BEING A VESSEL UNTO HONOR, A FULLY EQUIPPED MAN OF GOD, BY BEING EMPOWERED IN THE GRACE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS TO FULLY ACCOMPLISH OUR MINISTRY IN THE UNIQUE MINISTRY OF GOD'S ECONOMY
Message One
Living in the Reality of God's Eternal Economy for Its Fulfillment by Building Up a Habit of Exercising Our Spirit, Fanning Our God-given Spirit into Flame
Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 4:7-8; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 4:22
I. God's eternal economy is His household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that He may have a house to express Himself, which house is the church, the Body of Christ; God's eternal economy is His eternal plan, and His divine dispensing is the means by which He accomplishes His plan—1 Tim. 1:3-4; 3:15; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:10; 3:8-9; 2:10:
A. Christ is the center, circumference, element, sphere, means, goal, and aim of God's economy; in fact, all the contents of God's eternal economy are simply Christ— Matt. 17:5; Eph. 3:6; Luke 24:44.
B. Unless we know God's economy, we will not understand the Bible; the central subject of the Bible is the economy of God, and the entire Bible is concerned with the economy of God—v. 45; Job 10:13; cf. Eph. 3:9.
C. God's economy is to dispense Himself into our being so that our being may be constituted with His being; this can be accomplished only by God's dispensing Himself into us as the divine life—John 10:10; 14:6a; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.
D. The leadership in the New Testament ministry is the leadership of the controlling, God-given revelation of God's eternal economy—Acts 26:19; Prov. 29:18.
E. Different teachings other than God's economy separate us from the genuine appreciation,love, and enjoyment of the precious person of the Lord Jesus Christ as our life and our everything (2 Cor. 11:2-3); the different teachings of the dissenting ones (1 Tim. 1:3) caused envy and discord among the believers, which are contrary to love, the end (the objective and purpose) of the apostle's charge to remain in the teaching of God's economy (v. 5; John 13:34; Gal. 5:13-14).
F. God's divine dispensing deifies the believers, making them God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and for the preparation of the bride of Christ to usher in the kingdom of Christ; for this purpose God became a man to "man-ize" Himself; then He dispenses Himself as life into us to "God-ize" us in His life and nature but not in His Godhead.
G. God's intention in His economy is to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity— the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—into His chosen people; God's only goal in time is to dispense Himself into us day by day.
II. In the "blueprint" of God's original intention, man is the center of the entire universe, and the center of man is his spirit—Zech. 12:1; Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27:
A. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man was created by God with a spirit that he may contact God, receive God, contain God, worship God, live God, fulfill God's purpose for God, express God, and be one with God—John 4:24; 1 Cor. 6:17.
B. Without God being the Spirit and without us having a spirit to contact God, to be one with God, the whole universe is empty, and we are nothing—Eccl. 1:2; 3:11; Job 32:8; 12:10; 2 Cor. 4:13, 16-18.
C. Due to the fall, men have not only overlooked and neglected the human spirit but also have even refused to admit that man has a spirit—1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12; cf. Jude 19.
D. Man as a vessel, through the exercise of his spirit, was to receive God in Christ as the tree of life so that life as a river would flow in and out of his innermost being for his transformation into precious materials for God's building, God's eternal expression—Gen. 1:26; 2:7-12, 22; 1 Tim. 4:7-8:
1. The breath of God has become our human spirit, and our spirit is God's lamp to contain God as the oil and to give us light—Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27.
2. Man's spirit became a broken lamp through his fall, but through God's recovery in His salvation, man's spirit is regenerated, rebuilt, and reinforced with the vivifying, sevenfold intensified Spirit—Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27; John 3:6; Rev. 4:5; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
3. The central government and most prominent part of man's being should be his spirit; a man who is ruled and controlled by his spirit is a spiritual man— 2:14-15; 3:1; 14:32; 2 Cor. 2:12-15; Eph. 3:16; 1 Pet. 3:4; Dan. 6:3, 10.
E. The strategic and central point of God's economy is the divine Spirit dwelling in our human spirit and the two mingled together as one spirit, the mingled spirit— John 3:6; 4:24; Rom. 8:16; 2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17; 1 Tim. 1:4; 2 Cor. 4:13:
1. The great way to fulfill God's economy is for us to live and do everything according to the Spirit by exercising our spirit—Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9; Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:25.
2. Whenever we turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit, we touch the Body, because the Body is in our spirit—Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18.
