Christ is housing Himself in our heart and we become one with Christ in His inward parts

“God the Father is exercising His authority through God the Spirit to strengthen us into the inner man that God the Son may make His home deep down in our hearts” (quote from God’s New Testament Economy) – this is what happens in Eph. 3:16.

Some believers may say only that Christ is in the heavens on the throne and one day He will come back to rapture us – and this is true; what is equally true is that Christ, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells, is also making His home downward in our heart every day!

Christ is housing Himself in our heart – and the entire Triune God works together in us so that we would be strengthened through the Spirit to cooperate with the Father that Christ may make His home deep down in our heart (Eph. 3:14-16)!

When we are strengthened into our inner man, Christ can spread from our spirit into all the parts of our inner being – our mind, emotion, and will. He spreads in us and saturates us with Himself – and our heart becomes His home! Lord, I want my heart to be Your home!

In this way, Christ is not only our life but also our person – Christ is both our life and our person for the Body of Christ. In the next verse, Eph. 3:18, we see that the reason Christ makes His home in our hearts is so that we would be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the universally vast dimensions of Christ are in His Body!

The central point is that Christ may make His home in our heart – Christ may “house Himself” in our hearts, and we would care not for right or wrong, good or evil, but just tell the Lord, Lord, make Your home in my heart a little more today! I take You as my person!

Another verse that speaks of our subjective experience of the indwelling Christ is Phil. 1:8, where Paul says, For God is my witness how I long after you all in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.

Paul didn’t just “miss the saints”, but he longed after the saints in Christ’s inward parts. He was so one with the Lord in His inward parts that he desired to see and be with the saints – in Christ’s inward part (in His tender affections, His lovingkindness, His compassions, etc).

The fact that Phil. 1:18 was put together with Eph. 3:16-17 makes me think about it – on the one hand, Christ makes His home deep down in our heart and spreads into all our inward parts, and on the other hand, we are one with Christ in His inward parts!

This is something mutual and is a part of the mingling of God with man – God is mingled with man (Christ makes His home in our hearts) and man is mingled with God (we become one with Christ in His inward parts). The result in both cases is that we have a deeper understanding, enjoyment, and experience of the Body of Christ!

This is so wonderful, mainly because it is not OUR DOING, but it is GOD’S DOING in us! We simply need to stop ourselves, our struggling, our striving to do the right thing, our desire to be a good man, and just TURN to our spirit and let God strengthen us into our inner man through His Spirit – that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith!

When Christ makes His home in our heart, our inward parts are saturated with His inward parts, and we are one with Christ even in His tender feelings, His mercy and sympathy, and His inward affections… [sharing inspired from the Life-Study of Philippians and, God’s New Testament Economy (both by brother Witness Lee), as quoted in the Morning Revival on the Crucial Elements of the Bible; ]

Lord, make Your home in our heart a little more today! House Yourself in our being, and spread into every part of our heart. Saturate us, Lord, with Your element, in all our mind, emotion, and will. We don’t want You to remain only in our spirit – spread in us! Father, strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into our inner man! May Christ make His home in our hearts more! Do this in us, Lord, until we also are one with You in Your inward parts! May Your inward parts be so mingled with our inward parts that we become one!