In the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, by the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, that is, by the infusing and transfusing of the riches of the processed Triune God, the believers serve and worship God, work and labor for the Lord, do not love the world, overcome Satan the devil, fight the good fight, and run the course of the race. It is possible for us to teach and endeavor to practice these matters without touching the source of the strength, energy, and capability to carry them out. The source is the enjoyment of the dispensing of the processed Triune God into our being. For this reason, we need to contact the Divine Trinity. We need to stay in His presence, fellowship with Him, and even pray with fasting in order to receive more dispensing of the divine essence.
Serving and worshipping God, working and laboring for the Lord, not loving the world, overcoming Satan, fighting the good fight, and running the course of the race all belong to one category of the believers’ experience of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. In this lesson we come to a second category—being profited by all things in our circumstances and environments. Day by day we encounter many environments and face many persons, matters, and things. According to God’s design and arrangement, all these persons, matters, and things are used by Him for our good. Therefore, we are profited by all things in our circumstances and environments.
Romans 8:28 says, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” All things refers to all matters, persons, and things. Our Father knows what we need. In His sovereignty He causes all things, all matters, and all persons to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who have been called by Him to the end that He may fulfill His purpose.
The believers have been called by God according to His purpose. God’s purpose is His plan, and His plan is that we be conformed to the image of His Son so that He would be the Firstborn among many brothers (v. 29). God has put us into Christ, who is the prototype, the model, the mold, and the pattern, so that we may be molded into the image of God’s firstborn Son. In this way, we become the mass production of God’s firstborn Son. This is our destiny. However, this destiny cannot be fulfilled without the divine arrangement causing all things to work together for our good. We are not yet fully in the image of the firstborn Son of God. Hence, God the Father is causing all things to work together for our good so that His purpose of having many sons conformed to the image of the firstborn Son may be fulfilled.
In order to be brought into full sonship we need to grow. No doubt, growth comes from inward nourishment, but this nourishment needs the coordination of the outward environment. Hence, there is the need of God’s sovereignty to arrange our environment so that all things may work together for our good according to His purpose. However, we still need to cooperate with Him by loving Him. If we do not love God, all things will not work together for our good, even though we have been called by Him. Whether or not all persons, matters, and things in our environment work to our good depends on whether or not we love God. If we love Him, He will cause all things to work together for our good.