The Law and Grace of God in His Economy

in God's economy, there is the age of law and the age of grace. right now we are in the age of grace, because God in Christ has come to us to be grace to us. like John 1:17 said "grace and reality came through Jesus Christ". but we need to know why there is the age of law, if the original intention of God is to be grace to us. 

like the apostle Paul mentioned, law was added about 400 years later. the fact that the law was added shows us that law is not the original intention of God. but the law was added because of the transgression of the people. furthermore, there is also some other reason for necesariness of the law. this is also mentioned by the apostle Paul, who referred to the law as the child conductor, the custodian of God's people.

we need to come to see the covenants God made with His people. in Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham, which was according to God's original intention. but then in Exodus, on Mount Sinai, God made another covenant through Moses with His people, by giving the law. This was referred to in the book of Hebrews as the first covenant. then Jeremiah chapter 31 told us about the new covenant, which is mentioned by Paul in Hebrew as the better covenant. 

the purpose of God giving the law is, on the positive side, that He would give the law as a portrait of Himself, to show His people what kind of God He is. for example, God is love, God is full of compassions, and God is light, etc. so through the law, we can understand the virtues of our God. also, on the negative side, God wants to expose man his poor and sinful condition that man in themselves can never reach and fulfill God's requirements. Also, through the law, sin, sins, and tresgressions can be manifest. God shut all His people under the custody of law, until Christ comes as grace, and then the law can lead us to Christ, who is grace. 

Christ, as the embodiment of the Triune God, is grace to us. but in order for Him to be grace to us, there has to be process for Him to pass. John 1:1 tells us that in the beginning was the Word. then in John 1:14, this Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. God the Father, embodied in the Son, became a man, Jesus. Jesus went through human livings for 33 and a half years. After death and resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:45 tells us that He became the life-giving Spirit, which means He now is able to breathe Himself into the disciples, as He did in John 20. now this One is our bread of life, living water of life, and also our breath of life. eating, drinking and breathing are the three basic and crucial matter for us human being to exist. in the same principle, for our spiritual living, we also need to eat the bread of life, to drink the living water of life, and to breathe in the breath of life. for our Christian life, we need to experience and enjoy Christ as our grace, our life and life supply. 

as the believers, we all experience Christ as grace individually, but our individual experience is for the corporate Body of Christ, as the organism of the Triune God, which will ultimately consummate as the New Jerusalem, the holy city of God, the masterpiece of God. 

The Heavenly Vision

1. the vision of Christ

if we look at the apostle Paul in the New Testament, he both served God before and after he was saved. but the two kinds of service Paul did were so different. before he was knocked down by the great light on the way to Damascus, he was serving God in his own way, and he was super zealous for his religion. then he was knocked down and could not see for three days. after his salvation, he was still serving God but in a spiritual way and according to revelation. Paul's example showed us the importance of seeing the vision. the vision is something that, once we see, we will never be able to forget about. and this vision will govern and control our living. 

we need to see that:

a. Christ is the center of God's eternal plan

b. Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God.

Colossians  2:9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,

c. Christ must have the first place in everything

Colossians  1:18 And He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things;

d. Christ must be the essence of our daily walk

e. Christ is the reality of our service 

f. Christ is the expression of the church life

2. the vision of the church

we need to have a clear vision of the church with its proper ground for the believers to have the practice and practicality of the church life. 

in the Old Testament time, God chose Jerusame as the unique place of worship, and charged all the males to come to Jerusalem three times a year for worshipping God. now, in the New Testament time, in this age of the church, we the believers need to meet on the proper ground of the church to worship God. Looking at the early church life in the book of Acts, there was the church in Jerusalem, the church in Antioch, etc. this gives us the pattern that the church should have the city as its limit and boundary. the church takes the city where the believers are as its ground, no smaller than a city, e.g. a street; no larger than a city, e.g. a nation or a country. 

3. the vision of the Body

the difference between the vision of the church and the vision of the Body is that, the vision of the church is mainly related to the proper ground, while the vision of the Body requires us to realise that we are members of the Body and we need to be built up with one another. we not only need to practice the church life on the proper ground, but also we need to be built into the building up of the Body. if we are not built into the building, we may be a very nice and good material. once we get built up, we need to be cut in order to be fit in. after we are cut to be fit for the building, we are no longer good for anything else, which means that we have been "wrecked" for the building. this requires us to pay the price, and we need the vision of the Body to sustain us to make us willing to pay the price. 

the greatest hindrance for us to see the vision of the Body is the self. the self opposes the Body and is not allowed in the Body. 

