GOD’S BUILDING RESULTING IN CHRIST BEING ABLE TO MAKE HIS HOME IN MAN
I would like to repeat again that this building is what is most needed among the children of God today. What matters is not our being zealous, our pursuing, our praying, nor our paying the price. What matters is whether or not we allow God to build in us. Some may consecrate their money and time but be unwilling to let God build in them. This kind of consecration is useless. Others are zealous in preaching the gospel, and they also love to read the Scriptures and to pray, yet they are not willing to let God build in them. This kind of zeal and pursuit is of little profit.
Please remember that when you and I are truly built up by God, Christ will then be able to make His home in us. Please consider, has Christ been able to practically make His home in the church in your locality? Or is He being shut out by you and standing outside the door? In Revelation 3, in the Lord’s epistle to the church in Laodicea, you can see that the Lord is groaning there. He said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (v. 20). That door is not the door of the hearts of individuals but the door of the church. The condition in Laodicea is a condition of not letting the Lord make His home there. May I ask the serving ones and responsible ones in the churches in various localities, “Does the church in your locality allow Christ to make His home there or does it shut Him out?” If you are a person with many opinions and ideas, you should ask, “If the church accepts my idea, would the result be that Christ would be able to make His home there, or would the result be to shut Him out?” This is a serious question.
This is altogether not a matter of whether your view is right or wrong, good or bad; rather, it is altogether a matter of whether your idea builds up or tears down the church of God. It is also a matter of whether it allows Christ to make His home among us or shuts Him out of the church. All of us who take care of the church, all those who serve the church, and even all the brothers and sisters, we all have to be careful in this matter!
May we really allow Christ to make His home among us in all things. In this way we will be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19b). Being filled with God is based on Christ’s making His home in us, and Christ’s making His home in us depends on our experiencing God’s building. The more we are built up, the more we let Christ make His home; and the more Christ makes His home, the more we are filled unto the fullness of God. These are all in direct proportion to each other. When the element of God increases, you have the growth. The more you grow, the more you are built up. The more you are built up, the more Christ makes His home in you. The more Christ makes His home in you, the more you are filled with the elements of God unto all the fullness of God. Such a church that has been built up and has the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ can then be filled with God to express His glory and deal with His enemy, thereby reaching God’s eternal goal and accomplishing God’s eternal purpose.
(The Building Work of God, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
