THE DIVINE DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY FOR THE DIVINE ECONOMY
Message Three
Living in the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Romans 8
Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2, 10, 6, 11, 28-29; 12:1-2
I. The key to being an overcomer is the law of the Spirit of life in Romans 8, a chapter for desperate seekers—7:24—8:2, 28-29; Psa. 105:4:
A. Romans 7 is the experience of being "in the flesh"; Romans 8 is the experience of being "in the spirit" (the divine Spirit dwelling in our human spirit and these two mingled together to be one spirit)—vv. 4, 9-10, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22.
B. The enjoyment of the law of the Spirit of life in Romans 8 ushers us into the reality of the Body of Christ in Romans 12; this law operates within us as we live in the Body and for the Body—8:2, 28-29; 12:1-2, 11; Phil. 1:19.
II. Romans 8 is the focus of the entire Bible and the center of the universe; thus, if we are experiencing Romans 8, we are in the center of the universe:
A. In eternity past God purposed to enter into His redeemed people so that He could be their life and so that they could be His corporate expression; this is the focus of God's economy—Eph. 1:3-5.
B. Man is the center of God's creation because God's intention is to be expressed through man; man can become God's expression only by God entering into man to be man's life and content and to make man one with Him so that man may live by Him and even live Him out; in this way God is expressed from within man.
C. Zechariah 12:1 says, "Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him":
1. The spirit of man is ranked with the heavens and the earth because our spirit is the location where God desires to dwell—Eph. 2:22; cf. 2 Tim. 4:22.
2. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man was created by God with a spirit so that he may contact God, receive God, worship God, live God, fulfill God's purpose for God, and be one with God.
D. The central focus in the universe is that the processed Triune God has come into us and now dwells in us; this is the greatest miracle; nothing else in the universe could be more important than this—Isa. 66:1-2; John 14:23; 15:4.
E. We should all be full of joy since the Triune God is indwelling us and is one with us; He is our life and our person, and He is making us His home—Eph. 3:14-17.
F. The Triune God has been processed through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to become the law of the Spirit of life installed in our spirit as a "scientific" law, an automatic principle; this is one of the biggest discoveries, even recoveries, in God's economy—Rom. 8:2-3, 10-11, 34, 16.
G. The Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the indwelling Spirit in Romans 8:2, 9-11 all refer to the compound Spirit who gives life—cf. Exo. 30:22-25; Phil. 1:19; 1 Cor. 15:45b:
1. In the expression the Spirit of God, the Spirit and God are in apposition, indicating that the Spirit and God are one—Rom. 8:9.
2. Similarly, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead, and the Spirit of life in Romans 8 indicate that the Spirit is Christ, the resurrecting One, and life; therefore, since the Spirit indwells us, all three of the Triune God are in us as life—vv. 9, 11, 2.
3. The Spirit in Romans 8 is the all-inclusive Spirit as the ultimate consummation and the reaching, the application, of the Triune God to us.
4. The Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit is within us for us to experience and enjoy by taking Him as our life and our person; we are the container of the Triune God—2 Cor. 4:7.
H. When we received the Lord by believing into Him, He functioned as the law of the Spirit of life to dispense Himself as the divine, uncreated life of God (Gk. zoe) into our spirit; we all need to see the great revelation that at least one part of our being, our spirit, is zoe; when we set our mind on the spirit, our mind, which represents our soul, becomes zoe; also, zoe can be imparted through the operation of the law of the Spirit of life into our mortal bodies; in this way we become men of zoe in our entire tripartite being for us to become the city of zoe, the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:6; 22:1-2, 14.
I. Ultimately, this life will prepare us to be the bride of Christ, which will cause the Lord to come back and usher us into the next age; for this reason the crucial focus of the Bible and the universe is in Romans 8.
III. Romans 8 reveals that the processed Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life gives the divine life to the believers for their living; this is the experience of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity—vv. 2, 10, 6, 11, 28-29:
A. The processed Triune God as the life-giving Spirit installed into our spirit may be likened to electricity; God's operation as the law of the divine "electricity" within us requires our cooperation to "switch on" this law by prayer—Col. 4:2; Eph. 6:17-18; 1 Thes. 5:17; cf. Matt. 24:27 (see the last two sentences of footnote 1).
B. While we remain in the touch with the Lord through prayer, staying in contact with Him in our spirit, the law of the Spirit of life works automatically, spontaneously, and effortlessly within us—Heb. 11:1, 5-6; 2 Cor. 4:13; Matt. 8:3, 15; 9:20-21, 29; 14:36; 17:7; 20:34; John 4:23-24; Phil. 2:12-13; Rom. 8:2, 4, 6, 13-16, 23; 1 Thes. 5:16-18.
