CHRIST’S MAKING HIS HOME
When our spirit becomes strong and prevails over our soul, we are being strengthened into the inner man. Then Christ will be able to make His home in our hearts through faith. In the past, although Christ was in our spirit, our spirit was not strong. As a result, it was not the spirit which was the master. Rather, it was the soul which was the master, and Christ had no way to make His home in our hearts. Only when our spirit becomes strong and prevails over our soul are we able to give in to Him, thus giving Him the opportunity to make His home in our hearts. All the married brothers and sisters have this experience. Sometimes a couple will argue with each other. While the two are exchanging words with each other, Christ has no way to settle down within them. When He cannot make His home in your heart and has no way to move out of your spirit, He suffers greatly.
Some of you live in the brothers’ houses or sisters’ houses. Often a small matter will cause unhappiness among you. At the beginning when you live together, everything is sweet. It is like a honeymoon. But this wonderful situation does not last long. Gradually, the honeymoon goes away, and there begins to be an unhappy feeling among you. There is either incompatibility in disposition or difficulty in adjusting to different ways of living. For all these problems, no way will work. The only thing that works is to be strengthened into the inner man. When our spirit is strong to overcome the soul, Christ will have a chance to make His home in our hearts. Once He settles down and is at ease, you and I will also be at ease. When He is at peace, we are also at peace.
Being Rooted and Grounded in Love
Our heart is like a house with four rooms, which are the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. When our spirit is strong and our inner man is being strengthened, every room in our heart is occupied by the Lord, and every part of our heart can be under the Lord’s control. In this way, Christ will make His home in our heart, and we can be rooted and grounded in love. When we Christians are saved, a basic matter happens between God and us and between ourselves and the saints. It is a story of love, and this love is just God Himself. Because of our regeneration, we have the life of God and have become God’s farm and God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9). Since we are God’s farm, we need to grow and be rooted. And since we are God’s building, we need to be built up and be grounded. Both of these items, the rooting and the grounding, are all in love. For us to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ is for us to grow and be built up in His life. The result is that we are strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.
Breadth, length, height, and depth are all dimensions of Christ. These dimensions are unlimited in the universe. Everything about Christ is unlimited. His love is unlimited. His patience is unlimited. His humility, loving-kindness, goodness, etc. are all unlimited. All these are to be our practical experiences in the church life. This is not all. We are to know the knowledge-surpassing love. The words “to know” here mean to touch, taste, and experience. The love of Christ is just Christ Himself. Christ Himself is unlimited. So is His love. That is why we have the love that surpasses all knowledge. Yet we can know this knowledge-surpassing love through our experience.
(Messages Given to the Working Saints, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
