In the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, the believers experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity in many aspects. These aspects include serving and worshipping God, working and laboring for the Lord, not loving the world, overcoming Satan the Devil, fighting the good fight, and running the course of the race. All these matters can be carried out only by the dispensing of the divine Trinity, by the infusing and transfusing of the riches of the processed Triune God into us. We may teach these matters without touching the source of the strength, energy, and capability to carry them out. The source is the enjoyment of the dispensing of the processed Triune God into our being. For this reason, we need to contact the divine Trinity. We need to stay in His presence, fellowship with Him, and even pray with fasting in order to receive more dispensing of the divine essence into our being so that we may serve and worship God, work and labor for the Lord, not love the world, overcome Satan, fight the good fight, and run the good course of the race. For all these things we need the dispensing of the Triune God, the transfusing of His riches into our being.
The six matters of serving and worshipping God, working and laboring for the Lord, not loving the world, overcoming Satan, fighting the good fight, and running the course of the race are all of one category. Now we come to a second category of other aspects in which the believers experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity-the believers’ being profited by all things in their circumstances and environments. Day by day, we cannot stay away from circumstances and environments. In all our circumstances and environments we face many things, matters, and persons. According to God’s design and arrangement, all these things, matters, and persons are used by God for our good. Therefore, we are profited by all things in our circumstances and environments.
Romans 8:28 says, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to the purpose.” In Greek the word translated “all things” refers to all matters, all persons, and all things. God the Father is sovereign and He arranges everything. He knows what we need. In His sovereignty, He causes all things, all matters, and all persons to work together for good to those who love Him and who have been called by Him to the end that He may fulfill His purpose.
God has determined our destiny beforehand, and this destiny cannot be fulfilled without the divine arrangement that causes all things to work together for us. Our destiny is to be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29). We are not yet fully in the image of the firstborn Son of God, but God the Father is causing all things to work together for good so that His purpose of having many sons conformed to the image of the firstborn Son may be fulfilled.
Because God’s intention is to bring us into full sonship, we need to grow. No doubt, growth comes from inward nourishment, but this nourishment needs the coordination of the outward environment. Hence, there is the need of God’s sovereignty to arrange our environment so that all things may work together for our good according to His purpose.
The believers have been called by God according to His purpose. In Romans 8:28 the word “purpose” is equal to a plan. God’s purpose is His plan, and His plan is that we be conformed to the image of His Son that He should be the Firstborn among many brothers. God’s firstborn Son is the prototype, and we are the mass production. Christ is the model, the mold, and the pattern. God has put us all into Him that we may be molded into the image of His firstborn Son. Eventually we all shall be conformed to the mold. We have been predestinated to be conformed to the image of God’s Son that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers. This is God’s purpose.
We have already been called by God according to His purpose. However, we still need to cooperate with God’s calling by loving Him. If we do not love Him, all things will not work together for good, even though we have been called by God. This means that if we do not love God, everything is not good for us. For example, if you love God and become ill, your illness will work good for you. But if you become ill and do not love God, your illness will not profit you. Whether or not the things, matters, and persons in our environment are good for us depends on whether or not we love God. If we love Him, He will cause all things to work together for our good.
Home | First | Prev | Next