Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ and Pray-reading for the Genuine Church life

The genuine church life is through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ, especially His making His home in our heart; to have the genuine church life, we need to experience and enjoy the riches of Christ by pray reading the word of God. Amen!

This week we have been enjoying the matter of being brought back to Christ for the genuine church life.

There are many things that catch our attention, and there are many matters and people that we like or are involved with.

Our focus, however, needs to be Christ, for the genuine church life is nothing else but the life of Christ flowing in us and out of us, and it is the indwelling Christ being manifested and expressed through us as we enjoy and experience Him.

However, for us to experience and realize the genuine church life there is no other way but to deny our natural life and the soul life and to follow the Lord in our spirit.

How can we live the genuine church life if we still live in the life of the soul, catering to what our soul likes to do and where he wants to go?

As the Lord said many times to those who want to follow Him, we need to deny our self, lose our soul life, and take up our cross to follow Him.

This means that we need to live not in ourselves or for ourselves but live in the mingled spirit.

We cannot apply the cross to ourselves – we can’t crucify ourselves, neither should we try to.

We simply need to turn to our spirit, where we are one spirit with the Lord, and we need to live in the mingled spirit.

The reality of the cross of Christ is in our spirit.

When we contact the Lord in spirit, the cross is applied to our natural life.

Exercising our spirit is not merely us outwardly and audibly calling on the name of the Lord or saying Praise the Lord; it is something inward, an inward touch of the Lord in spirit.

When we turn to our spirit inwardly and exercise our spirit, our self is denied, the soul-life is put aside, and we bear the cross.

Bearing the cross is not something we do because we have to, nor is it something that we begrudgingly do because that’s what the Bible says.

Rather, bearing the cross and denying the self, though painful to the old man, are something that we do in spirit.

We simply need to contact the Lord and exercise our spirit to remain in spirit with Him, and the cross is applied to our being.

Then, we can live one spirit with the Lord, and we can realize the genuine church life.

May the Lord have mercy on us and grant us to genuinely exercise our spirit and contact the Lord so that, in stage after stage and experience after experience, Christ would be manifested through us and we would have something of Christ to minister to others, for we have enjoyed and experienced Him.

The Genuine Church Life is Through the Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ

The genuine church life is through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ (Eph. 3:16-17; 4:12, 16; 2:21-22).

We need to look at our experience without self-analyzing or being introspective we will realize that the Lord is here with us – He indwells us, He is our very life.

Christ Himself lives in us, and He is our life.

On one hand, yes, Christ is in the heavens on the throne, ruling and reigning over all things, and carrying out God’s administration in the universe.

On the other hand, He is within us, living in each and every one of the believers in Christ.

And though He is in us and He can do everything, we limit Him in how much He can grow and be manifested through us.

He has been so patient with us all, for many times we keep Him “locked” in our spirit.

He wants to spread from our spirit, the innermost part of our being, into our mind, emotion, and will, so that He may make His home in our heart.

For this to happen, however, we need to ask the Father to strengthen us with power through His Spirit into our inner man, so that Christ may have a way to make His home in our heart through faith.

He wants to be at home in all our being, especially in our soul. He wants to make our thinking the same as His, and He wants that we desire what He desires and will what He wills.

Right now, our mind still thinks the way we think and not the way Christ does, and our emotion loves so many things that the Lord does not love.

So we need to have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ; we need to experience Christ making His home in all our heart, little by little, day by day.

The entire New Testament is filled with the revelation of the indwelling Christ (see Rom. 5:10, 17; Gal 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; 1 Cor. 1:2, 9, 24, 30; Phil. 1:20b-21a; Col. 1:27).

In verse after verse, chapter after chapter, and epistle after epistle we see that Christ lives in us, dwells in us, is formed in us, is our life, and is magnified through us.

In Eph. 3:16-21 Paul prayed that we would be strengthened with power into the inner man with the result that Christ could make His home in our heart.

As He makes His home in our heart, He can occupy, possess, permeate, and saturate our whole inner being with Himself (vv. 16-17).

Little by little, day by day, in the way of life, we need to grow in Christ, and we need to have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ.

Just as plants and trees don’t grow overnight but it takes time, care, and patience, so we need to grow in life by experiencing the indwelling Christ.

We all are in this process of learning to enjoy the Lord, experiencing Him, and expressing Him.

We should not be discouraged if we discover, through our many failures, that we are still so full of failures and weaknesses.

Rather, we need to apply the Lord’s precious blood and take Christ as the reality of all the offerings, and come to the Lord to ask Him to take us on with Him.

We just want to remain in the process; we want to have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ.

When Christ is able to make His home in our hearts, occupying all the inward parts of our being, we will be able to have the genuine church life (Eph. 2:21-22; 4:12, 16).

The more we have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ, the more Christ makes His home in our heart, and the more we are able to have the genuine church life.

Lord Jesus, we want to have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ for the genuine church life. May we be strengthened through the Spirit with power according to riches of God’s glory into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart. Lord Jesus, make Your home in our hearts a little more today. Make Your home in our mind, emotion, and will. May we think the way You think, love the things You love, and choose the things that You choose. Amen, dear Lord Jesus, keep us in the process of having Christ make His home in our hearts through faith. We want to remain in the process of experiencing the indwelling Christ. Hallelujah, Christ lives in us. Praise the Lord, Christ is our life! Amen, Lord, grow in us today! Spread in our mind, emotion, and will! May we have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ for the genuine church life!

