After speaking of the Father’s choosing and predestinating, and the Son’s redeeming through which He has become our sphere and element so that we might be made God’s precious inheritance, Ephesians 1 speaks of the dispensing of God the Spirit as the sealing and the pledging in the believers.
God the Spirit put Himself into us as our seal. This seal seals us unto God’s image, as a mark of God’s inheritance. The “ink” used in this seal never dries; it will remain wet forever. This ink will saturate and permeate our entire being. In the beginning of our Christian life, the image imprinted by the seal is not very clear. But the more the seal seals us, the clearer and more distinct the image becomes. Moreover, the seal expands until our whole being-body, soul, and spirit-is saturated with this seal. In ourselves we could never carry out such a sealing, but God has dispensed His Spirit as a seal into us to seal us. Once this seal is on us, we can never remove it.
The Spirit within us is not only a seal that permeates and saturates us, but He is also a foretaste within us for our enjoyment.
When I was young, I was taught that when a person was filled with the Holy Spirit, he would have the living water flowing out of him. Because of this word, I sought after this experience by praying and confessing my sins. One day I was brought to a Pentecostal meeting. There I saw some people jumping, some rolling on the floor, and some laughing. I was told that these people were filled with the Holy Spirit. But I could not accept that kind of being “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Later, the Lord raised up a church in my home. We did not laugh, jump, or shout; we simply prayed, met, sought after the Lord, and preached the gospel in a quiet way. Not far from us was a Pentecostal meeting. One day the leading one from that group attempted to convince me to accept the Pentecostal practices. I pointed out to him that when the church began to meet in my home, only about ten saints attended the meetings, whereas the number in his meetings might have been a little larger. After a period of time, the number in our meetings increased to over eight hundred, while the number in his meetings, after all their jumping, shouting, and being “filled with the Holy Spirit,” still remained only forty or fifty.
I say these things to point out to you through my many years of experience that God has no intention for us to jump and shout; in fact, all the things of life that God has given to us are quiet and calm. We go to bed on time, sleep calmly, rise calmly, wash up, pray-read, take our breakfast, do our work, and study calmly. Other than some physical exercise, we do everything in a calm way. To live this way is most healthy. It is the same with the plant life. In growing flowers, it is harmful to over-fertilize or water too much. We should not disturb the plants too much. Instead, we should allow them to live calmly. Even if we do not water the plants, sometimes the heavens will give them water and make them grow. Sometimes we are “cold” toward the Lord; we may not even go to the meetings anymore. At other times we may love the Lord so much that we become very zealous. Formerly, it was difficult just to read through a half of a chapter in the Bible. Now it is easy to read through five chapters a day. But because both our “coldness” and our “hotness” are something of ourselves, they do not last. Only those who are unhurried and steady will remain and persevere.
Since we have the Spirit in us as a seal, pledge, and foretaste, every morning when we wake up, we should spend ten to fifteen minutes to open up the Lord’s Word and read two or three verses successively. We do not need to shout or yell. Of course, we should call on the Lord. This is like our breathing. But we do not need to seek for a feeling. We should simply pray and pray-read several verses in a calm and ordinary way. We should do this every day, fellowshipping with the Lord all the time. We should refrain from anything that gives us unrest and do the things that make us feel peaceful and make the Lord happy. When there is a meeting, we should always attend. In the meetings, we do not have to be that excited; there is no need to stand up to shout or yell. If we have anything to say, we simply say it in a calm way. If we have any testimony to give, we share it in a quiet way. If we continue to live this kind of steady life, we will surely be a healthy Christian. We will enjoy the Father’s continual transfusing and dispensing of the life of His Son and His divine nature into us.
We have to realize that very few spiritual things are accomplished once for all. As with our physical life, most spiritual things must be repeated again and again. For example, we need to eat, drink, and breathe for our physical life every day; we cannot graduate from these things. However, we do not need to do these things excessively; we simply need to do them in small portions over a long period of time. Likewise, the calmer our Christian life is, the better it will be. Daily we should allow the Father to dispense His life and nature into us. This can be compared to electricity, which steadily flows bit by bit into the house. If too much comes in all at once, it will be dangerous. We must see first that whatever our God wants us to do, He does not want us to do it by our own striving, but by Him. Second, whatever God gives to us is not given all at once so that it becomes unbearable to us. Rather, it is given bit by bit. For this reason, we have to live a steady and normal Christian life. The less special and the more normal we are, the better.
The dispensing of God the Father is in His choosing us to be holy and predestinating us to have His sonship. The dispensing of God the Son is in His redeeming us so that we can be saved into Himself to be made God’s precious inheritance. The dispensing of God the Spirit is in His sealing us and being our enjoyment and foretaste. In this way, daily we receive the dispensing from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. As a result, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as the Divine Trinity becomes our divine dispensing, and we enjoy Him every day.
Finally, Ephesians 1 shows us that God’s surpassingly great power operated in Christ to resurrect Him from Hades, the grave, and death. This great power also caused Him to ascend to the heavens, seated Him on the throne, and made Him the Head over all things. All of this was accomplished by the surpassingly great power which God operated in Christ. Although this power operates in Christ, it is toward us. The term “toward us” conveys the sense of transmission. God has raised Christ from among the dead, seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, subjected all things under His feet, and made Him the Head over all things. All these accomplishments are “to the church.” All that God has accomplished in Christ has been transmitted to the church today. This transmission is a kind of continual dispensing. It can be compared to the transmission of electricity into a building. By such a transmission, the building and all of the electrical systems in the building “enjoy” the dispensing of the electricity.
Christ in us is like electricity. Every day He is transmitting, and this transmission is a dispensing. The result of this transmission, this dispensing, is that the church is produced. This church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Because Christ is so great, all-inclusive, all-extensive, and fills all in all, He needs a universal Body which is the church. By the dispensing of the Father, the dispensing of the Son, the dispensing of the Spirit, plus the all-surpassing transmission of Christ, God has transmitted Himself into us. The result is the producing of the church. The church is not an organization, nor is it merely a gathering of the believers. When we enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, and come together to transmit this dispensing to others, making it their enjoyment as well, that is the church.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Peaking Jaya, Malaysia on November 3, 1990)
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