4. the vision of the self

where does the self come from? when God created man, the soul was an organ to submit to and carry out the order of the spirit. but in the garden of Eden, when the serpent was talking with Eve, he injected his thoughts into the mind of Eve. when Satan injected his thoughts and ideas into our mind, the soul gets contanminared and becomes the self. the self is the embodiment of Satan, and the self is independent of God. we are created to rely and depend on God for everything. but the self declares indepedence of God. therefore, the self is the greatest problem in the building up of the Body of Christ, because the self wants to be independent of God and of the Body. we need to be aware of this. 

5. the vision of the world

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him;

what is the world? after man was created by God, man needed certain things to maintain his existence, such as food, drink, clothing, housing, etc. these things are necessary for man's existence, though they are earthly things, yet not worldly things. however, becasue of what Satan has been doing through out the ages, these necessary earthly things have been used by Satan to develop into a whole system to occupy and even to bring people into slavery, which the Bible calls "the world". Satan has been using the necessities to fully occupy man, so that man will have no time, no energy, no capacity for the things of God. 

through the influecen of education, culture, or tradition, we have become so complicated, and we put our enitre being on these things. if we see what the world is, and if we see that the world is enmity against God, we can have a way to be delivered from this whole system, to become simplefor the maintenance of our existence. then we will be living not for the world, but for God

6. the vision of consecration

in Acts 1, there were about 120 in the upper room, praying for 10 days, and then there was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. this gives us the picture of a special consecration, a specific consecration, which offered the way for the Lord to move, to turn the dispensation. these 120 left all other things in order to be the burnt offering to God. today there is also such a need. the Lord needs such a group of people who are willing to pay the price, to have a definite and specific consecration, to come into the upper room, so that the Lord will have the way to accomplish His will. this is not an easy matter. this is not a small price to pay. you may need to leave your relatives, your families, your friends, everything you have on this earth. but the reward is great. you will be counted in the upper room, be counted in the army of God.

The Heavenly Vision (English Edition) Lee, Witness Living Stream Ministry

 

A Gederal Outline of God's Economy and the Proper Living of a God-man

the entire Bible is a book focusing on the economy of God. epsecially the New Testament in particular is focused on the consummation of God's economy. from the Bible, we can see the two creation of God: the old creation, and the new creation. in His original creation, God first created the heavens and the earth, with the angels. but Lucifer rebelled God, with one thrid of the angels, so he became Satan, God's adversary. after this rebellion, God came to restore the creation, and then created man, with the view that this man would defeat Satan. God presented Himself to the created man in the form of the tree of life. but Satan came into man first, and caused man to become fallen and corrupted. as a result, God incarmated to become a man, bringing tree of life to man. this Jesus, as the God-man is the union of man with the life of God. Jesus lived a human life for 33.5 years, and then died on the cross to accomplish redemption. not only redemption, the Lord also terminated the entire old creation on the cross, and generated the new creation in His resurrection. today, as God' people, we are the new creation. after resurrection, in His ascension, He entered into His heavenly ministry. He poured out Himself as the life-giving Spirit, ready to enter into us and to work in us. as this Spirit, He is sanctifying, renewing, transforming and conforming us, according to the image of the Fristborn Son of God, so that as His people, we will become the many brothers, even as He is. this is how the Body of Christ is being built up, and the consummation will be the New Jerusalem. 

God's economy is according to the council of the Divine Trinity. God the Father is the One who plans, God the Son is the One who carries out and accomplishes, and God the Spirit is the One who applies everything to God's people. the application of God's economy is hinged on the Spirit. this Spirit is the processed and consummated Spirit. in Exodus chapter 30, there is the mentioning of the holy anointing oil, with one hin of olive oil, plus, flowing myrrh, calamus, cinnamon and cassia. this is a picture of the Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit. within this wonderful Spirit, there is the divinity of God, the humanity of Jesus, the death and its power, the resurrection and its power of Christ. all we need is included in this Spirit. Furthermore, the book of Revelation shows us that this all-inclusive Spirit, has become the Seven Spirits today, not seven separate spirits, but the sevenfold intensified Spirit, for the closing of this age, for the consummation of the New Jerusalem, God's ultimat goal. our need today, is to live and walking according to this Spirit, to enjoy and receive all that is contained in this Spirit, so our living will be according to God's economy, and well pleasing to God. 

