thedispensationofgrace.pdf

8/14/2019 thedispensationofgrace.pdf

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The Dispensation of Grace


Dispensations are periods of time in which God isrelated to man in a certain way to carry out Hispurpose. From Adam to Moses, God was related to man

in a certain way without law. From Moses to Christ,He was related to the people under law while His purpose

was reaffirmed and typified. Now, during this period of

Christs first coming to His second coming, we are in the

dispensation of grace. This is the period when you can get

everything from God free. Amen!

The period where God does it all

The dispensation of grace is the period where you do

not do one thing in yourself. It is not your works. It is not

your keeping of the law, but it is you and I opening up, and

out of His fullness keep on getting loaded up. Just get

loaded up. That means enjoy God. Draw from Him. Yell

to Him. Cry to Him. Complain to Him. Tell Him He has

to do it. Grace means God does it all and then dumps it

all out. Amen! This is the period of grace.

I do not care who you are, what your situation is, what

your problem is, what your hang-up is, there is no excuse.

Grace is here. Out of His fullness, it is grace in exchange


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for grace. You do not start with law. You start with grace.

And then you get more and more grace. It is all grace. It

is a whole dispensation of grace. We are under grace

(Rom. 6:14). So it means He has provided everything to

carry out His purpose His image and dominion.

The dispensation of grace means that everythingcomes out of His fullness. Second Corinthians tells us

that we are beholding Him and are being transformed into

His very image. In Hebrews 2:8-9 we do not yet see

everything under His feet, but we see Jesus. And then we

see dominion coming in, and then the church. Oh, this is

too good. It is all grace.

God does not know how to

relate to us apart from grace

Grace is how we are related to God in this hour (2 Cor.

6:1-2). This is not the dispensation of law. It is not a

matter of our flesh being energized to make deals with

God anymore. This is the time of grace. It is the time you

draw, you take, you let your spirit drink from His fullness.

It is the time to expect Him to do it in you. It is the time

to put it on Him everything. This is grace. We are now

experiencing a foretaste of the next dispensation the

dispensation of the kingdom. The next dispensation will


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be a compounded dispensation of grace. Ephesians 2:7

says, That He might display in the ages to come the

surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in

Christ Jesus. Since Christ has come, God does not know

how to relate to His chosen ones apart from grace. It is

grace in this dispensation of grace, and it will be multi-plied grace in the next dispensation. So now, this is

presently how we are related to God and how God is

related to us. We are just under grace. That means

everything is freely given to us. Amen!

The church life a foretaste of the full taste

In this dispensation of grace the kingdom has drawn

near. Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God is not

eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in

the Holy Spirit. He is talking about the church life there.

So that means the kingdom is right now. When the Spirit

is here among us and there is peace between us and there

is joy in the church, in the Spirit, and righteousness, that

is the sum and substance of the kingdom. The joy we have

here will just be magnified in the coming age. And it is

going to be more inclusive. We are going to sit down at

the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are going

to say, Abraham! Oh, Abraham. I have wanted to talk


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appearance of the kingdom. The appearance of the

kingdom is in the form of a professing Christianity (2

Tim. 3:5). That is, it is a Christian world which often

causes great offense to the world itself because of some

abominable things that are coming out under the name of

Christ. We are not just making this up, the Lord and theapostles foretold that this would happen. In Matthew

13:24-30 and 36-43 the Lord talked about tares among the

wheat. That is, false believers under the banner of

Christianity. Even so much so that you have things like

the judgment seat of Christ and some come and say,

Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? This issomething of a charismatic nature. Did we not cast out

demons in Your name? And did we not do miracles in

Your name? indicating that even in that realm the Lord

said, I never knew you, you that work iniquity (Matt.

7:21-23). This speaking comes following Matthew 5

7. There He talked about the inward life. He talked about

our disposition. He talked about lust. He talked about

anger, hatred. He talked about having a capacity to be

inconvenienced going the second mile. He talked about

relationships, forgiving. He talked about an inner life.

So what we see in Matthew 57 is the burden of the

Lord for an inner life where His very Self is lived out.

