The general subject of these messages is "The Economy and Dispensing of God." The words economy and dispensing are somewhat unfamiliar and even peculiar terms to some of us. According to the New Testament revelation, economy is a particular term used by God to unveil His eternal plan. In Greek this word is oikonomia, composed of two words, oikos and nomos. The word oikos means house, family, or household, and the word nomos means law. When we put the two words together, the result, oikonomia, means a household regulation, household government, or household administration. Within a household administration there are some plans and arrangements, and there is the exercise of some kind of skill for the dispensing of the riches of the household to the family members.
The word dispensing carries the denotation of distributing. In a love feast we may have an abundance of food, but there is the need for some "dispensers" to distribute the food to everyone. This distributing of food is the dispensing of food. Furthermore, when the food gets into us, it begins to dispense itself within us. Our digestion of the food is our cooperation with the dispensing of the food. After digestion, there is also the process of assimilation, through which we assimilate what has been received through digestion. This is a further cooperation with the dispensing of the food. In this way, the food will be in us, and everything we have eaten will become part of us. This is the denotation and the connotation of the word dispensing.
The entire economy of God, and especially that in the New Testament age, is a matter of dispensing. I do not say that it is a matter of dispensation. The word dispensation conveys a different notion. I like to use the word dispensing as a noun in expressions such as God's dispensing or the divine dispensing. In the New Testament, God is carrying out His economy, His household administration, which He made in eternity past, before the foundation of the world. God's intention in His economy, His household government, is just to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—into His chosen people.
Many matters are covered in the New Testament, but if we dive into the depth of the New Testament as the divine revelation, we will see that God surely has an economy, a household administration, to carry out His eternal purpose. This economy is just God's universal operation. If you would ask me what God is doing today, I would answer that God is operating in one thing and for one thing: He is spending much time to patiently dispense Himself into all His chosen people. Everything that is mentioned in the New Testament concerning God has to do with His dispensing for His economy.