Bibles for America (BfA)

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How to Receive the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit

April 15 2019

How to Receive the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit

If we’re being honest with ourselves, we have to admit that relying on our own strength or ability doesn’t get us too far in our Christian walk. Our patience, love, endurance, goodness—whatever it is that’s required of us in different situations—all eventually run out. And sometimes we find ourselves in the midst of difficulties we simply can’t handle on our own. So how can we be strengthened to live our Christian life?

Today, we’ll focus on a short yet encouraging phrase in Galatians 3:5:

“He therefore who bountifully supplies to you the Spirit.”

What God supplies us with isn’t something material or temporary; He supplies us with the Spirit. Also, this verse doesn’t say God supplies a little, or even merely enough, of the Spirit. It says He bountifully supplies the Spirit to us.

So let’s take a closer look at the two parts of this phrase now.

What does God supply to us?

Galatians 3:5 tells us God bountifully supplies us not with some material objects or things, but with a wonderful person: the Spirit. To gain more appreciation and understanding of this fact, let’s read note 2 on the Spirit in the New Testament Recovery Version:

“The all-inclusive compound Spirit, typified by the compound ointment in Exo. 30:23-25. This is the Spirit mentioned in John 7:39, who is the life-imparting Christ in resurrection. To the believers in God’s New Testament economy, this Spirit is the bountiful supply. The supplying of this Spirit is altogether not out of the works of law but out of faith in the crucified and glorified Christ.”

This Spirit we’re bountifully supplied with is the life-imparting Christ in resurrection. He’s all-inclusive; in Him are life, love, patience, kindness, long-suffering, strength, rest, faithfulness, and everything we could ever need. Instead of depending on our limited resources and struggling on our own to live a Christian life, we can simply receive and enjoy this rich Spirit. By enjoying Him, we live Christ out in our daily life and He is expressed through us. This is the Christian life God wants us to have.

God supplies us bountifully

Now, let’s focus on the words “bountifully supplies.” In the New Testament Recovery Version, the first part of note 1 on bountifully says:

“The Greek word means supplies fully, bountifully, and liberally. See Phil. 1:19. On God’s side, He supplies the Spirit bountifully; on our side, we receive the Spirit. Day by day a marvelous divine transmission takes place: God supplies and we receive.”

On God’s side, He supplies us with the Spirit fully, bountifully, and liberally. God wants to be everything to us, in every situation in our life. Furthermore, He doesn’t supply us with enough to merely get by; His supply is generous, abundant, and unstinting. Whatever we’re going through, no matter how draining or perplexing, we can count on God to supply us bountifully with Himself as the Spirit to meet our need.

How we receive the bountiful supply of the Spirit

God bountifully supplies, but on our side, we need to receive. If we don’t open to receive, we won’t be able to enjoy what God supplies. So how can we receive the bountiful supply of the Spirit? The second part of note 1 mentions two ways:

“The way to open ourselves to this heavenly transmission to receive the supply of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is to exercise our spirit to pray and call on the Lord.”

We open ourselves to receive a big “dose” of the Spirit by praying to the Lord and calling on His name, “Lord Jesus!” Day by day, and even minute by minute, we can receive the transmission of the Spirit into us just by opening our mouth to pray and call on Him. We can do this anytime, anywhere, and under any circumstance.

For example, let’s say we’re driving to work and hit every red light in heavy traffic. We’re now running late, and the later we are, the more upset and even angry with other drivers we become. We might think, “I’m a Christian, I shouldn’t be angry,” and attempt to be calm, but we’re not very successful. Then, instead of trying harder to be patient or calm, we remember that God bountifully supplies to us the Spirit and that we can turn our heart to the Lord and call on Him. So we cry out, “Oh, Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, I need You! I need You right now in this traffic. Lord, I can’t make it without You!” As we open to Him this way, we immediately receive the supply of the Spirit. Inwardly, we experience a radical shift as we enjoy the Spirit supplied to us as our patience and calmness.

We can’t get into all the wonderful details of the Spirit today, but we hope to in future posts. In the meantime, we encourage you to read John 7:39 and Philippians 1:19 with their accompanying notes to see more about the wonderful Spirit we can constantly receive as our supply. You can read these eye-opening notes by ordering your free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.

Let’s all endeavor to receive and experience the bountiful supply of the Spirit day by day!

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What Does It Mean to Be Holy?

April 01 2019

What Does It Mean to Be Holy?

Have you ever wondered what it means to be holy? Verses like 1 Peter 1:16 clearly say we believers should be holy: “Because it is written, ‘You shall be holy because I am holy.’”

We probably have our own ideas, but what does it really mean to be holy? Does it mean we’re pious, perfect, or sinless? That we dress, talk, and behave a certain way? Does performing a religious ritual make us holy? Does being holy mean we withdraw from society to live in a monastery?

