Christ builds the Church by Building Himself into us to Fill us unto the Fullness of God

Praise the Lord, Christ builds the church by building Himself into us to fill us unto the fullness of God!

It is amazing to realize that Christ builds the church by building Himself into us, that is, by spreading from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will until we are filled unto all the fullness of God and express God in His glory in the church. Amen!

On one hand, we believers in Christ are human beings who are born of man and live a proper human life on earth.

On the other hand, we have God living in us – the divine life in our spirit makes us sons of God, and we are becoming the same as Christ in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

When Christ came, He was the first God-man; now we are the many God-men who have both the divine life and the human life, both the divine nature and the human nature.

In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; now as we allow Christ to make His home in our heart, we are filled unto all the fullness of God. Even as He is, so we will be.

How much we need to be strengthened by the Father through the Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts!

When we are inwardly strengthened and our inner man is strong, Christ can settle down in us, house Himself in our hearts, and build Himself into us; this is the building up of the church.

As Christ makes His home in our hearts, we become full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the universally vast dimensions of the all-inclusive Christ are.

On one hand, Christ makes His home deep down in our hearts personally; each one of us opens to Him and allows Him to make His home in our heart, as the Father strengthens us through His Spirit into the inner man.

On the other hand, as Christ makes His home in our hearts through faith, we together, with all the saints, are full of strength to apprehend the vast dimensions of Christ, which are the dimensions of the universe.

The result of our apprehending and enjoying these vast dimensions of Christ is that we know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ and we are filled unto all the fullness of God. Hallelujah!

Christ Builds the Church by Building Himself into us, by Settling Down in us and Filling our Inner being with Himself

The way Christ builds His church is by building Himself into us, that is, by Him entering into our spirit and spreading Himself from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will to occupy our entire being (2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 3:17).

Through regeneration, Christ has entered into our spirit, and now He seeks to spread from our spirit to fill all the parts of our soul. How much have we allowed Christ to spread into our mind, our emotion, and our will? How much did we open to Him for His saturation in our soul?

We have Christ in our spirit, but there is not much Christ in our mind, our will, and our emotion.

His spreading into all the parts of our soul is His growth in us, and this growth is the building up of the church.

Since our heart is the totality of our inward parts, the center of our inward being, and our representative with regard to our inclination, affection, delight, and desire, when Christ makes His home in our heart, He controls our entire inward being and supplies and strengthens every inward part with Himself.

He is in our spirit, but He wants to spread into all the parts of our heart.

The more Christ spreads within us, the more He settles down in us and makes His home in us, occupying every part of our inner being, possessing all these parts, and saturating them with Himself.

He’s aiming at our heart: He knows that our heart is the control center of our whole being, and if He can fill our heart, then our whole being is under His control.

Christ builds up the church by building Himself into our being, by making His home in our heart.

In order for Christ’s word in Matt. 16:18 concerning the building up of the church to be fulfilled, the church must enter into a state where many saints will allow Christ to make His home deep down in their heart.

The way Christ builds His church is by building Himself into our being to possess, occupy, and saturate our entire being.

This is our need in the church life today; we need to pray for this, praying that the Triune God will cause all the saints to be strengthened into their inner man.

When our inner man is strengthened, Christ can make His home in our hearts, and this is His building Himself into us for the building up of the church.

The more Christ settles down in our heart, the more He occupies our inner being, the more we will be able to be built up with others in the Body (Eph. 2:21-22; 4:12, 16).

When Christ makes His home in our heart, when He builds Himself into our being, we will have no problem with any brother or sister. We will be buildable and blendable.

Our preferences and personal feelings toward the saints will be gone, and Christ will make His home in our hearts.

When we have any preference for any saint or situation, this means that there’s a certain part of our being that is short of Christ, for we didn’t allow Him to spread there.

May we allow Christ to spread into every part of our being, especially in the parts that we keep to ourselves.

May we allow Him to have free access in all our inward parts so that we may have no problem with any saint in our locality or in any place on earth.

As we allow Christ to build Himself into us, we are full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the universal dimensions of Christ; we do this not by ourselves individually but with all the saints, corporately and jointly.

What Paul prayed for is not an individual matter but a corporate matter; when we allow Christ to make His home in us, we will be strong to apprehend with all the saints the universal dimensions of Christ.

No individual believer and not even a single local church can apprehend this universally rich and vast Christ. We need all the saints; we need all the churches.

We cannot stay individualistic, and independent, by ourselves; we need all the saints to be connected together, built together.

Each one of us has a certain measure and portion of Christ, and as we all let Christ build Himself into us and make His home in our heart, when we come together, we apprehend with all the saints the vast dimensions of Christ.

Today our need in the church life for the building up of the Body of Christ we need not only to preach the gospel, save people, and have an increase in number; our need is for Christ to increase in us, for Him to build Himself into our being.

We should no longer remain babes and infants in the Lord. We need Christ to be constituted and built into our being, and we need to be built into Him.

As Christ is building Himself into us by making His home in our hearts, we are built together with the saints, and together we apprehend the vast dimensions of Christ, and we are filled unto all the fullness of God.

