Grace is God Himself as our life to be one with us, to save us, to make His home in us, and to be formed in us; as believers in Christ, grace is with our spirit, and we need to grow in grace, that is, grow in the increase of God. Amen!
God’s eternal economy is to gain a group of people – the church as the Body of Christ – into whom God can dispense Himself to be their life and everything so that they may be joined to Him as one to be the Body of Christ to express Him corporately.
Throughout the Bible we see that God is not after merely giving His people a lot of victories or making them prosper outwardly; God is not in the business of making His people rich or successful but in the business of carrying out His economy.
David, a man after the heart of God, was one who allowed God to work Himself into him so that out of him would come a seed, the seed of David called the Son of God, who would build the temple of God.
We need to be open vessels to the Lord, those who not only know the Lord according to His word but who are daily under the divine dispensing, receiving what God is, and enjoying God as grace, so that we may be mingled with God and allow God to live in us and be expressed through us.
God’s eternal economy can be accomplished by His divine dispensing, and His dispensing is of grace and in grace.
Actually, the grace of God is the very dispensing of God, for when Christ came, grace came, and today the Spirit is of grace.
Even more, grace is with our spirit, for the Lord Jesus is with our spirit. God is embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit to be grace to us.
And this grace does everything in us and for us; as long as we enjoy the Lord and say Amen to His inner speaking and moving, He does everything in us and for us.
It is like Phil. 2:13 says, we need to work out our salvation (this is our cooperation with His move) for it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working (He does all the work).
On our side, we come forward to the Lord in spirit to touch the throne of grace, and from this throne flows a river of grace for our enjoyment.
On His side, as long as we open to Him, God in Christ dispenses Himself as the Spirit into all the parts of our being to saturate us, occupy us, and fill us with Himself.
The result of such enjoyment of the grace of God is that we are one with God organically and we become one organic entity with Him to be the Body of Christ, the church, for the corporate expression of God.
This is what God is after today, and for this to happen, we need to grow in grace, that is, grow in the increase of God in us.
We need to Experience Grace in God’s Economy so that our Living would be the Living of Grace
When we speak of grace, we first need to realize that grace is not some thing that God gives to us or some action He does for us; grace is God Himself being dispensed into us for our enjoyment for our experience.
Secondly, we need to realize that the grace of God is in the economy of God, that is, we experience the grace of God for the fulfilment of God’s economy.
We need to see the grace in God’s economy in our experience as believers in Christ. Our everyday experience as believers must be grace.
If we don’t experience grace daily, we do not have a proper experience as believers in Christ.
Our Christian living must be a living of grace, an experience of grace; our daily Christian living should be the living of grace, the experience of grace.
And grace is the embodiment of God, Christ, being processed and consummated to be the life-giving Spirit with our experience.
Grace is God Himself to be our life and our everything.
Our whole Christian life is a life that is for God’s economy, and we daily experience grace in God’s economy for the fulfilment of His economy so that our living would be of grace.
Especially these days as we live at the end of this age with the world being more corrupted and evil than ever, and with the church being in decline and degradation, we need to enjoy the grace of God with our spirit and experience grace in God’s economy so that our living would be the living of grace.
Our living should be full of godliness, that is, full of the enjoyment of Christ as grace in God’s economy so that we may live out the grace we enjoy.
Day by day we need to contact the Lord, call on His name, pray, and fellowship with Him, so that we may enjoy Him as grace; as He infuses Himself into us, He does everything in us and lives in us, and our living is of grace.
Paul testified in Gal. 2:20 that it was not him who lived but Christ who lived in him, and the life he lived was in faith, the faith of the Son of God; it was no longer Him but Christ who lived.
In 1 Cor. 15:10 he further said that he labored more abundantly than the others but it was not him who labored but the grace of God which was with him.
From these two verses, we can clearly see that, as we experience grace in God’s economy, we live by grace and we labor by the grace of God.
Our enjoyment of the grace of God has a goal, which is not our success, our enjoyment, our victory, our betterment, or our prosperity.
The goal of our enjoyment of Christ as grace in God’s economy is the fulfilment of God’s eternal economy that He may gain a corporate expression.
May we be those who daily enjoy the grace of God in the economy of God for the fulfilment of God’s economy to gain a corporate expression.
Paul became part of the manifestation of God in the flesh when he lived by the grace of God and labored by the grace of God; we can be for the fulfilment of God’s economy as we enjoy the grace of God in the economy of God.
In His economy, God went through a process to be consummated as the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of grace; as such a One, He can be experienced and enjoyed by us in God’s economy so that our living may be of grace and our labor would be the grace of God laboring in us.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to enjoy You as grace in God’s economy so that our living may be a living of grace and our labor in the Lord would be by the grace of God. Amen, Lord, we open to You again and again; we simply want to be open vessels for Your divine dispensing. Dispense Yourself into us to be everything to us for our enjoyment. Keep us enjoying You as the grace of God with our spirit until we live by grace and labor by the grace of God which is with us. Amen, Lord, may our Christian living be the living of grace, the experience of grace, for the corporate expression of God in man!
