First Timothy 1:4 speaks of "God's dispensation [economy] which is in faith." God's New Testament economy is altogether in faith. The divine facts in God's economy are great and real, but they require our faith. God has accomplished everything necessary for the dispensing of the divine Trinity into His chosen people. The only requirement now is that we exercise our faith to enjoy this dispensing. The dispensing of the divine Trinity may be illustrated by the flow of water in the water pipes in our homes. The water is always there, but how much the water flows depends on how much we turn on the faucets. The dispensing of the divine Trinity is a fact and a reality, but we must exercise our faith to say "amen" to this fact. We need to "turn on the faucet" by saying "amen" to the divine fact and enjoying the divine dispensing.
God's New Testament economy is by faith, not by appearance, and this faith is based upon the divine facts that have been accomplished. However, many of the facts in the Bible are not presented in a plain and simple way, and there are many items, especially in the New Testament, that are difficult to explain. As a result, many times we do not stand with the divine facts but prefer to exercise our feeling and natural concepts. Nevertheless, what we preach as the glad tidings, the good news, is that God has accomplished everything needed for His economy. In the Gospels the Lord said, "All things are ready; come to the marriage feast" (Matt. 22:4; Luke 14:17). The feast of God's economy is already "cooked." We should simply come and enjoy it.
God has accomplished everything for His economy, and we have God's accomplishment. In the book of Revelation, John speaks in the past tense. This indicates that in God's eyes everything has been done. We also have the Bible. God has recorded what He has accomplished in a book. Moreover, this book is a covenant and a testament. A covenant is an agreement with some promises to accomplish certain things for the covenanted people, while a testament is a will with certain accomplished things bequeathed to the inheritor. Every page of the Bible is an item of the bequeathed inheritance. A testament is a contract of bequeathed items, not of requirements for us to accomplish. It is a statement that tells us that whatever is written within it has been accomplished and is ours. Therefore, we have to take what is in it and receive it by faith.
The first main item in the New Testament is that God was incarnated. Secondly, He lived a human life on the earth. Then He went to the cross and died an all-inclusive death as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), the brass serpent (John 3:14), and the grain of wheat (John 12:24). When He accomplished such an all-inclusive death, He solved the problem of our sins, sin, the flesh, the old man, and our worldliness, and He terminated Satan and death (Heb. 2:14). Then He resurrected and ascended. After He accomplished all these things, He recorded what He had accomplished in His testament and passed this testament on to us. Many readers of the Bible think that they must accomplish what is written in it. However, we do not need to do anything. Everything has been done already; it is finished. However, we may not have this realization. The Lord's ministry today is not teaching the saints something we need to carry out. It is showing us that all the things that have been accomplished and consummated by God are ours. We should simply see the facts, take them, stand with them, and praise the Lord. We must believe that we have been filled with the Spirit within and without. We must also believe that we have the authority of Christ. When we go out to visit people for the gospel by knocking on their doors, we should not tremble. We should not expect some outward evidence or experience to prove that we have Christ's authority. If we question whether or not we have the authority of Christ, this indicates that we do not have the habit of faith.