Prayer: Lord, we thank You for opening Your word to us. In Your word we have seen the light, we have been reproved, and we have also received the life supply. Your word is light, and it is Spirit and life. Now we look to You from the depth of our being once more. You have gathered us into Your precious name, that is, into Yourself. We believe that You are here with us. We are all before You and are gathered into You. Touch us so that we can also touch You. Gain us so that we can also gain You.
Lord, grant us again the living word, the fresh word, the high word, and the word of life and light. Bring us to the realm of heaven, so that we can walk with You and live with You. Lord, although the condition of each one of us is different, may You grant each one of us a special word through the same message. As long as we can have one word from You, we will be healed, supplied, enlightened, and encouraged. O Lord Jesus, feed us and give us to drink. Satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst. Touch the deepest part of our being. We give ourselves to You and desire to be immersed in You. Amen.
In the two previous chapters we have seen that God's economy is the processed Triune God dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity into the chosen, redeemed, and regenerated believers to be their life, that they may become the corporate expression of the Triune God. God's economy, God's plan, is His will and goal. God's dispensing, God's distributing, is the process and the means whereby He accomplishes His economy. For this reason, God's dispensing is for God's economy. From this chapter on, we will carefully study God's dispensing, that is, His means to accomplish His economy.
First, we must have a bird's-eye view and a general understanding of God's dispensing. Ephesians chapter one can be divided into three sections. These sections speak of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Verses 1-6 speak of the Father's choosing and predestination. Before the foundation of the world, God the Father chose us (v. 4). This is something that happened in eternity past. According to God's counsel and foreknowledge, He chose us before the foundation of the world.
God's choosing was not accomplished in time, but in eternity past. Before the foundation of the world, God chose us. Among millions of people, and even before we were born, God saw us and chose us. This is God's predestination. This means that we were marked out ahead of time. God marked us out beforehand and ordained us to receive the sonship (v. 5) that we may not only have life to become the sons of God, but also may have the position to inherit everything of God.