That is His image. That is where the kingdom is and


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where His authority is. I do not mean there is no casting

out of demons, or miracles, or prophesy. I am not saying

that. But we must realize it is possible to be in the

appearance of the kingdom without the reality of it. And

so we need to understand that. So in this period of grace,

we are reduced to the fullness of Christ, enjoying all thatHe is to us, and getting constituted and filled up with His

life in our being. We are handling Him as our all-

sufficient grace in every environment. It is in this way

that we experience the grace of life and are responsible

as stewards of the manifold grace of God (1 Pet. 3:7;

4:10). A measure of the grace of God has been dealt outto every one of us (Eph. 4:7). We are responsible to

multiply it, trade with it, and make a gain for the Lords

interest (Luke 16:1-10). We will be accountable to the

Lord as stewards at His coming, and we do not want to

hear, thou slothful servant, but Well done, good and

faithful servant.

Enjoy grace and then employ it

So we have to see right now in this age, it is the age

and dispensation of grace. So that in everything about our

lives we can enjoy grace and then employ it. And then in

the next dispensation of the kingdom, the Lord will be


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related to the earth with His people by giving the rewards

to all the believers that have used grace, employed grace,

and enjoyed grace in this dispensation. The reward in the

next age will be based upon how much we used grace in

this age. It does not mean whether you are weak, whether

you failed, whether you had this problem or that problem.That is not the question. Regardless of who you are, if

there is just a little bit of meat on your bones and you are

about ready to disintegrate, let me ask you, did you open

your mouth and call, Jesus! and get the grace He has so

freely given?

In our weakest moments, in our severest temptations,God is saying, Use My grace. Employ My grace. And

in the next dispensation, at the judgment seat of Christ, we

will be there and the Lord will say, Well done, for what

I have given you. He gives us His possessions His

grace. He did not leave us without anything. He did not

just say, Make it on your own. Try it. When I come back,

we will see how you did. The Lord did not do that. What

the Lord did is that He left His possessions, His grace,

with us. Now trade with it. To one He gave five talents.

To another He gave two. To another He gave one. So

serve, multiply, extend yourself. Even our getting into

the Word is an actual enjoyment of the grace of God to

trade with what you have. Do not let your mind lie


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dormant. Do not let your time be wasted. Employ grace

to get the Word of God into you. Amen!

Grace and the kingdom

Gods original purpose is fully manifested in thedispensation of the kingdom. Hebrews 12:28 says, There-

fore receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us have grace,

through which we may serve God well-pleasingly with

piety and fear; for our God is also a consuming fire. So

we are receiving an unshakable kingdom. And the one

word to us about the kingdom is, let us have grace. Let usenjoy grace.

As we enjoy this grace, Gods purpose will be fully

manifested and the rewarding will be responsibility in the

kingdom at the judgment seat of Christ. And the rewards

are given on the basis of our enjoyment and employment

of grace. So we need to know how we are related to God

now and how we will be related in the kingdom. There are

four discernible dispensations: from Adam to Moses,

from Moses to Christ, from Christ to His second coming,

and from His second coming to the end of the thousand

year kingdom where He reigns on this earth. Now we

need to be dispensationally significant in this hour. And

to be that now is to enjoy grace grace for our experi-


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ence and grace for the church. And then in the next age,

the next dispensation, at the doorstep, the judgment seat,

what He wants to know is how much did you pump Me?

How much did you use Me? How much did you receive

from Me? I am not asking whether you were weak or you

were strong, or whether you could make it our could notmake it, you had this problem. No, how much did you use

Me? I gave Myself to you. I made Myself a life-giving

Spirit. I put My very life into your spirit. I am that close.

I am in your mouth. I am in your heart. I am in your spirit.

Did you use Me? That is all I want to know.

Brothers and sisters, this is more than encouraging,that we could enter into the kingdom full steam ahead,

like Peter says, and not stumble by looking at our-

selves, considering our selves, but employing His

multiplied grace.*

Bill Freeman

* Spoken form retained

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