THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

The Believers
Message Three—Believers’ Present Enjoyment of
the Dispensing of the Divine Trinity

Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 13:14; 1:12; 3:18; Eph. 1:18b; 3:7-10; Heb. 4:16; Rom. 8:28-29

I. In experiencing and enjoying the processed Triune God in His triune dispensing, the believers experience and enjoy God as the Father in His love—2 Cor. 13:14; Rom. 5:5; Eph. 4:6:

A. Whatever the Father does in His dispensing and moving in us is in love and is based on love; love is the source of the Father’s dispensing—4:16:

1. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit; this pouring out of the love of God in our hearts is a matter of the essence of God, for love is the nature of God’s essence—Rom. 5:5; 1 John 4:8.

2. The Father’s dispensing is through His overshadowing us, His passing through us, and His dwelling in us—Eph. 4:6.

B. God the Father strengthens the believers, according to the riches of His glory, with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in their hearts through faith—Eph. 3:16-17:

1. This is the Father’s finer work in us, and this is a much deeper experience in the Triune God.

2. The goal of the Father’s strengthening us into the inner man is that Christ may make His home in our hearts, occupying every part of our inner being and possessing all these parts and saturating them with Himself; as a result we are filled with Christ unto all the fullness of God, His expression—vv. 17a, 19b.

C. God the Father gives grace to the believers, according to the operation of His power, to announce the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel and to bring to light the economy of the mystery—Eph. 3:7-10:

1. God’s giving grace to us is a matter of His dispensing Himself into us; dispensing this grace into others is our ministry according to God’s economy—vv. 2, 7.

2. We announce the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel for the producing of the church as the Body of Christ—vv. 8, 10.

3. God the Father makes the believers competent to bear the ministry of the new covenant; the ministry of the new covenant is for God’s New Testament economy, which is to dispense Christ into God’s chosen people for the building up of the Body of Christ—2 Cor. 3:5-6; Eph. 3:16-17; 4:16.

D. Through His dispensing, God the Father is making the believers His inheritance of glory—Eph. 1:18b:

1. The Father desires to inherit what He has dispensed into us of Himself; therefore, whatever God has dispensed into us of Himself becomes His inheritance—3:16-17a.

2. It is by having the Triune God dispensed into us and wrought into us that we become precious to Him and become His inheritance in reality—2 Cor. 13:14.

E. God the Father is leading the believers as His many sons into His glory—Heb. 2:10:

1. Through regeneration the seed of glory was dispensed into us; this seed, the life of glory, is Christ in us, the hope of glory—Col. 1:27.

2. The divine dispensing will cause the seed of glory within us to grow until it blossoms; the blossoming of the seed of glory will be our glorification—Rom. 8:30.

3. The Father’s leading His many sons into glory will be the consummation of the divine dispensing—Eph. 3:21; Rev. 21:10-11.

II. Grace is Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God transmitted into our being as the Spirit for our experience and enjoyment—John 1:16-17; Heb. 4:16; 2 Cor. 1:12; 13:14; Rom. 5:17, 21; 1 Cor. 15:10; cf. Gal. 2:20:

A. Eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life; the more we enjoy Him, the richer the content of the church life will be for the pure testimony of Jesus—Rev. 2:7.

B. The goal of our Christian life is the fullest enjoyment and gaining of Christ; “the one thing” in Philippians is the pursuing of Christ to gain Him, lay hold of Him, possess Him, and enjoy Him—1:20-21; 2:2, 5; 3:7-14; 4:13.

C. The grace given to the local churches in the dark age of the church’s degradation is for the believers who seek to answer the Lord’s calling to be His overcomers—Rev. 1:4.

D. The grace of the Lord Jesus, dispensed to His believers throughout the New Testament age, consummates in the New Jerusalem as the con-summation of God’s good pleasure, in joining and mingling Himself with man for His enlargement and eternal expression—22:21.

