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In the progressing stage of God's full salvation, we experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in the dispensing of the Triune God. First, we touch the experience and enjoyment of God as the Father in the love of God. In this lesson we will go on to see other aspects concerning the experience and enjoyment of God as the Father.
God the Father gives grace, even greater grace, in His love to the humble believers. James 4:6 says, "But He gives greater grace;...`God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.'" Here proud refers to our being proud toward God, and humble refers to our being humble toward God. By being proud toward God, man sides with God's enemy, the devil, causing God to resist man. However, by being humble toward God, being subject to God, the believers withstand, stand against, the devil, causing God to give them grace, as He desires. Hence, we need to draw near to God (4:8) and receive in meekness the implanted word (1:21) that we may receive His greater grace.
Furthermore, 1 Peter 5:5 says, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." The Greek word rendered resists is a strong word used for an army preparing to resist the enemy. Peter uses this term to show how strong God is in resisting those who are proud. Proud literally means having a show above (others). God resists the one who lifts himself above others and regards himself as better than others. Instead of being proud and having a show of ourselves above others, we should be humble toward God that we may receive the grace given by God. This grace refers to the Triune God Himself as the life supply, which is multiplied in the humble believer. In 1 Peter this grace is called the multiplied grace, the varied grace, and all grace (1:2; 4:10; 5:10). We have received the initial grace, yet this grace needs to be multiplied in us that we may participate in all grace.
The Greek word for humble also means "lowly." In Matthew 11:29 the Lord said, "I am meek and lowly in heart." To be proud is to have a show above others, whereas to be humble is to not have self-esteem. Instead of uplifting ourselves in the church life, we should always humble ourselves and become lowly. Then we will be in a position to receive the Triune God as our life supply, to receive grace, even the greater grace, the grace that God desires to give to the humble. In the previous lesson we pointed out that in order to see God we need to be pure in heart (Matt. 5:8). That is, being pure in heart is a condition for seeing God. Similarly, in order for God to give us grace, we need to be humble. That is, humility is a condition for us to receive God's giving of grace. If we are truly humble toward God the Father, not having self-esteem but becoming lowly, we will receive His grace.
God the Father not only gives grace to us but also comes with the Son to us and makes an abode with us. In John 14:23 the Lord said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." The Lord shows us here that if we love Him and keep His word, the Father will love us and then the Father with the Son will come to us and make an abode with us. This means that the coming of the Father with the Son makes us His abode and also makes Them our abode. Eventually, this will be a mutual abode for the Triune God to abide in the believers and for the believers to abide in Him.
The Father alone cannot come to us and make an abode with us. He comes with the Son and by the Spirit to us. We may say that the Father and the Son are distinguished guests and that the Spirit is the guide, the usher. The Spirit ushers the Father and the Son into Their abode in us. Thus, the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—makes His home in us. This is our precious experience and enjoyment of God the Father in the love of the Father.
After coming with the Son to us, the Father abides in us. The Father's intention in coming to us is to abide in us and to be with us forever. First John 3:24 says, "And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him." This is not the keeping of the commandments of the Mosaic law by one's own endeavor and strength; rather, it is the habitual keeping of the Lord's New Testament commandments through the inner operation of the power of the divine life. Thus, we abide in God, and God also abides in us. Our abiding in Him is a condition for His abiding in us (John 15:4). We enjoy His abiding in us by our abiding in Him.
The second half of 1 John 3:24 says, "We know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us." Also, 4:13 says, "In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit." These two verses show us that because God has given to us of His Spirit, we know that we abide in Him and He in us. The Spirit, whom God has given to dwell in us, is the witness in our spirit (Rom. 8:16), witnessing that we dwell in God and God in us. The indwelling Spirit is the element and sphere of the mutual abiding, the mutual indwelling, of us and God. By Him we are assured that we and God are one, that we abide in each other, indwelling each other mutually, and are not to be separated.
First John 4:16 goes on to say, "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him." This further tells us that our abiding in the love of God is the prerequisite of God's abiding in us. To abide in love is to live a life that loves others habitually with the love that is God Himself, that He may be expressed in us. Furthermore, to abide in God is to live a life that is God Himself as our inward content and outward expression, that we may be absolutely one with Him. In this way God abides in us to be our life inwardly and our living outwardly. Thus He can be one with us practically.
When God the Father abides in us, we experience and enjoy Him as the God who is love, as the source of love. God the Father comes to us in His love and abides in us that He may dispense Himself into us.
