Witness Lee Quotes

oikonomia

In the New Testament the word economy, an anglicized form of the Greek word oikonomia, is strongly used. For instance, this word is used in Ephesians 3, a chapter which reveals that the riches of Christ are preached to the nations so that the church can come into being. Verse 9 speaks of “the economy of the mystery.”

Oikonomia is composed of two Greek words: oikos, meaning house, and nomos, meaning law. Hence, an oikonomia is a house law, a family administration. Some versions translate oikonomia as “administration,” and others as “arrangement” or “plan.” God’s economy is His plan, His administration, His arrangement.

(Witness Lee, The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation, 13)

The general subject of these messages is “The Economy and Dispensing of God.” The words economy and dispensing are somewhat unfamiliar and even peculiar terms to some of us. According to the New Testament revelation, economy is a particular term used by God to unveil His eternal plan. In Greek this word is oikonomia, composed of two words, oikos and nomos. The word oikos means house, family, or household, and the word nomos means law. When we put the two words together, the result, oikonomia, means a household regulation, household government, or household administration. Within a household administration there are some plans and arrangements, and there is the exercise of some kind of skill for the dispensing of the riches of the household to the family members.

(Witness Lee, The Economy and Dispensing of God, 69)

God’s economy is His household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that He may have a house, a household, to express Himself, which household is the church, the Body of Christ (1 Tim. 3:15). The word for economy, oikonomia, is used in the book of Ephesians three times. In 1:10 and 3:9 it is translated as “dispensation,” whereas in 3:2 it is translated as “stewardship.” God’s dispensation is His arrangement, which is His plan or purpose, His household administration. Ephesians 3:2 speaks of the stewardship which was given to Paul. As God’s servant, Paul was a steward of God, and God gave him a ministry, a service, which is called the stewardship. On God’s side oikonomia refers to God’s arrangement, God’s plan, but on Paul’s side oikonomia refers to Paul’s stewardship, Paul’s ministry, Paul’s service. God’s plan, God’s arrangement, eventually becomes Paul’s ministry, Paul’s stewardship. In 1 Timothy 1:3-4, Paul tells Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach differently but to teach the dispensation, the economy, of God. Here it means to teach the arrangement, the plan, of God.

Dispensation and dispensing refer to two different things. Dispensing means giving, distributing, or imparting. God has an economy, and His dispensing is for His economy. God fulfills His divine economy by His divine dispensing. The economy of God is the plan and arrangement out of God’s desire and purpose. The dispensing of God is the dispensing and distributing according to God’s plan and arrangement.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 7-8)

The economy of the Divine Trinity became the apostles’ stewardship of God’s grace. Ephesians 3:2 says, “If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God which was given to me for you.” The word for “stewardship” here and for “dispensation” in 1:10 is oikonomia. Oikonomia was first God’s dispensation, God’s plan, God’s economy. Then this economy of God became the stewardship which God gave to the apostle Paul. The economy and the stewardship are actually one. This means that what the apostles were doing is what God is doing in His economy. What we are doing should be exactly what God is doing today. We should be those who are carrying out God’s economy. The carrying out of God’s economy is the stewardship of God’s grace. Such a stewardship is for the dispensing of God Himself as grace to all His chosen people. Out of this stewardship comes the ministry of the apostles, and this ministry corresponds with God’s economy. The ministry we have must correspond with God’s dispensing of Himself into His chosen people for the producing of the Body of Christ. This is God’s ministry given to us as our stewardship. The ministry revealed in the New Testament is unique. God does not have two economies or two stewardships. God has only one divine economy and one divine stewardship. Out of this stewardship is the one, unique ministry of the apostles to dispense Christ as God’s grace into His chosen people for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ to be the organism of the processed Triune God for His full and eternal expression.

(Witness Lee, Living in and with the Divine Trinity, 22-23)

God’s Economy

The divine economy is the arrangement of the eternal plan of God’s household administration (Eph. 1:9-10; 3:9-11; 1 Tim. 1:3-4). The divine economy is the mystery of God’s will, a mystery which from the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things (Eph. 1:9; 3:9). It was a mystery because it was not unveiled to any human being in past ages. Adam and Abraham were never told about God’s economy. It was hidden in God; therefore, it was a hidden mystery. Men could see the creation, but they could not understand the purpose of the creation. Today this mystery has been unveiled to us....

The divine economy is according to God’s eternal purpose (Eph. 3:11) which He made in Christ to head up all things in Christ (1:10). Today we still cannot see all things headed up in Christ, but we do see this heading up on a small scale. God is heading up the believers of Christ. God’s intention is to head up all Christians in Christ to be one. Satan’s intention, however, is to divide. Any division, regardless of the reason, must be condemned because division is against God’s heading up of all things in Christ....

God desires to have a church to be the Body of Christ as His fullness for a corporate expression of the processed Triune God (Eph. 1:23; 3:19b). This is not just a congregation composed of a number of believers. The Body of Christ is an organic Body of a great person—Christ. In order for Christ to have such a Body, He must dispense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 11-12)

The Divine Trinity

According to the Bible, God is uniquely one (Deut. 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:6), yet He is also the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19b). This is difficult for the human mind to reconcile or explain, but this is the revelation in the Bible. Any attempt to reconcile these two aspects will only result in confusion. We should simply say that God is one and He is also three. He is the unique God, and He is the Father, Son, and Spirit. The three of the Divine Trinity are distinct, but not separate. They are distinctly three, yet they are also one.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist with one another (Matt. 3:16-17; Eph. 3:14-17), and They also coinhere. To coexist means to exist together at the same time. To understand the coexistence of the three of the Divine Trinity is not difficult, but to understand how the three of the Divine Trinity coinhere is very difficult. To coinhere means that the three of the Divine Trinity exist within one another, abide in each other (John 14:10-11; 17:21). The three of the Divine Trinity from eternity past have been and still are coexisting and coinhering with one another.

One day the Second of the Divine Trinity, the Son, came to be a man through incarnation. He came from the Father, with the Father, and in the Father’s name (John 8:29; 16:28a, 32b; 10:25). His coming with the Father was also by the Spirit (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35; 4:1). This shows the coexistence of the three of the Divine Trinity in the incarnation. In John 14 the Son said that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him and that the words He spoke were not His own words but the Father’s words (vv. 10, 24). This chapter also reveals that the Spirit of reality comes as the Son with the Father (vv. 16-20, 23, 26). This indicates the coinherence of the three of the Divine Trinity. The Son lives in the Father and the Father lives in the Son; the Son’s speaking is the Father’s work.

Another portion of the Word which reveals the coinherence of the Divine Trinity is Isaiah 9:6. In this verse the Son is called the Eternal Father. The child born, who is also the son given, is called the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, and the Prince of Peace. The child who is the only begotten Son (John 3:16) is called the Mighty God. The son who is given is called the Eternal Father. Although we cannot fully understand these portions of the Word, we have to accept the clear word of the Scriptures.

The three of the Divine Trinity are distinctly three and yet one. The Father is distinct from the Son, the Son is distinct from the Spirit, and the Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son. Yet the Son is the Father (Isa. 9:6; John 14:9-10), and the Son is also the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). The Son became flesh (John 1:1, 14) and was called the last Adam. This last Adam through death and resurrection became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The son given was called the Eternal Father, and after His death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, the Son is both the Father and the Spirit.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 131-132)

Dispensing

The word dispensing carries the denotation of distributing. In a love feast we may have an abundance of food, but there is the need for some “dispensers” to distribute the food to everyone. This distributing of food is the dispensing of food. Furthermore, when the food gets into us, it begins to dispense itself within us. Our digestion of the food is our cooperation with the dispensing of the food. After digestion, there is also the process of assimilation, through which we assimilate what has been received through digestion. This is a further cooperation with the dispensing of the food. In this way, the food will be in us, and everything we have eaten will become part of us. This is the denotation and the connotation of the word dispensing.

The entire economy of God, and especially that in the New Testament age, is a matter of dispensing. I do not say that it is a matter of dispensation. The word dispensation conveys a different notion. I like to use the word dispensing as a noun in expressions such as God’s dispensing or the divine dispensing. In the New Testament, God is carrying out His economy, His household administration, which He made in eternity past, before the foundation of the world. God’s intention in His economy, His household government, is just to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-into His chosen people.

Many matters are covered in the New Testament, but if we dive into the depth of the New Testament as the divine revelation, we will see that God surely has an economy, a household administration, to carry out His eternal purpose. This economy is just God’s universal operation. If you would ask me what God is doing today, I would answer that God is operating in one thing and for one thing: He is spending much time to patiently dispense Himself into all His chosen people. Everything that is mentioned in the New Testament concerning God has to do with His dispensing for His economy.

Many people are familiar with John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” In this verse three things are taking place: first, God gave, and is still giving; second, we believe; and third, we shall have eternal life. In these three points we can see God’s dispensing. God’s giving is a kind of dispensing. Suppose I have a lot of money, and I give each of you some of this money. My giving is my dispensing. I unload my money to you by the way of dispensing. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. This means that God is dispensing His Son to us. What God dispenses is not money, but His only begotten Son.

When we receive God’s Son, God is dispensed into us. After putting a dollar bill in my pocket, I may lose it. However, through God’s dispensing I have a living person in my spirit. Because I have received this person, I can never throw Him away, and I cannot even chase Him away. What I have is not just a piece of paper or a piece of sugar, but the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. This is why I am so happy and so strong.

(Witness Lee, The Economy and Dispensing of God, 69-71)

The accomplishment of the divine economy is by the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. God is divine, and He is also triune. He is triune in order to complete the steps for the dispensing of Himself into us. To dispense Himself into us, He has taken three steps: the Father’s choosing and predestinating, the Son’s redeeming, and the Spirit’s sealing. These three steps are for God’s divine dispensing.

The first step of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity was the Father’s choosing and predestinating (Eph. 1:4-5). The Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy. How can we common human beings be holy? We cannot be made holy by our outward actions. Neither can we be holy by being washed. To be washed makes us clean, but to be clean is not to be holy. The only way we can be holy is by a holy element being dispensed into our being. Medical doctors know that our physical bodies need many minerals. If our blood is short of iron, the only way iron can get into our blood is by the food that we eat or drink. In the same way, we become holy by receiving the holy God with His holy nature into our being. His holy element then becomes our element. The Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we, the chosen ones, may have the Father’s holy nature and thus may be sanctified through the dispensing of the Father’s holy nature into us, His chosen ones.