III. We the believers’ experiencing and enjoying the Spirit as the consummation of the divine Trinity in His fellowship—2 Cor. 13:14:

A. We need a vision of the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God—John 7:39; Gal. 3:14; Phil. 1:19.

B. The consummated Spirit is the Triune God after He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection—John 7:39.

C. The consummated Spirit is the Spirit—Gal. 3:2, 5, 14:

1. The Spirit is the processed, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified Triune God to be the eternal portion of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite people as their life, life supply, and everything—Rev. 22:17.

2. God’s economy is to give Himself to us as the Spirit; the Christian life is the living of the processed and consummated Triune God as the consummated Spirit in the believers—Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; 5:16, 18, 25; 6:8.

D. The Spirit is the river of water of life—John 4:14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1:

1. The Triune God is flowing to dispense Himself with His divine life as the life element and Christ (the tree of life) as the life supply to meet our need and to be our pleasures and satisfaction—vv. 1-2; Psa. 36:8-9.

2. The Triune God is flowing into us in the Father as the fountain, in the Son as the spring, and in the Spirit as the river—John 4:14.

IV. The believers are enjoying the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation—2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:28-29; Phil. 3:10:

A. To be transformed is to have Christ added into our being to replace what we are so that Christ may increase in us and our natural life may decrease; it is a divine, spiritual metabolism by the addition of the new element of Christ as the life-giving Spirit to discharge the old element of our natural being and to make us a new creation—2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2; Gal. 6:15; John 3:30; Col. 2:19:

1. Our Christian life and church life are “from glory to glory”; the glory is the resurrected Christ Himself, the “blossoming” Christ as the life-giving Spirit—2 Cor. 3:18—4:1, 16-18; John 12:23-24; 17:1; Luke 24:26.

2. As a result of being transformed by the renewing of the mind, the believers become precious materials—gold, silver, and precious stones—for the building up of the church—1 Cor. 3:9-12; Psa. 68:11-13, 19-20.

B. Transformation issues in conformation to the image of God’s Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers; conformation to Christ is our destiny and our destination—Rom. 8:28-29; cf. Jer. 48:11:

1. We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation by entering into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus to follow Jesus—vv. 19-20; 1 Pet. 2:21.

2. We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by living to Christ—2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9.

3. We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by walking (living, moving, and having our being) according to the spirit—our spirit mingled with the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ—Rom. 8:4, 2, 9, 16.

4. We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by living in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participating in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity—John 16:13-15.

5. We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by being filled in our spirit with the processed Triune God and by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly—Eph. 5:18; Col. 3:16.

 

Ministry Excerpts:

EXPERIENCING AND ENJOYING GOD
AS THE FATHER IN HIS LOVE

In experiencing and enjoying the processed Triune God in His triune dispensing, we experience and enjoy the Father in His love. Whatever the Father does in His dispensing and moving in us is in love and is based on love. Love is the source of the Father’s dispensing. Thus, when we experience and enjoy the Triune God, we experience and enjoy the Father in His love.

Second Corinthians 13:14 speaks of the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We may say that this verse refers to the divine flow. God the Father is the source of the divine flow, God the Son is the course, and God the Spirit is the flow itself reaching us. This flow of the Triune God is out of love, through grace, and by fellowship. The point we would emphasize here is that in experiencing and enjoying the Triune God we experience and enjoy the Father with His love as the source of the divine flow. In the progressing stage of God’s salvation, we are experiencing and enjoying the Father, the source of the divine Trinity in His love as the source of the divine flow.

The New Testament says clearly that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). The expression “God is love,” like “God is light” (1 John 1:5), and “God is Spirit” (John 4:24), is used not in a metaphoric sense but in a predicative sense. These expressions denote and describe the nature of God. In His nature God is Spirit, love, and light. Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression. Both love and light are related to God as life, which life is of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). God, Spirit, and life are actually one. God is Spirit, and Spirit is life. Within such a life are love and light. When this divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when this divine light shines upon us, it becomes truth.