When God the Father transmits Himself to us, He transmits to us the power which He caused to operate in Christ. Ephesians 1:19-20 say, "And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies." The power of God toward the believers is the surpassingly great power according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He caused to operate in Christ. Therefore, God's power toward us is the same as the power that He caused to operate in Christ. Christ is the Head and we believers are His Body. The Body participates in all the power that the Head experienced.
First, the power that God caused to operate in Christ raised Christ from the dead. This power has overcome death, the grave, and Hades, where the dead are held. Second, the power that God caused to operate in Christ seated Christ in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come (Eph. 1:21). Third, the power that God caused to operate in Christ has subjected all things under His feet (v. 22a). Christ's being far above all is one thing; His having all things subjected under His feet is another. The former is Christ's transcendency; the latter, the subjection of all things to Him. Fourth, the power that God caused to operate in Christ gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church (v. 22b). Christ's headship over all things is a gift from God to Him. It was through God's surpassingly great power that Christ received the headship in the whole universe. It was as a man, in His humanity with His divinity, that Christ was raised from the dead, was seated in the heavenlies, had all things subjected to Him, and was given to be Head over all things. All these are the issues of God's great power which operated in Christ.
Therefore, there are four aspects of the great power that operated in Christ: resurrection power, ascending and all-transcending power, subjecting power, and heading-up power. Now God the Father has dispensed this fourfold power to the church, the Body of the Head, in His love. In this dispensing the church shares with Christ all His attainments: the resurrection from the dead, His being seated in His transcendency, the subjection of all things under His feet, and the headship over all things.
In our experience, the more we fellowship with God the Father and allow Him to abide in us, the more this power will be infused and transmitted into us. We will be strengthened, and we will rise and be lifted up from all kinds of botherings, burdens, depressions, and oppressions. This is our experience and enjoyment of God the Father's dispensing to us the great power that He caused to operate in Christ.
Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure." According to the context of this verse, God is operating in us both the willing and the working that our salvation may be carried out, brought to its ultimate conclusion. It is not that we by ourselves carry it out, but it is the issue of God's operating in us. The only thing we need to do is to obey the inner operating God.
Here the willing is within; the working is without. The willing takes place in our will, indicating that God's operation begins from our spirit and spreads into our mind, emotion, and will. Hence, God's operation must begin from our spirit and spread into our will. The working is the action that takes place in our body, indicating that God's operation not only begins from our spirit and spreads to our will, but it will even more reach our body. Therefore, our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—is under His operation, His direction. This corresponds also with Romans 8, which says that God works and operates from our spirit (v. 4), through our mind (v. 6), and eventually into our physical body (v. 11).
God operates in us for His good pleasure. God's good pleasure is the good pleasure of His will (Eph. 1:5) that we may have sonship through Jesus Christ and reach the climax of God's supreme salvation. Ephesians 3:20 says that God is "able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us." The power here is God's resurrection power, not His creating power. God's creating power produces the material things in our environment (Rom. 8:28), whereas God's resurrection power accomplishes within our inward being the spiritual things for the church. Strictly, ask or think here does not refer to material things. Rather, it refers to the spiritual things related to the church, such as Christ making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17) and the church being filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19). Concerning these spiritual things, we need to think as well as to ask. We might think more than we ask. However, God fulfills not only what we ask for the church but also what we think concerning the church, and God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think.
When we experience and enjoy God the Father in the love of God, He operates in us to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think. Sometimes His operating is limited by our little faith. But other times, instead of caring for the smallness of our faith, God operates in us above our faith and superabundantly above all that we ask and think.
God the Father gives grace, even greater grace, in His love to the humble believers. By being proud toward God, man causes God to resist him. However, by being humble toward God, we believers cause God to give us grace as He desires. God the Father also comes with the Son to us and make an abode with us. If we love the Lord and keep His word, the Father with the Son will come to us and make an abode with us. The Father's coming to us to abide in us is the issue of our abiding in Him and in His love. God abides in us to be our life inwardly and our living outwardly. God the Father also transmits to us the power which He operated in Christ. God's power toward us, the believers, is the same as the power that He caused to operate in Christ. God the Father is transmitting this power to the church, the Body of His Son, Christ, the Head. Furthermore, God the Father operates in us that our salvation may be carried out, brought to its ultimate conclusion. He is also able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us, concerning all spiritual things related to the church.