this consummated Spirit is the essence and element of the Body of Christ. the Body of Christ was produced through the death and resurrection of Christ. Colossians 3:11 tells us that Christ is all and in all. Christ, who is the Spirit now, is the very essence of the Body, who also produced the Body in His resurrection. We, His believers, regenerated by Him, are also the Body, not our natural flesh or self, but the new creation. therefore, we also can say that, the reality of the Body of Christ is a group of people, who, as the new creation, live and walk in the new creation, as the reality of the corporate God-man. 

as such a God-man, we need to pay attention to a few practical points:

1. to know Christ and the power of His resurrection

Philippians 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

this verse shows us that, as a believer who pursure to live a life of the proper God-man, we need to pursue to know Him and the power of His resurrection, with the purpose that we will be conformed to the death of Christ. without being supplied first with His resurrection power, there is no way for us to be conformed to the death of Christ. without the resurrection life of Christ, there is no way for us to take or bear the cross in our daily life. 

2. to magnify Christ in our body through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ

Philippians 1:19 For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

Philippians 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.

our daily life should be such a life to magnify Christ in our body. but in our practical experience, why this is not happening? because we are not enjoying the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, which is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. this Spirit is all-inclusive, because all that we need has been included within this Spirit. if we do not enjoy this Spirit, we will not receive the bountiful supply, then how are we able to magnify Christ, if we are even not receiving what we need?

3. to live and walk according to the mingled spirit

the Spirit is dwelling in our spirit, this is why our spirit today is also the mingled spirit. if we are living and walking according to the mingled spirit, we are living and walking in the empowering Christ. then, like Paul said in Philippians 4:13, we can also say that we can do all things in the One who empowers us. 

4. to take Christ as the secret

Philippians 4:12 I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack.

Christ is the secret to all aspects in our daily life, and Christ the unique solution to all our problems. our biggest problem is that we have not learned the secret, which is to take Christ in all things, to apply Christ in everything. 

Romans 12:4 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function,

Romans 12:5 So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

in the 14 epistles of the apostle Paul, there is a connecting line, which is the Body of Christ. God's desire is to produce a Body for Christ, not an organization, but an orgnism. we are the many members of the Body of Christ. the Body is a matter of life and spirit. therefore, as the members of the Body, we all need be living and full of the Spirit. we need to grow in life, until we reach maturity. we also need to exercise the spirit, not just in the meetings, but also in our daily living, in what we speak, and what we do. 

A General Outline of God's Economy and the Proper Living of a God-Man (English Edition) Lee, Witness Living Stream Ministry

 

The Flesh and The Spirit

Genesis 2:7 Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

God created a physical body for man to contact the physical world and to recieven and contain the physical things, like food. God created man's body in a pure way, without sin or evil. but in Genesis chapter 3, we see that Satan, the evil one injected himself with all his evil elements into man, by causing man to partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The result is that man's body become corrupted and contamintated, and was transmuted into the flesh. 

Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves;

Romans  7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?

the Bible mentions the body as the body of sin, and the body of death. since it is written in the bible that the wages of sin is death, the issue of sin is death. Therefore, our body, which now has the element of sin, which is the devil himself within us, is the body of sin and the body of death. no matter how good, how kind, or how gentle our being is, our body, which has become the flesh, with all its evil lusts, is always with us, and can never be improved. we need to realise that our body is now just the flesh. our flesh is just the flesh, with no good dwells in the flesh. 

we may have a question. if the flesh is so evil and cannot be improved, then why does God not take away the flesh from us when we believe into Him? actually, God leaves the flesh with us for our good, becasue the flesh helps us and forces us to turn to the Lord, to call on His name, and to pray to Him in a desperate way. 

2 Timothy 4:22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

the bible tells us that the Lord Jesus is with our spirit. when we believe into the Lord, He entered into us as the Spirit, and He will never forsake or leave us. but the problem is that, though we have the knowledge that the Lord is with us, with our spirit, we always forget to apply Him. we have been too used to living in our flesh. through the Lord is in our spirit, He actually, is a kind of "stranger" to us in our daily life. Therefore, the Lord has to use our flesh as a reminder, to force us to turn to the One who is in our spirit, to force us to learn to apply Him in everything. God's intention is to work Himself in Christ into our beging, so He gives us such an ugly helper, the flesh, to help us to keep turning to our spirit all the time. this is not a matter of being good or bad, but a matter of gaining Christ. 

