«　WEEK 4　DAY 1　»

　　Acts 13:22 …He raised up David for them as king…and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to My heart, who will do all My will.

　　36 Now David, having served his own generation by the counsel of God…

　　1 Kings 8:17 And it was on David my father’s heart to build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.

　　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 by the counsel of God (Acts 13:22, 36). In the New Testament, God’s heart and will in His economy are revealed in the books of Ephesians, Hebrews, and Romans. Ephesians speaks of God’s will (1:5, 9), the counsel of God’s will (v. 11), God’s good pleasure, the desire of God’s heart (v. 9), the mystery of God’s will (v. 9), and the economy 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. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” p. 273)

　　Ephesians 3:11 speaks of the purpose of the ages, …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.

　　God’s heart and will in His New Testament economy, God’s good pleasure, the counsel of His will, and His purpose are 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).

　　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…. We all are here as a part of [Christ’s] enlargement. Therefore, we are a part of Christ’s expression. This is God’s great will.

　　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 (vv. 9-10)….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. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” pp. 273-275)

　　Each chapter of the book of Ephesians unveils the mystery of the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God from a particular point of view. Chapter 1 shows us that the Body of Christ is the issue of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Chapter 2 shows us that this Body is a masterpiece as the new man. In chapter 3 Paul unveils that we are supplied with the riches of Christ to be the fullness of the Triune God. In chapter 4 is the one Body built up by the one ministry…. [Chapter 5] reveals the children of light for the preparation of the bride of Christ. The children of light and the bride of Christ are the two crucial matters in Ephesians 5. To be the children of light who walk in love and light is to be prepared to participate in the bride of Christ. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 3, “The Body of Christ,” p. 412)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “The Divine Economy,” ch. 1; Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msg. 12