At the end of Ephesians 2 Paul continued by showing us that the divine dispensing of God the Spirit enables both groups that compose the new man to have access in Him unto God the Father. This causes the Body as the new man to become the kingdom of the Triune God for His administration, the house of God for the dispensing of His love, and the dwelling place of God in the believers’ spirit for His rest (vv. 18-22).
In the previous sections, it was God the Father and God the Son coming to us. Beginning from 2:18, we have God the Spirit bringing us to have access unto God the Father for a continual receiving of the dispensing.
God has dispensed Himself to us so that we who were dead in sin could become God’s masterpiece, and so that we, the separated ones who were dogs and swine, could become the new man. Now, in the Spirit we have come unto the Father so that daily, moment by moment, we might receive from the Father as the source the continual dispensing. When we enter into Him, fellowship with Him, live before Him, and wait on Him, He gives Himself to us bit by bit as our grace. This bit by bit giving of Himself to us as grace is a continual and eternal dispensing.
Today we are before God. We have been made into a poem by God the Father, created into a new man by God the Son, and brought by God the Spirit unto the Father. There is no longer any separation between us and the Father. This is like a house which already has electricity installed in it. Electricity from the power station can now continually and steadily flow into the house. As we remain in the Father’s presence, He continually graces us. This means that continually and eternally we will enjoy His dispensing. It is in this continual dispensing that we all, even as Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Europeans, and Americans, are coordinated together and are built together. In such a situation, we become, first, God’s kingdom, where God exercises His administration. Second, we become a house, a household, of love in which God dispenses His love. Third, this kingdom and this house are God’s habitation for His rest. This is the church, and this is all accomplished through God’s dispensing.
Dear brothers and sisters, I believe that in these years God will complete His work. In His recovery, God wants us to come up to this standard. You and I, irrespective of our race or color, will not only be the same and love each other, but before the Father, and in this continual, eternal, stable, and steady dispensing, we will even be joined together and coordinated together. Today in the Lord’s recovery, we can see a little bit of this situation. We are receiving grace daily in this continual dispensing. The more we receive grace, the more we will be joined, coordinated, and even built together. Thus, we become on earth a kingdom for God to exercise His administration, a household in which He can dispense His love, and a dwelling place of God for His rest. This is Ephesians 2: the Father dispensing life to produce the masterpiece, the Son dispensing through His process of death and resurrection to produce the new man, and the Spirit bringing those who have received grace to come to the Father in one Body, living in God’s eternal dispensing. The result is that the church is built up on earth, and God’s eternal economy is fulfilled. This is what we hope to see.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Peaking Jaya, Malaysia on November 4, 1990)
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