The Father’s predestinating through Christ is so that the predestinated ones may have His life for their sonship through the dispensing of the Father’s divine life into us (Eph. 1:5). To have the sonship implies that we must have God’s life. The divine life generates us to be God’s sons. As God’s sons we have God’s life, so we have God’s sonship. God the Father imparts Himself into our being as our holy nature to make us holy and as our divine life to make us His sons so that we may have sonship. To be made holy and to receive the sonship are a matter of receiving the divine dispensing. The divine way for us to be made holy and to receive the sonship is by God dispensing Himself into us.

The accomplishment of the divine economy by the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity is not only through the Father’s choosing and predestinating but also through the Son’s redeeming (Eph. 1:7). The Son’s redeeming is not just outward and objective. It is not just a matter of Christ shedding His blood in order to redeem us and to cleanse us from our sins. The Son’s redeeming is much deeper than this. Through the Son’s redeeming, the redeemed are put into Christ. We were put in Christ so that we could be made an inheritance of God with Christ as the element and realm of the divine inheritance (Eph. 1:11). We were put in Christ and made an inheritance of God through the dispensing of Christ. It is as if God said, “I have redeemed you and put you into Christ. This Christ will become your element for you to be My inheritance. I do not have any intention to inherit you in your natural being. You are just a sinner. Even though you are redeemed, you are just cleansed. I want to inherit My Son in you. Now you have My Son in you as the element to constitute you into something precious. This will be counted as My inheritance.” In order for God to gain such an inheritance, He had to dispense Himself in Christ into our being.

Ephesians 1 reveals the Father’s choosing and predestinating, the Son’s redeeming, and the Spirit’s sealing (v. 13b). The sealing of the Spirit can be likened to a seal with ink being pressed upon a sheet of paper. The more the ink is applied, the more the paper is saturated and permeated with the ink. Eventually, the entire paper will be sealed, saturated, and permeated with the substance of the ink in the image of the seal. In the same way, the Spirit is saturating and permeating us. The last stanza of hymn #501 in Hymns says:

Thy Spirit will me saturate,
Every part will God permeate...

This sealing, permeating, and saturating is going on constantly in the believers. As you are reading this chapter, the Spirit is permeating you. The Spirit as the sealing ink remains wet forever. It never dries. The Spirit’s sealing saturates the sealed ones through the dispensing of the sealing ink unto, or for, the day of the redemption of their body (Eph. 4:30). The redemption of our body is the transfiguration of our body (Phil. 3:21). Until the transfiguration of our body, the sealing of the Spirit will go on continually to saturate and permeate our entire being.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 12-14)

According to chapter one of Ephesians, the church has been constituted for its existence through the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The dispensing of the Divine Trinity is of the Father as the source (vv. 3-6), of the Son as the course (vv. 7-12), and of the Spirit as the flow (vv. 13-14). The dispensing of the Father as the source includes the Father’s choosing (v. 4) and predestination (v. 5). The Father’s intention in choosing us is to dispense His holy nature into us so that we may be holy. The Father’s predestination is so that we will receive the Father’s divine life. Upon receiving the Father’s divine life, we are born of God to be His sons in order to enjoy the sonship.

The church is also constituted through the Son’s redeeming. The Father chose and predestinated us. Then the Son came in to redeem us. The Son’s redeeming brought us into a condition in which we could become the Father’s inheritance. God the Father inherits only that which has the divine nature. His inheritance must come up to the standard of His divinity. For this reason, the redemption of Christ must bring us into God Himself. His redemption is not just a matter of redeeming us from sin; it is even more a matter of redeeming us into God Himself, into His very divine element. This divine element constitutes us into a precious treasure for God’s inheritance.

The divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity according to Ephesians 1 consummates in the Spirit’s sealing (vv. 13-14). The entire being of the complete God reaches our being through the sealing of the Spirit. The sealing of the Spirit saturates the sealed ones. The Spirit as the living seal is also the sealing ink applied to our inward being in the image of the seal. The ink stamped onto a piece of paper will eventually become dry, but the Spirit as the sealing ink remains “wet” all the time unto eternity. Because the Spirit as the sealing ink remains “wet,” the Spirit continually saturates and permeates us until our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—is sealed. Eventually, through the divine sealing, we human beings become the expression not only of the God who creates, but also of the regenerating, sanctifying, transforming, and glorifying God. We become His expression, His fullness. This is the aim and goal of the divine economy, God’s eternal arrangement as His eternal plan. God desires to make His chosen ones His expression, His fullness, in a corporate way.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 17-18)

The divine dispensing comes out of the Three of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The divine dispensing taking place within us is the operating of the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, as the aggregate, totality, and consummation of the Triune God. This Spirit is moving in us, anointing us, watering us, feeding us, satisfying us, strengthening us, comforting us, saturating us, and permeating us. There are so many words to describe His dispensing within us. All of the foregoing items, such as watering, feeding, strengthening, permeating, saturating, and anointing, are matters of dispensing. Every day we should be built up by receiving the divine dispensing within us.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 37)

My subject in this chapter is the divine dispensing and the union and mingling of the Triune God with the believers. The divine dispensing refers to God’s distribution of Himself into all the believers as their life. How can this be done? This is a mystery. I cannot describe it, but I know definitely that the complete God is in me. He is also in you. The same God is at the same time in all of us. Moreover, with this divine dispensing, there is the union and mingling of the Triune God with the believers. Union is outward, whereas mingling is inward. When we put on our clothing, we have a union with it. When we eat our food, we are mingled with it. We the believers have, on the one hand, put on Christ (Gal. 3:27) as our righteous garment for our covering. This is our union with Him through believing and baptism into Him. On the other hand, He is also our living water for us to drink of Him. He is also our spiritual food for us to eat Him. When we eat and drink of Him, He enters into us and is mingled with us to become our constitution and our element. Every time we break the bread, there are two symbols on the table. One is the bread as a symbol of the Lord’s body, and the other is the cup as a symbol of the Lord’s blood. For us to eat, drink, and receive Him is our true remembrance of Him.

(Witness Lee, Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, 10-11)

In the first two chapters, we saw the vision concerning the Divine Trinity and the vision concerning the economy of the Divine Trinity. In this chapter we want to see the vision concerning the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The dispensing of the Divine Trinity is included in His economy. God’s economy is His household administration. In ancient times a large family of perhaps a few generations would live together. Such a large family was in need of an administration, an arrangement, for the food to be dispensed to them. In the Old Testament, Joseph is a good example of a household administrator, a steward. He was the administrator of Pharaoh’s house. The supply of food was under Joseph’s stewardship. His stewardship was to dispense the food to all those in Pharaoh’s house.

We must see the distinction between the terms dispensation and dispensing. God’s dispensation, His economy, is His plan to dispense Himself as the rich supply to all of His chosen people. In God’s dispensation, God intends to dispense Himself into His people. Dispensing is imparting, distributing, and giving. God is giving Himself, imparting Himself, distributing Himself, dispensing Himself, into His people for their enjoyment. This dispensing is of the Triune God—of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit....

First John 4:9 says that [the Triune] God sent His Son, the only begotten, into the world that we might have life and live through Him. This verse reveals the dispensing of the Triune God in the Son that we might have Him as life and live through Him. Galatians 4:4 says that [the Triune] God sent forth His Son, come of a woman. God dispensed Himself into us as the gift of life through incarnation by being born into a woman....

Romans 8:3 says that [the Triune] God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. By sending His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, God came to dispense Himself into us as the gift of eternal life. The truth in Romans 8:3 can be seen in the type of the brass serpent in Numbers 21 referred to by the Lord Jesus in John 3:14: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The brass serpent lifted up by Moses was in the likeness of a serpent, but within it there was not the poison of a serpent. Likewise, Christ was in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but within Him there was no sin. By being lifted up on the cross as the brass serpent, Christ dealt with Satan, the old serpent (John 12:31-33; Heb. 2:14). This means that the serpentine nature within fallen man has been dealt with so that man might have eternal life. This is the way that the Triune God came to dispense Himself into His chosen people.

(Witness Lee, Living in and with the Divine Trinity, 25-28)

The unique blessing in the whole universe is God Himself. Anything besides God is vanity. The entire universe was created by God, yet without God, apart from God, even the universe created by God is vanity. The existence of the universe is a great miracle, but without God the miraculous existence of the universe is vanity. Apart from God, everything is “vanity of vanities” (Eccl. 1:2). Only God Himself is real. Only He is the blessing to us. If we gained the entire universe yet missed God, we would be the most pitiful persons. History is filled with cases of people who gained many riches and many material things but who eventually realized that, without God, it was all vanity. God Himself is our blessing, and this blessing comes to us through the dispensing of the divine Being into us in His divine trinity—in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

(Witness Lee, Life-Study of Numbers, 78)

Students of theology are commonly taught that they should not invent any new theological terms. The concern is that new terms might be used to introduce heresy into orthodox theology. However, during the past sixty years, the Lord has opened His Word to us and has shown us many items that had been veiled for centuries. In order to describe these things, we have been forced to invent a number of new terms. For example, in speaking of God’s dispensing Himself into His chosen people, we use the term dispensing. This term should be differentiated from the noun dispensation, which refers to the various ages arranged by God for the accomplishing of His economy. Thus, when we speak of the arrangement of the divine government, or of God’s arrangement in His economy, we use the word dispensation, but when we speak of God’s dispensing Himself into us, we use the word dispensing.

(Witness Lee, Life-Study of Numbers, 145)

Illustrations

The process of Christ’s becoming the life-giving Spirit may be likened to the process whereby a melon becomes juice. Some years ago in Taiwan, I brought a large melon home for my children. In a joking way, I asked them to tell me how they could get that big melon into them. They were puzzled by my question and were unable to tell me how the big melon could get into them. Eventually, I cut the big melon into small slices. Because the melon was in small slices, my children could easily eat it. Though my children enjoyed the slices, I went further and pressed the slices until the juice of the melon came out. Everyone could then drink the juice. This made everyone very happy. Eventually, the entire melon was processed, and it soon disappeared within the stomachs of my children. After a few hours, the big melon reached every part of their being.

