Day 113: How Do We Visualize the Spirit Indwelling Us?
Ephesians 3:14–19
… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Today, we are going to do a little review and think back to some issues that we covered very early on in our readings. It is often helpful to be able to visualize the truths we are discussing because we are talking about things that are actually taking place in us.
We Were Born Physically Alive, but Spiritually Dead.
Ephesians 2:1–3
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (ESV)
This passage should be familiar to you by now; we have discussed parts of it a couple of times now. In one of the most succinct presentations in the New Testament, Paul lays out the predicament of our “natural” nature before Father God intervened. We were all 1) dead in our sins, 2) living on the World’s present path (which leads to destruction), 3) captivated by Satanic, demonic disobedience, 4) motivated by our own “fleshly desires,” and so 5) by nature, “children of wrath.”
If Paul stopped there, we would be in a whole heap of trouble. BUT, that is not the end of the story…
We Were Reborn By The Work of the Holy Spirit Through Faith.
Ephesians 2:4–10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (ESV)
Paul does not mention the indwelling of the Holy Spirit or Christ in this passage. He focuses on the truth of us being “raised up” with Christ to the Heavenly realm, above the corruptions and destructive realities of the World. We were enslaved “DOWN” in the World; We are saved and raised “UP” with Christ.
Paul does talk about the indwelling of Christ and the Holy Spirit a little later in Ephesians:
Ephesians 3:14–19
…I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (ESV)
This prayer of Paul’s is one of my favorites in the New Testament. He packs some weighty truths into those few statements. If I could summarize this prayer in a simplistic way, I would say that Paul is trying to help us all realize—make it real in our experience—the amazing and powerful reality that defines who we are In Christ. In other words, he wants us all to live according to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and Christ—who both live within us—so that we all experience the love of Christ and become filled with all the fullness of the Lord God’s goodness.
That last statement is almost impossible to comprehend. Father God does not want to just give us a “part” of Himself; He wants us to be filled with ALL that He is. Now, it is impossible that we finite creatures could contain ALL that the Lord God is. Paul’s point is that Father God is serious about filling us with all His goodness and transforming us to be like Christ, “to maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
And note: Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. When we trust Jesus, He and His Spirit come to live with us—that is truth; that is reality. I think what Paul is praying here is that we would let our faith and trust in Christ grow so that He and the Spirit shape—dwell in, make a home in—our hearts, the very core of our beings. We trusted Christ to save us and we continue trusting Him to transform us. He and the Spirit will do this work from the inside out.
Paul concludes this prayer with praise—giving glory to Father God—for His power that is at work within us:
Ephesians 3:20–21
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (ESV)
Take note of what Paul says there: Father God is able to do far more than what we ask of Him or think He can do!!! Realizing that Christ lives with us and within us and that His Holy Spirit also lives in us and with us is a life defining truth. Once we realize this and begin to live in light of this truth, our whole outlook is transformed and so are we.
Think about what we have discussed today. How does the reality that Christ and the Holy Spirit live within you through faith affect the way you see yourself and the way you live? What difference should it make?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