We need to Grow in Grace by Growing in the Increase of God to be Live by Grace
In 2 Pet. 3:18 Peter tells us that need to grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This grace is the Triune God being life and the life supply to us and in us; for us to grow in grace is for us to grow in this inward source of the supply of life (1 Pet. 5:10).
What is grace? Grace is God processed through incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension, and coming to us as the Spirit to be all these things to us in our spirit as a bountiful supply living and operating in us (Phil. 1:19-21; 4:23).
For us to grow in grace doesn’t mean that we need to grow in some material things or good works; it is for us to grow in the increase of God in us.
The Triune God has been imparted into us to be our life for our enjoyment; this is the grace in which we grow.
Day by day there has to be a growth in us – God needs to grow in us, and the element of God needs to increase in us by grace.
May the Lord grant us all to grow in the divine person who is grace.
On one hand, we need to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and on the other hand, we need to grow in grace.
The element of our growth is Christ Himself.
How can we grow in something that is inorganic and without life? Only living, organic things can grow; for us to grow in grace is to grow by the bountiful supply of the eternal life provided by the divine power (2 Pet. 1:3-4).
For us to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior is to grow by the realization of what Christ is; this is to grow by the enjoyment of grace and the realization of truth (John 1:14).
The Triune God has come into us to be the inward source of the supply of life.
He went through a process and has added all the elements of this process to Himself as the consummated, life-giving Spirit of grace with our spirit.
Grace is God Himself as our life to be one with us, to save us, to make His home in us, and to be formed in us; grace is God coming into us to be our everything and to do everything in us, and our need is to grow in grace.
To grow in grace is to grow in the increase of God (Col. 2:19).
This is our need today: we need to grow in grace by allowing God to increase in us, to grow in us, so that our living may be the living of grace.
Grace is God’s visitation to us to stay in us and make Himself one with us; we need to grow in such a grace for His glory today and unto the day of eternity (Rev. 22:21).
We grow in grace day by day by feeding and by watering; we need to feed on the guileless milk of the word and the solid food in God’s word (1 Pet. 2:2) and we need to be watered by the Lord through the many members of His Body (1 Cor. 3:2).
To grow in grace is to grow in the enjoyment of all that Christ is to us as our spiritual food and living water.
We need to eat the Lord, drink Him, and breathe Him in; the more we enjoy Christ in all that He is, the more we partake of the riches of Christ, and the more we grow in grace.
Oh, the riches of our Savior are immeasurable and immense, and we can enjoy Him, partake of Him, and grow in the grace of God!
The more we enjoy the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8), the more we will grow in life.
This enjoyment of God in Christ as the Spirit to be grace with our spirit, the enjoyment of grace, will cause us to be glorified.
The more we enjoy grace, the more we are infused with Christ in all His riches, the more we are constituted with Him and become part of His corporate expression.
As we remain under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, as we are visited by God and indwelt by Christ who makes His home in us, we become part of His corporate expression.
Glory is nothing less than God Himself expressed; we can express God only as we are being reconstituted with Him to manifest Him and shine forth with Him.
Lord Jesus, we love You. Grow in us today. We want to grow in grace. Thank You for coming into us as grace to be our life and our everything. Hallelujah, God came to be our life to be one with us, to save us, to make His home in us, and to be formed in us! Amen, Lord, may we grow in grace by growing in the increase of God! May God’s element increase in us. We open to You every part of our inner being: grow in us and spread Yourself in all the parts of our being. We want to grow in the enjoyment of all that Christ is to us as our spiritual food and living water. May we grow in the inner source of the supply of the divine life. Amen, Lord, grow in us today by our enjoyment of Christ until You are manifested and glorified through us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this message, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (pp. 3947-3949), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Grace of God in the Economy of God (2022 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 2, entitled, Experiencing the Grace of God in the Economy of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater, / He sendeth more strength when the labors increase, / To added affliction He addeth His mercy, / To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace. / His love has no limit, His grace has no measure, / His power no boundary known unto men, / For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, / He giveth and giveth and giveth again. (Hymns #723)
– Grace all the work shall crown / Through everlasting days; / It lays in love the topmost stone, / And well deserves the praise. / Oh, let that grace inspire / My heart with strength divine; / May all my powers to Thee aspire, / And all my days be Thine. (Hymns #312)
– It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be formed in me; / Not the outward forms to follow, / But Christ growing inwardly. / It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ make home in me; / Not just outwardly to serve Him, / But Christ dwelling inwardly. (Hymns #538)
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