In His nature God is Spirit, love, and light. We need to be impressed with the fact that Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression. In our enjoyment of the Father we enjoy Him mainly in His love as the nature of His essence. When this love flows forth, it immediately becomes grace, and this grace comes with Christ (John 1:17). Hence, love is of the Father, and grace is of the Son. Our emphasis in this message is the believers’ experience and enjoyment of God as the Father in His love.

Concerning God’s love, Paul says in Romans 5:5, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” From the day we believed in the Lord Jesus, the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. This is not merely a matter of feeling. On the contrary, something substantial, something essential, has been poured out into our hearts. This means that, as believers, deep in our hearts we have something of the divine essence, and this is God the Father as love. In other words, God as love is the divine essence that has been poured out into our hearts. Therefore, the pouring out of the love of God into our hearts is a matter of the essence of God. Because we have been regenerated, we have love as the nature of God’s essence within us. Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts, the heart of every believer is a heart of love. In our experience and enjoyment of God as the Father in His love, we experience and enjoy the dispensing of love as the nature of God’s essence into our hearts. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 135)

Imparting to Them His Great Power Which He Wrought in Christ

While God the Father imparts Himself to us, He imparts to us His great power which He wrought in Christ. This is “the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength, which He wrought in Christ in raising Him from among the dead, and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies” (Eph. 1:19-20). The surpassing great power of God toward us is according to the operation of the might of His strength which He wrought in Christ. God’s power toward us is the same power that operated in Christ. This means that as the Body we participate in the power that operates in the Head.

The great power that operated in Christ first raised Him from among the dead. This power has overcome death, the grave, and Hades. Because of God’s resurrection power, death and Hades could not hold Christ (Acts 2:24).

The surpassing greatness of God’s power has also seated Christ at God’s right hand 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 coming” (Eph. 1:21). God’s right hand, where Christ has been seated by the surpassing great power of God, is the most honorable place, the place with supreme authority. The ascended Christ has been seated far above all rule, authority, power, and lordship in the entire universe. Christ has been seated far above everything, both in this age and in the coming age.

According to the Power Which Operating in Them

God’s operating superabundantly above all that the believers ask or think is according to the power which operates in them. Ephesians 3:20 speaks of the power which operates in the believers. This is inward power, as mentioned in Ephesians 1:19, and it is God’s resurrection power, not His creating power. God’s creating power makes the material things in our environment (Rom. 8:28), whereas His resurrection power accomplishes the spiritual things for the church within our inward being.

God’s ability to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us, as revealed in Ephesians 3:20, is different from His ability in creation. Paul’s concept here is related not to what God does outside of us but to what He does inside of us. For this reason, he specifically mentions “the power which operates in us.” This is the inward power, the resurrection power, according to which God operates in the believers both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. As we experience and enjoy God as our loving Father, He will operate in us superabundantly above all that we ask or think. Sometimes His operation may be limited by our little faith. However, at other times God may disregard the smallness of our faith and operate in us beyond our faith and superabundantly above all that we ask or think. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 136)

Giving Grace to Them According to the Operation of His Power,
to Preach the Unsearchable Riches of Christ as the Gospel,
and to Bring to Light What Is His Economy of the Mystery Hidden in Him, That Is, to Have the Church

The Father gives grace to the believers according to the operation of His power, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel, and to bring to light what is His economy of the mystery hidden in Him, that is, to have the church (Eph. 3:7-10). God’s giving grace to the believers is a matter of His dispensing Himself into them, and this dispensing is according to the operation of His power. Because Paul received such an inner dispensing of God as grace, he could preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and he could bring to light the mystery hidden in God. Through God’s dispensing Himself into us as grace, we also are able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel and bring to light God’s economy of the mystery hidden in Himself. This mystery is to have the church.

In Ephesians 3:7 Paul says, “I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God, which was given to me according to the operation of His power.” The grace of God is God Himself, especially as life, partaken of and enjoyed by us, whereas the gift of grace is the ability and function produced out of the enjoyment of the grace of God. Hence, grace implies life, and the gift is the ability that comes out of life.

