachings and yet be starving from the lack of food. The churches today need the “mothers” to nurse the young ones and give them not teachings but something of Christ to eat and drink.
If you ask me what is troubling me these days, I will tell you that there are only two things: One is that although so many dear brothers and sisters have really seen the negative things of Christianity and something about the Lord’s way with His church, I am afraid that they will practice the church life by outward methods. You say, “Formerly I pastored a church in a certain way, but now I see that that way is wrong. So I will drop that way and use another way.” This is still a religious activity, not the building up of the Body of Christ. The building up of the Body of Christ is something from within. You must feed on Christ, eat Christ, and drink Christ so that you will be nourished with Christ. When you are full of Christ, you will minister something of Him as food to others. Then the Body of Christ will be built up.
It is not a matter of method. If you read the whole New Testament, you cannot discover one method. If I have any method at all it is this: first, you must be put on the cross; second, you must feed on Christ in the spirit day by day; third, when you are nourished and full of Christ, you need to nourish others with Christ. Then the church will come into being. The only method is to go to the cross, feed on Christ, and nourish others with Christ.
The other thing that troubles me is this: Although we have been talking so much about Christ as our life, I fear that we know this only as a message, as a term, as a subject; we do not have the daily and hourly experiences. We need to be continually regulated and anointed by Him. Daily and hourly we must feed on Him and have intimate fellowship with Him. We need to forget about ourselves and contact Him, enjoy Him, be regulated by Him, and anointed by Him all the time. This is the inner life, the inward experience of the indwelling Christ. I would recommend to you a book written by Andrew Murray entitled The Spirit of Christ. It will be a great help — not to gain knowledge but to experience the indwelling Christ in your daily life. As you let Christ be your daily food, you can testify to the whole universe: “I am tasting Christ day by day. I am having such an intimate, living fellowship with Him hour by hour. I am under His regulating and His anointing all the time.” We all need to pay full attention to this matter. This is the mark of God’s economy. If we miss this mark of God’s economy in our spirit, how can His economy be worked out in the church? When you drive your car, you know where to put the gasoline and how to start it; that is the mark of running your car. If you lose that mark, although you may have a very beautiful car, it will not run.
This is why the book of Hebrews gives us such a verse like 4:12. The Word of God is living and penetrating so that it divides our spirit from the soul. All the experiences taught in the book of Hebrews must be realized by discerning the spirit. The all-inclusive Christ as the good land is in the spirit, and His dwelling in the Holy of Holies is also in our spirit. If you do not know how to discern the spirit from the soul, you will miss the mark and cannot enjoy Christ. Every day you must deal with the living Christ, who is subjective to you. Christ is within you, and He is living, real, and practical. When you eat Him, drink Him, and feast on Him as your daily nourishment, you will live by Him and with Him and be under His constant regulating and anointing. This is what we need to experience all the time if we are going to impart Christ as food to others. If people are fed with Christ, He will become the material in them, and then the Body of Christ will gradually grow and be built up. I do look to the Lord that our eyes will be opened to see the heavenly vision and the inner revelation of this living, indwelling, subjective Christ in our spirit as the mark of God’s economy.
