In general, people’s concept is to forsake evil and follow good. Because of the teachings of Confucius and the ancient sages, this concept is especially prevailing among the Chinese, who all aspire to be someone who is good, excellent, and even superior to all others. But this is a natural human concept; this is not a biblical concept, nor is it God’s teaching to us. The Bible says that after God created man, He put man in the garden of Eden in front of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:8-9). These two trees indicate two principles: one, the simple principle of life, and the other, the complicated principle of good and evil. Eventually, man took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life; thus, he fell. After the fall, man became blind concerning the matter of life. In his thinking there is no longer any element of life; rather his thinking is full of the concept of the knowledge of good and evil. All day long human beings linger in the sphere, the realm, of the knowledge of good and evil, and all they care about is to forsake evil and follow good. We all know that even a robber has a heart to do good. For instance, in England there was a famous robber named Robin Hood. He considered himself a good man because he robbed the rich to help the poor for the carrying out of heavenly justice. But this kind of person is altogether ignorant concerning life.
Actually, the principle of forsaking evil and following good is a fallen principle. Unfortunately, even today’s Christianity has taken in this principle and has thus fallen into the realm of the knowledge of good and evil. They speak only about how to forsake evil and follow good, as Confucianism teaches. Therefore, when the western missionaries went to China with their Bible, they were looked down upon by the Chinese, who thought that the gospel simply taught people to love their wives and to love others as they love themselves, which is in no way superior to the principle of the great learning taught by Confucius and Mencius. Therefore, it was difficult for them to receive the gospel. Brothers and sisters, we need to be delivered out of this concept to reach God’s purpose. The principle of God is the principle of life, and the purpose of God is for man to have a change in life from within. Transformation is to change people in their essence to make them the new creation of God’s desire according to His divine essence. This is an inward, metabolic process. An outward change may make a person better or may make a person worse. But a person who undergoes a change in life cannot go back to his original form, just as a person who has been regenerated cannot become unregenerated. Perhaps after your regeneration you do not want the Lord anymore. But God, who has entered into you, will not leave you. God’s work in you can never be destroyed, and His dispensing can never be annulled. They will continue until you fully become God’s new creation.
The dispensing of the Triune God in us is the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. First, there are the Father’s dispensing through regeneration (1 Pet. 1:3) and His dispensing through the renewing by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Then there is Christ the Son’s dispensing in His redemption (Eph. 1:7-12). Eventually, we have the Spirit’s dispensing through the sealing (v. 13). The issue of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity is transformation. What a miracle this is! The greatest miracle in the universe is not the healing of cancer. It is that we Christians, who were nothing but flesh in a great mess, full of filthiness, temper, and evil, after believing in the Lord, receiving the dispensing of the Triune God, and remaining in the church life, praying and calling on the name of the Lord day by day, after a period of time have a great change in our inner being, in our essence and in our constitution, so that we are no longer like what we were before. What a miracle this is in the universe! This kind of miracle takes place every day and every moment in the church of the Lord.
The divine dispensing issues in transformation. The more we receive the divine dispensing, the more we are being transformed. Hence, we all need to receive the dispensing before the Lord. This will bring us a rapid transformation. This is also why we need to have a daily morning revival. Morning revival brings us the divine dispensing of the Triune God that we may be transformed. Do not endeavor to improve yourself. The more you try, the more you fail. You need to behold the glory of the Lord every day through morning revival that you may be gradually transformed into the same glorious image of the Lord. It is not a matter of improving or of forsaking evil and following good. Rather, it is a matter of staying away from good and evil and following life, turning to the tree of life, enjoying the divine dispensing of the processed Triune God, and allowing Him to transform you from within. Thus, even if you are an incurable person, you can be transformed.
Transformation not only issues in the building but, actually, it is the building. How much we have been transformed determines how much building there is, because transformation itself equals building. The dispensing of the Divine Trinity first regenerates us and then renews us. Eventually, we have a metabolic transformation within us. This transformation is what we call building.
(The Dispensing, Transformation and Building of the Processed Divine Trinity in the Believers, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)