In a similar way, God has been processed in order to reach man’s spirit. All the steps of God’s coming are the processes needed for Him to become the “juice” for man to drink. Christ was “cut into slices” on the cross and “pressed” through death and resurrection until He became “juice.” As the life-giving Spirit, He is like melon juice. Now we can drink Him. The New Testament gives a strong charge to the believers to drink Christ. In John 7:37 the Lord Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink,” and in Revelation 22:17 the Spirit and the bride say, “Let him who is thirsty also come...take the water of life freely.” As the Spirit, the Lord is ready for all of us to drink Him. By believing in the Lord Jesus, exercising our spirit to call upon His name, He reaches our spirit. How marvelous! This is the initial step through which God becomes man’s life in the New Testament.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 29-30)

Ephesians 4:4-6 reveals the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Verse 4 says that there is one Body and one Spirit. The one Spirit in this verse is the processed, consummated God, the pneumatic Christ. This Spirit is just Christ Himself. We can illustrate this by the way a big melon is processed to become juice. First, there is a big melon which is cut into slices. Then the slices are pressed until juice is produced. The juice is the “spirit” of the melon. The juice of the melon is actually the melon itself. In the same way, the Spirit is the “sliced and pressed Jesus.” The Spirit in the Body of Christ is Christ after He was “cut” on the cross and “pressed” unto death. Now in resurrection, He is the Spirit, the “juice.” Through His death and resurrection, He has become the drinkable Spirit. Our need is to drink Him. He is within us, but every day we need more of Him. Although we drink today, it does not mean that one drink will be sufficient for our entire life. Our drinking should be continuous. In eternity, we will still need to drink the river of the water of life (Rev. 22:1, 17) and eat the tree of life (v. 14). We need to eat and drink for eternity.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 34-35)

Our God is the Triune God, and He has been processed so that He can be dispensed into us. For a watermelon to be dispensed into us, it must first be cut into slices. As we chew these slices, they become juice. The whole watermelon, the slices, and the juice may be considered as the “trinity of the watermelon.” When the watermelon has been processed into juice, it can easily be taken into us to become our very element. God the Father has been processed through God the Son, and now He is God the Spirit. The Spirit today is like the juice of the watermelon available for us to drink. We all have been given to drink of one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). The Bible does not tell us that we have been given to drink of one Father or of one Son. We cannot drink the whole watermelon or the slices of watermelon, but we can drink its juice. Likewise, we can drink the Spirit, who is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. Our God today is the “juice God.” God has been processed.

(Witness Lee, The History of the Church and the Local Churches, 10)

The divine transmission of the Divine Trinity to the believers is revealed in John 16:13-15. This transmission is just like the transmission of electrical current. When the electricity is switched on, there is a current of electricity, a moving of electricity, and that moving is the transmission. First, all that the Father has is the Son’s (v. 15). This means that what the Father has is transmitted into the Son. Second, all that the Son has is received by the Spirit (v. 14b). This is a further step of this transmission. The Father transmits to the Son, and then there is a transmitting from the Son to the Spirit. Third, all that the Spirit has received of the Son is disclosed to the believers (vv. 13, 15b). Eventually, all that the Trinity is and has is ours.

(Witness Lee, Living in and with the Divine Trinity, 43)

Steps of the Process

In order for God to reach the destination of our spirit, many steps were required. The almighty God in the heavens came down from His heavenly dwelling and passed through many problems, obstacles, and hindrances in order to reach our spirit. He laid down His life in His human nature, dying in the form of a serpent in order to deal with our serpentine nature. He accomplished redemption, which solved the problems of Satan, the world, the sinful nature, the self, the old man, sin, and sins. Christ’s redemption was like the construction of a modern highway. The highways in the United States were built by straightening curves, leveling hills, and bridging gaps and rivers. Christ’s redemption has bridged all the gaps, leveled all the hills, and straightened out all the curves. The shedding of Christ’s blood has accomplished an eternal redemption for us (Heb. 9:12).

In addition to the shedding of His blood, water flowed out of Him (John 19:34). The flowing of the water out of Him indicates the release of His divine life through His death and resurrection. In resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The One who was incarnated, who lived a human life on this earth, who was crucified and buried, who went into Hades, and who walked out of death and was released from death, Hades, and the grave, became a life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, He can now enter into man.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 29)

The Triune God passed through the processes of incarnation and resurrection in order to dispense Himself into us. Through incarnation He could be Immanuel outside of His believers, but this would fulfill only part of His intention in being with us. His being with us outwardly does not fulfill His purpose to dispense Himself into our being, so He had to go through another process. The second process was His death and resurrection. In resurrection His physical form became a spiritual form. Through death and resurrection, He as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As the life-giving Spirit, He is Immanuel, the presence of the Divine Trinity. This presence is always with us in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), not only day by day but also moment by moment.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 90)

Our God is the eternal Triune God. In Exodus 3 He unveiled Himself as Jehovah, the One who was, who is, and who always shall be (v. 14). The eternal Triune God, Jehovah, had to be processed through several steps to be a life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is Christ in resurrection, the pneumatic Christ, the Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God transformed in resurrection to be the consummated Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the Triune God (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rev. 22:17a). Two thousand years ago, before incarnation and resurrection, the Triune God had not yet been consummated. He had only divinity, but He did not have humanity. In order to be a God of both divinity and humanity, He had to go through incarnation, death, and resurrection. Through these three major steps of Christ, the Triune God was consummated. The life-giving Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. Today we have the eternal Triune God, who is Jehovah, as our Immanuel to be with us. He is the life-giving Spirit for us to walk by, not only to express Him and live Him, but also to accomplish His eternal plan, His eternal economy.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 97)

Creation

God’s action in creating man in His own image (Gen. 1:26-27) indicates that God wants man to have Himself as man’s life so that man can express Him. The reason God created man in His image was that man might express God. Man can express God only by having God as his life. The way God created man indicates that God wanted man to have God as his life.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 16)

One of the items of God’s economy was His creation of the heavens and the earth. In His creation three categories of life were produced: plant life, animal life, and human life. These three lives beautify the earth. The trees of the garden were not only good for food but also pleasant to the sight (Gen. 2:9). Animal life adds to the beauty of the earth. But without human life, the earth would lack meaning. Human life adds meaning to the entire earth. If man is without God, however, the universe becomes meaningless, because God is the meaning of human life. Without God’s life, the universe is meaningless, without a goal, and without a purpose. God has an eternal purpose. While it is certainly true that the unbelievers do not know what God’s purpose is, it is also true that many who have been Christians for many years do not know what God’s eternal purpose is. They do not know why God created the heavens, the earth, or man. Furthermore, they do not know why God saved them. In order to know the purpose of God, we must get into the depths of the Bible.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 8)

Incarnation

The first point concerning God being life to us in the New Testament is His incarnation. God came to be incarnated that man may receive Him as grace and reality (John 1:14, 16). Both grace and reality are God Himself to be man’s life as man’s eternal portion. God was incarnated in order that He might dispense Himself into us as life. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.. full of grace and reality.” For the Word to become flesh means that God became a man. Grace is God enjoyed by us, and reality is God gained by us. When God is gained by us, that is reality. If we have everything in the universe but do not have God, everything is vanity. Only God is reality. When God is gained, realized, and apprehended by us, God is reality to us.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 19)

Christ came as life that man may have life and have it abundantly (John 14:6a; 11:25a; 10:10b; 1 John 5:11-12). His coming to man was by incarnation. He did not simply descend to the earth from the heavens and declare that He was life to man. This would not have worked. He had to come through incarnation through the womb of a virgin, because He had to die for our sins. In order to die for our sins, He had to shed His blood (Heb. 9:22); therefore, He needed a body of blood and flesh. The only way for Him to gain such a body was to be incarnated. Through incarnation He obtained a body of blood and flesh in order to accomplish redemption. However, His coming through incarnation was not only to save us from our sins, but also that He might be life to us. In John 10:10b the Lord Himself said that He came that man may have life and may have it abundantly. Christ came as life and resurrection (14:6; 11:25). Thus, when He came, life came, and when we receive Him, we have life (1 John 5:11-12).

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 21-22)

The Triune God was incarnated to partake of humanity (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14a). After being incarnated, God was different from what He was before His incarnation. Before being incarnated, He was merely God, but after being incarnated, He was God within a human shell. The babe who was laid in a manger at the inn in Bethlehem (Luke 2:7) was the mighty God (Isa. 9:6). Many of the Jews at that time, like many Jewish scholars today, could not believe that the little babe in the manger was Jehovah God. Yet we believe that He was the very God. After His birth, He lived on this earth for a number of years. One day He told His disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to be crucified (Matt. 16:21). Do not think that He was simply arrested by the soldiers and the deputies of the chief priests and Pharisees. Actually, He delivered Himself to them (John 10:15, 18; 18:3-8). When they came to arrest Him, the Lord asked the soldiers to tell Him whom they were seeking. They told Him that they were seeking Jesus the Nazarene. When the Lord replied by saying, “I am,” the meaning of the name Jehovah (Exo. 3:14-15), they fell backward to the ground (John 18:6). It was impossible for them to arrest Jehovah. The Lord Jesus delivered Himself to them in order that He could be processed through death and resurrection.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 50-51)

Incarnation was the bringing forth of Immanuel (Matt. 1:20-23). This was the first process our Triune God passed through in order to become life to man. Through incarnation He branched Himself out, in His divinity, into humanity as the Shoot of Jehovah (Isa. 4:2). He became a God-man with both divinity and humanity. The unbelieving Jews have God, but the God they have is merely divine. The God the Christians have is not only divine but also human. He is Jesus, Jehovah the Savior (Matt. 1:21). Jesus was the name given by God, and Immanuel, which means God with us, was the name called by man (v. 23). His name was Jesus, but those who experienced Him called His name Immanuel. Now Jesus, our Immanuel, is the Triune God with the tripartite man.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 88)

God’s intention was to gain the new creation for His expression, but to gain this was not easy. God finished the further creation and restoration of the old creation in six days, but to make the new creation from the old creation is much more difficult. In order to complete the work of the new creation, God had to act in His divine trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In eternity past, there was a conference, a council, among the Three of the Godhead (Gen. 1:26; Acts 2:23). In that conference, it was decided that the Son, the Second of the Godhead, should be the centrality and universality of the new creation. In order to accomplish this, the Triune God had to pass through a unique process. The first step of this process was the Son as the embodiment of the Divine Trinity becoming a man through incarnation. Through this step divinity got into humanity. In eternity past the Triune God was merely in divinity, but through incarnation He branched out from His divinity and with His divinity into humanity. He became a particular man with both the divine nature and the human nature. The descendants of Adam had only the human nature, and God in eternity had only the divine nature. God was in His divinity, and we, the descendants of Adam, were in our humanity. God was in His territory of divinity, and we were in our territory of humanity. Before Christ’s incarnation, these two territories had nothing to do with one another. But approximately two thousand years ago, four thousand years after His creation of man, God branched out from and with His divinity into humanity.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 99-100)

The Gospel of John is a book concerning the divine dispensing. The first point of God’s dispensing introduced in the Gospel of John is incarnation. The most crucial verse in chapter one is verse 14, which says, “And the Word became flesh...” From my youth, I was told that the subject of the Gospel of John is Christ as the divine person, and that this book presents Christ as the very God. This is because the gospel is a matter of receiving the divine life, which is Christ Himself. Christ became the embodiment of the divine life (John 1:4) through incarnation. Though I had received this teaching sixty years ago, I did not have the deep impression that the incarnation was the first step of God’s dispensing. Now I realize that incarnation was for God to dispense Himself into man. Man was created by God in His image with the definite purpose of being one with God....