The grace in 3:7 is nothing less than God Himself given to us, gained by us, and enjoyed by us. In Christ and through Christ we receive God, and God becomes our enjoyment. Therefore, grace is God Himself as our enjoyment. Dispensing this grace into others is our ministry according to God’s economy. Because we partake of God as our enjoyment, we can dispense Him as grace into others.

In 3:7 Paul tells us that grace was given to him according to the operation of God’s power. This is the power of the resurrection (Phil. 3:10), which operates within the apostle and all the believers (Eph. 1:19; 3:20). By such an inward operating power of life, the gift of grace was given to the apostle, that is, produced in him. As members of Christ, we all have the power of God operating within us to produce a certain ability. This ability is the gift that makes us ministers to impart God as grace to others. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 138)

EXPERIENCING AND ENJOYING CHRIST
AS THE SON IN HIS GRACE

According to the New Testament, grace is what Christ is to us for our enjoyment (John 1:16-17). Grace is actually Christ the Son dispensed into our being for our enjoyment in our experience. Thus, grace is not mainly the work the Lord Jesus does for us; grace is the Triune God in the Son dispensed into us and experienced as our enjoyment. In brief, grace is Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) experienced and enjoyed by us through the divine dispensing.

John 1:17 says that grace came through Jesus Christ. In our experience we realize that this grace is Christ Himself. When Christ is enjoyed by us in the divine dispensing, that is grace. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 141)

EXPERIENCING THE DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY
IN THE DIVINE TRANSFORMATION FOR THE DIVINE CONFORMATION

The enjoyment of the Father in His love, of the Son in His grace, and of the Spirit in His fellowship is a matter of God’s dispensing (2 Cor. 13:14). The enjoyment of the processed Triune God in love, grace, and fellowship is for transformation, and transformation results in conformation. Transformation is a matter of essence, whereas conformation is a matter of form. Christ has a form, an image, and we need to be conformed to His form.

By Being Transformed

The believers enjoy the dispensing of the divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation by being transformed. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” To be transformed is to have Christ added into our being to replace what we are so that Christ may increase and our natural life may decrease. As the process of transformation takes place within us, the old element of our natural being is carried away, and the glory, the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit, is added into us to replace the natural element. The process of transformation is both organic and metabolic. It is organic because it is related to life, and it is metabolic because it is related to a process in which an old element is discharged and a new element is added. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 147)

By the Renewing of Their Mind

Because we are of three parts—spirit, soul, and body— the Lord in His salvation takes three steps to deal with us: regeneration in our spirit, transformation in our soul, and transfiguration in our body. The Lord starts His salvation from the center by regenerating us in our spirit (John 3:6). When we received Christ, the Spirit of the Lord came into our spirit to regenerate us by imparting Christ into our spirit as life. By this divine act not only was our deadened spirit made alive, but the life of God with its divine nature was put into it. As a result, a change of life began from the center of our being. Now it is the Lord’s desire that this change of life continue by spreading into our soul so that our mind, emotion, and will may be transformed. Our spirit has been regenerated, but our mind, emotion, and will may still be the same. This means that we have Christ as life in our spirit, but we do not yet have Christ in our soul. We need Him to expand continually from our spirit into our soul till every part of our soul is transformed into His image. Then we shall think as He thinks, love as He loves, and choose as He chooses. We shall have the likeness of the Lord in our practical life because our soul has been thoroughly saturated with His divine element. Therefore, as believers, we need the renewing or the transformation of the soul.

By Being Conformed

Transformation issues in conformation (Rom. 8:29), which is higher than transformation. Transformation is inward and is a matter of essence. Conformation is outward and is a matter of shape. Transformation involves a change in form, whereas conformation involves the shaping of this form into a certain image, the image of Christ. Christ has an image, and we need to be conformed to it. For us to be transformed means that we have a change in form. For us to be conformed means that our form is changed into Christ’s form, into His image.

Sanctification, transformation, and conformation cannot be separated, for they are interrelated. The Lord is sanctifying us and transforming us so that we may be conformed to His image. Conformation comes through transformation, and transformation results in conformation. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 148)