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We may say that Ephesians 3:16-19 is the highest and most central word in the Bible. This portion says, “That He 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, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.”
This portion of the Word shows us the Holy Spirit, Christ, and God, who fills all things. Although the words are simple, what is spoken of here is very mysterious, and what is included here is extremely rich. Not only is God Himself mentioned, but the riches and the fullness of God are also mentioned. Here we should not only pay attention to the fact that we may be filled but also to the fact that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
We all know that the eternal intention of God is to work Himself into us and to be mingled with us. Unable to comprehend this, some say, “How can God and man be mingled together? And how can God mingle Himself with man?” There is at least one verse in the Bible that shows us this matter, saying clearly and emphatically, “that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (v. 19). Not only does God want to come into us and be mingled with us, but He also wants to fill us with all His riches — all that He is and all that He has — that we may become His fullness and expression. This, the ultimate purpose of God, is marvelous and mysterious.
All Bible scholars acknowledge that Ephesians is the highest book in the Bible and that verse 19 of chapter 3 is the highest point, the center, of the book of Ephesians. Paul prayed before God on behalf of the church in Ephesus day after day. Even though the church in Ephesus was already very high and spiritual, God still had His highest desire and purpose for them. From this we see how much God’s desire for His children is neglected and how hard it is for man to reach God’s desire. What God has desired throughout the ages is that we would be filled with Him unto His fullness.
How can we be filled with the riches of all that God is? This requires the work of the Holy Spirit within us. If the Holy Spirit does not work in us, we cannot be filled, nor can we have God’s riches mingled with us. In other words, unless we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, the riches of God cannot possibly become our inward element. The Holy Spirit works in us so that we may know the Christ who is making home in our hearts. Hence, here it mentions that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and that Christ is making His home in our hearts in order to reveal Christ to us little by little so that we may experience Him in a practical way. When we experience Christ inwardly, we will be able to taste and experience the riches of all that God is.
God has put Himself into Christ. Moreover, after Christ’s death and resurrection He enters into us and dwells in us through the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 3:16 says, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.” This verse tells us that the Spirit who is in us is working in us. The result of the Spirit’s working in us is that Christ indwells us, making His home in our hearts. It is the Spirit who indwells us, but when the Spirit is working in us, He gives us the feeling that Christ is making His home in our hearts because Christ indwells us through the Spirit.
When the Spirit works in us, Christ makes His home in our hearts so that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God. Here we see a wonderful sequence: the Spirit’s working in us gives us the sense that Christ is in us, and Christ’s being in us is God’s filling us inwardly. What is the reason? It is because God is in Christ, and Christ dwells in us through the Spirit. When the Spirit is in us, Christ is in us; when Christ is in us, God is in us.
We have to see from this portion in Ephesians how to be filled by the Triune God more and more through His indwelling, that is, how to be filled by God, Christ, and the Spirit. Here it mentions the Divine Trinity and the two steps, two factors, or two requirements, for us to experience the Triune God: one is faith and the other is love. The first step is faith — that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith; the second step is love — that we may be rooted and grounded in love. In order to experience Christ in full, we must have both faith and love.
We must have both faith and love toward the Triune God. To have faith is to believe in God’s word — to believe that Christ is making His home in our hearts. Many of us who are saved neglect this faith. We believe in a great many things, such as the kingdom of the heavens, the lake of fire, the existence of God, the Lord’s death for us, the forgiveness of sins, and the eternal life. Yet very few people can say, “We believe that Christ is making His home in our hearts and that God in Christ indwells us through the Spirit.” All spiritual experiences are based firstly on faith. Without faith our spiritual experiences do not have any basis. If we do not believe that God dwells in us, we will have nothing to say because we will have no basis for our speaking.
We can say this and we can say that because we believe that God in Christ indwells us through the Spirit. We need to acknowledge this fact by faith. If we do not acknowledge such a fact, how can we experience God’s indwelling? Without such a faith, we cannot talk about any spiritual matter. To experience God’s riches in us that we may become His fullness, we must first have this faith. I hope that all of us who hear this word will kneel down before God and praise Him with assurance that the Triune God is living in us.
I have knelt down before the Lord many times, not to ask Him for anything or to confess my sins, but to praise Him specifically for this matter. This is too great a matter. Some have prayed for healing when they were seriously ill. After they were healed, they greatly praised the Lord. Others have asked the Lord for help when they encountered a difficulty. After the Lord answered their prayers, they also greatly praised the Lord. All these testify that what they experienced was “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). However, I hope we all know that the most delightful news, the real good news of great joy, is that the God of glory, the God who fills all things, is living in us. Please consider what a glorious miracle, what a glorious wonder this is.
