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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:14-21
The first half of Ephesians 3 speaks of God having an economy of grace, which is to work the boundless Christ into us. The boundlessness of Christ is spoken of in verses 8, 18, and 19. In verse 8 Paul speaks of being given grace to announce “the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” This shows that the riches of Christ are immeasurable. In verse 18 Paul prays that the saints would apprehend “what the breadth and length and height and depth are.” The breadth and length and height and depth denote the boundless dimensions of Christ. In verse 19 Paul speaks of the “knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.” The love of Christ is Christ Himself. Christ is immeasurable, and so is His love; hence, His love is knowledge-surpassing. These verses show that the riches of Christ are immeasurable.
God has an economy of grace to work the riches of Christ into us little by little. Today the churches in Taiwan have not entered fully into the experience of the riches of Christ. Although we can speak of the riches of Christ, we have not sufficiently entered into the reality of the flow of these riches. Although there is some release of the spirit among the young people, there is the need for more content in their calling and praying. This is related to a lack of the experience of Christ.
In the second half of chapter 3, Paul bowed his knees unto the Father (v. 14). Bowing one’s knees to pray indicates that the subject of the prayer is great. Just as Paul prayed, we must pray before God concerning this matter today, asking for His mercy and grace so that we would daily experience the riches of Christ and increasingly touch and enjoy Him in His various rich aspects. For this we need to ask the Father to grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man (v. 16).
What is the inner man? The inner man is our regenerated human spirit. Formerly, our spirit was merely an organ like our nose and ears, and our soul was our person. When we repented and believed into the Lord, He entered into our spirit and became our life. Now that we have the Lord’s life, our spirit is no longer just an organ; it is a person. Our inner man is our regenerated human spirit indwelt by the Lord Jesus as life. As believers, we all have a “dual personality” with both an inner man and an outer man. Our soul, which lives according to our human life, constitutes our outer man; our spirit, which contains the Lord Jesus as life, constitutes our inner man.
The difficulty that we face in experiencing the riches of Christ is that our outer man is quite strong, whereas our inner man is weak. Our soul, including our mind, emotion, and will, is quite strong. Often we do not care for the things of the spirit or live in the spirit; instead, we act solely according to our thoughts, likes, and determinations. However, the Lord is not in our mind, emotion, or will but in our spirit. We need to forget about relying on our mind, emotion, and will, no longer caring for the things related to our outer man, and we need to be strengthened into our inner man so that our inner man would become strong.
A person who exercises his spirit can easily forget the faults of others and not be affected much by how others treat him. Such a one is not moved when others speak well of him, and he is not moved when others speak ill of him. The things of the soulish world do not touch him, because he lives in another realm. He is not in the mind, emotion, or will but in the spirit. When others gossip, he does not participate, but when it is time to pray and share, he participates actively. This is the issue of Paul’s prayer for our being strengthened into the inner man. The whole church should pray that the Father would grant us to learn to live in our spirit and not in our outer man.
We are strengthened into the inner man when we use our spirit and exercise our spirit. Without exercise, there is deterioration. For example, if we do not use our eyes, our vision will deteriorate. Our soul is so strong because we have used only the soul for most of our life. In order for us to be strengthened into the inner man, we need to exercise our spirit. We should not call on the Lord merely in the midst of troubling circumstances. In every human situation we must turn to our spirit to contact the Lord and touch the matter with our spirit rather than with our mind. When others criticize us, we should turn to our spirit; when others praise us, we should turn to our spirit. No matter what happens, we should turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit day by day. This exercise will strengthen our spirit.
Brother Nee once said that if a saved person does not allow God to break his disposition before he reaches the age of fifty, there will be no way for him to be useful in the church life. In the church we must accept the breaking and dealings related to our outer man, our soul. We need to reach a point that we no longer act according to our own thoughts and feelings or meddle in others’ affairs. Then we will be in spirit, and our spirit will be strong.
When our spirit is strong, we give the Lord Jesus room in our being. The Lord Jesus is not a doctrine or a term but a true and living person. Verse 17 speaks of Christ making His home in our hearts. In this verse the terms make His home and hearts are important. If we live by our soul and do not use our spirit, the Lord will be confined to our spirit, just as a guest entering into our living room would be confined to a corner of our home if we left him so that we could do other things on our own. The Lord Jesus is confined to the spirit of many people today because they are living according to their soul. Our spirit must be strengthened so that we can live in our spirit and Christ can make His home in our hearts. Our spirit is the central part of our being, and it is surrounded by our heart. First Peter 3:4 speaks of our spirit as the “hidden man of the heart.” The Lord Jesus is not only in our spirit; He wants to enter into our heart, into every part of our being. God’s economy is to work the Lord Jesus into our whole being. Our mind, emotion, and will should not be for ourselves; every part of our being should be for Christ.
The Lord’s recovery in the church today is the recovery of Christ as the Spirit entering into our spirit to be our everything and to spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will so that our whole being is saturated, permeated, and occupied by Him. As a result of this process, He will make His home in our hearts, and this will produce the church life. The church is not merely a group of people who meet together; the church is Christ entering into our spirit and spreading from our spirit into every part of our being. When we live by Him and let Him live in us, we are blended into one. In this oneness the church is manifested, and the church life becomes a reality.
We should never be content with learning outward things or believe that we are fine as long as we have some services and activities. We must live in the spirit and have rich experiences of Christ in spirit. Meanwhile, we must learn to use our spirit to contact and minister Christ. This is the Lord’s recovery today.