While the New Testament has a lot to say about believers being holy, today we’ll discuss this topic in a simple way by focusing on Ephesians 1:4 and the corresponding notes in the New Testament Recovery Version.

Why did God choose us?

Ephesians 1:4 says something we may find quite unexpected. It tells us God chose us, before we were even born, for a particular purpose:

“Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love.”

We usually think God chose us to save us from judgment. We surely were delivered from eternal judgment when we believed in Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, and we thank God for that. But this verse doesn’t say anything along those lines. Instead, it says God chose us before the foundation of the world “to be holy and without blemish before Him in love.”

Since we were chosen by God to be holy, it’s important that we know and understand what that means.

Now let’s read the first part of note 3 on the word holy: 

“Holy means not only sanctified, separated unto God, but also different, distinct, from everything that is common. Only God is different, distinct, from all things. Hence, He is holy; holiness is His nature. He chose us that we should be holy.”

This note tells us only God is distinct and different from everything and everyone else. Only God is holy in His very nature.

Everything has a particular nature. For instance, the nature of a car is metal. God’s nature, His being, is holy. His holy nature makes Him unique, different, and distinct from everything else in this universe. Yet God chose us to be like Him, to be holy as He is holy.

How can we be holy?

If we look at ourselves, we may wonder how we can ever be holy as God is holy. We have to admit that in many different matters, we’re still not separated unto God. In certain areas of our life we’re worldly through and through. But when we were born again, we were born of the Spirit in our spirit, and the process of God’s full salvation of our whole being began. This process includes God making us holy.

Let’s read the rest of note 3 to find out how God does this:

“He makes us holy by imparting Himself, the Holy One, into our being, that our whole being may be permeated and saturated with His holy nature. For us, God’s chosen ones, to be holy is to partake of God’s divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and to have our whole being permeated with God Himself. This is different from mere sinless perfection or sinless purity. This makes our being holy in God’s nature and character, just like God Himself.”

This note helps us realize that adopting outward behaviors, such as dressing, acting, or talking in a certain way or isolating ourselves from society, doesn’t make us holy. We can do all those things and still not be holy. In fact, unbelievers can adopt those same behaviors and actions, but that certainly doesn’t make them holy; they’re completely without God. To be holy means to have our whole being permeated with God. Little by little, God imparts Himself into us to make our being just like His—holy. By fully permeating us with His holy nature, He makes us holy.

This permeation isn’t instantaneous; it takes time. And this permeating isn’t automatic; God needs our cooperation. Our daily Christian life presents many opportunities for God to impart Himself into us.

How can we cooperate with God to be made holy? We’ll discuss just three ways here.

1. By going along with Christ who lives in us

First Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ became sanctification to us from God. In Greek, the word sanctify is the verb form of holy. When we believed in Christ, He came into us to be our life. Christ brought the holy nature of God into us to sanctify us—that is, to make us holy—so that we can live a holy life.

This explains why after we’re saved, we spontaneously feel different about things we used to do before we were saved. We no longer want to engage in sinful activities, and we feel uncomfortable if we do. This uncomfortable feeling doesn’t come from any outward regulation, but from Christ in us. He gives us a feeling, or sense, about worldly, sinful, or unclean things or activities in our life.

We shouldn’t ignore that feeling, because continuing in such activities prevents us from being made holy. On the other hand, separating ourselves from those places or activities allows Him to saturate us more with His holy nature.

Let’s go on to see the second way we can cooperate with the Lord to be made holy.

2. By reading the Word of God

 In John 17:17, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” God’s living Word is truth. The Word as truth is a shining light that sanctifies us. By its shining, we know what agrees with God’s holy nature and what doesn’t. When we come to the Bible with an open heart, the Word enlightens us and teaches us to be holy.

For instance, let’s say in your Bible reading you come to 1 John 2:15 and 16, which say:

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.”

These words shine on you. They enlighten you concerning the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life—and how God feels about your loving the world. The light of the Word may even shine on particular matters, perhaps on how you spend your time. As a result of this shining, you might pray, “Lord, I agree with Your Word. Separate me from the world. Save me from loving the world. Save me from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life.”

It’s so important for us to read the Bible regularly with an open and prayerful heart. If we don’t read the Word, we can’t receive its shining. Before we know it, we find ourselves drifting away from the Lord and into the world.

Many of us know by experience the difference in our Christian life when we’re reading God’s Word regularly versus only reading it rarely or sporadically. We need to read God’s Word, which is truth, to receive its shining and sanctifying. What sanctifies us isn’t the Bible simply sitting on our shelf, but the Word of God that shines on our hearts as we read it. The less we read the Word, the less we’re sanctified. The more we read the Word, praying over it with an open heart, the more we’re sanctified.

We can cooperate with the Lord by daily reading the Word of God and by not resisting or arguing with the shining of His Word. When we read it, we receive it, agree with it, and allow the Word to sanctify us.

