dispensing
Definition
Dispensing is the technical term in the theological system of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee for God’s active self-distribution to humanity. God is not merely an object of knowledge or faith, but actively dispenses himself as life through the life-giving Spirit into the human spirit. The term is closely related to the concept of oikonomia (God’s economy) but specifically emphasizes the direction and nature of the movement: God dispenses himself as content to humanity as containers.
The term is a Nee/Lee distinctive and does not appear in this corpus among other authors as a technical concept.
Uses per Author
Watchman Nee / Witness Lee
Nee/Lee develop dispensing as the center of their doctrine of God. The central movement of God’s economy is the Trinitarian route through which God dispenses himself:
“Christ died on the cross to redeem man (Eph. 1:7)… In His resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1Cor. 15:45b) so that He could dispense His inexhaustible, rich life into the human spirit (John 20:22; John 3:6).”
(Basic Elements of Christian Life, vol. 1, ch. 1)
“The God who is in us is not only God but Jesus Christ. Everything that Christ is, everything He did, and everything He obtained and attained has been wrought into this life-giving Spirit. Now this life-giving Spirit has come into us and has been mingled with our spirit, joining us with Him as one spirit (1Cor. 6:17).”
(ibid., ch. 5)
God’s dispensing of himself follows a Trinitarian route — from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, into the human spirit:
“The three Persons of the Godhead exist for God’s economy, the divine dispensing. The Father as the source is embodied in the Son, and the Son as the way is realized in the Spirit as the transmission.”
(Lee, The Economy of God, ch. 1)
In Basic Elements of Christian Life, vol. 3, Lee connects dispensing to making God’s manifold wisdom known to the heavenly powers:
“God then has the ground to make known His manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”
(Basic Elements of Christian Life, vol. 3, ch. 2; cf. Eph. 3:10)