According to the Gospel of John, the eternal God who created the heavens and the earth became a man. The process whereby He became a man was by entering the womb of a virgin, Mary. He was the great God who created the heavens and the earth, but He came into a virgin’s womb and remained there for nine months until His birth. The Word which was God became flesh in the way ordained by God for every man’s birth. He came by way of conception and birth. He was born as a little babe named Jesus. The shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem came to see the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12, 15-16). As a babe, He escaped to Egypt and returned to a village called Nazareth in the despised region of Galilee (Matt. 2:13-14, 19-23). He lived in Nazareth for thirty years and worked as a carpenter. At the age of thirty, the age according to God’s ordination that a man may enter into the service of the tabernacle (Num. 4:46-47), the Lord Jesus came out to preach, but He actually came out to dispense. He did not dispense doctrine. He began to dispense Himself as the God-man. As He began to dispense Himself, people were attracted.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 31)

In order to carry out His intention, God first became incarnated. Before the incarnation, God was only God, separate from the man created by Him. For God to be incarnated means that He became a man with a human body of blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14). The incarnation of the Divine Trinity dispensed the divine grace and reality to men. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from a father), full of grace and reality.” According to the teaching of the New Testament, grace is God Himself given to us for our enjoyment. Grace is not something outward, such as a good house, a good car, or a good business. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul indicated that grace is a person, saying, “I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” Grace is God Himself to be received and enjoyed by man.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 43-44)

The Gospel of John states explicitly at the beginning that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). This Word is none other than God Himself. He is the explanation, the expression, and the manifestation of the mysterious God. One day, this God who is the Word became flesh (John 1:14a). He entered into a virgin’s womb and was conceived there. After being there for nine months according to God’s law in creation, He was born as a complete man. He is the One referred to in Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given..and his name shall be called..The mighty God, The everlasting Father.” This child who was born is the mighty God. He is the Son, and He is also the everlasting Father. Outwardly speaking, He is a man, but inside He is God. For this reason, man calls His name Emmanuel, which means God with us (Matt. 1:23). He is God, and He is man. He is a wonderful God-man.

(Witness Lee, Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, 11-12)

Human Living

When I was young, I could not understand why the Lord Jesus was so attractive. Peter, Andrew, James, and John dropped everything to follow Him (Matt. 4:18-22). He was like an immense magnet, drawing His seekers to Himself. He attracted all kinds of men and women, even a wife of a high official (Luke 8:3). Many followed Him during the three and a half years of His ministry because He infused the embodied God into people. Many in Christianity hold the concept that the Lord was merely teaching His disciples during this time, but this understanding is too shallow. It was not a matter of the disciples receiving some doctrine or teaching. They received a living person. This person was dispensed into them.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 31-32)

In His human living the Lord Jesus was a despised Nazarene. Matthew 2:23 says, “He came and settled in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazarene.” The title Nazarene may refer to the branch in Isaiah 11:1, which in Hebrew is netzer. The branch there, signifying Christ, is a twig out of the stem of Jesse, the father of David. By the time Jesus was born, the throne of David had been overthrown. This means that the royal stem of David had been cut off. Now a new twig sprouted from the stump of Jesse and grew out of his roots. The sprouting and growing of this twig were in a situation of humiliation. Jesus was not born in a recognized and honored royal home, and He did not grow up in a renowned city such as Jerusalem. He was born in a poor home and grew up in a despised town. All this made Him a Nazarene, a branch—not a lofty branch of a stately tree but a seemingly insignificant twig from the stump of Jesse....

As the Nazarene, the Lord Jesus was the One rejected by the world (Matt. 2:13b, 21-22). The Lord Jesus truly was the most high God and the genuine royal descendant of the great king David. According to His status in both His divinity and His humanity, He should have been highly regarded and greatly exalted. But due to the way He was born and the environment in which He was born, there was no sign that He should have been regarded and exalted. In addition, His physical appearance did not bear any beauty or form that could be attractive to human eyes. Furthermore, His way of living was not to make a show of Himself, and His way of working was quite peculiar to the human concept. In His lowly humanity, He concealed all the excellent aspects of both His divine and human status. Hence, He was absolutely rejected by the worldly people according to their worldly view.

As a Nazarene, the Lord Jesus was also the One despised by men. He was called Jesus of Nazareth, for He was a Nazarene. When Philip met Jesus, he knew that Jesus was the Messiah. Then Philip went to Nathanael and told him that he had met the Messiah and that He was the son of Joseph, a man from Nazareth. Immediately Nathanael said, “Can anything good be from Nazareth?” (John 1:45-46). Although Jesus was from Nazareth and was a Nazarene, He, the seed of David, had not been born in Nazareth but in Bethlehem. Because the Lord was raised in Nazareth, others did not consider Him as one born in Bethlehem. The Lord thus appeared as a Nazarene from Galilee (John 7:52), a town that was despised by the people at that time. As a despised Nazarene, the Lord Jesus was low in rank and position.

(Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, 2765-2766)

In His human living and in His work, Christ the Son expressed the Father (John 14:9). The Son came in the Father’s name (5:43), worked in the Father’s name (10:25), did the Father’s will (6:38), spoke the Father’s word (3:34a; 14:24; 7:16-17; 12:47-50), and sought the Father’s glory (7:18). He was one with the Father (10:30). He had no work, no will, no word, no glory, and no ambition for Himself. As such a one, Christ expressed only the Father. He did not express Himself. He was the Son, yet He expressed the Father.

(Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, 2769)

Crucifixion

The Lord Jesus laid down His own human life for man (John 10:11, 15b, 17-18a). The Lord Jesus has two lives. The life that He came to give us is the divine life (John 10:28a), and the life that He laid down for us is His human life, His soulish life (John 10:11). He died in the human life, but He remained alive in the divine life. For Christ to lay down His life means that He sacrificed or gave up His human life for us. The Lord laid down His own human life for sinful man and took it again (John 10:18a). For the Lord to take His life again means that He rose up, resurrected, from among the dead. Through death and resurrection He released His divine life that He might dispense the divine life into His believers (John 12:24). The divine life has been released for us to receive, and the way to receive it is just to believe into Christ as the resurrected One (John 3:15-16, 36)....

Through His death on the cross, Christ accomplished God’s redemption and released His divine life. These two things are signified by the shedding of His blood and by the flowing of water out of Him (John 19:34). Christ came through incarnation, and His death and resurrection were a continuation of His journey in incarnation. What was the destination of His journey? The destination of the Triune God’s journey through incarnation is man’s spirit. Unless the Triune God reaches our spirit, He has not arrived at His destination. In order to reach this destination, the Triune God had to pass through human living, death, and resurrection. Through death He accomplished redemption. We needed redemption because we could not meet the threefold requirement of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. As long as God’s requirements are unsatisfied, God has no way to enter into us. Through the redemption of Christ, God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness were satisfied. This is the negative side of Christ’s death, signified by the shedding of His blood (John 19:34).

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 22-24)

The Lord Jesus was crucified in order to accomplish the all-inclusive death for redemption (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:3b; Heb. 2:14b; John 3:14; 12:31-33; Gal. 6:14; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20a; 5:24; John 12:24). The Lord Jesus died an all-inclusive death, and His death dealt with six main negative items: sin (including sins—John 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:3b), Satan (Heb. 2:14b; John 3:14), the world (John 12:31-33; Gal. 6:14), the old man (Rom. 6:6), the flesh (Gal. 5:24), and the “I” (Gal. 2:20a), which includes our natural life. In addition, the Lord’s all-inclusive death accomplished one positive thing: it released the divine life from within His humanity (John 12:24). Thus, the Lord’s death was at least sevenfold in its accomplishments. The Lord Jesus’ all-inclusive death became a strong factor in His consummated triune Being. Through such a death, He obtained an eternal redemption for His redeemed people (Heb. 9:12).

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 51)

The cross of Christ is the negative consummation of the work of Christ (1 Cor. 1:17-18; Gal. 6:12). The cross of Christ has put away sin (Heb. 9:26), has destroyed the devil, Satan (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15), has crucified the world and us (Gal. 6:14b; 2:20a), and has crucified our old man (Rom. 6:6). The cross of Christ has also abolished the ordinances of the law (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14). The top ordinances among the Jews were those concerning circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and the holy diet. There are also countless ordinances in the human race. Ordinances are the forms or ways of living and worship. All of our ordinances have to go to the cross. Then we can have a genuine oneness with harmony in Christ for the Body of Christ.