Now we come to the third way we can cooperate with the Lord to be made holy.

3. By cleansing ourselves from defilement

God wants us to be holy. In 2 Corinthians 7:1, the apostle Paul said,

“Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Paul strongly exhorted us to “perfect holiness in the fear of God.” We should all have a healthy fear of God. This healthy fear encourages us to cooperate with the Lord to cleanse ourselves from defilement.

To cleanse ourselves from all defilement means we don’t go to places that are unclean in the eyes of God; we stop participating in vile, sinful activities; and we get rid anything we possess that offends God’s holy nature. Engaging in defiling activities and possessing unclean and sinful things prevent us from being made holy. Cleansing ourselves from all defilement is something God wants us to do. This allows Him a way to continue to impart Himself into us, sanctifying us.

We can be empowered to cooperate

It may seem daunting to cooperate with the Lord in the ways we’ve discussed. We may look at our condition or our weakness, be discouraged, and think we can’t do it. But we’re not on our own. The Lord lives in us as the life-giving Spirit. He’s readily available to us to be our life and everything we need. We can do all things in Him who empowers us, including cooperating with Him to be separated unto God and saturated with Him to be made holy. We simply need to turn to Him and contact Him in our spirit.

In this post, we’ve only scratched the surface of what it is to be holy. We hope reading Ephesians 1:4 with the notes from the New Testament Recovery Version helps you see a little more about this topic. We pray the Lord Jesus would encourage us and supply us to cooperate with Him, in order to be made holy as He is holy.

All verses and footnotes are quoted from the Holy Bible Recovery Version. You can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.

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Did You Know God Has an Economy?

March 18 2019

Did You Know God Has an Economy?

Have you ever heard that God has an economy? The word “economy” usually brings to mind things like money, resources, financial budgeting, and so on. However, the Bible’s use of the word “economy” doesn’t refer to such physical things, but to something far more profound.

In the foreword of his book, The Economy of God, Witness Lee explains the meaning of this word according to the Bible:

“The word ‘economy’ used in the title of this volume may sound somewhat strange to the reader. ‘The economy of God’ is a quotation from 1 Timothy 1:4, according to the Greek. ‘Economy’ is the Greek word ‘oikonomia’ which primarily signifies the household management, the household administration, arrangement and distribution, or dispensation (of wealth, property, affairs, etc.). It is used with the intention of stressing the focal point of God’s divine enterprise, which is to distribute, or dispense, Himself into man.”

God has a divine enterprise, but it has nothing to do with material things and everything to do with Him being imparted, or dispensed, into man.

On page 8, Lee defines the economy of God:

“What is God’s economy? The Scriptures, composed of sixty-six books, contain many different teachings, but if we would make a thorough and careful study of the Scriptures with spiritual insight, we would realize that God’s economy is simply His plan to dispense Himself into humanity. God’s economy is God’s dispensation, which means nothing else than God dispensing Himself into the human race.”

When we see that God’s economy throughout the entire Bible is to dispense Himself into us, our lives will be changed. Lee goes on:

“In this divine dispensation God, who is almighty and all-inclusive, intends to dispense nothing other than Himself to us. This needs to be repeated many times in order to impress us deeply!”

We need to be deeply impressed with God’s desire to dispense Himself into us. In our Christian life, we can be distracted by many things, even things that are good or scriptural, and miss the mark of God’s economy. On page 20, Lee says:

“What is this mark? It is simply the all-inclusive Holy Spirit dwelling in our human spirit. During the whole day, learn how to contact and follow the Holy Spirit. Learn how to fellowship and deal with Him. Christianity teaches us to deal with forms, regulations and doctrines. Even the Scriptures are read in a wrong way, since little or no contact is made with the Holy Spirit in the reading. We merely learn doctrines in black and white letters. We need to read the Scriptures by exercising our spirit to contact the Holy Spirit, not by using our eyes to see the words and exercising our minds merely to understand its teachings. From morning to evening, we must deal with the One dwelling in us, for He is the bountiful supply of the Lord Jesus.”

In God’s economy, Christ is the center. When we’re saved, Christ is dispensed into our spirit. He wants to continue to dispense Himself with all His riches into our whole being until we’re filled with Him and He truly becomes our center.

On page 23, we have this exhortation concerning Christ from Lee:

“We must learn to grasp one thing and to be grasped by one thing—Christ Himself. We must learn how to grasp Christ in the Holy Spirit and be grasped by the Holy Spirit. Although we can certainly receive help from doctrine, the main center of God’s economy is not doctrine, but the living One in the Holy Spirit.”

Day by day, we need to grasp just one thing: Christ!

In this post, we’ve only touched a little on the subject of God’s economy, which is a great matter in the Bible. To read more about this wonderful topic, we encourage you to read the full text of The Economy of God. You can download this book for free on the books page of our website.

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