3. When we are in our spirit, we overcome the world, we cannot sin, the evil one cannot touch us, and we are guarded from idols—1 John 5:4, 18-19, 21; John 14:30.
III. The key to receiving the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and being a channel of this dispensing for the saints' growth in life and their enjoyment of Christ is to exercise our spirit, which is to fan our God-given spirit into flame—Phil. 1:25; 1 Tim. 4:7-8; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 4:22; Acts 6:10; 1 Cor. 14:32:
A. Godliness, a living that is the expression of God, is the issue of the divine dispensing for the divine economy, and this dispensing depends on the exercise of our spirit to live Christ in our daily life for the corporate manifestation of God in the church life—1 Tim. 1:3-4; 3:15-16; 4:7-8; 2 Tim. 1:6-7.
B. The word exercise implies forcing; if we Christians want to be strong and want to grow in the Lord, we must force ourselves to use our spirit until we build up a strong habit of exercising our spirit—1 Tim. 4:7.
C. To exercise our spirit is to fan our spirit into flame—2 Tim. 1:6-7:
1. Second Timothy 1:6 refers to "the gift of God," and verse 7 indicates that what God has given us is our regenerated spirit, our mingled spirit, of power, of love, and of sobermindedness; thus, the gift of God is our God-given spirit.
2. We saved ones have the capital to live the Christian life and the church life, and this capital is our God-given spirit.
3. Fire is in our regenerated spirit, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit; actually, our spirit is the fire—Luke 12:49-50; Rom. 12:11; Rev. 4:5; Prov. 20:27.
D. To exercise our spirit, we must deal with the parts of our soul surrounding our spirit—our mind, emotion, and will—cf. 1 Pet. 3:4:
1. A spirit of power is a spirit with a subdued and resurrected will, a spirit of love is a spirit with an emotion filled with God as love, and a spirit of sobermindedness is a spirit with a renewed mind—2 Tim. 1:7.
2. Our dear Lord Jesus is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls; our soul is our inner being, our real person; our Lord shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our real person—1 Pet. 2:25; Psa. 23:1-6; cf. Heb. 13:17.
3. Because the exercise of the spirit is linked to the parts of our soul and is so vital to living in the reality of God's economy, we need to cooperate with our Lord in His heavenly ministry by "establishing the souls of the disciples"— Acts 14:22.
4. To establish the souls of the disciples is to establish them (1) in their mind, that they may know and understand the Lord and the things concerning Him (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 3:10); (2) in their emotion, that they may love the Lord and have a heart for the Lord's interest (Mark 12:30; Rom. 16:4); and (3) in their will, that they may be strong to remain with the Lord and do the things that please the Lord (Acts 11:23; Col. 1:10; 1 Thes. 4:1).
E. To exercise our spirit, to fan our God-given spirit into flame, is to rejoice always, pray unceasingly, and give thanks in everything in order to enjoy the indwelling Spirit as the secret of doing all things in Christ—2 Cor. 12:2a; Phil. 4:11-13; Psa. 91:1; 1 Thes. 5:16-18.
F. To exercise our spirit, to fan our God-given spirit into flame, is to set our mind on the spirit—Rom. 8:6; Mal. 2:15-16:
1. When we set our mind on the spirit, we have the inner sense of life and peace, the sense of strength, satisfaction, rest, release, liveliness, watering, brightness, and comfort.
2. When we set our mind on the flesh, we have the inner sense of death, the sense of weakness, emptiness, uneasiness, restlessness, depression, dryness, darkness, and pain.
3. Our Christian life is not according to the standard of right and wrong but according to the inner sense of life and peace in our spirit—Rom. 8:6; 2 Cor. 2:13-14.
G. To exercise our spirit, to fan our God-given spirit into flame, is to discern our spirit from our soul—Heb. 4:12:
1. We should always be on the alert to discern and deny anything that is not of the spirit but of the soul, the self—Matt. 16:25; cf. Luke 9:25.
2. Whatever we are, whatever we have, and whatever we do must be in spirit; everything that God is to us is in our spirit—Rom. 2:28-29; 1:9; 8:4; 12:11.
H. To exercise our spirit, to fan our God-given spirit into flame, is to live the normal church life and overcome the church's degradation by pursuing Christ with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart—2 Tim. 2:22.
I. To exercise our spirit, to fan our God-given spirit into flame, is to pray, to approach God in a personal and confiding manner, for the interests of God—Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God—as the goal in God's eternal economy—1:6-8; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 2:1-3, 8; 1 Kings 8:48; Jude 19-21.