For us to abide in Christ and for Christ to abide in us, we need to take Christ as our dwelling place and everything, we need to eat Christ as the hidden manna, and we need to love the Lord Jesus.
In John 15 the Lord Jesus said, Abide in Me and I in you; through regeneration we have been grafted into Christ, and now we simply need to abide in Him. To abide doesn’t mean only to remain and stay but to dwell, to live, to have our being and everything there.
A branch takes the vine as its everything; a branch in the vine doesn’t just remain or stay in the vine but has its source, life, being, living, and fruit-bearing in the vine.
When we abide in the Lord, we take Him as our everything – He is our dwelling place, our source, our life, and we have our being and living and everything in Him.
The Lord’s word in John 15 shows that we first abide in the Lord and then He abides in us; when we take the lead to abide in the Lord, He will abide in us. When we exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord, we will abide in Him, and He will abide in us.
To abide in the Lord is to live in the Divine Trinity, taking Christ as our dwelling place.
When we abide in the Lord, we actually abide in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit; we abide in the fellowship of the divine life and we walk in the divine light, abiding in the divine light.
When Christ abides in us as a result of our abiding in Him, we have Christ’s presence as our enjoyment for Him to be one with us. This means that He becomes one with us to be with every part of our being, and He becomes our enjoyment in every aspect of our living.
There are so many verses in the New Testament showing us that God is in us, Christ is in us, and the Spirit is with our spirit; the entire Triune God is in us and with us, and for us to abide in the Lord so that He may abide in us is that we take Him as our dwelling place, exercising our spirit and our turned heart to abide in Him.
When we abide in the Lord and He abides in us, we will bear much fruit; actually, a sign of our abiding is that there’s a corporate fruit-bearing, that is, the vine bears fruit through us, the branches abiding in the vine.
When we abide in the Lord and He abides in us, we have the Spirit of reality as the presence of the Triune God abiding in us.
Taking Christ as our Dwelling Place and Dwelling in Him to Abide in Christ for Christ to abide in us
We need to abide in Christ as our King and as our royal abode so that He can abide in us to make us His queen and His royal palace, His glorious church (see Psa. 45:13, 8; John 15:4-5; Eph. 5:27; Rev. 22:5; Rom. 5:17; cf. S. S. 6:4).
Christ is our King, and He wants to make us His queen; we simply need to abide in Him, and we will be produced to be His queen, the church.
The local churches are the “palaces of ivory”; here we enjoy Christ as our resurrection life and power, and from here we sing melodious praises to the Lord, for the church life is filled with praising the Lord.
Hallelujah, the Lord as our King will make us His queen, the church as His wife, with no spot and wrinkle or any such thing!
For us to abide in Christ is for us to dwell in Him, taking Him as our dwelling place; He is the eternal God, our Lord, and we need to have our living in Him and take Him as our everything (John 15:4-5; 1 John 4:15-16; Rev. 21:22; Deut. 33:27a; Psa. 90).
In Psa. 90 we see that God has been our dwelling place throughout generations. Christ took God as His dwelling place all the time, and in our identification with Christ we also need to take Christ as our dwelling place.
May we learn to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom; may we be satisfied in the morning with the Lord’s lovingkindness so that we may give a ringing shout and rejoice all our days!
Amen, may the Lord’s work appear to us, His servants, and may His splendor appear to our children; may the Lord’s favor, His beauty, be upon us, so that the works of His hands may be established!
We need to dwell in God, living in Him every minute, for outside of God there are sins and afflictions (Psa. 90:3-11; John 16:33).
In our daily living we need to dwell in God, living in Him, and taking Him as our dwelling place; whenever we do not abide in Him, we encounter sins and afflictions.
To take God as our habitation, our dwelling place, is the highest and fullest experience of God (see Psa. 91). Psalm 91 is a chapter regarding Christ and our oneness with Him.
We need to dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty; may we learn this secret, that is, how to dwell in the secret place of the Most High.
The Most High is our secret place, and we are sons of the Most High; also, our spirit is the secret place of the Most high, and when we live in the spirit and exercise our spirit, we are dwelling in the secret place of the Most High.
When we take Christ as our dwelling place, we tell Him, Lord, be our refuge today, and protect us from everything of the enemy.
We need to make Jehovah, who is our refuge, our habitation; in the identification with Christ, we are under the preserving care of the angels, and we are protected from Satan and the evil spirits. May we be those who take Christ as our dwelling place so that we may abide in Him and He may abide in us!
Lord Jesus, we take You as our dwelling place so that we may dwell in You, for outside of Christ there are sins and afflictions. Amen, Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout the generations. We take You as our everything; we want to have our living in You and abide in in You so that You may abide in us. May we dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty in our daily living today. May we live in our spirit and exercise our spirit so that we may experience taking Christ as our dwelling place and be under God’s preserving care and protection.
To Abide in Christ for Him to Abide in us is to Live in the Reality of the Divine-human Incorporation
For us to abide in Christ, taking Him as our dwelling place, and allow Him to abide in us, taking us as our dwelling place, is actually for us to live in the reality of the universal incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with us, His redeemed and regenerated believers.
