Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:11-14a; John 14:23; Eph. 3:16-17; Matt. 13:3, 8, 23; Matt. 16:18; Rev. 21:2, 9-10, 12, 14, 22
We thank the Lord that, throughout the years, He has opened His Word to us and has been speaking to us in His recovery. In this message I have the burden to help you to realize what is God's main work in His recovery, or in His economy.
The words recovery and economy refer to one thing as seen from two viewpoints. With God, it is a matter of economy; with us, it is a matter of recovery. God's economy was unveiled through the apostles, but because the believers lost the proper understanding of God's economy, there is the need for it to be recovered. Therefore, what is being recovered today is God's economy.
The Lord's recovery is also to recover the oneness of the Body. This means that in the recovery we must see the universal Body and do everything in the limitation, the regulation, of the one Body. We all need to learn how to practice the Lord's recovery of the one Body.
God's economy is centered on one thing — God's unique work. God's unique work in the universe and throughout all the ages and generations is to work Himself in Christ into His chosen people, making Himself one with them. This involves the mingling of divinity with humanity.
In order to work Himself into us, God became a man and lived a human life on earth. Then He passed through death and entered into resurrection and ascension, becoming the consummated, life-giving Spirit ready to come into us. When He came into us, He regenerated our spirit. Now He is working in us to increase Himself in us and to build Himself into us.
The Bible tells us that God is working in us and that Christ is living in us. However, the Bible uses a very striking term — build — to denote God's work in us. In Ephesians 3:16-17 Paul prayed to the Father, saying, "That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith." To be sure, Christ's making His home in our hearts involves building. If we would make a home, we must first build a house. To make a home implies being settled in a particular place. However, if we would be settled, we must have a house. The words "that Christ may make His home" are a strong indication that He is doing a work of building in us. Christ is building a home in our inner being.
In building a house, it is necessary to have the proper material. When God created the universe, He did not use any material; He created simply by His speaking. For instance, He said, "Let there be light," and there was light. However, in order to build a home in us, Christ must have the material. On the one hand, this material is Christ Himself as the element; on the other hand, this material includes something from us with our humanity.
Another verse that speaks of the Triune God doing a building work in us is John 14:23. Here the Lord Jesus says, "If anyone loves Me,..My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." The words "make an abode" in this verse equal "make His home" in Ephesians 3:17. The Triune God has come into us to do a building work with Himself as the element and also with something from us as the material. The word concerning building in these verses implies that God's building Himself in Christ into us has very much to do with what we are.
This is illustrated by the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The seed is sown into the soil to grow with the nutrients in the soil. This seed, therefore, does not grow just with itself; it grows with itself and the nutrients in the soil. As a result, the produce is a composition of elements from both the seed and the soil. Here we see an important spiritual principle. In order to grow, the seed must be sown into good soil. If the seed were sown into sand or among stones, it would not grow, because neither sand nor stone can supply the necessary nutrients.
In Matthew 13 the seed is divinity, and the soil with its nutrients is humanity. We have within us certain nutrients created by God as a preparation for His coming into us to grow in us. God has created the human spirit with the human nutrients. For this reason, human beings can believe in the Lord and receive Him.
The seed that has been sown into us is Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God. The rate at which the seed grows within us depends on the nutrients afforded by us. The more nutrients we supply, the faster the seed will grow and the more it will flourish.
According to the Bible, growth equals building. The Lord Jesus declared, "I will build My church" (Matt. 16:18). This building takes place by the growth of the divine seed within us.
The Triune God, the source of life, has sown Himself in Christ as a seed into our being. Once this seed comes into us, it meets something within us — our spiritual nutrients — and it begins to grow. The degree of growth depends not on the divine seed but on how many nutrients we afford this seed. Matthew 13 indicates that only the good soil (vv. 8, 23) affords the adequate nutrients for the growth of the divine seed.
Since God's building Himself in Christ into us depends not only on Himself as the element but also on the nutrients supplied by us, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. If we remain in our soul, in our natural man, there will not be any nutrients for the growth of the divine seed. But if we are strengthened into our inner man and if we pay attention to our spirit and exercise our spirit, the nutrients will be supplied. Then Christ will make His home in our inner being.
