GOD’S ECONOMY, PLAN, ARRANGEMENT, DISPENSATION
The economy of the Divine Trinity, which is His plan, arrangement, or dispensation, was made by God [the Father and the Spirit] according to God’s purpose of the ages [eternal] in Christ Jesus our Lord [the Son] (Eph. 3:11). God’s economy is to have us made an inheritance, predestinated according to the counsel of God’s will (1:11). We are God’s vessels, God’s bottles, so we are His inheritance, His possession. He possessed us as His inheritance for the purpose of containing Him. He desires to dispense Himself into us all the time. This dispensing is not once for all. It is continuing all the time and will go on for eternity. God has made us His inheritance for His enjoyment. We are God’s inheritance by being His vessels. His containers are His inheritance. He needs more vessels into which He can dispense Himself with all His riches.
God made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself (Eph. 1:9b). God’s economy was a mystery hidden from the ages in Himself, who created all things (3:9c; 5a), but it is revealed now to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit [mingled with the Spirit] and is brought to light to all men (3:5b; 9a). Such a mingled spirit is the means by which the New Testament revelation concerning God’s economy is revealed to the apostles and prophets. We need to be in this spirit to see such a revelation.
The apostle Paul had a clear vision of God’s economy, but I am concerned that His economy is still a hidden mystery to many Christians. Paul said in Ephesians that he had been commissioned to reveal, to make known, to bring to light, the mystery of God’s economy. To reveal is to make known, and to make known is to enlighten, to bring to light. There are many Christians who have never been enlightened concerning God’s economy. Such a mystery has not been made known to them. We need to pray that God’s economy would not remain a mystery to us and that we would be enlightened with the truth and the vision of His economy.
THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST
We need a revelation of the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4), which is the church produced out of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul preached the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel to the nations [Gentiles], making the nations joint heirs, a joint Body, and joint partakers of the promise (Eph. 3:6b). Through the church God’s multifarious wisdom is made known, especially to the rulers and the authorities of Satan’s dark kingdom in the heavenlies (Eph. 3:10). The economy which God purposed in Himself is to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times (1:10). When the New Jerusalem comes in the new heaven and the new earth, all things will be headed up in Christ through the church.
(Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
