Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 6:17; John 15:4; Eph. 3:17a
Ⅰ
In His economy God wants His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people to be one with Him, be constituted with Him, live Him, express Him, move with Him, and represent Him—1 Cor. 6:17; John 15:4:
A
As God's chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people, we should be one with God—1 Cor. 6:17:
１
The basic principle of the Bible is that in His economy God is making Himself one with man and is making man one with Him—John 15:4.
２
God desires that the divine life and the human life be joined together to become one life that has one living—1 Cor. 6:17.
３
In the Bible to be one with God means to be mingled with God; biblical oneness with God is a oneness in which we enter into God and God enters into us—1:30; 2 Cor. 13:5; John 15:4.
４
God's intention is to tear us down and rebuild us with Himself as our life and nature so that we may be absolutely one with Him—2 Cor. 4:16; 5:17.
５
In 1 Corinthians 7 we see the principle of being absolutely one with the Lord in all circumstances, situations, and conditions; this chapter conveys the spirit of a person who loves the Lord, who cares for the Lord's interests on earth, who is absolutely for the Lord and one with the Lord, and who in every respect is obedient, submissive, and satisfied with God and the cir-cumstances arranged by Him—vv. 17, 24.
B
As God's chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people who are one with God, we need to be constituted with God—Eph. 3:17a; Col. 3:10-11:
１
God's economy is to dispense Himself into our being so that our being may be constituted with His being to be one constitution with His being—Eph. 3:17a; 4:4-6.
２
As the Divine Being, God infuses us with His elements, causing us to be the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead—2 Cor. 13:14.
３
God's economy is that we eat Christ and become constituted with Him— John 6:57.
４
If we enjoy the Lord as our nourishment, He will become the constituent of our being—vv. 32-33, 35, 51, 53-56.
５
In the divine life and by the working of the law of the divine life, God will be wrought into us, and we will be constituted with Him in His life and nature—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11, 29.
C
As God's chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people who are one with God and constituted with God, we should live God—Phil. 1:21a:
１
God's economy is to work Himself into us so that we may take Him as our life and life supply in order to live Him—John 11:25; 6:48, 57.
２
According to His economy, God's intention is to impart His element, His substance, and the ingredients of His nature into our being so that we may live Him—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.
３
Our daily life should actually be God Himself and thus be a life of con-stantly living God; to walk in a manner worthy of God is to live God, that is, to express God in our daily living—1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Cor. 10:31.
４
Today we are participating in the divine life and the divine nature so that we can live God in our humanity—Gal. 2:20.
D
As God's chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people who are one with God, who are constituted with God, and who live God, we should express God—Gen. 1:26; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; Col. 3:10:
１
God's eternal purpose is to work Himself into us as our life so that we may express Him—Eph. 1:11; 3:11; 2 Tim. 1:9.
２
God created man in His image and according to His likeness with the goal that man would be God's duplication for His expression—Gen. 1:26.
３
God's intention in His economy is to dispense Himself into us as our life and nature, making us the same as He is in life and nature to express Him— Eph. 3:16-21.
４
The human virtues that are produced in us through our eating, drinking, digesting, and assimilating God with His attributes become the expression of God—4:1-3.
５
God's aim in His economy is that we would be one with Him and live Him for His corporate expression—1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:21a; Eph. 1:22-23.
E
As God's chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people who are one with God, who are constituted with God, who live God, and who express God, we should move with God—Josh. 1:1-9; 6:1-16:
１
When the lover and seeker of the Lord reached the stage of becoming a pillar of smoke, she was spiritual, steady, and unshakable and thus was qualified to move with God—S. S. 3:6.
２
The great wheel in Ezekiel 1:15-21 is not only the economy of God but also the move of the economy of God.
３
God needed the children of Israel to cooperate with Him in His move in His economy as the great wheel—Josh. 1:1-9; 6:1-16.
４
We need to be one with God in His heart's desire and in His move on earth—Eph. 1:5, 9; Rev. 14:1-4.
F
As God's chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people who are one with God, who are constituted with God, who live God, who express God, and who move with God, we should represent God—Gen. 1:26-28:
１
God gave man dominion over all things so that man might represent Him—v. 28.