C. The meaning of prayer is for us to absorb God; the more we contact God, the more we will absorb Him; and the more we absorb Him, the more we will enjoy Him as our light and our salvation—2 Kings 19:30; Isa. 37:31; Matt. 6:6; Psa. 119:15:
1. In Psalm 27:1 David says, "Jehovah is my light and my salvation"; he contacted and absorbed God by beholding Him as beauty (v. 4); thus, he was enlightened and received salvation within.
2. There is a hymn that says, "Just as I am" (Hymns, #1048); this means that we should come to God just as we are without trying to improve or change our condition; we received Christ in this way, and we should walk in Christ in this way—Col. 2:6-7a.
3. To pray is to come to the Lord just as we are; when we come to the Lord, we should lay our inner condition before Him and tell Him that we are short in every matter; even if we are weak, confused, sad, and speechless, we can still come to God; no matter what our inner condition is, we should bring it to God.
4. Instead of caring about our condition, we need to enter into God's presence to contact Him by looking to Him, beholding Him, praising Him, giving thanks to Him, worshipping Him, and absorbing Him; then we will enjoy God's riches, taste His sweetness, receive Him as light and power, and be inwardly peaceful, bright, strong, and empowered; we will then learn the lesson of staying connected to Him when we are ministering the word to the saints—1 Pet. 4:10-11; 2 Cor. 2:17; 13:3.
D. The meaning of prayer is also for us to express God; in Psalm 27:4 David says that he desired not only to behold the beauty of Jehovah but also to "inquire in His temple"; to inquire is to let God speak within us so that the words spoken to Him in prayer are actually God's speaking within us, God's expressions:
1. Real prayer is our coming to God, letting God speak within us, and expressing to God what He has spoken back to Him: "When You say, Seek My face, / To You my heart says, Your face, O Jehovah, will I seek" (v. 8).
2. When we really touch, contact, and absorb God, He will speak within us; then we will pray according to His inner speaking; to pray is to go to God, meet Him, draw near to Him, commune with Him, and absorb Him so that He can speak to us inwardly; when we pray to Him with His words to us, our prayer expresses God—John 15:7.
3. During the first aspect of our prayer, we enter into fellowship with God, who then anoints us with His burden for the work and reveals His intention to us; the second aspect of our prayer is to then inquire of the Lord by petitioning Him concerning His will and His burden for the work; then we carry out the purpose of prayer by coordinating with God to be God's co-worker—Isa. 62:6-7; 45:11; Ezek. 22:30; Dan. 9:2-4; 1 Sam. 12:23; 1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1a.
4. Inquiring prayers honor God; David knew how to pray because he often inquired of Jehovah (1 Sam. 22:10; 23:2, 4; 30:8; 2 Sam. 2:1; 5:19, 23); after God spoke to David through Nathan the prophet, David "sat before Jehovah" (7:18) and told the Lord, "Do as You have spoken" (v. 25b); he then told the Lord that, because of His speaking, "Your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to You" (v. 27).
E. We must cooperate with the indwelling, installed, automatic, and inner operating God as the law of the Spirit of life by conversing with Him in order to maintain our fellowship with Him—Rom. 10:12-13; Gen. 13:18; 1 Thes. 5:17; Eph. 6:17-18; Phil. 4:5-7, 12-13; Psa. 62:7-8.
IV. When we take heed to the inner sense of the spirit, the law of the Spirit of life is activated within us; the secret of our Christian life that we all must learn is found in Romans 8:6, which is the most important verse in the Bible related to our spiritual experience of Christ as the law of the Spirit of life—"the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace":
A. To set the mind on the flesh means to take sides with the flesh, to cooperate with the flesh, and to stand with the flesh; to set the mind on the spirit is to take heed to the spirit, to take sides with the spirit, to cooperate with the spirit, and to stand with the spirit, that is, to pay attention to our spirit—Mal. 2:15-16.
B. When we take heed to the inner sense of the spirit, following the inner sense of life and peace, we are honoring the Lord as the Head of the Body for His unique move; in his gospel service the apostle Paul was a captive of Christ, who was not governed by his outward environment but by whether or not he had the "rest in my spirit" (2 Cor. 2:13); his spirit was the most preeminent part of his being, and he was dominated, governed, directed, moved, and led by his mingled spirit (1 Cor. 2:15; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Cor. 2:12-14; 7:5-6).
V. Ultimately, our living in the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity by the enjoyment of the indwelling and automatic law of the Spirit of life is in the Body of Christ and for the Body of Christ with the goal of making us God in life, nature, and expression but not in the Godhead to accomplish the goal of His eternal economy—the New Jerusalem—Rom. 8:2, 28-29; 12:1-2; 11:36; 16:27; Phil. 1:19; cf. Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19, 26-28, 31.