II. THE DIVINE ECONOMY BEING
THE ISSUE OF GOD’S WILL, PURPOSE,
GOOD PLEASURE, AND COUNSEL
The divine economy is the issue of God’s will, purpose, good pleasure, and counsel; hence, the intention of God’s will, purpose, good pleasure, and counsel is for the divine dispensing. Everything God has accomplished is for one purpose. This purpose is to dispense Himself into His chosen people.
III. THE DIVINE DISPENSING
OF THE DIVINE ECONOMY BEING CONSUMMATED THROUGH THE DIVINE TRINITY
The divine dispensing of the divine economy is consummated through the Divine Trinity. When I first began to speak on the Divine Trinity in this country, I told people that the Trinity should not be considered as a mere theological doctrine. The Divine Trinity is not for doctrine but for our enjoyment. Second Corinthians 13:14 illustrates this: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." The Trinity—God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit—is revealed here with love, grace, and fellowship. This revelation is for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God.
The Trinity is for our experience, but if the Trinity could not be dispensed into us, how could we experience Him? Food is for our enjoyment, but if we could not eat, digest, and assimilate it into our body, how could we enjoy it? The food must be dispensed into our body so that we can enjoy it. Second Corinthians 13:14 shows us a kind of dispensing. God the Father as love is embodied in God the Son as grace. The grace is dispensed into us through the fellowship of the Spirit. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is just the flowing and the dispensing of what the Triune God is and has into us. The Triune God is love with grace, and the grace with love becomes the flow. This flow is the fellowship, and the fellowship is the dispensing of the Triune God into our being for our experience and enjoyment.
A. The Divine Nature Being
Dispensed into the Believers in Christ
through God the Father’s Choosing, and
the Divine Life Being Dispensed through
God the Father’s Predestination
The divine nature is dispensed into the believers in Christ through God the Father’s choosing, and the divine life is dispensed through God the Father’s predestination (Eph. 1:4-5). Ephesians 1:4 says that God the Father chose us in Christ to be holy. He chose us for sanctification. To be holy is a matter of dispensing. Without the divine nature of God being dispensed into our being, we do not have the element to be sanctified. By nature we are like a muddy piece of clay. How can we become golden unless some element of gold is mingled with us? Nothing in the entire universe is holy but God Himself. When God’s divine, holy element is dispensed into us persons of clay, we become holy. To be holy we need the sanctifying element to be dispensed into our being.
Ephesians 1:5 says that God predestinated us unto sonship. Predestination means to mark out beforehand. If you go to a supermarket to get some peaches, you first choose the peaches that you want and then mark them out. We were chosen by God and marked out for sonship. Sonship is a matter of dispensing. If God’s life as the divine element were not dispensed into us, how could we be His sons? In order to be God’s sons by birth, we must have God’s divine element as life dispensed into us. Ephesians 1:4 and 5 strongly indicate that God’s holy nature and life must be dispensed into our being so that we can be made holy and so that we can be His genuine sons.
(The Central Line of the Divine Revelation, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