In Philippians Paul tells us that all things are refuse and that only Christ is the most excellent One (3:8). Today’s Christians, however, consider the refuse as something excellent, something most precious. Although we cannot say that they consider the most excellent One, the most precious One, as refuse, at least we can say that they are like children who treasure the box that holds the diamond more than the diamond itself. God is in us, but we do not care. What do we treasure? We treasure our tears and our sorrow. What do we treasure? We treasure our ability and our future. When we lose our job, we ask God to give us a job, and when we get a job, we are full of praise and thanksgiving to God. When someone in our family is sick, we pray to God with tears, and when he is healed, we praise God joyfully. We may have praised God innumerable times, but have we ever praised God concerning the indwelling of the God of glory?
D. L. Moody, a famous American preacher, once said that the greatest miracle that God does is that we who were dead in sins are made alive by receiving His life. Today we would say that the greatest miracle God does in us is much more than what Moody proclaimed. We who were dead are not only enlivened by God with His life but are also filled unto God’s fullness. God Himself is the fullness, and God Himself is glory. Such a One dwells in us. If we really have the light and have seen the vision, we will be beside ourselves. May the Lord have mercy on us. We all need to have a time to praise God specifically for His indwelling and not for any other thing.
God will never forsake us, so we do not need to worry about anything. In the Gospel of Matthew the Lord told us that if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all that we need will be added to us (6:33). What does added mean? For example, suppose you go to a fabric store to buy some fabric, and the storeowner “adds” a calendar to you. You did not buy the calendar, but because you bought the fabric, the storeowner gives you a calendar as something added to you. Then if you buy more fabric, he will give you yet another calendar as another item added to you. The Lord said that if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, what we would eat, drink, and be clothed with will all be added to us. Regrettably, however, we always reject the “fabric” and care only for the “calendar.” We do not recognize or appreciate the “fabric.” We care only for the “calendar.” Actually, what do we have to worry about? We did not create the earth, neither did we invent sunlight and rain. We have not caused one grain of rice to grow. All these things were created and done by God. Since God was able to create all these things, can He not send all these things to us for our enjoyment? Perhaps some people will then ask, “Does this mean that we do not need to do anything but that we can simply wait for God to send all these thing to us?” We should realize that no one who fears God would say such a word.
Before God we should disregard material things. Many people have disregarded material enjoyment for the sake of God and His kingdom, yet eventually God granted them a great deal of material enjoyment. The God whom we serve never fails. Even though sometimes He puts us through trials, we still have to properly praise and thank Him for our relationship with Him. Today many Christians do not know the God who created all things; rather, they treasure all the things that He created. Paul says that he counted all things as refuse. God has never treasured these things more than Christ. However, we have a treasure in us that Paul referred to as being something excellent. God is the excellent One! Christ is the excellent One! Such a One lives in us! How glorious this is!
We must know, acknowledge, receive, and believe that this glorious God is living in us. Without such faith, we cannot talk about any spiritual experience. A person may think that it is a spiritual experience to pray earnestly for the Lord to preserve his son, who is going on a trip, and then the Lord keeps his son from danger. This person would be very joyful after having such a “spiritual experience.” Indeed, a Christian should have this kind of experience, but this cannot be counted as a real spiritual experience.
The first step of a genuine spiritual experience is the belief that God dwells in us. We should prostrate ourselves in worship to God and lift up our hearts to praise Him, saying, “O God of glory, although You are the Lord of the universe, You live in me. Although You are on the throne, You are also in me. I praise You because You want to fill me unto Your fullness. What a glory this is!” A Christian who is up to standard should have this kind of praise. The reason why we are not released and have no peace is that we have not seen, and we have neglected the fact, that the God of glory is living in us. Without faith it is impossible to see and receive this.
Some people say that our teaching is too high and too deep and that if we were to change our teaching a little, more people would listen to us. However, if we do not release such messages, the God of glory in us will not be pleased, because this is His intention revealed in the Scriptures. If we really know that the God of glory is living in us, and if we have fellowship with Him, all our problems, such as those related to sins, the world, hardships, food, clothing, housing, and transportation will pass away. The God of glory, the One of peerless worth in the universe, is living in us. How great this is!
