Praying to Experience the Indwelling Christ for the Building up of the Church

Paul’s prayer in Eph. 3:16-21 is concerning the believers’ inner experience of the indwelling Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

How can the believers build up the church? It is by experiencing the indwelling Christ making His home day by day into their heart as they are being strengthened into their inner man by the Father through His Spirit, so that together with all saints they may apprehend the universally vast dimensions of Christ to become God’s fullness, the Body of Christ.

First, we need to be strengthened with power through the Spirit into the inner man so that our spirit would be strong and Christ would have an opportunity to spread Himself from our spirit into every part of our inward being. When our inner man is strengthened by God, Christ can make His home deep down in our heart to occupy, possess, permeate, and saturate our whole inner being with Himself.

If the believers allow Christ to make His home in their heart and inwardly experience Him as the One who saturates them, changes them from within, and reconstitutes them with Himself, then they can be built up together with all the saints.

The way we can be built up together as the church is by allowing Christ to make His home in our heart. Then, we will be rooted and grounded in love, that is, we become God’s cultivated land (rooted) and God’s building (grounded), those who grow in life and who are built up.

As we grow in life and are built up, we will be able to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth are, and we will know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. The immeasurable dimensions of Christ can be apprehended, enjoyed, and experienced by us as we allow Christ to make His home in our hearts and are being built up together with the saints.

In Eph. 3 Paul saw the vision of the church, the Body of Christ, and he opened up the matter of God’s economy – Christ and the church. After opening this matter up, he simply prayed for our experience of the indwelling Christ for the church. What a spirit he had! What an attitude toward such a high vision! May we have Paul’s spirit, faith, and attitude today and pray Eph. 2:16-21 for one another’s experience of Christ for the building up of the church!

Experiencing the Indwelling Christ for the Building up of the Church

When we allow Christ to make His home in our heart, we become plants in God’s cultivated land (“being rooted”) and materials in God’s building (“and grounded”) in love (see Eph. 3:17). As Christ is making His home in our heart through faith, we grow in life and we are being built up as the church, the Body of Christ.

Genuine growth in life and proper building up takes place by our allowing the Lord to make His home in our heart as we are strengthened into our inner man.

Together, we apprehend with all the saints what the universally vast dimensions of Christ are: the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth (Eph. 3:18). By ourselves we may see a glimpse of one dimension of Christ: maybe we see the depths of Christ…but as we together allow Christ to make His home in our heart, we corporately and jointly apprehend what the vast dimensions of the all-inclusive Christ are.

Our Christ is immeasurable: He is the height, the depth, the breadth, and the length. Through fellowshipping with the saints we enjoy the many aspects of the vast dimensions of Christ, and together we are filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19).

The fullness of God is the church, the Body of Christ, as the corporate expression of the Triune God. When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God to become the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness, overflow, and excess of God.

At this point there’s glory to God in the church as the fullness of God. As we allow Christ to make His home in our heart, the indwelling Christ imparts the fullness of God into our being so that we may be filled even unto all the fullness of God to be the practical manifestation of the church, in which God can be glorified in His expression (Eph. 3:21).

The way we build up the church is by the inner experience of the indwelling Christ which results and issues in our being built up with the saints in love to apprehend the vast dimensions of the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ to become the fullness of God, the church as the Body of Christ.

Paul saw this, he was filled with such a vision, and in Eph. 3:16-21 he “burst into prayer” for us all to enter into this experience. This should be our prayer today; we should not pray for other things concerning us or others except this prayer.

May we see the vision that Paul saw and be infused with such a vision to the point that we have no interest or desire to pray anything else but this prayer. This is the best prayer we can pray for the genuine experience of Christ for the building up of the church.

Father, strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart. Lord Jesus, we allow You to make Your home in our heart so that You may saturate, occupy, possess, and permeate all our inward parts. Root us and ground us in Your love, and cause us to grow in life and be built up so that we may apprehend with all the saints what the vast dimensions of Christ are! Oh, what a rich, immeasurable Christ we enjoy and experience as we are being built up with the saints! To God be glory in the church as the fullness of God!

