Introducing The Economy of God

God is marvelously great, and He is a God of purpose. Hence, the great God ought to have a great purpose. The Lord revealed this great purpose to the Apostle Paul. In Ephesians Paul reveals that God has a desire in His heart, something He wants to obtain that will satisfy Him and make Him happy (1:9). He wants to have someone who is an extension of Himself, His counterpart, who is a further, or enlarged, expression of Himself in this universe. It is no accident that Genesis 1:26 emphasize that God created man in His own image and after His own likeness. Moreover, as we will see later, it is for this purpose that God created the heavens, the earth, and a spirit within man (Zech. 12:1). It is by this organ that the rich and bountiful God dispenses all His riches into man so that man can express God as the church, which is the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15) and the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph 4:12). To carry this out, He needs a plan, an arrangement, which the Bible calls an economy (Eph. 1:10). If we study the Bible carefully, we will realize that God's economy is the central thought from Genesis to Revelation. We could say that the Bible is an account of God and His economy. The book The Economy of God is an excellent guide that allows us to go through the entire Bible so that we can appreciate how the Divine Trinity has operated —and continues to operate today— with the goal of obtaining His dwelling place on earth.

The focus of the book The Economy of God is not a theological or doctrinal study, but it presents a revelation that leads us into deeper experiences of Christ. The first five chapters of the book show us how God, after going through many steps, enters into the spirit of man. This is the beginning of a long process which is described in detail in chapters 6 through 19. In these chapters, we see the experience of God's dispensing from our spirit into every part of our inner being, as the apostle Paul mentioned in Ephesians 3:17, "that Christ may make His home in your hearts." In this phrase, we have the experience of God imparting Himself into man to fulfill His purpose. These chapters are of great help in knowing how our heart is composed and how we can give God full access to each of its "chambers".

Chapters 20 through 24 help us see that we are not only individual believers but also members of one Body, as revealed in Romans 12:5, “So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” There is a tendency among some believers to emphasize the individual aspect of the Christian life, but the revelation of God's purpose makes us more aware that we are part of something corporate. It may be our concept that being one with others is an impossibility. That is exactly so; in our original state, we cannot be one with others no matter how hard we try. Therefore, we praise the Lord because He has an economy in which He imparts His element into us. As we enjoy His daily dispensing, His element in us will make us God's house more and more, and thus He will fulfill His eternal purpose.

It is our prayer that everyone who reads this book will gain a deep appreciation of God’s purpose and his economy. When a Christian sees how God operates within the believer in the context of His eternal purpose to obtain a corporate expression of Himself, the meaning of Romans 8:28 becomes clear.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

The one who sees this will realize that nothing related to our lives has happened by chance. Everything is arranged according to God’s economy to make us part of His corporate expression. May His goal become our goal and may we give Him our full cooperation!

Book Spotlight - The Economy of God

The Mark of God's Economy

In simple words, God’s economy is to work Himself into us, and in order to accomplish this He must do it in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

The ultimate consummation of all God’s work of creation, redemption, and transformation is the universal mingling of God with man. Thus, the New Jerusalem comes into existence as the ultimate result of all of God’s work as recorded in the sixty-six books of the Scriptures. This result is nothing other than the universal mingling of God with man. The New Jerusalem is a mingling of God Himself with a corporate body of people. At that time they will no longer be natural, but every part and every aspect will have been regenerated, transformed, and conformed by God and with God as life. They will have been transformed in nature and conformed in appearance to God Himself. If we are going to serve the Lord in a proper way, we need to have this vision. This vision is not new; it is the original vision from the beginning of the church age. But it must be new and renewed day by day in us. It must be the controlling vision of all our work, life, and activity. (The Economy of God, pp. 335-336)