Strengthened by the Father into our Inner Man

Ephesians 3:16-17 is part of Paul’s prayer for our experience, that the Father “would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.”

To be strengthened by the Father is our first step. The result is that Christ makes His home in our hearts. This home-making is a gradual process. It is through faith, our responding to the Lord, not through our own effort.

The divine mystery of the Trinity is beyond explanation.…Our God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, not for us to know doctrinally but for us to experience. We all need to say, “Thank You, Father! You are the One granting us to be strengthened. You have a plan, You have a purpose, and You are wise. Praise You that You are exercising Your sovereignty to cause us to be strong. Thank You, Father, that You do this through the Spirit. Thank You, we are being strengthened into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in our heart.”*

We need to be strengthened for Christ to make his home in us. He is in us but He is not yet comfortably at home in us. We cooperate by praying, by asking the Father for his strengthening, and by turning our heart to Him at all times in singing and in musing on His word (going over and over a short portion with prayer for nourishment, as a cow chews the cud).

When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we realize more of His person and riches and we become at home in Him. This is a foretaste of New Jerusalem.

* From chapter 39, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

Posted by Don on July 24, 2023

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