THE SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE
OF THE DIVINE DISPENSING
What we have fellowshipped so far shows the line of the dispensing from God’s side in the Gospel of John, but there is the subjective experience of the dispensing on our side. God dispenses, and we have to enjoy. Now we need to see the aspect of the dispensing on our side.
First, we were regenerated. Regeneration is the consummated Triune God as the Spirit entering into our spirit. Regeneration is the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit coming to touch our spirit, to bring the divine life into our spirit to regenerate our spirit. That which is born of the divine Spirit is the human spirit (John 3:6b). Now the very God who was altogether objective to us has become one with us. He is now inside of us, becoming the very intrinsic element of our being.
After a babe is born, it first begins to breathe, to enjoy the air as its life supply. Once we receive the divine life to become God’s children, the first thing we need to do is breathe. When we call "O Lord Jesus," we are breathing the Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, as our breath. We also need to drink to maintain our life. As believers in Christ, we need to drink the living water from Christ. John 4 shows that Christ gives us the living water. This water becomes in us a spring of water welling up into eternal life (v. 14). In order to survive, we also need to eat. John 6 reveals that we need to eat Christ as the daily manna, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, the bread of God, and the living bread. In John 6:57 the Lord 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 live by eating Jesus, just as we live physically by the food that we take in. Thus, in John we see the crucial matters of breathing, drinking, and eating the Lord. After our birth, we need to breathe, drink, and eat for our life supply. In John 15 the Lord tells us that we also need to abide in Him. Abiding helps us to grow in the Lord. This is the subjective experience of the divine dispensing.
THE PURPOSE OF THE DIVINE DISPENSING
The purpose of the divine dispensing is first that we would have rivers of living water flowing out of our innermost being (John 7:38). Second, our enjoyment of the divine dispensing is for us to bring forth the remaining fruit of life (15:16). Third, the divine dispensing is for us to feed the Lord’s lambs and His sheep (21:15, 17). Ultimately, the divine dispensing of the divine Trinity is for the producing of the bride of Christ. The believers who are regenerated, who breathe in Christ, drink Christ, eat Christ, and grow with Christ become the bride of the Bridegroom, Christ (3:29). This is the church as the corporate increase of Christ, His wife, His Body. John the Baptist predicted that Christ would increase and that he would decrease (3:30). Christ will be the Bridegroom to take the bride as His increase, which is the church. In the Gospel of John, the divine Trinity is for the divine dispensing, the divine dispensing is for the divine economy, and the divine economy is for the divine purpose to have the bride for Christ. The entire Bible consummates with this bride, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). The New Jerusalem as the bride is the consummation of the church as the corporate increase of Christ. The divine Trinity with the divine dispensing is for the divine economy, resulting in the divine purpose, which is the increase of the processed Triune God to be consummated in the New Jerusalem.
(Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