When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God; this fullness is the church, the Body of Christ, as the corporate expression of the Triune God.

This is the highest expression of the church – the church as the fullness of Christ, the church as the fullness of God.

The church is not only filled with the riches of Christ but it has the fullness, the expression of God.

God’s glory is wrought into the church, and He is expressed through the church above all that we ask or think; hence, God is glorified in the church (Eph. 3:20-21).

First, the Father strengthens us through His Spirit according to the riches of His glory into the inner man, and the result is that the church is for the glory of God, for He gains His glory in the church. Unto God is glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.

The glory of God is wrought into the church and then it is expressed through the church to return to God. Hallelujah, God gains all the glory in the church and in Christ forever and ever, amen!

Lord Jesus, build the church by building Yourself into us. Spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will to occupy our entire being. We open to You, dear Lord, and we allow You to spread into our mind, emotion, and will. Fill us and saturate us. Make Your home in all our heart so that You may control our inward being and supply and strengthen every part with Yourself. Oh Lord, settle down in our heart. Occupy every room and fill every corner of every room in our heart. Build Yourself into us and build us with the saints in the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord root us and ground us in love so that we may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the universal dimensions of Christ. May Christ settle down in our heart so that, with the saints, we would be filled unto all the fullnes of God to express the Triune God corporately! Amen, Lord, to God be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ!

Having the same Spirit, Attitude, Prayer, and Faith as Paul, and being Obsessed with the Building up of the Church through the Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ

Ephesians 3:16-21 shows us not only Paul’s burden or knowledge concerning God’s economy; this portion shows Paul’s spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith.

Paul receive a revelation of the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:3-6), and his spirit and attitude – what he saw, what he said, and what he cared about in his heart – were related to the vision of the building up of the church as the Body of Christ through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ.

Paul has been given a stewardship to speak forth the mystery of Christ and the church.

The economy of the mystery has been made known, that the eternal purpose of God may be fulfilled, that through the church, the multifarious wisdom of God may be manifested to all the principalities and powers.

As he was speaking and writing concerning the mystery of Christ and the church, he broke forth in a prayer in vv. 14-21, asking the Father to strengthen the saints through His Spirit into their inner man so that Christ may make His home in their hearts through faith.

If we read the prayer, from v. 14 to v. 21, we will see his feeling, his attitude, and his spirit; he didn’t just see the mystery of God’s economy but prayed for it, praying that the saints would enter into this reality.

He could have stopped right there in Eph. 3:13, but he added that prayer; he was filled with this vision, he was impregnated with this vision, and this vision became his attitude and spirit.

Paul was obsessed with this vision to the point that it became his spirit and attitude; therefore, he burst forth in such a prayer (in the atmosphere and element of faith) recorded in Eph. 3:16-21.

If we have seen the vision of how Christ builds up the church as the Body of Christ through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ, we will also have such a spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith when we serve God in the church.

The most precious thing in this chapter is Paul’s attitude and spirit; his prayer is precious, but his spirit and attitude are even more precious.

Something laid hold of Paul and could not say anything else, he could not do anything else, and he could not pray anything else.

May the Lord grant us mercy and bring us to this point that we would pray for ourselves and for the saints, having the same spirit and attitude as the apostle Paul, that they would be strengthened into their inner man so that Christ may make His home in their heart through faith.

May we see the vision and revelation of the building up of the church by the believers’ inner experience of the indwelling Christ, and may this become our spirit, attitude, prayer, and mood in our Christian life and church life.

As we serve the Lord in the church, we need to have such an attitude and prayer, realizing that God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think according to His operation in us.

Seeing such a vision will cause us to pray as Paul did, praying not only for ourselves but also for all the saints, so that the Lord may make His home in our heart by building Himself into us for the building up of the church.

Lord Jesus, grant us to see the vision of the building up of the church as the Body of Christ through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ. Amen, Lord, make Your home in our heart. Make Your home in the heart of the saints so that we may organically be built up in the church as the Body of Christ. Father, strengthen all the saints into the inner man through the Spirit according to the riches of Your glory so that Christ may make His home in their hearts through faith! Hallelujah, God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think according to His operation in us! Praise the Lord, to God be the glory in the church and in Jesus Christ forever and ever, Amen!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee, and portions from, CWWL, 1952, vol. 2, “How to Administrate the Church“, pp. 153-155, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of 1 and 2 Samuel (2021 winter training), week 9, entitled, The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ through the Process of Spiritual Metabolism according to the Believers’ Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ.
• Further fellowship on this topic:
  – It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be wrought in me; / Nothing outwardly performing, / But His Christ my all to be. (Hymns #538)
  – Building, building, we will see the building / Of the church this way: / Christ experienced will produce the building— / He’s the only way. / Oh, build us, Lord, we pray, / By growth of life each day. / Oh, make us now such men / For the new Jerusalem. (Hymns #1240)
  – Make home in my heart, O Lord Jesus, / Make home in my heart, I pray; / That we may be filled with Your fullness, / Make home in my heart today. / To Him who is able to do it / Above all we think or say, / We open our hearts wide and welcome / Him into our heart today. (Hymns #1134)