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When some Christians experience an adverse situation or encounter difficulty, other people cannot tell that they are in any kind of turmoil. This does not mean that these Christians do not have any feeling but that they do not express their feeling. I received much help from a brother who knew the Lord. He once said that he did not react in a situation, because the Lord had not reacted within him. His inward situation could not be shaken by outward factors.
We have also seen some Christians who love the Lord, are living, and are often joyful but who are unable to handle any difficulty. When they encounter difficulty, they panic and burst into tears. There was a sister who, after hearing the inaccurate news that her child might have been involved in a car accident, immediately became hysterical. Those who were with her tried to comfort her, saying that she should not panic, because the news may not be accurate, and her child may not have been in that car. They also said that she needed to find out what happened. However, she would not calm down but continued to cry. While she was crying, her child returned. When she saw her child, she could not calm herself down. She held her child tightly and jumped continually for joy.
Some may say that this was a normal human reaction. However, even though a person who allows the Lord to make home in his heart is full of feeling, he is calm in any circumstance he encounters. Even when he is so sad that he is in tears, he is still calm. No matter what kind of pain or joy he experiences, he is calm and secure.
When the Lord is making His home in our heart, joy and sorrow cannot govern our reactions. A person in whom the Lord is making His home will be calm when giving a message and calm when imprisoned. He is calm whether he is joyful or sorrowful. On the day of Pentecost Peter spoke in front of a large crowd, yet he was secure (Acts 2:14-41). When Peter was brought before the magistrate, he did not panic when he spoke, and when he was locked up in prison, he was also secure (4:1-20). Peter was calm and secure because the Lord, who is calm and secure, had made His home in Peter. Not only did Peter have the Lord within him and not only did he have the Lord’s appearing, but even more the Lord was making His home in Peter.
In order for a person to make home in a house, he must be given the legal right of possession to the house. Then he can completely settle down in the house. If you ask me where the loveliest place in the whole world is, I would say that the loveliest place is my home. Last year I visited several places, but it was only when I returned home that I felt truly at rest, because not only is my body in my home, but also my heart is in my home. Every part of me is in my home. The Lord wants to be life in us to the extent that all that He is can be secure in us. He wants to be life in us to the extent that we become a place where He can dwell securely because He can put everything, including His intention, His way, His work, and His everything, in us.
The Lord gradually becomes our life until He can make us His dwelling place by making His home in our heart. This is what the apostle Paul prayed for in Ephesians 3. He bowed his knees to the Father for this cause, praying that God would cause Christ to make His home in the hearts of the saints through faith (vv. 14, 17). Paul was clear that Christ was in the saints and that they had the Lord’s appearing. However, Paul also knew that Christ desired to make His home in the saints.
Since the church is the dwelling place of God, the building up of the church will be frustrated if Christ cannot make home in the saints. The church can be manifested and built up only when Christ has made His home in a group of saints. Such saints are not saved merely to have the Lord in them. Neither do these saints merely have the Lord’s appearing. They also allow Christ to be their life until Christ occupies every corner of their heart, and they become His dwelling place. When there is such a group of saints, the church is manifested practically and can be built up.
Several situations manifest that the Lord is making His home in us. The first situation is that we are at rest within. This rest is not limited to certain matters, nor is it manifested only when everything is peaceful. On the contrary, we are at rest within no matter what the time or the circumstance is. We can be at rest because Christ is making His home in us. A lack of joy proves that the Lord needs to make His home in us. The continual absence of peace proves that the Lord needs to make His home in us. We should ask ourselves whether we have peace within and are at rest. If we are at rest and cannot be disturbed, having a calmness that cannot be shaken, the Lord is making His home in us.
When the Lord makes His home in our heart, we will have His throne within us. This is the situation of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is a city with foundations that are steady, solid, and unshakable. The New Jerusalem is unshakable because it is God’s dwelling place. God dwells in the New Jerusalem.
According to the book of Revelation, God’s throne is in the New Jerusalem (22:3). This signifies that all authority belongs to God. Every situation that is related to the New Jerusalem is under God’s ruling (v. 1). Whether we are God’s dwelling place and whether God is making His home in us depend on God’s throne being in us and His having the right to rule over us. If we still reserve legal rights to ourselves, that is, if we do not have the throne of God in us, He has not yet made home in our heart.
