We need to be strengthened by the Father through His Spirit according to the riches of His glory into the inner man so that Christ may make His home deep down in our heart through faith.
Paul’s prayer in Eph. 3:14-19 reveals that for the fulfilment of God’s eternal economy, we need the Father, according to the riches of His glory, to strengthen us with power through His Spirit into the inner man, so that Christ may build Himself into our hearts (make His home in us), occupying our entire being, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God. Wow!
God desires to build Himself in Christ into our being, even into our intrinsic constitution, and He does this by first sowing Himself as the seed of life in us, and then by making His home in our heart.
First, when we hear the word of God, Christ as the seed of life is sown into our spirit; Christ as the Spirit comes in our spirit, and as the seed of life, He grows in our heart.
Christ wants to grow in us. He wants to expand, develop, increase, and become greater in our being.
He actually wants to make His home in all the inward parts of our being, in our mind, emotion, will, conscience, and all the inner chambers of our being.
First, He sows Himself into our spirit, and then He wants to grow in the soil of our heart.
But many times our heart is full of anxieties and deceitfulness of riches; these things choke the growth of Christ in us, and the Lord cannot expand in us.
At other times, our heart may be like the soil on the wayside, so much in the world with its pleasures, entertainment, traffic, and things that it is hard and hardened, so the seed cannot catch root in us.
Still, at other times, the soil of our heart may have some hidden rocks and stones, which cause the roots not to go deeper; these are hidden sins and lusts, which others may not know of but they are in our heart.
We need to deal with our heart in a thorough way so that we may be the good soil in which Christ as the seed of life can grow.
When our heart is the good soil, we afford the Lord the nutrients He needs to grow in us, expand in our being, develop in us, and take root downward and have growth upward in a normal way.
It should be normal for the Lord as the seed of life to grow in us and develop until we are filled unto all the fullness of God, and until we bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.
May we learn to open to the Lord day by day so that the Father would strengthen us through His Spirit, according to the riches of His glory, into our inner man, so that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith.
May the Lord as the seed of life grow in us, increase in our inner being, and expand in every way in our soul until He brings us unto maturity and we’re filled with all the fullness of God.
Being Strengthened by the Father through the Spirit so that Christ may make His Home Deep Down in our Hearts through Faith
We believers in Christ have been rooted in Christ so that He may make His home in our hearts.
Paul’s prayer for experiencing the Triune God in Eph. 3:14-19 shows us that the Father strengthens us through the Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith.
We need to pray this prayer every day.
How can Christ as the seed of life grow in us? It is first by the Father strengthening us, according to the riches of His glory, through His Spirit into the inner man.
We need His strengthening because many times our inner man is not strong; our inner man is quite weak, for we pay so much attention to the outer man and we “starve” our inner man.
To say that we need to be strengthened into the inner man indicates that we’re not in the inner man, for we live mostly in the outer man (Eph. 3:16; 1:19-22; 3:20).
How can the Lord make His home in our heart when our inner man is so weak and we spend so much time in the outer man?
We need to be strengthened with power by the Father through the Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may have a way to make His home deep down in our heart.
God the Father is exercising His authority through God the Spirit to strengthen us into our inner man, so that God the Son – Christ – may make His home deep down in our heart.
Christ is in us (Col. 1:27), in our spirit, and He wants to house Himself in us, to make His home in us.
He wants to make His home in our inner being. Christ has the desire to occupy every room of our heart.
This phrase “make His home” is just one word in Greek, katoikeo; this word basically means to settle down in a dwelling, to make a dwelling place. And the prefix, kata, means “down”.
Christ is making His home, He is settling down in our heart as His dwelling, and He is making our heart as His dwelling place.
Like a root that seeks to spread downward to absorb the riches, nutrients, and water in the soil, so Christ seeks to settle down in us, make His home deep down in our hearts through faith.
He doesn’t want to remain only in the “living room” of our spirit; He wants to spread in all the inner chambers of our heart so that He may make His home deep down into our mind, emotion, will, and conscience.
We need to abide in the Lord so that He may abide in us; when we abide in the Triune God, He has a way to abide in us triunely.
We are rooted into Him and He lives in us, seeking a way to spread into all the parts of our inner being.
As we are rooted in the Triune God, enjoying Him, the Father works to strengthen us through the Spirit so that Christ may make His home deep down in our heart.
Our heart is composed of our mind (Heb. 4:12), will (Acts 11:23), emotion (John 16:6, 22), and conscience (Heb. 10:22).
We have Christ in our spirit, but how much did He make His home in our mind with its thoughts and imaginations, in our emotion with its desires and wants, and in our will with its decisions?
We need to pray that the Father would strengthen us through His Spirit, according to the riches of His glory, with power into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in the way we think, feel, and choose.
When our inner man is strengthened by the Father through the Spirit, Christ can gradually occupy our mind, take over our emotion, subdue our will, and possess our entire conscience.