a very helpful illustration we can see in the Bible is Jacob, the son of Isaac. Jacob began as a heel holder, a supplanter. but his whole life was under the constant dealing of the Spirit, by means of every person, and every event happening in his life, to transform him into Israel, the prince of God. Jacob had a lot of mistakes and failures, but all these things helped him to turn to the Lord, to not have confidence in his flesh, but to learn to submit to and trust in God. at the end of his life, he could say that God was the One who shephered all his life. this shows us that, because of God's wisdom, the flesh still remains with us, to force us to turn to the Lord, so that through all these conversations and fellowship, we will be gaining more and more of God. 

the two steps taken by the Lord

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

the first step the Lord took was for Him to become flesh. the bible does not say He became a man, but says He became flesh. just as the Lord said in John 3:14, typified by the bronze serpent made by Mose in the wilderness, the Lord took the form of flesh, but He did not know sin, and He condemned sin in the flesh on the cross. 

the second step took by the Lord was that, in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit. when we believe into the Lord, this life-giving Spirit entered into our spirit, and dwells in our spirit. 

this Spirit who indwells our spirit has a purpose, which is shown in Ephesians 2:22, which says "In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit." so we, referring to all the believers, are being built together into God's habitation in spirit. how does this building happen? it is by our growth in life. and our growth in life is caused by our eating and drinking of Christ in our spirit. we grow in our physical life by having meals everyday. our spiritual growth is also the same. Christ is our spiritual food and drink. in John 6, the Lord said that His flesh is our food; in John 7, the Lord cried out for all those who are thirsty to come to Him and to drink. so this is our primary and urgend need, to eat and drink, of Christ. study doctrines cannot help us grow. outward religious practices cannot help us grow. eating and drinking is the way. when we grow, we are being built into the dwelling place of God in spirit. 

Eat the Lord

the Bible is a book of eating. how do we know? 

Genesis 2:16 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely,

in the book of Genesis, we can see, after creating Adam, God put him in the garden of Eden, and told Him to eat of every tree. in the middle of this garden, there was the tree of life. so God's desire is that man would eat, especially eat the tree of life. 

Exodus 12:6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole congregation of the assembly of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

Exodus 12:7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

Exodus 12:8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread with bitter herbs.

in the portion regarding the passover in Exdous, God told the Israle people to kill the lamb, to put the blood on the doorpost, and also, to eat the whole lamb. under the blood outside the house, the people were eating the lamb inside the house. 

Deutoronomy 15:19 All firstborn males that are brought forth in your herd and in your flock you shall sanctify to Jehovah your God; you shall not do work with your firstborn ox, nor shall you shear your firstborn sheep.

Deutoronomy 15:20 You and your household shall eat it before Jehovah your God year by year in the place which Jehovah will choose.

in the book of Deutoronomy, God told the people not to let the ox work, nor to shear the sheep, but shall eat before God. our human concept is always to work for God, to do something for God. but God's divine concept is different from us, which is not to work, but to eat. 

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.

even in the last book, the book of Revelation, God is still reminding His people the matter of eating. we have been redeemed, be brought back to the tree of life, to eat! eat! eat!

in chapter 15 of the book of Matthew, there was a Canaanite woman came to the Lord, ask Him to heal her daughter. what did the Lord say?

Matthew 15:25 But she came and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me!

Matthew 15:26 But He answered and said, It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.

Matthew 15:27 And she said, Yes, Lord, for even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.

Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you as you wish. And her daughter was healed from that hour.

the woman came with the view that the Lord needed to do something for her, but the Lord revealed to her that her need was to eat of the Lord. the bread is for eating, not for doing. most of the time when we pray to the Lord, we always ask, or even beg the Lord to do this or to do that. but in the Lord's view, all these problems in our life are just helping us to take more of the Lord into our being. we need to eat eat and eat!! 

in the Old Testament, there were the feasts when all the Israel people would come together to eat, drink and enjoy the rich produce in the good land, and when no one was allowed to labor or do any work during the feast. even in the New Testament, Paul mentioned in his epistle that we need to keep the feast. today, for us New Testament believers, the Lord's table meeting is our weekly feast. first, this is a declaration, a testimony of our daily life during the week, a life of feasting on Christ, eating and drinking Christ, a life of enjoying Christ day by day. second, this is also a time of refueling. when we come on the first day of the week, holding this feast with others, then we start our normal weekdays, going to school or going to work. the Christ, the enjoyment of Christ we received at the Lord's table meeting stirs us up to love the Lord, and to pursue the Lord. however, while we go through our ordinary human life, our fuel, our enjoyment may gradually wears out, going low. then another week starts, on the first day, we come to the feast to be fueled up again. so we have the fuel enough to run another week. 

concerning the matter of eating, there are two kinds, the eating in sowing, and the eating in harvesting. 

