THE DIVINE DISPENSING
OF THE DIVINE TRINITY IN CHRIST’S MAKING
HIS HOME IN THE BELIEVERS’ HEARTS
THAT THEY MAY BE FILLED
UNTO ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD
1. The Dispensing of the Father as the Source
of Every Family in the Heavens and on Earth,
to Grant the Believers to Be Strengthened
according to the Riches of His Glory
2. The Spirit as the Means
Strengthening the Believers with Power
into Their Inner Man in the Dispensing
of the Divine Trinity
3. Christ Making His Home
in the Believers’ Hearts to Carry Out
the Dispensing of the Divine Trinity,
that the Believers May Be Strong
to Apprehend with All the Saints
the Dimensions of Christ and to Know
the Knowledge-surpassing Love of Christ,
That They May Be Filled unto
the Fullness of God to Be the Corporate Expression of God in the Universe
In the church there is also the need for Christ to make His home in the believers’ hearts (Eph. 3:14-19). Christ is now in us, but He is not yet settled in us. There may be some "rooms" within us for Christ, but He may still not be able to make His home in us. In my traveling I am often received into peoples’ homes; but I can never settle in these homes. My desire always is to go back to my own home. While I am staying in others’ homes, I do not have the liberty to touch many things. But when I am in my own home, I am free to touch everything.
Christ earnestly desires to make His home in us. Paul prayed purposely for this. He bowed his knees to the Father, who is the source of all the families in this universe, and offered a very proper and complete prayer. He prayed that the Father would strengthen us with power through the Spirit according to the riches of His glory, that Christ may make His home in our hearts. Christ is in our spirit already, but He must spread from our spirit into our heart.
Our spirit is in the center of our being. This is where Christ is today (2 Tim. 4:22). This spirit is surrounded by our heart, which is composed of our mind, emotion, and will, plus our conscience. Many times Christ tries to spread from our spirit to our mind, but we will not allow Him to do it. Eventually, He is confined to our spirit; our spirit becomes His guest house. He is not yet able to make His home in our heart.
Sometimes the Lord may try to stretch out and take a part of our emotion, but we will not give Him permission. As a result, He cannot get through in us. In the meeting or during the morning watch, we may be excited. But immediately after the meeting or the morning watch, Christ is forced to shrink back. We allow Him to stay in our mind only for awhile. Eventually, He is forced back to His guest house, which is our spirit.
Because we are weak, Paul prayed that we would be strengthened. We need to be strengthened into our spirit. This means that all our inward parts, including our mind, emotion, will, and conscience, must be gathered together into our spirit and come under the control of our spirit. In this way, Christ will have the freedom to spread into all the parts of our heart. He will fill and take over every part and will settle in our inner man, making our inner man His home. The result of this is that we will be filled unto all the fullness of the Triune God. We will then have the capacity to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ, which are His breadth, His length, His height, and His depth. We will also be able to know the knowledge- surpassing love of Christ. This means that we will be saturated with Christ. The riches of Christ will be dispensed into every part of our entire being. The result of this total dispensing of Christ is His settling in our entire being, making our entire being His home. This kind of divine dispensing will make the church the actual, real, and full habitation of the Triune God.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Berkeley, California, on September 1, 1990)
(The Economy and Dispensing of God, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