Seeing Paul’s Spirit, Attitude, Prayer, and Faith in Eph. 3:16-21

In Eph. 3 Paul speaks of the great mystery of Christ, showing us how God revealed it to him in spirit, and how this mystery is now revealed to all the saints.

This mystery was hidden in other generations but now has been revealed to the apostles, and now we can know the all-inclusive Christ and be members of the Body of Christ, ministering Christ to one another and becoming the church through which God can display His multifarious wisdom according to His purpose (see Eph. 1:1-13).

As Paul was writing these verses, he was under a heavenly vision, and he knelt down to pray that we may experience the indwelling Christ for the building up of the church. In chapter 1 Paul prayed that the believers will be filled with a spirit of wisdom and revelation to understand the things he spoke of, but here in ch. 3 Paul prayed for our experience of Christ for the church.

Paul was so focused and engaged as he saw the vision of God’s building that he prayed for Christ to be wrought into us and be mingled with us so that we may become the fullness of God, the church.

In Eph. 3:16-21 we see Paul’s spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith. He received the revelation of the mystery of Christ, and his spirit and attitude were related to this vision of the building up of the church as the Body of Christ through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ.

You could say that Paul was even “obsessed” with this vision, and it became his spirit and attitude; this matter filled Paul’s entire being, and what he saw, spoke, and cared about were related to the building up of the church through Christ’s being wrought into us.

We also need to have such a spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith when we serve God in the church. We shouldn’t judge others when we see their lack of Christ expressed in their mistakes or offenses; rather, we should pray that the Father would strengthen them through His Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in their heart through faith and they would be built up with the saints to apprehend the vast dimensions of Christ to be filled unto all the fullness of God.

In the church life we are all stewards in the economy of God, helping others to receive Christ and allow Him to make His home in their heart. We build up the church by personally allowing Christ to make His home in our heart and then we help others and pray for them that they would also let Christ be wrought into them for the building up of the church.

This is not TOO high or unattainable; rather, what may seem to be impossible with us God is able to do super-abundantly more than what we ask or think (Eph. 3:21)!

We should pray this prayer for ourselves, for our spouse, for the saints in the church, and for all God’s believers, that God in Christ would work Himself into them for the building up of the church. We shouldn’t pray common prayers such as, Lord, protect and cover them, bless them, be with them where they go, etc – but we should pray Eph. 3:16-21 for ourselves and for the saints.

If we have seen the vision of the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and of how Christ builds up the church by building Himself into us, we will have Paul’s attitude and spirit, and we will also pray his prayer and have his faith.

If we take Eph. 3:16-21 and make it our prayer every day for 30 days, our life will be revolutionized, our experience of the indwelling Christ will be enriched, and we will be built up with others in the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, build Yourself into us for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Make Your home in our heart and work Yourself into us for the church. Lord, we want to have a clear vision of how You are building up the church by building Yourself into us. Oh Lord, we pray for ourselves and for all the saints: cause us to be strengthened into our inner man so that You may work Yourself into us for the building up of the church! Lord, You are able to do super-abundantly much more than we ask or think: Build Yourself into us for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, How to Administrate the Church, ch. 9, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 8 / msg 8, The Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ (2) – Through the Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I bow my knees unto the Father / That He would grant you / To be strengthened with pow’r through His Spirit / Into the inner man. / I bow my knees unto the Father / That He would grant you / To be strengthened with pow’r through His Spirit / Into the inner man. / To be strengthened with pow’r through His Spirit / Into the inner man. / Into the inner man. / According to the riches of His glory / That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith. / According to the riches of His glory / That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith. / May make His home in your heart through faith, through faith. (Song on Eph. 3:16-21)
  # I myself was losing heart each day; / Then the Lord brought some saints my own way; / I alone could not Thee apprehend / But with all the saints You now my joy have been. / O that Christ may make His home my heart, / Spread Himself in every part! / Saturate and life impart! / That with all saints, I may apprehend / All the vast dimensions of my loving Christ. (Song on Praying Eph. 3:16-21)
  # 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. / In the Body we’ll be fitly framed / As the many members Christ supply; / Working in the measure of each part, / All by growth in love the Body edify. (Hymns #1232)