1. the eating in sowing: when you sow the seeds, all you do is just to bury the seeds into the earth, not much labor. this typifies our initial enjoyment of Christ. when we call on the name of the Lord, read the Bible, pray a bit, we will have the enjoyment of Christ, and Christ also sows Himself into us. but this enjoyment is only initial and not that deep. 

2. the eating in harvest: if you want to have a harvest, you need to labor much, much more than just putting the seeds into the earth. you need to weed, need to water, need to watch over day by day. without such labor, the seeds will not grow into the harvest. in our Christian life, we also need to let the divine life grow within us. this requirs our labouring. for example, when we are reading the word, the Lord may shine on us concerning certain matter which requies us to confess. if we are willing to obey and confess, we are laboring, and we let the life grow a bit more. why do we not have the eating in harvest? the problem is that most of the time, we will not cooperate with the Lord, will not let the seeds to grow, the result of which is that we will not have any harvest, and we even lose the seeds we have sown into the earth. 

Eating the Lord (English Edition) Lee, Witness Living Stream Ministry

 

A God Who Hides Himself

Isaiah 45:15 Surely You are a God who hides Himself, / O God of Israel, the Savior.

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

God is the greatest mystery of this universe, because no one has even seen God. God is the great Creator, who stretched forth the heavens, who laid the foundation of the earth. But this God seems not interested to publicly declare the wonderful things He did. rather, it seems that He would rather hide Himself and conceal Himself. this is very contradictory to what we human beings like to do. if I has done something I think pretty good, cool or great, I will immediately put on all my social media, instagram story, of course, to let everybody know, and make sure that everybody will see. 

Isaiah 53:2 For He grew up like a tender plant before Him, / And like a root out of dry ground. / He has no attracting form nor majesty that we should look upon Him, / Nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him.

even when God incarnated to come to the earth in the man Jesus, He also hid Himself within this man. the Bible says Jesus had no attracting form or beautiful appearance. People thought He was 50 when He was 30. if I were the God who would come to be a man, I would make sure I am the most beautiful one on this whole earth. like the queen in Snow White, make sure I am the fairest among all. but this is not God's way. God's way is based on His characteristic. God has such a characteristic that He likes to hide Himself, and He likes to do things in a hidden way, a way that is not noticed by everyone. 

because of His characteristic, sometimes when God is working in us in such a hidden way, we even doubt if that is really from the Lord, or just from ourselves. but the Lord is training us to know Him as the hidden God, as the One working in such a hidden and concealed way. the Lord also wants to train us from outward manifestation from the inward reality. we may be stirred up very excited in our emotion, and then we think we are being zealous for the Lord, so called "burning in spirit". but after all these rushing tides die out, we only have emptiness within, because we did not touch the divine reality. in our natural concept, we think the Lord always speaks in the thunder, and works as the whirlwind, coming and going in a super violent and mighty way. but think about the story of Elijah, when he ran to hide in the cave. what did God speak to him ?

1 Kings 19:11 And He said, Go out, and stand upon the mountain before Jehovah. And suddenly Jehovah passed by, and a great, strong wind rent the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before Jehovah — Jehovah was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake — Jehovah was not in the earthquake.

1 Kings 19:12 And after the earthquake, a fire — Jehovah was not in the fire. And after the fire, a gentle, quiet voice.

when Elijah was contending with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, surely the Lord was with him in a very stregthening way. but after that, God taught Elijah the lesson that He is a God who hides Himself. Elijah thought only he was left for the Lord, and he was very discouraged so he fled to the cave. and he expected God in the strong wind, in the earthquake or in the fire, but God was not there. Rather, amazingly, God was in the gentle and quiet voice. this is also the lesson the Lord is teaching us today. we learn to pay attention to the inner, gentle and quiet voice, which we even doubt if that is the speaking from the Lord. we need to learn to turn our being from the noisy, outward things, learn to calm our being in the presence of the Lord, so we can hear this small voice. in this way, gradually step by step, we will know God as the One Who hides Himself, Who does things in a hidden way. 

