In this chapter we would like to fellowship concerning the living of a life according to God’s heart and will. The Old Testament contains a portrait of David, a man according to God’s heart, who did the will of God and served his own generation according to the counsel of God (Acts 13:22, 36). In the New Testament, God’s heart and will in His economy is revealed in the books of Ephesians, Hebrews, and Romans. Ephesians speaks of God’s will (1:5, 9), the counsel of God’s will (1:11), God’s good pleasure, the desire of God’s heart (1:9), the mystery of God’s will (1:9), and the dispensation of the mystery (3:9). Paul nearly exhausted his vocabulary in speaking of God’s will. God’s will is something according to God’s good pleasure, and this good pleasure was what He purposed. The good pleasure of God was purposed by God in Himself.
Ephesians 3:11 speaks of “the purpose of the ages.” The phrase “of the ages” denotes something eternal. The purpose of the ages is the eternal purpose. Before the ages was the purpose in eternity past, and after the ages will be the purpose in eternity future. The purpose of the ages is the purpose of all time, including eternity past and eternity future. The purpose of God made by Him in Christ is such an eternal purpose, and this is according to the counsel of God’s will. Moreover, God’s will is according to the good pleasure of His heart. This is revealed in Ephesians 1:9-11 and 3:9-11.
Christians often want to know God’s will. We may want to know what God’s will is concerning our job, our place of living, or our marriage. What we seek is just God’s will in a small sense. We may think that marriage is a great matter, but compared to God’s will in the divine revelation it is a small thing. Some may seek to know whether it is the Lord’s will to buy a certain pair of shoes in the morning or in the afternoon. Such a person may appear to be a godly person, seeking God’s will in every detail of his daily life. However, whether one buys a pair of shoes in the morning or in the afternoon is only God’s will in a small sense. Ephesians 1 and 3 reveal God’s great will, the counsel of His will, something according to God’s heart’s desire and His good pleasure which was purposed and planned in God Himself. This is the purpose of eternity, which was purposed in eternity past and will be completed for eternity future.
God’s heart and will in His New Testament economy, God’s good pleasure, the counsel of His will, and His purpose, is to have a Body for the enlargement and expression of Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God (Eph. 1:9-11, 22-23; 3:9-11). A person’s body is his enlargement. The church as the Body of Christ is the enlargement of Christ, and this enlargement of Christ is Christ’s expression. As a man I am fully expressed through my body; you may know me through my body. By only seeing my head without my body you cannot know what kind of man I am. When I speak, my body is acting and moving, and I am fully expressed. Sometimes I can recognize a brother simply by looking at him from the back. By looking at the way he walks and moves, I can know who he is. One’s body is his enlargement, and this enlargement is his expression.
God’s great will is firstly to have a Body for Christ’s enlargement and expression. God created the heavens and the earth with many items, and eventually He created mankind in order to have a Body composed of human beings who are saved, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, and transformed into the image of the processed Triune God. God wants to have such a Body for Christ, who is the very embodiment of the processed Triune God. The processed Triune God is embodied in Christ, and this Christ today needs a Body for His enlargement and His expression. We all are here as a part of this enlargement. Therefore, we are a part of Christ’s expression. This is God’s great will. Through this Body, God makes known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, according to the purpose of the ages made in Christ, according to the counsel of His will (1:9, 11; 3:11). There is no mystery in whether one should buy a pair of shoes in the morning or in the afternoon. The divine will is something that has a mystery.
God’s heart and will is also to have a church to be the organic Body of Christ for the manifestation of His multifarious wisdom (3:9-10). Today the church as the Body of Christ is an organism to make God’s multifarious wisdom known to all men. This is what God wants to have according to His eternal will. God created the heavens for the earth, and He created the earth for man’s existence. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, man is for the producing of the church, and the church is the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God. This is God’s will. Whether we live in one place or another does not matter much. We do not need to pray much for that. Instead, we should focus our entire being on God’s will to have the church, which is the Body of the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Through this church the processed Triune God is enlarged and expressed. This is the first aspect of God’s will.