(Witness Lee, The Spirit, 120-121)

After the three and a half years of His ministry, the Lord Jesus went to the cross and died in order to accomplish an all-inclusive death. The main purpose of His death was not to take away sins, but to release the divine life. He was a grain of wheat falling into the ground to die (John 12:24). A grain of wheat remains the same until it is sown into soil. In the soil it dies, and through death the inner life within the grain is released. The main aspect of Christ’s all-inclusive death was the release of His divine life. The release of the divine life is the dispensing of the divine life.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 32)

The death of Christ on the cross was also a part of the divine dispensing. The death of the incarnated Son released the divine life within Him for the divine dispensing (John 12:24; 19:34). John 12:24 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Within the shell of a grain of wheat is the life of the wheat. For the grain of wheat to die is to release the life within its shell. The life within the shell cannot be released until the shell is broken, and when it is broken, the life within is released to produce many grains. First, it is one grain alone; then it becomes many grains. This is the dispensing of the inner life of the one grain into the many grains. Jesus as the grain of wheat was the divine seed. The divine life was concealed in His “shell.” When Jesus went to the cross and was put to death, He broke through the shell to release His inner life, the divine life, into His many believers, the many grains.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 45)

For the accomplishment of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, the Son went through a further step of crucifixion on the cross. He voluntarily offered Himself to accomplish an all-inclusive death, not only to deal with sin, the old man, Satan, the world, the old creation, and all the negative things, but to release the divine life, as the one grain of wheat falling into the ground, and to dispense it into all the members of His Body (John 12:24).

(Witness Lee, Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, 12-13)

Resurrection

Christ’s death released His divine life, signified by the water flowing out of Him (John 19:34). This is the positive side of Christ’s death. His divine life could be released from within the shell of His humanity (John 12:24) only by death and resurrection. In resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As the life-giving Spirit, He is ready to enter into our spirit. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” He immediately arrives at the destination of our spirit. Our spirit is the destination of His journey.

Christ has taken several steps in His journey through incarnation to be man’s life. His first step was to enter into the womb of a virgin (Matt. 1:23). His second step was to come out of that womb to be a God-man. His third step was to walk on the earth in His human living. The goal of such a walk is the spirit of man. But in order to enter into the spirit of man, Christ had to die on the cross to redeem man, and He had to rise from among the dead to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As the Spirit, He can enter into man. When man calls upon the name of the Lord, He arrives at His destination.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 24)

After He passed through death, the Triune God entered into resurrection. In resurrection, He brought humanity into divinity, making the believers of Christ sons of God and members of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12; Rom. 12:5). To bring humanity into divinity is to bring man into God. The incarnation of the Triune God brought God into man, and His resurrection brought man into God. Through this kind of traffic, a wonderful mingling takes place. Now, in His resurrection, God is mingled with man and man is mingled with God. Thus, man and God, God and man, are one. How wonderful this is! In this mingling, God made the believers of Christ sons of God. These sons of God are human and divine. God can say to His believers, “I am divine and human,” and His believers can reply, “Praise You, Lord. You are divine and human, and we are human and divine.” This was accomplished through His resurrection.

Whenever we live in resurrection, we bring humanity into divinity. This means that when we live in resurrection, we bring ourselves into God, and when we do not live in resurrection, we are outside of God. Thus, resurrection is still going on today. Romans 6:4-5 says that we were buried through baptism into death and were raised to walk in newness of life (v. 4), which is the likeness of Christ’s resurrection (v. 5). As we are living in resurrection, we are one with God and are being brought into God.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 51-52)

After passing through death, the Lord Jesus entered into resurrection. His death released the divine life, and His resurrection applied the divine life. In resurrection He regenerated us (1 Pet. 1:3). We were regenerated two thousand years ago, before our natural birth. Our regeneration preceded our natural birth. Many count our regeneration as our second birth. This is correct, but we must also realize that our second birth took place before our first birth. According to our experience we were first born physically, and then spiritually. But in God’s sight, we were regenerated two thousand years ago at the resurrection of Christ. We know this because the Bible tells us so in 1 Peter 1:3.

Through incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection with regeneration, the processed Triune God is now within us. His being in us is not a small thing. He is no longer in the manger, on the cross, in the tomb, or in Hades. He is not just in the heavens; He is in us. If He were only in the heavens, He would be apart from and far away from us, but He is now with us and in us. He is nearer and dearer to us than anyone. Our wife or husband can be with us, but they can never get into us. Jesus is within us all the time. We are so small, yet the processed and consummated Triune God dwells within us.

In resurrection, the Lord became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). On the evening of the day of His resurrection, He came back to His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). The Holy Spirit here was the holy breath as the processed and consummated Triune God. In eternity He was the Word. He then was conceived in the womb and born as a little babe in a manger. He lived as a man in Nazareth. He began to travel and minister. Eventually, He went to the cross, to the tomb, and to Hades. He then entered into resurrection. In resurrection He became the Spirit to regenerate us. After regenerating us, He stays within us. This wonderful One who was the Word in the beginning is now within us. He is within us as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit, who is the consummated, processed Triune God.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 32-33)

First, God was incarnated to be a man, and God gave Himself in the Son to man that man may receive Him. Then, in order to be man’s life, He went through death to release the divine life within Him. After His crucifixion, Christ resurrected from the dead. The resurrection of the crucified Son imparted the divine life into the regenerated believers for the divine dispensing (John 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:3b). Christ’s death released His divine life from within His human shell, and the resurrection imparted and applied the divine life to us. This application took place at the time we were regenerated. We were all born of the flesh, needing to be reborn of the Spirit. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In our second birth, our spirit was regenerated by the Spirit, who is Christ in resurrection. First Peter 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead.” According to our view, we were regenerated after we were born. However, according to God’s view, we were regenerated when Christ was resurrected nearly two thousand years ago....

In the incarnation God became a man, but in His resurrection, Christ as the last Adam, a man in the flesh, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). The breathing of the pneumatic Christ in His resurrection into the disciples dispensed the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God for the divine dispensing (John 20:22). Christ is rich and has many aspects. He was incarnated to be a man, and He was given to us. Then He died on the cross for us to solve the problem of sin, becoming our Redeemer. Then He resurrected and ascended to heaven to be our Savior. Moreover, He also became a life-giving Spirit to dwell in us. On the cross He was our Redeemer, in the heavens He is our Savior, and within us He is the life-giving Spirit to be our life.

On the evening of the day of His resurrection, He came back to His disciples in a secret and marvelous way. He came into the room where they were, breathed into them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:19-22). John 20 only tells us how Jesus came to the disciples. It does not tell us how He left again. It is difficult to discover where Jesus went after the evening of His resurrection. The Gospels of Mark and Luke tell us that after His resurrection Jesus ascended to the heavens, but there is no such record in the Gospel of John. After Jesus was resurrected, He simply came back to His disciples and breathed Himself into them as the holy breath. From that time Jesus never left them. He was, still is, and will be forever in all His disciples.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 45-47)

Three days after the Son died, He resurrected. In His resurrection, He was transfigured to become the life-giving Spirit. The same evening, Jesus came into the midst of the disciples and appeared to them. He greeted them and breathed a breath into them. In this way, they received the Holy Spirit (John 20:8-9, 19, 22). This Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God attained through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, by which the Triune God is dispensed into the believers.

(Witness Lee, Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, 13)

Ascension

In His ascension Christ ascended above all the heavens (Eph. 4:10) to the height of the universe (Eph. 4:8), far above all in the universe (Eph. 1:21) through the surpassingly great power of God (Eph. 1:19)....

After Christ ascended to the heavens, He was seated on the right hand of God, the Majesty on high (Psa. 110:1a; Heb. 1:3b). This indicates that He has finished His redemptive work on the earth and can thus sit down (Heb. 10:11-12), and also that He has overcome His enemies and is now sitting, waiting for God to make His enemies the footstool for His feet (Psa. 110:1b; Heb. 10:13; 1 Cor. 15:24-25).

When Christ ascended above all the heavens and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, He was given to sit on the throne of God’s dominion (Rev. 3:21) to rule over and administrate the universe for God. Moreover, He was crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9). Glory refers to the splendor related to Christ’s person; honor refers to the preciousness of His worth and the dignity of His position.

(Witness Lee, Truth Lessons, 106-107)

After the Lord’s resurrection, He stayed with the disciples for forty days (Acts 1:3), during which time He made His presence both visible and invisible to them. Then He led them to Jerusalem and then ascended to the third heavens from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12, 9). Through His ascension, the Lord Jesus completed His process. His ascension was the final step in the consummating of the Triune God. All Three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—were fully consummated in the Lord’s ascension.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to be Life to the Tripartite Man, 49-50)

The Processed Triune God

After God came in incarnation that we may have Him as life, God in Christ as the Spirit enters the believers in Christ to be their life through regenerating them (John 3:5-6; 1:13). The phrase God in Christ as the Spirit indicates the Triune God. God refers to God the Father, Christ to God the Son, and the Spirit to God the Spirit. The Triune God enters into the believers as the Spirit because the Spirit today is the consummation of the Triune God. Thus, when the Spirit comes, all Three of the divine Trinity come. The Triune God enters the believers in Christ. In order for the Triune God to enter into us, we must be people who are in Christ. Outside of Christ, there is no possibility for God to enter into us. In Christ, we are rightly positioned and qualified for God to enter into us to be our life.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 30-31)

The Triune God took several crucial steps in being processed to be the life-giving Spirit. First, He was incarnated. As God, He entered into the womb of a human virgin and stayed within that womb for nine months. In this way He took on humanity as His shelter, His dwelling place. His incarnation surely was a process. Second, He lived and walked on this earth, passing through the long “tunnel” of human living for thirty-three and a half years. This also was a process. Third, He entered into death and passed through death, which included the grave and Hades. Fourth, after three days, He walked out of death and Hades and entered into resurrection. His death and resurrection also were a process. After His death and in resurrection, He came to visit His disciples (John 20:19; Luke 24:36). His disciples thought that they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37), and they could not understand how He could come into the room without the doors being opened. Three days earlier, the Lord Jesus had taken bread with them in His body of flesh (Luke 22:19), but when He came into the room that night, He came in His resurrected body. The Lord Jesus told them to look at His hands and feet and to handle Him, saying, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you behold Me having” (Luke 24:39). How could these things be? In responding to such questions, it is wise to say that we do not know the answer.

After the Lord’s resurrection, He stayed with the disciples for forty days (Acts 1:3), during which time He made His presence both visible and invisible to them. Then He led them to Jerusalem and then ascended to the third heavens from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12, 9). Through His ascension, the Lord Jesus completed His process. His ascension was the final step in the consummating of the Triune God. All Three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—were fully consummated in the Lord’s ascension.