This is how Christ as the seed of life grows in us; He grows first downward, in the soil of our heart, by Christ making His home deep down in our heart.
Oh, there are so many depths in our being that we don’t even know about, and Christ wants to reach these depths, fill them with Himself, and make His home deep down in our heart!
May we just open to Him and, realizing that we can’t do this in ourselves, may we daily pray to the Father,
Father, strengthen us through Your Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith! We open to You, Lord; grant us to be strengthened according to the riches of Your glory into the inner man so that Christ may have a way to make His home deep down in our heart. Amen, Lord, settle down in us, in all the inner parts of our being. Make Your home deep down in all the inner chambers of our heart. We open to You without reservation and we allow You to spread into our mind, emotion, will, and conscience. We want to be rooted in You so that You may have a way to spread in our inner being. Oh Lord, our mind, emotion, and will welcome You: come in, settle down in us and make Your home deep down in our being! Occupy every room of our mind, emotion, will, and conscience, and make Your home deep down in us a little more today!
We become Strong to Apprehend with all the Saints the Immeasurable Christ and be Filled unto all the Fullness of God to become the New Jerusalem
Our heart is like a house that has four rooms, which are our mind, emotion, will, and conscience.
Christ came into our spirit, our innermost being, and He wants to spread from our spirit into the four rooms of our heart.
He wants to occupy every room and settle down in us; He wants to take over every corner of every room.
As Christ makes His home deep down in our hearts, we are being rooted and grounded in love (Eph. 3:17).
We are being rooted in love for God’s farm and we’re grounded in love for God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9).
May we afford the Lord some deep down settlement; may we not let Him be on the porch but allow Him to enter into our house and even let Him come deep into all the parts of our heart.
As the Lord makes His home downward in our heart, we become strong to apprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ (Eph. 3:18).
When Christ has a way to house Himself into our inner being, our heart with its parts, we become strong to apprehend with all the saints the immeasurable Christ, whose dimensions are the dimensions of the universe.
Christ doesn’t make His home in our heart only so that He and us, we and He, would have a good time of fellowship together vertically.
He is doing this for the church, the Body of Christ. He’s making His home deep down in our hearts, and together we can apprehend the universal dimensions of Christ with all the saints.
Our experience of Christ in the church must be three-dimensional, like a cube, having breadth, length, height, and depth.
We should not only have a one-dimensional experience of Christ, like a line, just us and the Lord; we should have a three-dimensional experience of Christ, both personal and with the saints.
Both in the tabernacle and in the temple in the Old Testament, the Holy of Holies was a cube (Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20), and eventually, the New Jerusalem will be a cube.
The New Jerusalem, God’s building for eternity, will be an eternal cube, the enlarged and expanded Holy of Holies, twelve thousand stadia in three dimensions (Rev. 21:16). Wow!
Christ is making His home deep down in our heart for the producing and building up of the New Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of God and man!
As the Lord is making His home in our heart, we know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19).
When we are filled unto all the fullness of God, this is the complete entering into our wonderful, marvellous, all-inclusive Triune God.
Our full entrance into the Triune God is our entrance into the entire constitution of the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah!
Christ making His home in our hearts causes us to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of the Triune God for His corporate expression, His glorification (Eph. 3:19-21; cf. Gen. 24:47, 53, 61-67). Amen!
In Matt. 16:18, the greatest prophecy in the Bible, the Lord says that He will build His church; for this to be realized, we need to let Christ make His home in our heart.
We cooperate with Christ building His church by entering into a state where we have Christ making His home deep down in our heart so that our entire being would be saturated within with Christ!
When Christ possesses, occupies, and saturates every corner of our being, when every avenue and pathway in our inner being is taken over by Christ, we are completely mingled with the Triune God to be the New Jerusalem.
We need to have the subjective experience of the Triune God by being mingled with the Triune God as we let Christ make His home deep down in our heart little by little, day by day.
May so many saints in the church allow the Lord to make His home deep down in their heart so that their entire being would be saturated with Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God!
May divinity be mingled with humanity so that there would be the composition of the divine God with His redeemed people, the New Jerusalem!
May we remain on the pathway into the Triune God; may we enter deeper into the Triune God and let Him get into our inner being to such an extent that He houses Himself, makes His home deeper, into every part of our being.
Lord Jesus, make Your home deep down in our heart a little more today so that we may be rooted in love for God’s farm and grounded in love for God’s building! Amen, Lord, make us strong to apprehend with all the saints the immeasurable Christ, whose dimensions are the dimensions of the universe! May our experience of Christ be not only personal but also corporate, until we become the New Jerusalem, the eternal Holy of Holies! We open to You today, Lord; make Your home in our heart so that we may know the knowledge surpassing love of Christ and be filled unto all the fullness of God! Amen, Lord, mingle Yourself more with us today. Occupy and possess every corner and every avenue of our inner being for the building up of the church. May the church enter into a state where so many saints will have Christ making His home deep down in their heart so that their entire being would be saturated within with Christ! Do this in us all, Lord, for You to gain Your church, Your fullness, consummating in the New Jerusalem!