The New Jerusalem is full of the operation of life. The river of water of life flows through the city, and the tree of life grows in it (vv. 1-2). This is altogether a situation of life flourishing. Life is flowing and watering, and life is also supplying and growing. If we read the Scriptures concerning the New Jerusalem carefully, we will see that the New Jerusalem is entirely a manifestation of life. Such a rich manifestation of life is the issue of the river of water of life, which flows continuously without any obstruction. There is no thirst or hunger; rather, the city is full of watering and supply. This is altogether a story of life.
God wants to make home in us in the same way that He is at home in the New Jerusalem. When our condition is that of the New Jerusalem, we will have not only God’s throne but also the flow of life. Daily we will be watered within, and we will be without dryness. Daily there will be a flow within us, and we will not be stagnant. Daily we will be satisfied within and not experience any shortage, because we are full of the life supply.
Regrettably, this is often not our situation. On the contrary, we often feel dry, as if life has come to a halt. We are often empty, hungry, weak, depressed, and unable to rise. All these sensations are because God has not made His home in us. When God cannot flow in us or water and supply us, we are not satisfied. However, the situation in the New Jerusalem is without stagnation, thirst, hunger, or lack. The New Jerusalem is full of the watering of life, the flow of life, the supply of life, and the satisfaction of life, because God has made His home there.
The New Jerusalem is also in the light. There is absolutely no darkness in it. The light in the city is not the light from the sun or from the moon, but God Himself is the light — God’s glory shines as the light (21:23-25). If God is making His home in us, our inner being will be very bright. Not only will we feel bright, but when other people contact us, they will immediately sense that we are transparent and bright persons. Furthermore, the gold in the New Jerusalem is also transparent (v. 18).
Sometimes when we touch a saint, we may sense that he is in darkness. Within him there is no light, and he is not transparent. His whole being is like a wall made of iron or steel, which no light can penetrate and out of which no light can shine. After sitting with him for half an hour, we feel as if we have been judged by darkness. When we sit with a person who is in darkness, we fall into darkness and are judged by darkness.
Our experience with other saints is different. When we sit with them, we feel bright and transparent. There is a brightness that surrounds them, because their being is full of light. This light shines through a person who is transparent. After sitting with such a saint for an hour, or even half an hour, we feel that we have been blessed and enlightened and that we are abiding in the light. God is making His home in a saint who is full of light. The result of God’s making His home in us is that our inner being becomes bright.
The normal condition of a Christian should be that no matter how difficult his circumstances are, how many trials he endures, or how much he suffers, he is always fresh. His condition can be compared to the rising of the morning sun. Whenever and wherever we run into him, we will feel that he is as fresh as the morning and is full of vigor like the dawning of the sun. The only reason for such a condition is that God is making His home in him. Not only does such a saint make us feel fresh, living, secure, at peace, and bright, but when we touch him, we sense that we are touching light. This is the situation of a person in whom God has made His home.
The result of God’s making His home in us is that we express God. The New Jerusalem expresses the glory of God. The only thing that shines in the New Jerusalem is God’s glory. The glory of God shines from within the city because God has made His home there. Therefore, when a brother allows God to make His home in him, others cannot see anything but God’s expression in him, and all that they can smell is God’s aroma. God is expressed through him.
When we let God be our life and live by Him, we not only have light within, know God, and have God as our Lord so that we manifest our function, but even more we become God’s dwelling place. As we continue to let God be our life and let Him live in us, He will eventually occupy our entire being. Our whole being will be occupied and filled with God so that we become His dwelling place and so that He makes His home in us. Then He will not only be within us and appear to us, but He will also make His home in us.
In John 14:20 the Lord said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Then in verse 23 the Lord said that He and the Father will come to His believers and make an abode with them. This shows that it is one thing to be in the Lord, and it is another thing to allow the Lord to make His home in us. We can experience the Lord to the extent that we not only have the Lord in us and have His appearing, but we also have the Lord making His home in us, dwelling with us, and making an abode with us.
When the Lord makes His home in us, we become a calm and restful person. We become a person who is stable and not easily tossed about. We yield all our legal rights to the Lord and are full of the operation of life, the flow of life, the supply of life, and the satisfaction of life. Not only so, we are also full of light within; there is no darkness, and everything is transparent. Furthermore, what we express is God, because the glory of God shines through us. This is the issue of God making His home in us. Only as we experience this will it be possible for the church to be practically built up and to express God. May we all be graced to know that the Lord is our life and to allow Him to live in us. We must learn to live by Him and cooperate with Him, letting Him appear to us regularly so that He may make His home in us.