The word consummation indicates that a work or a process has been completed, or finished. This may be illustrated by the cooking of food. Before the process of cooking begins, all the groceries are raw. After cooking for two hours, the groceries are consummated into a feast. Before His incarnation, God was “raw,” having the divine nature but not the human nature. Through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, God was processed and consummated. Now, He is no longer the “raw” God; He is the consummated and completed Triune God with divinity, humanity, human living, the all-inclusive death, the powerful resurrection, and the transcendent ascension. All these are elements, or ingredients, in the processed and consummated Triune God.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 49-50)

Through the steps of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Triune God has been consummated to be the compound, all-inclusive, indwelling Spirit (Exo. 30:25). This Spirit is the processed and consummated Triune God. In Exodus 30, an ointment was prepared, and this ointment was called a compound ointment because it was made from oil compounded with four different spices (vv. 22-25). This compound ointment is a type of the compound Spirit, who is the Triune God compounded with humanity, the all-inclusive death of Christ, the all-powerful resurrection of Christ, and the transcending ascension of Christ. This compound Spirit is the consummated Triune God.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 52)

In John 14 the Lord was helping His disciples to realize the Divine Trinity. The Divine Trinity is embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9). As the embodiment of the Triune God, the Son was a Comforter to all of His disciples. But because of His coming death, the disciples may have thought that they would lose the Lord as their Comforter. For this reason, the Lord prepared His disciples by telling them that He would ask the Father to give them another Comforter. The second Comforter would be the first Comforter in another form (John 14:16-20).

In Matthew 28:20 the “I” is Immanuel. In John 14 the “I” who will come in verse 18 is the Spirit of reality in verse 17. There is a progression in the divine revelation from the Gospel of Matthew to the Gospel of John. Today the Spirit of reality is Immanuel. In Acts and the Epistles, the Spirit of reality is the very presence of the consummated Triune God in our spirit. He, the Triune God, is with us, the tripartite man, mainly in an inward way. The Triune God cannot complete His intention to dispense Himself into our being outside of us. Therefore, His being with us must be inward.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 89)

In order to work Himself into His creation, God had to go through a process. Before His incarnation, God was merely the Triune God in His divinity. After going through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The life-giving Spirit has humanity as well as divinity. He also has the element of human living within Him. All the elements of God’s process have been compounded into the life-giving Spirit. This compound Spirit is typified by the compound ointment in Exodus 30:23-25. In Exodus 30 the anointing oil was a compound of five elements: myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, cassia, and olive oil. These five elements denote the divinity, humanity, death, and resurrection of Christ. The hin of olive oil signifies the unique God as the base of the compound Spirit. The four spices signify the humanity of Christ. Myrrh typifies the precious death of Christ. Cinnamon typifies the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ’s death. Calamus signifies the precious resurrection of Christ, and cassia signifies the power of Christ’s resurrection (For further reading, see Life-study of Exodus, Messages 157 through 166, pp. 1679-1776.) These four spices were added into the olive oil signifying that the elements of Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection were added into the Spirit of God. Eventually, Christ as the last Adam, the God-man, became the life-giving Spirit with all the elements of His divinity and humanity. This Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God. Thus, when we say the life-giving Spirit, we must remember all the elements which have been compounded into this Spirit—His divinity, humanity, human living, death, and resurrection. The life-giving Spirit is such an all-inclusive person as the totality of the processed Triune God.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 102-103)

After the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Third of the Divine Trinity, has become the life-giving Spirit as the aggregate of the Divine Trinity, the consummated, compound Spirit of the processed Triune God, even the consummation of the processed God (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 7:39; Matt. 28:19b; Phil. 1:19b; Rev. 22:17). The life-giving Spirit is too great. He is the aggregate, the totality, of the Divine Trinity. The aggregate of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is the life-giving Spirit. He is the consummated, compound Spirit of the processed Triune God....

Today the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is the consummation of the processed Triune God. If we would experience God today as the consummated God, we have to experience the Spirit. Day by day, morning until evening, our Christian life, our Christian walk, and our Christian experience are all a matter of enjoying the consummation of the processed Triune God, who is the life-giving Spirit. From the day that I saw this, my whole Christian life was revolutionized.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 133-134)

Through incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection with regeneration, the processed Triune God is now within us. His being in us is not a small thing. He is no longer in the manger, on the cross, in the tomb, or in Hades. He is not just in the heavens; He is in us. If He were only in the heavens, He would be apart from and far away from us, but He is now with us and in us. He is nearer and dearer to us than anyone. Our wife or husband can be with us, but they can never get into us. Jesus is within us all the time. We are so small, yet the processed and consummated Triune God dwells within us.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 32-33)

Experiencing God’s Economy

We should not expect to have a spectacular time each day in receiving the divine dispensing. I recently spoke a word to the trainees in the full-time training concerning their daily spiritual life. I told them not to expect to have a spectacular result in their Christian life. We should forget about having something spectacular. We must learn to be satisfied with ordinary days which are filled with regular and normal practices in the divine dispensing. In the morning we should have some time with the Lord to touch Him and be revived by Him. Then we need to pass through a daily routine to get ready for work. To live a life in the divine dispensing in a normal way will make us healthy both physically and spiritually. Whether or not we have good or bad days is not up to us; it is up to His sovereignty. He has already chosen us, and it is too late to turn back. We are blessed because the processed and consummated Triune God is within us. He is in us, not in a spectacular way but in a very ordinary way.

We should be blessed to be satisfied with ordinary days in the divine dispensing. The Triune God is certainly in us, but His being in us is not spectacular. Every day He is within us dispensing and positively strengthening and encouraging us. In the last three years, I have experienced many troubles, yet nothing has disturbed me. I have published more messages, I have visited more places, and I have held more conferences. However, this is not because I have had spectacular days. I have just lived an ordinary life of receiving His dispensing. The Epistles reveal that the work of Christ within us is a fine work of dispensing. I cannot tell you how much the fine dispensing has been going on within me during these last three years. Our destiny is to live an ordinary life in the divine dispensing. Our Father God has destined that we live in an ordinary way under His continual dispensing.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 37-38)

Now, God has accomplished this divine dispensing. What glad tidings these are! All things are ready. We can now come to the feast (Luke 14:17) to breathe God in and to eat and drink of God, that is, to breathe in the pneumatic Christ as air, that Christ may be mingled in breath with us for our existence (John 20:22), and to drink of the pneumatic Christ as the living water, that Christ may be mingled organically with us in our living (John 4:10, 14; 7:37-38), and to eat of Christ as our spiritual food in the living word of life, that Christ may be mingled organically with us in life-element (John 6:48, 57b-58a). Hence, whatever we have breathed, drunk, and eaten into us become ours. Not only is it joined to us, but it is mingled with us. In this way, all that God is and has, becomes ours. We have God’s life and nature. We also have justification, sanctification, and redemption, together with all the human virtues, such as patience, humility, and obedience.

As long as we would continually breathe Him in and eat and drink of Him day by day, we will spontaneously grow in the bountiful supply of Christ as the true vine, and we will be bountifully supplied organically in the matter of fruit-bearing (John 15:1, 4-5).

(Witness Lee, Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, 14)

This divine dispensing of God is a matter in life. We know that everything that has to do with life is not peculiar, but is very normal. For us to have God inside of us does not necessarily mean that we will have some unusual feelings. When a person has God, he simply has Him. But when he has a problem with God, immediately he will feel wrong within. This shows that God is indeed within him. Since God’s dispensing, which is His giving to us of the Spirit, is without measure, we should fellowship with Him in a faithful way, and we should allow the Lord to fill us with His Spirit. In this way, He Himself will be dispensed into us in a rich way. This is not the so-called filling of the Holy Spirit known in the Pentecostal movement, which is claimed to produce strange feelings and peculiar occurrences. Rather, this is a genuine receiving of God’s dispensing and an enjoyment of God Himself.

Every day we should have this kind of filling of the Spirit and this kind of dispensing from God. We have to know that for everything there is the need of time. Today, the Triune God has accomplished His divine dispensing. But on our part, there is still a step we need to take to receive His dispensing, which is to spend time to come to Him and to contact Him. For this reason, every day we need a definite time to fellowship with the Lord, to experience His presence, to receive Him within, and to be filled by Him.

(Witness Lee, Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, 20)

Regeneration

After being consummated, the Triune God comes into us to be the generating factor and element. God has regenerated us. Regeneration is more than having a new life put into us. Regeneration means that a life has come into us to germinate, to generate, in order to change our being and to give us a new start. In other words, a life has come into us that has given us a new beginning of a different kind of being. Formerly, we were one kind of being. Now, through regeneration we have the beginning of a new being. This is the way God enters into us.

God enters into us to regenerate us through the living word of God (1 Pet. 1:23; James 1:18). First Peter 1:23 says that we were “regenerated, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.” When I read this verse as a young man, I was bothered because my experience of regeneration did not seem to match what it reveals. It seemed that at the time of my regeneration I did not receive any word or verse from the Bible at all. I had only heard a message concerning God based on the record in the book of Exodus. Since my regeneration, I have checked with many other believers, and only a few have had the experience of being regenerated through a particular verse from the Bible. One such person was a young man who got saved through the help of a brother who used John 3:16. The brother helped the young man to read John 3:16. First, they read it together as it was in the New Testament. Then the brother asked the young man to read it by substituting “me” for “the world.” So he read, “For God so loved me.” Through this kind of reading, the young man was saved. However, most of us were saved in a general way by listening to a message.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 31-32)

After passing through death, the Lord Jesus entered into resurrection. His death released the divine life, and His resurrection applied the divine life. In resurrection He regenerated us (1 Pet. 1:3). We were regenerated two thousand years ago, before our natural birth. Our regeneration preceded our natural birth. Many count our regeneration as our second birth. This is correct, but we must also realize that our second birth took place before our first birth. According to our experience we were first born physically, and then spiritually. But in God’s sight, we were regenerated two thousand years ago at the resurrection of Christ. We know this because the Bible tells us so in 1 Peter 1:3.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 32)

Breathing

The Gospel of John has two lines concerning the divine dispensing. First, the wonderful Christ was God. Then He was incarnated and was given to us as the Son. Following this He died, resurrected, and became the life-giving Spirit to breathe Himself into His disciples. This is the first line. However, the Gospel of John has another line, showing us how Jesus is dispensed into us. In regeneration, Christ came into us and we were born again. However, after a child is born, he needs to breathe, drink, and eat. The pneumatic Christ is for the believer’s breathing, dispensing the divine essence into them. The living water is given by Christ in resurrection, dispensing the divine riches into the believers (4:14). The resurrected Christ is eaten by the believers and indwells them, dispensing the divine elements into them for their satisfaction (6:56-58a). In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus said that He is the bread of life (vv. 35, 48), the bread out of heaven (v. 32), the bread of God (v. 33), and the living bread (v. 51) that we may eat Him.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 47)

Eating

God not only desires that man be His vessel to contain Him (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7), but also wants man to eat, digest, and assimilate Him (John 6:57). When we eat, digest, and assimilate physical food, we are energized and strengthened. The food that we eat is dispensed into our blood, and through the blood into every part of our body. Eventually, the food that we have eaten becomes the fiber, tissue, and cells of our being. In the same way, God’s eternal plan is to dispense Himself into us so that He becomes every fiber of our inward being. He wants to be digested and assimilated by us so that He can become the constituent of our inward being.