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 brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” ch. 39, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 3, entitled, God Building Himself in Christ into Our Being.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– God’s eternal purpose concerning the church and the apostle’s prayer for the church regarding the experience of the Triune God, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
– Through His Spirit into the inner man, a portion from, The Two Greatest Prayers of the Apostle Paul, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
– My church life experience: how I was shepherded by the brothers and sisters, via, Living to Him.
– Where Is God’s Home? Article via, Bibles for America Blog.
– The all-inclusive Christ in 1 Corinthians, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
– The apostle’s prayer in Ephesians 3, a portion from, The Body of Christ, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
– Christ Makes His Home in Us, We are Strengthened to Apprehend His Vastness, article via, New Jerusalem blog. - Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, strengthen my spirit, Lord Jesus, / Oh, strengthen my spirit, I pray; / Oh, strengthen my spirit with power / And spread to my heart today. / Into my heart, into my heart, / Spread into my heart, Lord Jesus; / Make home today and have Your way / In all of my heart, Lord Jesus. (Hymns #1134 stanza 1 and chorus)
– Oh in the Son the Father is, / And now the Spirit is the Son; / The Father with the Son is joined, / The Spirit with the Son is one. / ’Tis when the Spirit strengthens us / And Christ His home makes in our hearts, / The Father’s fulness with His love / Will fill us in our inward parts. (Hymns #243 stanzas 4-5)
– 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 stanzas 4-5)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” pp. 476-47
The way Christ build His church is by making His home deep down in our heart.
We need to ask the Father to strengthen us through His Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home deep down in our heart through faith.
When Christ takes over, possesses, and occupies every corner and avenue of our inner being, we are mingled with the Triune God, and we apprehend with all the saints the universal dimensions of Christ to become the New Jerusalem, the fullness of the Triune God!
Aaaaameeen!
Christ making His home in our heart is the subjective experience of the Triune God and the mingling of the Triune God with His chosen and redeemed people.
God wants to make His home in our hearts, to house Himself into our entire being.
This great truth was hidden for many centuries until it’s unveiling through the apostle Paul.
Even then, the saints down the centuries have not really pursued Christ to the extent that He would house Himself in our heart.
We must believe that our Christ is fully able to achieve this full mingling of divinity & humanity. Otherwise, we will fall by the wayside because of our unbelief.
We can only apprehend Christ’s universal dimensions with all the saints.
What a vision!
May the Lord grant us sight and hearing to cooperate with His advancement in this era.
May He make us buildable material to be buildable with each other.
Amen ! Father strengthen us in our inner man through your Spirit we want and need Christ to make His home in our hearts through faith🙏 O Lord build your church!!!
Amen brother may we be those who allow Christ to make home in our hearts through the Father’s strengthening of the inner man so that we can apprehend all the vast dimensions of God
Praise the Lord! 😃🙋🏽🙏 Amen!
Dear brother God is working him self from our regenerated spirit into our mind will and emotions and even our body.
The more we enter, the more He deepens.
Eventually, He gets into our inward being to such an extent that He has housed Himself in every corner and avenue of our entire being……
God is also the Father of the universe and the entire mankind and he is reaching every person by his massagers….us to have his expression on earth as in heaven when in the fullness of time he will have the New Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!😃
Dear brother, for the fulfillment of God’s economy we need to pray that God the Father, through God the Spirit, would strengthen us into our inner man, that God the Son would make His home – settle deep down in us – so that we would be rooted in Christ for God’s building for the expression and glorification of the Triune God!
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
1. Father God, forgive me if I groan;
For so long I’ve been on a plateau.
Now with tears, I bow my knees and pray
By Your Spirit make my spirit strong today.
2. As I came this morning to Your word
With no strength to even read a verse;
Yet my plea, is “Lord, I do need You!”
How You strengthen me, Your power within to prove.
3. 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.
4. All these years I’ve come the church to know,
Yet O Lord, there’re things I can’t let go;
Yet within me there is an “Amen”;
O now joy I never knew in me’s flowin’.
Brother today, I enjoyed the following:
The Triune God is now abiding in us (church) so we have been rooted into Him. While we are rooted into Him, the Father works to strengthen us through God the Spirit so that God the Son, Christ, may make His home deep down in our heart, which is composed of our mind (soul), mind (purpose of heart), emotion (sorrow), and conscience (moral).
Our heart is like a house that has four rooms, and these rooms are the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. Christ has the desire to occupy every room of our heart and every corner of every room. As He makes His home downward in our heart, we become strong to apprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, depth of Christ (Eph.3:18).
Praise the Lord for the revelation of His word. Amen.