Observe how great and wonderful this universe is. It is God who created such a great and wonderful universe, and now this God of creation is living in us. He is truly the One of peerless worth. Is gold precious? Yes it is. It was created by God. The God who created gold is indwelling us. He is not only our Lord, our Father, and our God; He is also living in us, and we are being filled unto all His fullness. If we see this, our entire being will be changed.
Many years ago in Chefoo during the fellowship in a love feast, a brother who had just been saved saw the preciousness of the glorious God living in him. After this he did not care that the distribution of his family’s inheritance was taking place; he simply gave up everything. This is the personality of a Christian. This was due solely to the fact that he saw and believed that the God of glory was dwelling in him. Faith is the first step.
The second obligation we have toward the Triune God is to love Him. Paul says, “That you, being rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3:17b). Everyone who genuinely believes in the Lord will love the Lord. If someone has helped us, it is reasonable that we would love him. Because he has done us a favor, this favor stirs up our love toward him. At the Lord’s table we often hear the saints pray, “O Lord, You gave up Your life for our sins, shedding Your blood and enduring the suffering of the cross.” This kind of prayer is good, but not only should we see that the Lord died for us, we should also see that He lives in us. This is the subjective aspect. At the Lord’s table our heart should be touched by His grace to praise Him that He lives in us and is united with us.
The Lord not only died for us, but He also lives in us. He died for us so that He may enter into us. Without the shedding of blood, a lamb or an ox cannot enter into us as our food to become our element. It is not enough to see only the Lord’s love in dying for us; we should also see the purpose of His love in dying for us. What is this purpose? It is that He may enter into us to be our food, our life, and our element. If we see this, we will praise the Lord at His table, saying, “O Lord, without Your death and the shedding of Your blood, I would not be able to receive this bread and cup into me today. Lord, I thank You.”
If we realize this, we will sense from within that the Lord is really lovely. We will not only adore Him and be affectionate toward Him, but we will truly love Him. He is so wonderful and so precious! If we genuinely know Him, we will surely love Him. We cannot experience Him unless we believe in Him and love Him. Only those who believe in Him and love Him can experience Him. Love is a strict requirement. The Lord has not turned away from us; rather, we are the ones who do not love Him. If we do not love Him, it is impossible for us to experience Him. We must have both faith and love toward Him. Faith and love are the factors for us to experience Him.
We need to spend some time and effort to understand our practical experience. We know that God fills us by indwelling our spirit. Man not only has a body and a soul, but he also has a spirit in the deepest part of his being. The Bible tells us that man has three parts. Speaking from the inside out, we have the spirit, the soul, and the body (1 Thes. 5:23). Speaking from the outside in, we have the body, the soul, and the spirit. The outermost part is the body, the innermost part is the spirit, and in between the spirit and the body is the soul.
Our body is our outward part, our outward organ. Our soul is our self, which includes three parts — mind, emotion, and will. When we think, we use the thinking organ, which is our mind, our brain. The word brain is a biological term, while the word mind is a psychological term. Our thinking and our consideration are functions of our mind, which is the leading part of our soul. Our emotion is the organ of our joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. We may like something, we may be happy, or we may be angry. These are functions of the emotion, the second part of our soul. Making decisions and choices are functions of our will, the third part of our soul. These three parts — the mind, emotion, and will — added together constitute the soul. What is the soul? The soul is our “I,” our personality, our self. We often say “I,” and this “I” refers mostly to our soul. Most people know only that man has a body, which is physical, and a soul, which is psychological. Their analysis of man ends here.
The Bible tells us, however, that man not only has two parts — body and soul — but that man also has a spirit deep within him. All saved ones can comprehend the condition that our spirit is in and the need that our spirit has. For example, sometimes we do not have any problem physically and we are happy psychologically, but inwardly we still feel depressed. Even though we have material enjoyment and are not lacking psychological entertainment, inwardly we still feel unhappy. As a result, our seeking of God and praying to God come out of our inmost and deepest part — our spirit.
We all know that God dwells in our spirit. However, how can the God who indwells our spirit be manifested in us? When we speak about man, our emphasis is not on man’s body; rather, we are referring to man’s soul. When God is manifested in us, He is manifested in our soul. This means that God is expressed through our soul — our mind, emotion, and will. When we say that God is seen in us, we mean that God’s element is seen in our mind, emotion, and will. We think as God thinks, and we make decisions as God makes decisions.
Although many people are saved and have God in their spirit, they do not have God’s element in their mind, emotion, and will. Some zealous Christians may be moved when they kneel down to pray and touch God, but after they rise up, they are the same as they were before. Their thoughts are still their thoughts, their will is still their will, and their emotion is still their emotion. Such a one is genuinely saved and God truly dwells in his spirit, but God is surrounded by his soul and is not able to move. Outside the spirit is the soul, and outside the soul is the body. The spirit, soul, and body are three layers, and each layer is deeper than the next.