The Divine Spirit with the Human Spirit in the Epistles

the Lord came in the flesh as the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption, which is really wonderful. but, redemption is not the goal, but just a procedure to reach the goal. the goal is that the Lord would enter into us to be our life. in order to reach the goal of being our life, the Lord took another step, to become the life-giving Spirit, to enter into our human spirit, and to dwell in our spirit. therefore, we must realise that today Christ is the wonderful all-inclusive Spirit in our regenerated human spirit, so that we can experience Christ as our life, our everything, and our all-in-all. 

in chapter of Romans, Paul used a few titles for the Spirit, such as, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Son of God, the Spirit of the One, etc. As this Spirit of life is doing a fourfold work within us:

1. the Spirit liberates us, which means, the Spirit sets us free. 

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

2. the Spirit is also the delivering Spirit. to be delivered is to be saved from the fall, because we are all fallen human beings. 

3. the Spirit is sancifying us. to be sanctified means to be saturated through transformation with all that God is. 

4. the Spirit will glorify us. Eventually, He will saturate us with and bring us into the glory of God. 

also, the Spirit of the Son of God for our sonship is carrying out a work in five aspects:

1. This Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. 

Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.

2. The Spirit is always leading and guiding us. 

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

3. this Spirit is also a Spirit of intercession. He helps us in our interceding.

Romans 8:26 Moreover, in like manner the Spirit also joins in to help us in our weakness, for we do not know for what we should pray as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:27 But He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to God.

4. The Spirit is doing a work to conform us to the image of the Son of God.

Romans 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;

5. the Spirit is a building Spirit, so that all the members will be built up and coordinated together in the one Body. 

in the book of 2 Corithians, we can see that the apostle Paul shows us several aspects of the Spirit:

1. the anointing Spirit

2 Corinthians 1:21 But the One who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God,

as the anoiting Spirit, the Spirit keeps anointing God into us, which is, adding the element of God into our being. today, this Spirit is still anointing us with all the elements of God, so that we may have His elements, His ingredients.

2. the sealing Spirit

2 Corinthians 1:22 He who has also sealed us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

with the sealing of the Spirit, on one hand, we bear this mark that we belong to God; on the other hand, the more the Spirit seals us, the more we will bear the image and likeness of God, to show that we do belong to God. as the believers, the children, the sons of God, we need to have a living mark, a living seal, that others can tell we belong to God.

3. the pledging Spirit

2 Corinthians 1:22 He who has also sealed us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

the pledge is the proof, the guarantee, and down payment that all that God is, is our portion. the seal means that we belong to God, while the pledge means that God belongs to us, that God is our portion. 

4. the inscribing Spirit

2 Corinthians 3:3 Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh.

to inscribe Christ in our heart is the work of the transforming Spirit within us. we need to cooperate by opening our heart, opening the depths of our inner being, to allow Christ to write Himself through the inscribing Spirit into our being. we all have Christ dwelling in us, but do we have Christ inscribed into our heart? 

The Divine Spirit with the Human Spirit in the Epistles

 

the Four Men in the Bible

the Bible is a book of man, and in one sense, the Bible speaks only of four men. 

1. the first man -  Adam

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

when God created man, He created one corporate man, Adam. so in certin sense, in the eyes of God, we are all included in Adam. God created Adam with the purpose that Adam would express God, bearing God's image, and represent God, exercising dominion on the earth. Also, God put Adam in front of the tree of life, with the view that Adam would take in the fruit of the tree of life, which means that Adam would receive God into him as the divine, eternal, indestructable, uncreated life. but Adam failed, therefore, God came in Jesus, to be the second man.

2. the second man, the last Adam - Jesus

1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

1 Corinthians 15:47 The first man is out of the earth, earthy; the second man is out of heaven.

the original intention when God created Adam, was that He would accomplish His purpose through man. in His principle shown in Genesis 1:26, God has ordained that man would express God and exercise dominon, which means that, God needs man to deal with His enemy, to preach the gospel, which the angels are not qualified to do. thus, the Lord Jesus has to come as a man with blood and flesh, to accomplish redemption through His death on the cross, so that God can have man back to Himself for His purpose. 

3. the third man- the church as the one new man

Ephesians 2:15 Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace,

the church is the Body of Christ in the matter of life, taking Christ as the life. but we also need to advance, to go on to the aspect of one new man. the church is the one new man, in the matter of person, taking Christ, the Head of the Body as the person, the new man. 