The Genuine Church Life Issues out of the Enjoyment of the Riches of Christ through our Pray-Reading the Word

In order for us to have the genuine church life, we need to experience and enjoy the riches of Christ by pray-reading the word of God (Eph. 3:8).

The church life is not something of organization or outward activities; the genuine church life is in our spirit.

And our spirit is nourished with the riches of Christ until we are filled unto all the fullness of God.

When our spirit is strengthened and filled with the riches of Christ, He can make HIs home in our heart, and together with the saints we can apprehend the universally vast dimensions of Christ.

As we daily have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ, the issue will be the church life.

Our Christ is immeasurable and profound, far beyond our utterance to describe.

Nevertheless, we can enjoy Him, and we can partake of His riches so that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

This fullness is the church, the Body of Christ. May we not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit (Eph. 5:18).

Amen, may we be filled in our human spirit with the riches of Christ through praying over the word of God!

How can we be filled with the riches of Christ? How can we partake of the riches of Christ so that we can become His fullness?

The way can be seen in Eph. 6:17-18, Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the Word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.

The way for us to be filled with the riches of Christ is by reading and praying the word of God.

The key, the secret to the enjoyment of the riches of Christ is coming to the Lord in His word and praying over His word, saying Amen to His word, and taking God’s word and praying it back to Him.

Today God is embodied in His word, for the word of God is the Spirit (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17).

The word is God’s breath, the breathing out of God (2 Tim. 3:16), and this breath is the Spirit (John 20:22).

We can receive the breathing out of God, His word, by means of all prayer and petition, that is, with many kinds of prayer.

We need to learn and practice praying over the word of God. We need to not only read the Bible but mingle our reading of God’s word with our prayer.

This doesn’t mean we need to compose a long prayer in our own words, asking and imploring God to do this or that for us.

Rather, we need to simply read the Bible and pray with the words that we read.

We need to read it out loud and say Amen to the word of God.

As we pray and read, read and pray the Word, we are filled with joy, and many times we praise the Lord for and with His word.

In this way, through our pray-reading the word of God, we enjoy the riches of Christ and partake of what He is.

As we read and pray, pray and read, and prayerfully consider the word of God, the riches of Christ fill our being, and we are filled in spirit with the riches of Christ.

Then, spontaneously, out of this enjoyment of the riches of Christ in His word, there will be the church life.

The genuine church life issues out of the enjoyment of Christ through our pray-reading the word to be filled with the riches of Christ.

Amen, may we all practice coming to the Lord’s word and praying over it so that we may partake of the riches of Christ to become His fullness and live the genuine church life!

It is through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ that we apprehend with all the saints the unlimited measure of Christ and have the genuine church life for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 3:17-18; 2:21-22; 4:16).

If we all experience and enjoy the riches of Christ, the genuine church life as the fullness, the expression, of Christ will be produced spontaneously (3:8, 17; 2:22).

Amen, we all need to experience something of Christ in our daily life and come together with the Christ whom we have experienced to exhibit this Christ, to share Him with one another, and to enjoy Him with God the Father for His pleasure; this is the genuine church life (1 Cor. 14:26; Heb. 10:25).

May we all have such an experience in our Christian life and church life today.

Lord Jesus, we want to experience and enjoy the riches of Christ day by day so that we may have the genuine church life. Keep us coming to You in Your word to read and pray, pray and read Your word. We say Amen to Your word. Amen, Lord, we take Your word and pray it back to You so that You may do in us according to what You have said in Your word. May we enjoy and experience the riches of Christ by pray-reading the word of God so that we may have the genuine church life! Amen, Lord, may there be a corporate life of seeking believers who are filled with the riches of Christ unto all the fullness of God! May we all enjoy the riches of Christ until the church becomes the fullness of God, the Body of Christ! May we have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ so that we may apprehend with all the saints the unlimited measure of Christ and have the genuine church life for the building up of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 2, pp. 551-553, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life (2023 spring ITERO), week 1, entitled, Being Brought Back to Christ Himself for the Genuine Church Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Exercising the spirit to pray-read the Word, a portion from, The Secret of Experiencing Christ, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
  – 8 Reasons to Let the Word of God Dwell in You, article at, Holding to Truth.
  – Knowing, experiencing, and living the all-inclusive Christ for the genuine church life, outline via, Strumien.
  – The Experience of Christ as Life, articles at, An Open Letter.
  – Through His Spirit into the inner man, a portion from, The Two Greatest Prayers of the Apostle Paul, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – The Truth Concerning the Experience of Christ – A brief exposition of the proper place of the subjective experience of Christ in the believers’ life as witnessed by the Holy Scriptures. More at Contending for the Faith.
  – The Indwelling Christ – the Secret of the Christian Life, article at, Holding to Truth.
  – The indwelling, pneumatic Christ as revealed in the Epistles of Paul, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Thus with all saints we can apprehend / All the vast dimensions of God. / Knowing Christ’s love passes all we know, / We’re together filled to fullness with our God…For this cause we pray the Father God— / Strengthen Thou with might our inner man; / Make Yourself at home in all our hearts, / Root us, ground us in Your love and for Your plan. (Hymns #1232 stanzas 2 and 4)
  – 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 stanzas 3-4)
  – O the riches of my Savior! / Who can know their breadth and length, / Or their depth and height unmeasured, / Yet they are my joy and strength. / May I know these boundless riches, / Christ experience in full; / And with others may I share them / In their content bountiful. (Hymns #542 stanzas 5-6)