God created man in His image so that man could contain Him. A container is always in the image or shape of the content it is destined to contain. If the content is round, the container must also be round. The creation of man in God’s image is for the dispensing of God into man. After man was created, God placed him in front of the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9). Then immediately, God warned man about his eating (vv. 16-17). If man ate of the tree of life, he would live; but if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. The tree of life signifies God Himself. Today, God is our food; He is edible. In John 6 Jesus said that He was the bread of life (vv. 35, 48), and in verse 57 He said, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” We need to eat Jesus.

To be a Christian is more than just repenting of our sins, receiving the forgiveness of sins, being washed by the blood, being justified, and being regenerated. The Christian life also includes growth and maturity. In order to go on from regeneration to maturity, we must eat. Regeneration is the beginning of our spiritual life, but we need to eat after our regeneration. No one can grow without eating. We must eat, digest, and assimilate food daily. Assimilation is the final step of food being dispensed into our being. We need to eat, digest, and assimilate Jesus as our spiritual food day by day.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 9-10)

The oneness that God desires with man is illustrated by what takes place when we eat, digest, and assimilate food. When you eat a sandwich, your stomach works to digest and assimilate the contents of that sandwich. Another word for this process is dispensing. Digestion and assimilation are dispensing. After a few hours, the sandwich disappears within you to become one with you. Eventually, the sandwich is mingled with you. This is the kind of oneness God desires to have with man. To obtain this oneness God has made Himself edible. He is the bread of life (John 6:35, 57)....

Our God is good for food. He is not only good for salvation and redemption; He is also good for food. In John 6:51 Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever.” In the wilderness the children of Israel ate manna every day (Exo. 16:14-15, 21). They lived on that supply of manna for forty years. In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus revealed Himself as the real manna. He should not be eaten only once a year but every day. Jesus is our daily manna. We must eat Him every day.

We need to eat Him every day, and we need to be revived by Him each day. In the ancient time, the Israelites had to collect the manna before the rising of the sun, because when the sun became hot, the manna melted (Exo. 16:21). It is the same with our practice of morning revival. We must rise up early. If you are lazy and like to sleep late in the morning, you will miss the manna. You need to rise earlier, before the rising of the sun, in order to pick up Christ as your daily manna. You must eat Christ. This is the divine thought in the divine Word.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 30-31)

Our Human Spirit

The Triune God as the life-giving Spirit desires to give life to man, but if man did not have a spirit to receive and contain Him, the Triune God would be unable to give life to man. Rain may fall on a stone for many hours, but the stone will be unable to receive the water, because it does not have a proper receiver to receive the water. However, if rain falls on a sponge, after a short time the water will soak and saturate the sponge, because the sponge has a proper receiver for the water. Eventually, the sponge will be mingled with the water. This illustrates how man with his spirit is a receiver and a container for the divine life....

The tripartite man was created with a spirit to be the receiver and container of the divine life (Gen. 2:7; Prov. 20:27). Genesis 2:7 says that when God created man. He breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. This breath of life became man’s spirit. In Proverbs 20:27, the word for spirit is the Hebrew word neshamah, the same word used in Genesis 2:7 for breath. The breath of life mentioned in Genesis 2:7 is the very spirit of man. Proverbs 20:27 says that the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. When we exercised our spirit to believe in the Lord, the compound Spirit immediately entered into us. After receiving Him, we contain Him as the Spirit of life.

When I first began to travel in the United States in 1963, I spoke on the human spirit wherever I went. Many people told me that they had never heard of such a thing before. The verses I would give them to substantiate my speaking were John 4:24, John 3:6, and Romans 8:16. In each of these verses, the two spirits—the divine Spirit and the human spirit—are mentioned. As I read these verses to them, many people were enlightened. In those days, I was perhaps the only person in the United States who was speaking about the human spirit. Today, however, many people have picked up the truth of the human spirit and are speaking about it.

Our human spirit is like our stomach. Our physical stomach is a receiver and container for our daily food. Every day we receive food through our mouth. Our mouth is the opening for our stomach, and our stomach is the container for the food that we take in. While the stomach contains the food, it also digests and assimilates it. Eventually, whatever the stomach assimilates is distributed to the cells. Our spirit is our spiritual stomach. Every day we must eat spiritually. The Lord Jesus said that He was eatable (John 6:35, 51, 57) and that we need to come to Him and drink (John 7:37). By eating and drinking, we receive the Triune God as our spiritual food.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 53-55)

Growth

The work of assimilation is a good illustration of dispensing. Immediately after eating, the fine work of dispensing begins in order to dispense the food into the cells, fibers, and tissues of our being. In the same way, the dispensing of the Triune God is to make the processed and consummated Triune God the very constitution of our being. This fine work of dispensing continues day by day and will be finalized when the sealing ink of the Spirit permeates through our entire body (Eph. 1:13-14). This will be the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23) when we are glorified.

The dispensing of the Triune God into us causes us to grow with the increase of God (Col. 2:19). For anything to grow it must increase with some element or substance. Human beings grow by the food they take in. If you do not eat anything, you cannot grow. We Christians grow with the increase, the surplus, the addition, of God. God entered into us when we were regenerated. Now He is increasing within us by adding more of Himself to us. However, the amount of God each brother or sister has differs.

To have the Lord increase within us, we must come to the Word of God to eat each day. The first stanza of Hymns, #811 shows how we must come to the Lord to be fed by Him:

My heart is hungry, my spirit doth thirst;
I come to Thee, Lord, to seek Thy supply;

All that I need is none other but Thee,
Thou canst my hunger and thirst satisfy.

Feed me, Lord Jesus, give me to drink,
Fill all my hunger, quench all my thirst;

Flood me with joy, be the strength of my life,
Fill all my hunger, quench all my thirst.

We also must pray in order to be fed by the Lord. Many times, I do not have the time to close my door, kneel down, and pray, but I can say that I often have a spirit of prayer. I have a kind of aspiration within me, and this aspiration causes me to breathe the Lord in very much. It causes me to inhale the living, processed, consummated God into my being.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 33-34)

Transformation

We are saved in the divine life of Christ from our natural being by the transformation of the life-giving Spirit (Rom. 12:2b). Transformation is not merely a change in outward appearance. Transformation is an inward, metabolic change, which involves something organic. Suppose I am pale in my facial color. I can put different colors on my face in order to change the color of my face. That would be a change, not a transformation, of the color of my face.

Transformation is an entirely different thing. Transformation is a metabolic change. This metabolic change includes the introduction of something organic into a living entity, thereby causing an inward change. Such a metabolic change is the addition of a new substance into our being which, on the one hand, nourishes our being with new elements, and on the other hand, discharges the old things from our being. The old things are discharged, and the new elements are mingled with our being. This causes a metabolic change. Paul used the word transform in order to stress the need of an organic change. This organic change is brought about by the divine element being added into our being to discharge the elements of our old nature and to supply us with new elements. We are transformed by the life-giving Spirit from our natural being. You may be a person who is very nice, mild, and kind by birth. Everyone may like you. But you have to realize that this is your natural being, and it must be transformed.

Transformation is by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2b). Formerly, our mind was set on the flesh. Now, we must change the position of our mind by setting it on the spirit. The mind set on the spirit is life and peace (Rom. 8:6). Changing the position of our mind will transform our mind.

We are transformed by the metabolism in the element of the divine life (Col. 3:4). Christ is our life. In any kind of organic life, there is an organic element. Christ is the organic element which grows within us and transforms us.

(Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, 71-72)

The church

The issue of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity through the Father’s choosing and predestinating, the Son’s redeeming, and the Spirit’s sealing is the church (Eph. 1:22b)....

The church as the issue of the divine dispensing is through the transmission, the dispensing, of the resurrected and ascended Christ (Eph. 1:19-22a). God’s power was wrought in Christ in raising Him from among the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies. Christ was raised from among the dead in Hades to the throne of God in the third heaven. Everything was subjected under His feet, and He was made Head over all things to the church. The word to in verse 22 implies a transmission. Whatever God has wrought in Christ is transmitted and is being transmitted to the church.

(Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, 14-15)

God’s goal is the church, and the church is a corporate matter. The book of Ephesians reveals the church in seven major aspects: the Body (1:22-23), the new man (2:15), the kingdom (2:19), the household (2:19), the dwelling place of God (2:21-22), the bride, the wife, of Christ (5:23-32), and the warrior (6:10-20). These aspects of the church are all corporate matters. Throughout the centuries of church history, the problems, the confusion, and the divisions took place due to the saints not seeing the corporate church of God. In the past the saints saw something concerning such items as God’s salvation, sanctification, and the need of being spiritual, keeping the holy Word, not loving the world, and being for the Lord’s interest and work on this earth. They also saw that we need to labor to win souls and that we need to be enthusiastic for evangelism to the extent that we would go to other lands for the spread of the gospel. However, all of these items are not God’s goal but are the means to reach His goal. God has only one goal. God’s goal is unique. God’s ultimate goal is the church.

The church is not something merely for the future. Today is the dispensation, the age, of the church. The next age is the age of the kingdom of a thousand years. The church is for now; the church is for today. God’s goal is to have a church today, a church in this dispensation, a church on this earth. Many dear saints throughout the centuries received light on many things in the Bible, but they missed the mark of God’s divine economy and the goal of God’s eternal purpose. The Lord desires to fulfill His purpose and to make His goal so clear to all His loving seekers.