Ephesians 4:22 That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit,

Ephesians 4:23 And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind

Ephesians 4:24 And put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.

the old man actually is our former manner of living, which need to be put off, so that we will be able to put on the new man, the church life, with which Christ is the reality. according to the above verses, the key for putting off the old man and putting on the new man is that our mind needs to be renewed. for our mind to be renewed, our enjoyment of Christ is the crucial matter, which includes eating, drinking and breathing in Christ. 

4. the fourth man -  the man-child

Revelation 12:5 And she brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

in Revelation 12, we see a great sign, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon underneath her feet, wearing a crown of 12 stars, who brought forth a son, a manchild, who was caught up to God and to His throne. this universal bright woman signifies all God's people, including the patriarchs, the saints in the Old Testament and the believers in the New Testament. the man-child typifies the overcomers, the stronger part in the church. God wanted the church to fulfill His purpose. but the church became degraded, therefore, the Lord came to call out the overcoming ones, shown in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2-3. the overcomers, standing onbelhalf of all the believers in the church, cared not for themselves, even their own live, but only care for God's interest and purpose, on the negative side, dealth with Satan, God's enemy; on the positive side, brings in the kingdom of God. 

at the last few chapters in the last book in the bible, the book of Revelation, we also see two women representing two principles:

1. the great harlot, the mother of harlot 

Revelation 17:4 And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication.

Revelation 17:5 And on her forehead there was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

"Babylon" is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word "Babel", which measn confusion. we see in Genesis 11, that the people were building of tower of Babel, and then God came down and confounded their languages. therefore, the principle of Babel, or Babylon is division and confusion.

2. the New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb

Revelation 19:7 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.

Revelation 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

in the Old Testament history, God ordained Jerusalem to be the unique place of worship. all the males of Israel needed to go to Jerusalem three times a year for the worship of God. This ordination preserved the oneness of the Israel people. while Babylon represents division and confusion, Jerusalem represents the oneness of God's people. today, for the New Testament believers, God also has ordained this principle of oneness for us, one city one church. Israel people all had to go to Jerusalem for worshipping God, because God said that, so they had no freedom to go to wherever they liked, or according to their convenience. for us today also, we need to meet in the church on the genuine ground of oneness. we cannot go to any place according to our preference or choice. we must follow God'a choice, for the keeping of the oneness among God's people. 

Dead to Law but Living to God

Galatians 2:19 For I through law have died to law that I might live to God.

we, man created by God, are made as vessels to contain God. therefore, God has to be our unqiue goal and content. but because of the fall of Adam, we are all sinners, falling short of God's glory because we no longer express God but the devil, Satan. then with the entering of the law, we are destined to death because the wage of sin is death. because of partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we have been constituted to be people living according to right and wrong, good and evil. in our concept, if we are doing good, not committing evil, then we are good people and we are fine. NO. no matter how good we are, if we are not living according to God, not living to God, we are sinners, falling short of the glory of God ( Romans 3:23). God created us, not with the purpose to doing good , of course also not doing evil. God created us for His purpose, His economy, which is that we would live to God, for His purpose, to express Him. However, since we have been constituted to doing good and right, how can we be freed from this matter? only through death to the law. only a dead person will stop doing good or evil. therefore, in Galatians 2:19, the apostle Paul said that through law he had died to the law so that he might live to God. this is what Christ accomplished on the cross through His death. we all were crucified with Christ, therefore dead to the law, so that now we can live to God. 

as we grow up in our culture and education, we pick up all the laws, and we even make our own laws. we will make resolutions, to be polite, to be meek or humbled. when we find out that we just cannot keep the law and fail, we turn to God and ask God to help us in keeping our self-made laws. but this is not God's intention. God's intention is that He will be our goal and our content, not for us to take law-keeping as our goal. we need to allow the Lord to enlighten us that we may see this matter, therefore we will be led to drop our own laws and ordinances, that we might live to God. 