２
In order to represent God with authority, we must express God in life; because Aaron had the resurrection life to express God, he had the authority to represent God—v. 26; 2:9; Num. 17:1-8.
３
The proper way to work for God is to represent God—Exo. 7:1-2.
４
As God's representatives, we do not speak our own words or carry out our own work, for we are simply the bush, and the Lord is the fire burning within the bush—John 5:19, 30; 7:17-18; 8:28; 12:49-50; Exo. 3:2-4.
Ⅱ
As God's chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people who are one with God, who are constituted with God, who live God, who express God, who move with God, and who represent God, we may function as the acting God:
A
God is able to make us the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and func-tion to carry out His economy—Col. 3:4; 2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 3:9.
B
In the maturity of Christ's life, as portrayed in Song of Songs, the overcomers become the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function but not in the Godhead—S. S. 6:13; 7:11-12.
C
God created man according to His kind with the intention that man would become His reproduction and duplication, expressing God and representing God—Gen. 1:26.
D
"Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made you God to Pharaoh"—Exo. 7:1a:
１
In Moses God had one to represent Him and to execute His will; Moses never spoke to Pharaoh on his own but always spoke what the Lord had told him to say—3:16-18; 5:1.
２
Actually Pharaoh was not listening to Moses, God's ambassador, and dealing with him; he was listening to God and dealing with God.
E
Samuel was the representative of God to rule over His people on earth; as such, Samuel was the acting God—1 Sam. 1:11; 2:35; 7:3; 8:22:
１
Samuel could be the acting God because his being and God's heart were one—2:35:
ａ
He was a man according to God's heart; that is, he was a copy, a dupli-cate of God's heart.
ｂ
God's mind was in Samuel's consideration; he had no other thought or consideration.
ｃ
Samuel's living and working were for the carrying out of whatever was in God's heart.
２
Samuel was God's oracle and God's administration, and thus he was the acting God.
F
In his ministry Elisha the prophet, as the man of God, behaved himself as God's representative, as the acting God; today we, the believers in Christ, can be the same—2 Kings 4:9; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:17.
G
In his ministry Paul was the acting God in comforting the believers, in con-ducting himself in the simplicity of God, in expressing the jealousy of God, and in being an ambassador of Christ to carry out the ministry of reconciliation— 2 Cor. 1:3-4, 12; 11:2; 5:20.
Ⅲ
As God's chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people who are one with God, who are constituted with God, who live God, who express God, who move with God, who represent God, and who function as the acting God, we minister the building and builded God for the intrinsic constitution of the building of God:
A
The ministers of the new covenant are one with their ministry; this means that the ministers are the ministry—4:1:
１
Their ministry is what they are, not merely what they do or the work they accomplish.
２
The inner being of the ministers of the new covenant is their ministry; their ministry is what they are.
３
What counts in the new covenant ministry is what the ministers of the new covenant are in their being and in their living—2:14-17; 3:5-6; 4:1-2, 5-6.
B
The intrinsic element of our work is that we minister the building and builded God into others for the building up of the Body of Christ—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 3:17a; 4:4, 12, 16:
１
The goal of our work should be to minister the building and builded God into others; this is the crucial matter in our work in the Lord's recovery— 2:21-22.
２
We should reconsider the work we are doing for the Lord and ask how much of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has been wrought into those whom we have brought to the Lord—Col. 2:9; 1:28; Gal. 4:19.
３
We need to pray that the Lord will teach us to work in the way of minister-ing the processed and consummated Triune God into others—2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 3:9-10, 12.
４
As we endeavor to carry out the God-ordained way in the four steps of begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building, our work must be based upon the processed and consummated Triune God, who is building Himself into His redeemed people and building them into Him.
C
The intrinsic constitution of the building of God is the processed and consum-mated Triune God mingled with and built into His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed tripartite elect—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:17a; 2:21-22.
D
Christ is building Himself into us as our inward constitution; the issue of this building is that we become a particular class of people—the members of the Body of Christ—Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 5:30.
E
The building of God is the Triune God wrought into us and mingled with us so that under His continual dispensing we become His corporate expression— the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem—3:17a, 19b, 21; 4:4-6; Rev. 21:2.