(Witness Lee, The History of the Church and the Local Churches, 7-8)

If we read the New Testament carefully, we will see the importance of the church. The New Testament reveals that without the church Christ would be isolated and unable to do anything. The New Testament especially reveals that the church is the heart’s desire of God. God’s desire in this age is to have the church.

We need to pray that we may see the importance of the church. The work of gospel preaching, the work of edifying the saints, and the work of teaching the Bible should all be for the church. Gospel preaching must not be for gospel preaching—it must be for the church. The edification of the saints must not be just for edification—it must be for the church. Teaching the Bible must not be simply for teaching the Bible—it must be for the church. In God’s intention and according to His purpose, all such works are for the church. Even all the saved persons are for the church. We were saved not for ourselves and not merely for our salvation; we were saved for the building up of the church. The church is God’s heart’s desire.

We need to be impressed with the importance of the church and pray concerning this. Then we will no longer be indifferent about the matter of the church. We will see that what must come first is the church, not the preaching of the gospel, not the edification of the saints, and not the teaching of the Bible. The building up of the church should be our top priority.

(Witness Lee, The Heavenly Vision, 17-18)

The local church

Secondly, we must see that the church is very practical. It is not just a vision. It is not just a teaching or something in the heavens, but an intensely practical matter. We must have a practical church. We should not have a church in our thoughts, in teaching, or even in vision, but in practice. We all need to pray that we will see the practicality of the church. The New Testament does not give much doctrine concerning the church, but it does give us a full picture of the practice of the church. People today may have the doctrine of the church, but the Bible has the practice of the church....

The church in Jerusalem in the early days was visible, real, and practical. The church in Antioch was visible, real, and practical. The church in every city today must also be visible, real, and practical. We cannot say that the church is invisible and for the future....

Can you find a verse in the New Testament telling us that the church is in the heavens? You cannot. But we do have the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1), the church at Cenchrea (Rom. 16:1), the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), and the church in so many other cities. They are the local churches. Eventually at the end of the New Testament, in the book of Revelation, we have a picture of seven churches in seven cities. It is so clear. The practical expression of the church must be local. We need to see this...

In the Bible, we find the principle of one church for each city—no more, no less. In the entire New Testament this principle is never violated. Whenever a church in a certain city is mentioned, it is always in the singular number. Whenever reference is made to the churches, in the plural number, it is always in relation to an area or district which is larger than a city, such as a province. There is nothing in the Bible about street churches, school churches, churches in a home, or, on the other hand, national churches or world churches. There are only churches in cities. You may say that there are some instances of a church in a home recorded in the Bible. But if you read carefully, you will see that in every case these simply refer to the home in which the entire church in that city met. The boundary of the church is not limited to a home; neither is it expanded to a district or nation. In the Bible, it is always according to the size of the city. A church that encompasses the whole city meets the qualification of the unique unity.

(Witness Lee, The Vision of the Church, 3-10)

Can you find a verse in the New Testament telling us that the church is in the heavens? There is no such verse. The New Testament speaks of the church in Jerusalem, the church in Antioch, the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), the church in Ephesus (Rev. 2:1), and the church in other cities (Rom. 16:1). All these churches may be called local churches. At the end of the New Testament, we have a picture of seven churches in seven cities (Rev. 1:4, 11; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). In the New Testament it is very clear that the practical expression of the church must be local. We need to see this.

(Witness Lee, The Heavenly Vision, 19)

The reason for this limitation is that the church in the city, the local expression of the church, keeps the unity, the unique oneness, of the church. As long as we have the city church in Los Angeles, we are one. But if instead of the church in Los Angeles, we have street churches, or avenue churches, we will be divided. There will be a Westmoreland Avenue Church and an Elden Avenue Church. We would also be divided if we had churches in different houses, for there would be a church in the house of one brother and a different church in the house of another brother.

(Witness Lee, The Heavenly Vision, 22)

The New Jerusalem

The New Jerusalem is the finalization of the completed divine revelation of the entire Scripture—the aggregate of the fulfillment of all the prophecies, types, figures, and foreshadows. It is the conclusion of the entire apostles’ teaching, beginning from the incarnation of God. The purpose of God’s incarnation was to produce the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the enlargement, the expansion, of God. Before creation God merely possessed divinity. But the New Testament reveals that God has been processed and consummated. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God. Such a New Jerusalem is the enlargement of God with the divine element, the human element, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the ascension of Christ compounded and mingled together with His chosen, redeemed, transformed, and glorified people. (Witness Lee, The Apostles’ Teaching, 137-138)

The New Jerusalem is a mutual abode. The Triune God in eternity will abide in His chosen people, and His chosen people will abide in Him. His chosen people will be His abode, and He Himself will be their abode. This is why the New Jerusalem, the holy city, is on the one hand, a temple, and on the other hand, a tabernacle. It is a tabernacle for God’s dwelling and a temple for our dwelling, in which we live to serve God. The New Jerusalem will be a tabernacle to God and a temple to us.

(Witness Lee, Living in and with the Divine Trinity, 104-105)

The New Jerusalem is a matter of dispensing, mingling, and expression. First, the processed Triune God is dispensed into His chosen people. Then the processed, consummated Triune God mingles Himself with His redeemed and regenerated tripartite people to perfect, transform, and glorify them. Eventually, there will be the universal and eternal expression of the processed and consummated Triune God. Therefore, with respect to the New Jerusalem, the words dispensing, mingling, and expression are very meaningful....This city, the New Jerusalem, will be the ultimate consummation of the divine dispensing and the divine mingling for the eternal and ultimate expression of the processed Triune God. May we all have a clear view of this marvelous entity.

(Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, 2676-2677)

If the New Jerusalem were an actual city made of gold, pearls, and precious stones, this would mean that a material city was the conclusion of the entire divine revelation. This is not logical. God has been working throughout the ages, first creating the universe and man and then coming to earth to redeem man. The Lord Jesus, the God-man, lived on earth, He was crucified and resurrected, He ascended, and He poured Himself out as the Spirit upon His disciples. The disciples then went out to preach the gospel. As a result of the preaching of the gospel, throughout the centuries people have been saved and added to the church in order to be built up as the Body of Christ to express Him. To be sure, the final outcome of all this will not be a material city....

The New Jerusalem is the last and greatest sign in the Bible, and we all need the proper interpretation and understanding of this sign. As a sign the New Jerusalem indicates that God, through creation, incarnation, redemption, resurrection, ascension, and all His transforming and building work, will gain a living composition of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people to be His dwelling place and His counterpart to fully satisfy and express Him for eternity.

(Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, 2688-2689)

The New Jerusalem will be one with the redeeming Christ, as Eve became one with Adam. Eve was builded from a rib that was taken out of Adam’s side, and then she was brought back to him to be one flesh with him—to be one with him in nature and in life (Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:25-27, 29-32). The principle is the same with the New Jerusalem as the wife of the redeeming Christ. She will be one with her Redeemer in nature and in life. Once again we see that the New Jerusalem cannot be a material city, for a physical city cannot be one with Christ in nature and in life. The New Jerusalem will not only have the divine element added to it and the holy nature of God wrought into it but will also be one with the redeeming Christ in nature and in life.

(Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, 2700-2701)

The New Jerusalem is the holy city (Rev. 21:2, 10). The designation holy city signifies that the New Jerusalem is a city sanctified and separated unto God for the fulfilling of His purpose. As the holy city of God, the New Jerusalem is holy, sanctified, fully separated unto God, and thoroughly saturated with God’s holy nature to be His habitation. This holy city is thoroughly permeated and mingled with God. This great city is utterly separated unto God and saturated with Him. The New Jerusalem is both sanctified and separated unto God positionally and sanctified and saturated with God dispositionally. It is holy both extrinsically and intrinsically. It is an entity, entirely and thoroughly holy, that fits in with God’s holy nature for His expression to fulfill the desire of His heart.

(Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, 2705)

The three gates on each side of the holy city signify that the three of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—work together to bring people into the city. This is indicated by the three parables in Luke 15. These parables concern the shepherd and the lost sheep, the woman and the lost coin, and the father and the returned prodigal son. The shepherd refers to the Son; the father, of course, refers to the Father; and the woman signifies the Spirit. In order for a sinner to be brought back to the Father’s house, there is the need of the Son, the shepherd, to bring back the lost sheep; there is the need of the Spirit to enlighten the hearts of people that they may repent; and there is the need of the Father to receive the returned and repentant prodigal son. Hence, the Triune God is the entrance to God’s dwelling, the holy city.

(Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, 2726)

Revelation 21:21 tells us that the street of the holy city is pure gold. The street is part of the city proper, and every part of the city proper is gold. We have seen that gold signifies the nature of God. After we enter into the New Jerusalem, we must walk on the divine nature as our way. As we walk on the golden street, we are spontaneously regulated, for a street regulates. In the New Jerusalem everyone is regulated by the unique street, by the golden nature of God within us....

The throne in the New Jerusalem is for God’s administration. God is the One who had a purpose and who made a plan in eternity past and who created all things for the fulfillment of His plan. The Lamb is the One who redeemed us, the One who accomplished a full redemption to fulfill God’s plan. Thus, the throne of God and of the Lamb denotes that this throne is to carry out God’s plan through Christ’s redemption. Both God’s plan and Christ’s redemption are being carried out through this throne. The throne is the source from which the river of water of life flows, and the river flows with the tree of life growing in it (22:2). The throne for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose is to flow out God Himself that by this flow of life His purpose may be accomplished.

(Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, 2734-2735)

Bibliography

Witness Lee. The Conclusion of the New Testament (Msgs. 265-275). Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 2000.

Witness Lee. The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1990.

Witness Lee. The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1983.

Witness Lee. The Economy and Dispensing of God. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1990.

Witness Lee. The Heavenly Vision. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1997.

Witness Lee. The History of the Church and the Local Churches. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of Numbers. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1990.

Witness Lee. Living in and with the Divine Trinity. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1990.

Witness Lee. The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1992.

Witness Lee. The Spirit. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1990.

Witness Lee. The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1996.

Witness Lee, Truth Lessons (Level One, Volume 2). Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1986.

Witness Lee. The Vision of the Church. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1986.

Witness Lee. The Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1990.

Witness Lee. The World Situation and the Direction of the Lord’s Move Today. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1982.

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