If Christ's making His home in our hearts did not need something from us, Paul would not have prayed for us as he did in Ephesians 3. Here Paul prayed that the Father would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into our inner man. This power, referred to in Ephesians 1:19-22, is the power that raised Christ from the dead, seated Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, subjected all things under Christ's feet, and gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church. Such power operates in us (3:20), and with it God strengthens us for His building. The Spirit through whom God strengthens us is the consummation of the processed Triune God. On the one hand, God strengthens us with Himself as the element and, on the other hand, we afford the nutrients. Through these two God in Christ carries out His intrinsic building — the building of His home — in our entire being.
The conclusion of the divine revelation in the Bible is a building, the New Jerusalem. This building is a blending and mingling of divinity with humanity. This is proved by the description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. Verse 3 refers to the New Jerusalem as "the tabernacle of God," and verse 22 says, "I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." The New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God is for God to dwell in, and God and the Lamb as the temple are for the redeemed saints to dwell in. This indicates that the New Jerusalem will be a mutual dwelling place for God and man. Furthermore, this building is a composition of human beings. The gates are pearls inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel (v. 12), and on the twelve foundations are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (v. 14). This indicates clearly that the New Jerusalem is a composition of the Triune God, who is the essence, center, and universality, and God's redeemed people.
The New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity and humanity blended and mingled together as one entity. All the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person. This is a matter of God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. These two, God and man, man and God, are built up together by being blended and mingled together. This is the completion, the consummation, of God's building. We all need to see this vision.
The vision of God's building will affect our work today. If we see God's building, we will not try to help others to be more humble or gentle. That is merely something of human virtue, and that is not what God wants. Concerning this, I would ask you to consider the case of Job, a person who had the highest attainment in building up himself in integrity, uprightness, and perfection. Eventually, God stripped Job of all his attainments in order to show him that his only need was God Himself.
God went on from Job to Abraham, making promises to him regarding a seed and the good land. Who are the ones who enjoy the good land? This question is answered in the prophecy by typology given to David in 2 Samuel 7. The One who enjoys the good land is actually Christ Himself. This means that God in Christ becomes us to be the enjoyer of the good land. David was a man according to God's heart, but God knew that this was not adequate. Therefore, God revealed that He would build David a house with His Son, who would become David's seed. On the one hand, this seed is the good land; on the other hand, this seed is the One who enjoys the good land. Who, then, is enjoying Christ? The answer is that it is Christ in us who is enjoying Christ. It is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). Christ is living in us to enjoy Himself as the good land.
As we will see in a later message, David, a man according to God's heart, had a great failure. This indicates that merely to be a person according to God's heart means nothing, for one may be according to God's heart but still be empty, not having God wrought into his heart. In 2 Samuel 7 God seemed to be saying, "David, you are a man according to My heart, but you need Me to be wrought into your heart. You need Me to be built into your being to make you Me in life and in nature. It is not adequate for you to be according to My heart. You must be able to say, `To me to live is God.'" If David had been such a person, he would not have fallen.
A person may be according to the heart of God and yet be without God, not having God wrought into him. The fall of David illustrates the fact that even if we are a person according to God, if we do not have God wrought into us, we are no better than others. What is the value of being according to the heart of God if we do not have God wrought into our hearts? If we realize that God desires to work Himself into His chosen people and if we realize that this is what we all need, then the goal of our work will be to minister Christ to others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being.
Our work in the recovery today is to minister God to people. Yes, we need to save sinners and to feed the saints and perfect them. The crucial matter, however, is that we minister God to others. The God whom we minister is not just the building God — He is also the builded God. If we fail to minister God in this way, our work will be wood, grass, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:12).
I would ask you to reconsider the work you are doing for the Lord. Perhaps you have opened up a region or have brought many people to God. But I ask you this question: How much of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has been wrought into those whom you have brought to God? If we are sincere and genuine, we will humble ourselves and confess that not very much of the Triune God has been wrought into the ones we have brought to God. Therefore, we need to practice one thing — to minister the processed Triune God into others so that He may build Himself into their inner man. In every aspect of our work — preaching the gospel, feeding the believers, perfecting the saints — the intrinsic element must be that we minister the building and builded God to others. I would urge you to pray that the Lord would teach you to work in this way.
The processed Triune God is embodied in Christ and realized as the consummated Spirit. This is the God whom we worship, preach, and minister to others. Today He is building Himself into His redeemed people in order to produce a house with Himself as the element and also with something from their redeemed and uplifted humanity. This house is the church, the Body of Christ. This house is the enlargement, the expansion, of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the Spirit. As we carry out the God-ordained way in the four steps of begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building, our work must be based upon the processed Triune God, who is building Himself into His chosen people.
