He does not live in us to be our pattern. If that were the case, we would have to do something. Instead He lives in us to be our blessed portion, so that we can enjoy Him. Modern nutritionists tell us that we become what we eat. Americans eat a lot of beef. As a result they even smell like the cow. Whatever we enjoy as our nutrition, we become that very thing. In John 6:57, the Lord Jesus said that he who eats Him will live because of Him. It is those who eat Him, and not those who imitate Him. Those who eat Him are those who enjoy Him. The Lord Jesus is edible and drinkable. Those who eat and drink of Him will have Him within them as their life and life nutrients, and will be able to live by Him. This is God’s economy and God’s dispensing. This is the goal of the apostle’s work on us, that through his epistles, he would transfuse us, strengthen us, and dispense to us bit by bit the Christ whom he experienced, not as our example or even as our power, but as our nutrition. This nutrition eventually becomes our strength. This is not something that results from our work, but from the growth. Verse 2 says:

The fulness of God dwells in Thee;
Thou dost manifest God’s glory;
In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought;
As Spirit, oneness with me sought.

If He had not become the Spirit, He could not be one with us. The New Testament says that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. This is possible because in resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit. Verse 3 says:

All things of the Father are Thine;
All Thou art in Spirit is mine;
The Spirit makes Thee real to me,
That Thou experienced might be.

It does not say that He will become our pattern, but our experience. His experience is my history. My walk today is a continuation of His history. Verse 4 says:

The Spirit of life causes Thee
By Thy Word to transfer to me.
Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received,
Thy life in me is thus conceived.

He is not conceived as our standard, but as our supply. Verse 5 says:

In spirit while gazing on Thee,
As a glass reflecting Thy glory,
Like to Thyself transformed I’ll be,
That Thou might be expressed thru me.

This means that we have become His duplication. He is duplicated and lived out from within us. He and we become fully one. He is our life within, and we become His living without. In this way, He is expressed through us. The last verse says:

Thy Spirit will me saturate,
Every part will God permeate,
Deliv’ring me from the old man,
With all saints building for His plan.

This is to be built up in spirit to become a habitation of God in spirit. This is what God is after, and is what the stewardship of the apostles strives to attain.
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