THE DIVINE DISPENSING
IN THE APOSTLE’S STEWARDSHIP OF GRACE
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE CHURCH
1. The Apostle’s Stewardship of Grace
Being to Minister the Grace of God
to the Believers, Who Are
the Constituents of the Church,
That Is, the Mystery of Christ,
Which Was Not Made Known to Men
in Other Generations
2. Such a Ministry Being to Dispense
the Unsearchable Riches of Christ as the Divine Grace for the Existence of the Church
3. This Being the Divine Economy
of God’s Mystery to Show through the Church
the Multifarious Wisdom of God to His Enemies,
according to the Purpose of the Ages,
Which God Made in Christ
First, the church must be produced, and second, the church must be built up. Third, the church must exist. For the church to exist and to stand properly in a living way, there is the need for the apostle’s stewardship (Eph. 3:1-12). The apostle’s ministry first ministers Christ into sinners to produce the believers. Then it builds up the church by feeding the believers. At the same time, through the ministering of the rich word, it distributes the untraceable and immeasurable riches of Christ to the church. This distribution is the dispensing that enables the church to have a proper existence.
For the church to exist properly and to stand for the Lord’s testimony adequately, there is the need of the rich ministry to convey the riches of Christ to the saints as their timely supply. The more the saints receive the riches of Christ embodied in the word, the more they will enjoy the riches of this Christ, and the more they will be able to stand properly for the Lord’s testimony in an adequate way.
Many times there is the need for the churches to come together for conferences. These conferences are times for the riches of the ministry to be dispensed to the saints. Even when there is no one who can come to be the speaker, the saints can still dispense the riches of the ministry by mutually speaking one to another. Recently, in Columbia, South Carolina, and in London, England, the churches came together to have conferences in mutuality. They took the outlines and the verses of the messages given at the end of the 1990 Summer Training (see A Brief Presentation of the Lord’s Recovery, published by Living Steam Ministry) and spoke to one another in a living way. The result was very enjoyable; many of the attendants shared, and everyone was fed. Since we all have the rich "groceries" prepared in the written publications, it would be easy for us to come together and serve each other with these riches. This kind of speaking will stir us up and will dispense something new, fresh, and refreshing into all the saints.
(The Economy and Dispensing of God, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
