Living and Serving according to God’s Economy
concerning the Church
Message One
Living and Serving according to the Heavenly Vision of God’s Economy
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Word of Appetizer
What is the one thing, the unique thing, that should be focused on, stressed, and ministered in the Lord’s recovery?
It is the heavenly vision of the eternal economy of God; the central subject of the Bible is the economy of God, and the entire Bible is concerned with the economy of God. God’s eternal economy is for Him to become man that man might become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem. Our becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead was initiated by God the Father in eternity past by His choosing us to be holy, predestinating us unto sonship; the divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament.
Spiritual Burden
Our becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead was initiated by God the Father in eternity past by His choosing us to be holy, predestinating us unto sonship; the divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament.
Acts 26:18 reveals the contents of our divine commission to serve according to the heavenly vision of God’s economy; we need to pray over these contents, asking the Lord to make them our experience and reality so that we can bring others into this experience and reality.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The one thing, the unique thing, that should be focused on, stressed, and ministered in the Lord’s recovery is the heavenly vision of the eternal economy of God; the central subject of the Bible is the economy of God, and the entire Bible is concerned with the economy of God.
Our becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead was initiated by God the Father in eternity past by His choosing us to be holy, predestinating us unto sonship; the divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament.
Our being sanctified for the divine sonship ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem as the holy city (Rev. 21:2, 10) and the aggregate of the divine sonship (v. 7); this is the ultimate consummation of God becoming a man in the flesh that man might become God in the Spirit to gain a great, corporate God-man (vv. 3,22) for the corporate expression, the glory, of the Triune God.
The Experience of Life
The divine, dispositional sanctification is carried out by Christ as the life-giving, sanctifying, and speaking Spirit. Christ as the life-giving Spirit sanctifies the church by cleansing her according to the washing of the water in the word; we are now in such a washing process in order that the church may be holy and without blemish. Day by day, morning and evening, we need to come to the Bible and be cleansed by the laver of the water in the word.
One thing that we always treasure is that the Lord still speaks to us personally and directly today; true growth in life depends upon our receiving the word directly from God; whenever He speaks, we realize His presence within us; Christ’s speaking is the very presence of the life-giving Spirit.
Practice and Application
Acts 26:18 reveals the contents of our divine commission to serve according to the heavenly vision of God’s economy; we need to pray over these contents, asking the Lord to make them our experience and reality so that we can bring others into this experience and reality.
We need to continually pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation to understand and to see more and more of Christ, the Body of Christ, and the divine dispensing for the divine economy. We need to go to the Lord to receive a thorough forgiveness of all our sins.
We need to bring people into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ in the church life so that they may enjoy Christ as we do and be sanctified dispositionally with the holy nature of God through the exercise of their spirit.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 When God created man, He created him as a vessel…God’s purpose is to fill up this vessel with Himself (John 1:12-13)
(Please illustrate that the ultimate purpose of God is to work Himself into us in order that He may be our life and everything to us so that one day we can become Him. But this does not mean that we can become part of the Godhead and be the same as the unique God.）
T2 God’s economy and plan is to make Himself man and to make us, His created beings, “God” so that He is “man-ized” and we are “God-ized.” in the endwe and He, all become God-men (2 Pet. 1:4)
(Please illustrate that it is not enough for us to be good men, spiritual men, or holy men.)
Day 2
T1 To be holy is to partake of God’s divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 1:4-5)
(Please illustrate that this is different from mere sinless perfection or sinless purity.）
T2 Both sanctification and the sonship are always carried out by the Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Eph. 1:4-5)
(Please illustrate that this is why Ephesians 1:3 calls this a spiritual blessing, a blessing by the Spirit.)
Day 3
T1 The divine sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy (1 Thes. 5:23)
(Please illustrate that we need to see what the term holding line means.）
T2 Being “hooked” by the line of the divine sanctification (Eph. 1:14; 4:30)
(Please illustrate that the divine sanctification holds all our spiritual experiences from our repentance to our glorification.)
Day 4
T1 Christ sanctifies the church by cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word (Eph. 5:26-27)
(Please illustrate that the washing of the water here is different from the washing of the redeeming blood of Christ.）
T2 The cleansing by the washing of the water of life is in the word (Exo. 38:8; 40:7)
(Please illustrate with experiences that whenever you contact the world in the course of your human living, you need to come to the word to be cleansed.)
Day 5
T1 The complete, perfect, whole gospel is found [in] Acts 26:18 (Acts 26:16-19)
(Please illustrate that in this one verse there are seven points.）
T2 We need to experience this full, complete, perfect, and thorough gospel (Acts 26:16-19)
(Please illustrate that if we experience the whole gospel, we shall not merely be a preacher—we shall be a witness.)
Day 6
T1 The portion of the saints in Colossians 1:12 is the portion of those who have been sanctified by faith in the Lord in Acts 26:18 (Col. 1:12; Acts 26:18)
(Please illustrate that God gave the all-inclusive Christ to us as our portion.）
T2 You are going to bring Christ to people, and this commission depends on your seeing (Col. 1:27; 2 Cor. 13:5)
(Please illustrate that because you have experienced the Lord and seen Him, you have something within you energizing and operating to impel you to serve the Lord in ministering Him to others.)
