Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Mark 4:11-20, 26-27; 1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 3:6

Ⅰ　

The intrinsic element of the entire teaching of God's eternal economy is that the Triune God in humanity, the wonderful Christ as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the seed of life, the seed of David, is sown into God's chosen people so that He might grow in them, live in them, develop in them, and be expressed from within them as the farm of God for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God— 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 16:18; Mark 4:11-20, 26-27; 1 Cor. 3:9; cf. Lev. 19:19; Deut. 22:9:

A　

The intrinsic element of the new covenant is the Triune God in humanity, the glorified God-man as the life-giving Spirit, the seed of life, ministered into God's chosen and redeemed people—Mark 4:3; Acts 6:4; 2 Cor. 3:6; Rev. 14:4.

B　

Christ's humanity through His incarnation became a shell to conceal the fire of His divine life with the glory of His divinity—John 12:23-24, 31-32.

C　

His physical death released the fire of His divine life to become the impulse of His believers' spiritual life in resurrection; the resurrecting Triune God as the sevenfold intensified Spirit indwells the believers as their divine and mystical fire to purify them, supply them, and be their indwelling fuel for the carrying out of God's economy to propagate Christ as the seed of life—Luke 12:49-50; Rev. 4:5; 5:6; Exo. 3:2, 14-15; Zech. 3:9; 4:10; 2 Chron. 16:9a; cf. Gen. 17:1.

Ⅱ　

The wonderful Christ is the seed of David for God's dispensing of Himself into the believers of Christ for the fulfillment of His economy:

A　

As the seed of David, the offspring of David, Christ is the branching out of Jehovah, the Shoot of Jehovah, a new development of Jehovah God for the Triune God to branch Himself out in His divinity into humanity; the branching out of Jehovah is altogether a matter of the Spirit—Isa. 4:2; 11:1-2; Gal. 5:25; 6:17-18; Phil. 1:19-21a; Eph. 4:1-4.

B　

The resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is God's sure mercies, of which Christ is the center and reality, shown to David through his descendant Mary, the mother of Christ (Matt. 1:16), for the dispensing of God Himself into all the believers of Christ in His resurrection—Acts 13:32-35; Isa. 55:3-4.

C　

The sure mercies shown to David are Christ as the life-giving Spirit to be our spiritual drink, our spiritual food, our heavenly rain, and our heavenly snow so that we may be His drinkers, eaters, and sowers—vv. 1-13.

D　

The evil condition of the wicked is that they do not come to the Lord to eat and enjoy the Lord; they do many things, but they do not contact the Lord to take Him, to receive Him, to taste Him, and to enjoy Him; in the sight of God noth-ing is more evil than this—v. 7; 57:20.

E　

The resurrected Christ as the seed of David is the Prince, the King, in His humanity so that we may share His kingship and reign in the divine life for God's administration by receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Acts 5:30-31; Rev. 17:14; Rom. 5:17.

Ⅲ　

For the growth of the seed of life within us, we need to have a fresh, up-to-date, daily consecration to Him of our human spirit, our human heart, and our mortal body so that the divine seed of life can grow in us with the full supply of all the human nutrients of our inner being for Christ to be magnified in our mortal body and for us to be swallowed up by life for the building up of Christ's Body—Matt. 5:3, 8; Prov. 4:23; 20:9; 22:11; Phil. 1:20; Col. 2:19:

A　

We need to take time to absorb God so that we may grow with the growth of God for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God—v. 19; Isa. 50:4-5; Mark 1:35; cf. Luke 8:13.

B　

Those who serve the Lord must see that their service must originate from God:

１　

"Whoever cannot stop working for the sake of God cannot work for the sake of God"—M. E. Barber.

２　

Although David had the opportunity, saw the need, and had the ability to build the temple of God, he stopped when God's word came to him—2 Sam. 7:18, 25, 27; cf. Luke 1:38.

３　

David's stopping established a twofold testimony in the universe: first, all the work in this universe should come from God, not from man; second, all that matters is what God does for man, not what man does for God— Rom. 11:36; cf. Num. 18:1.

４　

The builder of the temple and the site of the temple both came out of David's being forgiven of his sins, out of what God did for David—2 Sam. 12:24-25; 24:1-10, 18-25; 1 Chron. 21:18; 2 Chron. 3:1; Psa. 51.

５　

We need to let God speak to us, command us, and then we need to cooperate with Him because we fear Him and love Him—Exo. 21:1-6; Psa. 86:11; 1 Cor. 2:9.

C　

We must be strengthened into our spirit so that we worship God in and with our spirit and with Christ as our truthfulness for Christ to make His home in our heart—Eph. 3:16-19; John 4:23-24.

D　

Our heart needs to be established blameless in holiness; we need to ask the Lord to direct our heart into the love of God and into the endurance of Christ; and we need to deal with our heart so that it may be the good earth in which Christ can grow in an unhindered way—1 Thes. 3:13; 2 Thes. 3:5; Matt. 13:8.

E　

We need to forgive others from our heart by the indwelling Christ as our forgiving life, allowing Him to rule in us for the reality of the kingdom, and to forgive others from our heart by the indwelling Christ as our arbitrating peace, allowing Him to preside in us for the one new man; we need to release others by forgiving them so that we may be released to be forgiven by God for the freedom of the growth of the seed of God in us—6:15; 18:35; Col. 3:12-15; Luke 6:37.

F　

We need to give our material possessions in secret for the sowing and spread-ing of the seed of life, giving our material supply to the church of God, to the needy saints of God, to the full-time servants of God, and to the poor people in the love of God and with the kindness of God for the gospel of God—v. 38; 1 Cor. 16:1-2; Matt. 6:1-4, 19-21; 19:21; Acts 11:29; Rom. 15:26; Phil. 4:16-17.

G　

We need to sow the seed of life as the word of God by preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God to the whole inhabited earth, both to the unbelievers for their conversion to Christ and to the believers for their growth in Christ; this is the sowing, planting, and watering of the seed of life by announcing the unsearch-able riches of Christ as the gospel and by prophesying for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God—Matt. 24:14; Rom. 1:1; Eph. 3:8; 1 Cor. 3:6; 14:4b, 31.