The church life is the corporate expression and the coming out of the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced daily. But if we don’t enjoy Christ or experience Him, how can we have the proper church life? Even more: if we don’t allow Christ to make His home in all our heart, giving Him the full ground in our mind, emotion, will, and conscience, how can we have a proper church life? We stand on the ground of oneness, we are in fellowship with other saints and churches around the world, and we thus are a genuine local church; but how much Christ do we have coming out of for the building up of the Body? When we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He as the Spirit came into our spirit and regenerated us with His life (John 3:6; 1:12-13); there is no doubt that all genuine believers have Christ in their spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). But what about our soul? Does Christ have the ground to spread from our spirit into our soul? Do we allow Christ to re-arrange us, reconstitute us, change us within, and saturate us as He sees fit in our mind, emotion, and will? We have Christ as the Spirit in our spirit, but is He still imprisoned in our spirit by our soul? We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have received Him in us, but does He have the liberty to change the way we think, alter the way we feel, and influence the way we choose and decide things? Are we the Lord’s home or are we a prison for Him? The Apostle Paul, after speaking of the high vision of the Body of Christ, knelt down before the Father imploring Him to strengthen all His believers with power (the same power that raised Christ from the dead, ascended Him to the heavens, and seated Him on the throne above all things) into their inner man so that Christ would have a way to make His home in their heart (see Eph. 3:16). Yes, Christ is in our spirit, and our spirit is His home and dwelling place (Eph. 2:22), but He may not have a way to spread into and saturate our mind, emotion, and will, because we don’t allow Him to. We may be like a prison guard who keeps Christ in the “solitary confinement” of our spirit, allowing Him to get out for an hour or two here-and-there as we go to meetings or read the Bible – but what about the rest of the time? We have done this so many times – even though we don’t do this intentionally; we may not realize what we are doing, but through our attitude and actions we limit the Lord’s working and spreading within us. As the Lord shines on us and exposes us of how much we keep the Lord in the prison in our spirit it is good to tell Him, O Father, strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith. Lord Jesus, we open to You as wide as we can. We want to enjoy You, experience You, and open to You all the parts of our inward being so that You may spread in us. Lord, save us from keeping You in the prison in our spirit; spread into our soul and make Your home in all our heart. Lord, be at home in us, in all the parts of our inner being! agodman
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 07:31:14 +0000
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