For us to abide in Christ and for Christ to abide in us means that we dwell in one another; this refers not only to union (we are one with the Lord in spirit, 1 Cor. 6:17) or to mingling (we are mingled with the Lord, and the divine nature is mingled with our nature), but to incorporation (He lives in us and we live in Him).
It is impossible to see an illustration of incorporation in the physical realm, for we cannot see anywhere persons dwelling in one another; however, in John 14:20 we see what incorporation is.
To live in the divine-human incorporation is for Christ to be in the Father, for us to be in Christ, and for Christ to be in us; we are in the Triune God and the Triune God is in us.
The New Jerusalem is the ultimate incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite church.
As seen in Rev. 21:3, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God for God to dwell in – we are God’s home, His habitation. As seen in Rev. 21:22, the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple in the New Jerusalem for us to dwell and live in.
On one hand we are God’s dwelling place, His home, and on the other He is our dwelling place, our home. The New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God, and the center of the tabernacle is Christ as the hidden manna. Amen!
The way for us to be incorporated into this universal, divine-human incorporation, the mutual abode of God and man, is to eat Christ as the hidden manna (Exo. 16:32-34; Heb. 9:4; Rev. 2:17).
The hidden manna was in the golden pot, the golden pot was in the ark, the Ark was in the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies was in the tabernacle.
In spiritual significance, the Christ as the hidden manna is in the Father, the Father is in Christ as the embodiment of God, Christ is in our mingled spirit (the reality of the Holy of Holies), and our spirit is in Christ and in the church (the reality of the tabernacle).
So for us to live in practicality and reality in the divine-human incorporation is for us to eat Christ as the hidden manna; that is, we need to enjoy, eat, digest, and assimilate Christ!
Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us a way for us to enter into and live in the divine-human incorporation of God with man. We open to You, Lord, and we want to eat Christ as the hidden manna so that we may eat Christ, digest Christ, and assimilate Christ and thus be incorporated with God and take Christ as our dwelling place for Him to take us as His dwelling place. Hallelujah, we can dwell in God and God can dwell in us by our eating, digesting, and assimilating Christ!
We Abide in Christ for Him to Abide in us by Loving the Lord Jesus!
In John 14:21 and 23 we see a very simple and enjoyable way for us to abide in Christ so that He may abide in us: we need to just love the Lord! We need to keep our love for Him fresh, telling Him daily that we love Him.
In the church life we need to be the, Lord Jesus I Love You kind of people; we need to daily love the Lord, exercise our spirit, and turn our heart to Him, never graduating from loving Him.
He who has the Lord’s word, His commandments, and keeps them, he loves the Lord, and he will be loved by the Father, and Christ will manifest Himself to him.
When we love the Lord and His word, we will be loved by the Father, and Christ will manifest Himself to us.
Loving the Lord will causes Him to love us; when we love the Lord, He will love us, the Father will love us, and He will come and make a mutual abode with us.
May we have the Lord’s real, actual presence, by loving Him and giving ourselves to be in His word.
When we love the Lord Jesus, He manifests Himself to us, and the Father comes with Him to make an abode with us for our enjoyment; this abode is a mutual abode, in which the Triune God abides in us and we abide in Him (John 14:23).
If we love the Lord, we will keep His word, and the Father will love us, and the Father and the Son will come to make an abode with us; this is a mutual abode of the Father, the Son, and the loving believers, and in this abode the Father and the Son dwell in us, as we dwell in Him.
The more we love the Lord, the more we will have His presence, and the more we are in His presence, the more we will enjoy all that He is to us (1 Cor. 2:9-10; Eph. 6:24).
Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, even things that have not come up into man’s heart, these are the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.
And hallelujah, God has revealed these things to us through the spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
When we exercise our spirit and our turned heart to say, Lord Jesus, I love You! the Spirit searches the depths of God concerning Christ, doing an active research and providing us with His riches.
When we turn our heart to the Lord and exercise our spirit to contact Him and live Christ, the Spirit does active research into the riches of Christ as the depths of God, and He reveals these riches of Christ to us and in us for our realisation and participation.
For us to abide in Christ so that He may abide in us, we need to love the Lord Jesus!
Lord Jesus, we love You and we love Your word. We turn our heart to You, Lord, and we exercise our spirit; cause us to love You more so that we may have Your fresh visitation, Your presence, Your appearing. We love to have Your manifestation, Lord. We love to abide in You for You to abide in us by loving You! Lord Jesus, we love You! Thank You for revealing us through the Spirit all the riches in the depths of God for our enjoyment. Thank You for coming us to make an abode with us so that we may dwell in God and God may dwell in us!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Îl luăm pe Cristos ca locuința noastră și Îl iubim pentru a rămâne în Cristos și El în noi.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of the Psalms, pp. 399-402 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 4, Abiding in Christ as the Empowering One—the Secret of Experiencing Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# In the secret of His presence / How my soul delights to hide! / Oh, how precious are the lessons / Which I learn at Jesus’ side! / Earthly cares can never vex me, / Neither trials lay me low; / For when Satan comes to tempt me, / To the secret place I go. (Hymns #553)
# Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. (Hymns #643)
# Thy heart is opened wide, / Its offered love most free, / That heart to heart I may abide, / And hide myself in Thee. / Ah, how Thy love doth burn, / Till I that love return! / I would love Thee as Thou lov’st me, / O Jesus most desired. (Hymns #543)
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