For example, consider a light bulb. Outwardly it has a shade, and inwardly it has a filament. In addition, there is electricity passing through the filament. If the filament has some problems, the electricity will not be able to pass through it. These three layers — the filament, the light bulb, and the shade — may be likened to our spirit, soul, and body. The lampshade may be likened to our body, the light bulb to our soul, and the filament to our spirit in which God dwells. If we put many colors on the lightbulb, the light within will not shine forth. Similarly, today God is dwelling in us, but if our mind, emotion, and will are filled with our self, the world, and sins, He is not able to be expressed through us.
Now the question is, how do we allow God, who is in our spirit, to be expressed through our soul — our mind, emotion, and will — so that when people see us, they see that we have God in us? How do we become those whose thoughts, emotions, decisions, likes, and inclinations all have God’s flavor, those who have God within us?
How can God spread into every part of our soul from our spirit? God’s spreading to every part of our soul begins with our heart. Our heart has two aspects: the biological aspect and the psychological aspect. Our biological heart can be seen during a surgical operation, but no one has ever seen our psychological heart. Here we are speaking about the psychological heart. According to the thought in God’s Word, the heart includes one part of the spirit and all the parts of the soul. The main part of our spirit is our conscience, and our soul includes our mind, emotion, and will. All these parts combined together comprise our heart. Hence, when we touch the source of man’s problem, we touch man’s heart. It is not enough to say that just our soul represents our being. Actually, it is our heart that represents our being.
The Chinese refer to someone who is absent-minded as a person whose heart is absent. Man’s heart is very important; it represents man’s genuineness. When the Bible speaks of man’s relationship with God, it says that we must use our spirit to worship and contact God (John 4:24). However, we not only need to use our spirit, but we also need to use our heart. Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” In our relationship with God, our heart is a crucial station. We have a spirit within and God dwells in us, but if we do not have a heart to love God or desire God, He will not be able to do anything in us.
In the four Gospels the Lord paid attention to the matter of dealing with man’s heart. In the Gospel of John, the Lord asked Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?...Do you love Me?” (21:15-17). Even in the Gospel of Matthew, He also said that he who loves his father or mother or son or daughter above Him is not worthy to be His disciple (10:37). In the three and a half years with the disciples, the Lord mainly wanted to gain the disciples’ hearts. The Lord drew them and appeared sweet and lovely in their eyes in order to gain their heart.
Song of Songs 1:2-3 says, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! / For your love is better than wine. / Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; / Your name is like ointment poured forth; / Therefore the virgins love you.” The first step of pursuing the Lord begins not with the spirit but with the heart. Everyone who follows the Lord is first drawn by the Lord. Hence, this seeker of the Lord says, “Draw me; we will run after you” (v. 4). If we do not love the Lord with our heart, the Lord will not be able to do anything in us. We love the Lord because our heart is drawn by Him. This love is not a love of adoration or affection but a romantic love. He is so good and so sweet! He is altogether lovely! We must love the Lord to such an extent.
Our heart connects and joins our soul with our spirit. When we love Him, this love will transmit what is in our spirit to our soul. As we love the Lord, we will see how much we are filled with ourselves in our mind, emotion, and will. Then we are willing to take the cross. To take up the cross is to deny our soul, to deny our mind, emotion, and will, and to deny our very being. When we do this, the cross will set a mark on us and kill our self. In this way we will experience the cross. Our self, our love, our choice, our resolution, and our knowledge will all be on the cross.
When the cross works in our soul, it kills the self in our mind, emotion, and will. Where there is the death of the cross, there is also resurrection. The cross works in our mind, emotion, and will to create room for Christ to be in us. At this time the Spirit also transfuses God’s mind into our mind, God’s emotion into our emotion, and God’s will into our will. The more we know Him, the more we will know ourselves; the more we know ourselves, the more the cross will work in us; and the more the cross works in us, the more the Spirit will come into every part of our being. When the Spirit comes in, Christ comes in, and when Christ comes in, God comes in.
As a result, day after day our mind, emotion, and will are filled with God’s element. Then our thoughts will become God’s thoughts, and our preferences will become God’s preferences. God will mingle Himself with us to the extent that all our attitudes, speaking, expression, and actions will express God. When God has mingled Himself with us and has filled us with all His riches, we will become His fullness.
