«　WEEK 3　DAY 4　»

　　Eph. 3:16-19 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you…may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints…the breadth and length and height and depth…, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

　　If we would know the divine history that takes place within the human history, we first need to realize that the Triune God is eternal. For God to be eternal means that with Him there is no beginning. Within Himself, this eternal One made an economy. According to His economy, God wants to work Himself into man to be one with man, to be man’s life, life supply, and everything, and to have man as His expression. God’s intention in His economy is thus to have a corporate entity, composed of God and man, to be His expression for eternity. This divine history began with the eternal God and His economy. (Life-study of Joel, p. 34)

　　The history of God’s people on earth is actually the history of the working God energizing among His chosen people in the Old Testament and even the history of the operating God energizing in His redeemed people and having them energize themselves together with Him for the accomplishment of His eternal economy concerning Christ and His increase, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.

　　I hope that…we all will see and realize that our living, our daily walk, our schooling, our job, and our business must be a part of God’s history in His marvelous and excellent move on the earth today. To be a normal Christian, to be today’s overcomers, to answer the Lord’s present calling, and to meet the Lord's present need in His recovery, it is altogether not sufficient simply to be a so-called good brother or good sister, attending the church meetings regularly, behaving rightly, and living a life which is somewhat perfect in the eyes of men. We need to be one with God in His history, moving and energizing in His loving overcomers; that is, we need to be one with God in life, in living, and in our entire doing today on this earth! We need to write God’s today’s history! We need to march on as one with the energizing God! In Him! With Him! By Him! And for Him! We need to be vital, living, and active! We need to be today’s Joshuas and Calebs to take possession of the God-promised land for Christ that we may become His possession. We need to be today’s Ruths to turn to God’s economy, to enter into the land of Immanuel, and to marry ourselves to Christ that we may bring forth Christ to meet the need of men today. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 2-3)

　　God’s economy is to make Christ everything, to make Christ the centrality and the universality, for the producing of God’s increase, God’s enlargement, which is the church. The increase, the enlargement, of God is the fullness of God for His expression. The consummation of this fullness will be the New Jerusalem. If we consider the New Jerusalem as it is described in Revelation 21 and 22, we will see that the New Jerusalem is God’s eternal increase with Christ as the center and the circumference.

　　We may say that in eternity past God was a “bachelor,” meaning that He was alone without anyone to match Him. In eternity future, however, God will no longer be a bachelor but will have the New Jerusalem as His wife (Rev. 21:9-10). This wife will also be the tabernacle (Rev. 21:3). This wife, this tabernacle, is the increase of God. Thus, the New Jerusalem, the consummation of God’s selected people, is the enlargement of God. Christ is the centrality and universality of this enlargement. This is God’s economy. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 12-13)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Joshua, msg. 1; Life-study of Jeremiah, msg. 2