CHAPTER ELEVEN

REALIZING GOD’S
DESIRE, PLAN, AND ECONOMY
AND EXPOSING SATAN’S EVIL INTENT, DECEPTION, AND CONFUSION

Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:15; Phil. 2:13; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:23; 3:19b; Rom. 15:16; John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 4:12; 1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5

OUTLINE

1. Realizing God’s desire, plan, and economy:
   1. God’s desire is to work Himself into man to be man’s life and everything—1 John 4:15; Phil. 2:13.
   2. God’s plan is for the men who have His life and who are joined to Him organically:
      1. To be the organic members of Christ the embodiment of the Triune God—Rom. 12:5.
      2. To be constituted the church as the organism of this Triune God—Eph. 1:23.
      3. To be the Body of Christ as God’s fullness in Christ to express Him—Eph. 1:23; 3:19b.
   3. God’s economy is an arrangement whereby every one of the many members of Christ is God’s priest of the gospel—Rom. 15:16:
      1. Personally preaching the gospel to save sinners and to offer them to God as offerings—Rom. 15:16.
      2. Nourishing and cherishing the new believers, helping them to grow in the spiritual life, so that they would offer themselves up to God as living sacrifices—John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2; Rom. 12:1.
      3. Teaching and perfecting the saints for the work of the New Testament ministry in the building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:12.
      4. The perfected saints as prophets speaking for the Lord, supplying Christ, building the church, completing God’s New Testament economy, and fulfilling God’s eternal plan for the satisfaction of God’s desire in eternity—1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5.
   4. This is what God has shown us during the past four and a half years as the proper way for saints to meet and serve according to His ordination and the biblical revelation.
2. Exposing Satan’s evil intent, deception, and confusion:
   1. Satan’s evil intent is to frustrate God’s desire of working Himself into man to be man’s life and everything.
   2. Satan’s deception is:
      1. To kill the organic function of the members of Christ through religious service.
      2. To replace the church as the organism of the Triune God through religious organization.
      3. To counterfeit the Body of Christ as the fullness and expression of the Triune God through religious association.
   3. Satan’s confusion:
      1. Despising the function of every believer as a component of God’s priesthood of the gospel, by the gospel preaching of a few specially gifted ones.
      2. Denying the spiritual organic function of every believer in nourishing and caring for one another, by using a few clergy to shepherd and care for new believers.
      3. Replacing the work of each saint being perfected to perfect others unto the work of the New Testament ministry of the building up of the Body of Christ, by the teaching and edification of the professional teachers.
      4. Regarding prophesying and the speaking for the Lord as the exclusive gift of a few people, and not recognizing the fact that every believer can and should be a prophet speaking for the Lord.
   4. This is the crooked way that Satan has used throughout the ages to damage and confuse the God-ordained, proper way for saints to meet and to serve God.