A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE ECONOMY OF GOD
May the Lord be merciful to us to bring us back to the proper understanding of His economy and the realization that we need the dispensing of Christ. God’s creation is to bring us into being, incarnation is to bring God into us, crucifixion is to terminate us, resurrection is to bring us into God, ascension is to bring the Body into the Head, and descension is to bring the Head into the Body. When Christ ascended into the heavens, He brought all of us into the heavens (Eph. 4:8). In this way He brought all of us into the headship of Christ. After ascension, He came down to bring the Head into the Body.
We thank God that He accomplished creation so that we have existence. We are what we are by God’s creation. We thank God that He also accomplished incarnation to bring Himself into us. Then He accomplished crucifixion, not only dealing with sins and the world, but also terminating us. After this, in resurrection He brought us into Himself. Then in ascension He brought all the members of His Body into His headship. Hence, we all are in the heavenlies with the Head (2:6). Then after His ascension, He came down as the life-giving Spirit. Now He is working to bring Himself as the Head into us, that is, to bring the Head into the Body. This is the real building up of the Body.
When we preach the gospel, we bring the Head into sinners. When we edify the saints, we bring more and more of the Head into the Body. Whatever we do today must be for the dispensing of Christ as the Head into all His members. Then, at the fullness of times, at least a part of the Body will be ready, mature, and ripe—good for being taken up. This will be the rapture, the day of the wedding of the Lamb. Now we are not only waiting for that day, we are passing through a process under the dispensing of Christ. This is God’s economy. God’s desire is that all men see what the economy of the mystery is (3:9). Now we are under the dispensing of Christ. God is daily and hourly dispensing all the unsearchable riches of Christ into us.
LEARNING TO WALK IN CHRIST BY WALKING IN OUR SPIRIT
This dispensing is altogether a matter in the spirit. This wonderful, all-inclusive Christ is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), and today this life-giving Spirit is in our spirit. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). Now we all have to learn how to walk in Him. Colossians 2:6 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.” He is not in the heavens only as many in Christianity teach. If He were only in the heavens, how could we walk in Him on earth? Today He is the life-giving Spirit who is one with our spirit. Now we must walk in Him. To walk in Him is simply to behave ourselves in our spirit. We must not care for our emotions, our mind, or our will. We must simply care for our spirit and walk in the spirit. Because He is one with us in our spirit, as long as we walk in the spirit, we are walking in Him. If as young persons we have something to say to our parents, yet in our spirit we sense that it is negative, we must not say it. If we have the desire to go fishing or to go dancing, yet in our spirit we sense something negative, we should not go. We must simply take care of our spirit. There is only one way today, which is to walk in Christ who is the Spirit in our spirit. To walk in Christ simply means to walk in our spirit. In this spirit we are one with Him. It is by this kind of walk that His day-by-day and hour-by-hour dispensing of Himself into us takes place. Then the church comes out of such a dispensing. This is the proper church life.
(Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
