Second, to be equipped for the home meetings, we must be strengthened into our inner man. Paul prayed for this in Ephesians 3:14-19. Bowing his knees unto the Father, he prayed that the Father would grant the believers to be strengthened into the inner man. Paul uses several phrases to modify this strengthening. He prayed that the Father would grant you to be strengthened according to the riches of His glory, with power, and through His Spirit. God would strengthen you according to the riches of His glory. It is not a small thing for God to do this. God would strengthen you into the inner man, not according to the scarcity of His strength, but according to the riches of His glory with power through the Holy Spirit.
Let me illustrate in this way. Suppose a working brother works the whole day in the office under a lot of pressure and returns home fully exhausted. At home he is offended by some member of his family, perhaps his wife or his mother-in-law. Regardless of how tired he is, he will be so strong in losing his temper. Before this, if you were to ask him to read a page of a life-study, he would say, “No, I can’t do it. I’m tired out.” Then you may say, “Okay, let us pray about it.” But he would reply, “No, I can’t do it. I can’t. I am dying.” But when his mother-in-law provoked him, he got strengthened into his temper with the riches of the Devil’s subtlety. His entire being enters into his temper. When you come back home from your tiring job you must pray, “Father, grant me according to the riches of Your glory, with power, through Your Spirit to be strengthened into my inner man.” Then your entire being will be concentrated into the inner man, which is your human spirit. Here you can be fully strengthened, you can pray, and you can come to the meeting.
I believe quite often when the saints come to the home meeting, a number of them are tired, especially in the evening. That is the right time for you to be strengthened into the inner man. Do not remain in your tired, worn out body. Do not remain in your mind. Do not remain in your soul. You should pray, “Lord, strengthen me into my spirit.” Then by being strengthened into your spirit, you can overcome the tiredness of your body and the tedious feeling in your soul. In the following verses we see that our being strengthened relates to the meeting life. After being strengthened into our inner man, verses 17-19 continue, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, having been rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” “With all the saints” indicates some kind of meeting. To be strengthened that you may be strong to apprehend the measurement, the dimensions of Christ with all the saints indicates meeting. Even the “fullness of God” here means the church life, the expression of God. I believe this is related to the meeting.
We all need these two things: to be filled in our spirit with the Holy Spirit and to be strengthened into our spirit. Then we will come to the meeting with our spirit filled just like the four tires on a car. Too many times when we come to the meeting, we come flat. We need to come to the meeting full of air, filled with air, full of the “pum, pum, pum.” Even though we may be tired and even worn out by the day, we must be strong in our spirit.
This is not a matter of doctrine. What is needed is much practice. We all need to practice the filling of our spirit and the strengthening of our spirit. We need to practice this if we mean business with the Lord for His recovery. We need this. If we would neglect the home meetings and only care for the big meetings, we would not need much practice. One or two leading ones would do everything for us. They would become the clergy and everyone else would become laymen. That is not the church life. There would be no way for the Lord to build up His Body. The building up all depends upon the home meetings. So all of us have to practice the filling of our spirit and the strengthening into our inner man. Then we will be full of the Triune God, full of His attributes, and we will be strengthened in our spirit. Then when we come together, everyone will be equipped to carry the home meeting on. This is the way. I hope that this would not be just a message to you, but rather a kind of instruction that you would practice. Practice daily to be filled in your spirit and to be strengthened into your inner man.