God's intention is to dispensi Himself into us to live within us, to be mingled with us, to be one with us, and to be everything to us. we only need God, and we do not need anything that is not God. to be a Christian is not to have some religion, or attend some church service. to be a Christian is to have Christ entered into our being, to be our center, our goal, our content, and our everything. we and Christ will have one living, a mingled living, with Christ in us, and we also in Christ. because of His intention, when God created man, He created man as a vessel, and He purposely put a vaccum within man, so that God can enter into this prepared vaccum to fill man with Himself and all His riches, so that the church can be the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. if man does not have God entered into him, he will always have a sense of lack, unsatisfaction, which will cause man to seek for things one after another. 

in the book of Leviticus, we can see five kinds of offerings: the burnt offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the peace offering, and the meal offering. and these five offerings are for the dealing with five situations of us, fallen human being. First, we are not for God; second, our living and conduct are not acceptable to God; third, there is no peace between God and us; fourth, our very being is sin, and we ourselves are just sin, and fifth, we have wronged and transgressed against both God and man. Christ is the reality of all these offerings. when we experience Christ as these five offerings, the issue is, on one hand, there will be the satisfying fragrance to God because of the Christ we experience and enjoy; on the other hand, to men, we will become a heap of ashes. also there will be a response within us after we experience these five offerings, that we will be so touched and constrained with God's great love and grace to us. this will cause us spotaneously to tell everyone else the love and grace of God. 

Dead to Law but Living to God (English Edition) Lee, Witness Living Stream Ministry

 

Being Desperate and Living Uniquely for the Gospel

we are all influenced and so used to the old way of holding big gospel meetings, inviting people to come to our meeting halls. but this is not the way of the Lord. the Lord did not sit in the heavens, sending out invitations to get people to come to Him. Rather, the Lord came down out of the heaven to people's homes. He went to Zacheus' hom and He said that salvation had come to this home. the Lord also went to Jacob's well to wait for the Samaritan woman. Therefore, our ceoncept needs to be changed. We must drop the old way, and pick up the new way, the way of the Lord, to go out to knock on people's doors, to visit people at their homes, to establish small meetings at their homes. the homes are the basic foundations for the building up of the church, not meeting halls. when we are meeting at homes, we will have a meeting full of mutuality. Everyone can speak, can fellowship, or ask questions. we are not just sitting there listening to one person to give us a long message. 

the six qualifications of door-knocking for fruit bearing

1. aggressive desperation

John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit.

we have been drugged many years that we think it is ok to be barren. but we forget what the Lord Jesus says in John chapter 15, that if we do not bear fruit, as branches in the vine, we will be cut off and dried up. we have to be waken up by this portion in the word. we must become serious and desperate concerning the matter of fruit bearing. Also, we must be aggressive in bearing fruits by all means. Being faithful in go out for door knocking is one of the best ways we should practice. 

2. absolute consecration

Romans 12:1 I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

especially in the matter of consecrating our body. we may be willing to offer much time in prayer, or much money in the offering box. but are we also giving our body to actually go out for door knocking, to preach the gospel to people in their homes? in a practical sense, to present our body, is to give the Lord the time to do His will, e.g. spend one or two hours each week in the matter of gospel preaching. 

3. uninterruppted abiding in the Lord

John 15:4 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

John15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

in the matter of fruit bearing, the Lord did not charge us to do it in ourselves. He charges us to abide in Him first. if we abide in the Lord, being one with the Lord, continually fellowshiping with the Lord, our going out is the Lord's going out; our knocking on the doors is the Lord's knocking on the doors. then all these ones will receive the Lord's glorious visitation. 

4. fully saturated with the word

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.

in order for us to be able to speak something, to sow the seed of life into the others, we ourselves first need to be saturated with the word of Christ. We need to first equip ourselves with the full knowledge of the truth. then when we go out, our speaking will be weighty. 

5. prayer for the filling of both the essential and economical Spirit.

Acts 4:31 And when they had so besought, the place in which they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 11:24 For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a considerable number was added to the Lord.

we need to be filled with the essential Spirit for our life, and with the economical Spirit for our work and service, both of which is indispensable for gospel preaching. A thorough confession is requied for the filling. therefore, everyday, we need to set aside some time for our confession before the Lord, so we can experience the filling of the Spirit. 

6. going with the authority of Christ

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

the Lord says that all authority has been given to Him, and He is the Head of the church, His Body. therefore, if we are in the Body, we are also receiving this authority. when we go out in the Lord, in the Body, we are going out with the authority of the Lord, to turn the people from the authority of Satan to God, to turn them from darkness to light. 

the gospel we are going out to preach is not a simple or low gospel, but the hight and full gospel, the entire revelation of God's New Testament economy. we are going out to proclaim the Christ, the very embodiment of the processed Triune God, reaching us as the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the Triune God for our enjoyment. 

Being Desperate and Living Uniquely for the Gospel (English Edition) Lee, Witness Living Stream Ministry