THE ISSUE OF GOD’S ECONOMY—THE CHURCH
This is not a doctrine; this is God’s economy. What is the issue of God’s economy? The issue is the church. Therefore, verse 21 says, “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” This is the church life. What is the church? The church is the issue of the Spirit’s strengthening us, Christ’s making His home in us, and God’s filling us. The church is not the result of the breaking of our flesh or the result of the rubbing away of our sharp edges. Some preachers may tell you that because you are a person with many sharp edges, God cannot use you, so He has to raise up situations and use little helpers to knock off your sharp corners and to make you smooth. This kind of teaching is natural and is not taught in the Bible. What the Bible presents is transformation, telling us that we are being transformed from clay to precious stones. May God give us a vision today that we may see what the church is. The church is the result of our being filled, saturated, and occupied by the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit.
NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO NEGATIVE DEALINGS
Perhaps some would ask me, “Then what shall we do with our flesh?” The simplest thing to do with the flesh is to put it off. We need to put off the old man and the flesh. We need to put off our peculiarities, our complicated mind, and our stubborn will. Some may say, “I cannot do this.” To them I would ask, have you ever seen a tree shedding its bark? The tree continually absorbs water and the riches from the soil, and in this way it is strengthened until it is full-grown. Then it sheds its bark. If we faithfully let the Spirit strengthen us into our inner man, let Christ make His home in our hearts, and let God fill us, then day by day our old man will be gradually put off.
Therefore, instead of paying attention to the negative dealings, we must focus on the positive matters such as the Spirit’s strengthening us, Christ’s making home in us, and God’s filling us. All of us are peculiar in our natural being. However, God will say to Satan, “Satan, do you see all these peculiar people? I will transform every one of them.” God supplies continually, and the result is that the church is produced. Thus, we do not need to deal directly with our peculiarities. Formerly I exerted much effort to deal with my peculiar disposition. Recently, however, my eyes were opened by the Lord to stop trying to deal with my disposition. Therefore, I do not deal with it anymore. We may be able to break a clay pot into pieces and even grind it into powder, but we cannot turn the clay into a diamond. Clay is clay. Therefore, we should give up our dealings. Instead, we should pray for the Spirit’s strengthening, Christ’s making home, and God’s filling, and then the church will be produced.
(The Revelation of the Mystery, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
