According to God’s economy, the Body of Christ must have a living person who is so real, practical, living, and available. This is why God’s intention is that Christ make His home in us. It is not a matter of whether we are right or wrong; it is a matter of having Christ as a living person spreading into our whole being. We should not try to be right, but rather practice taking Christ as our person. If He is making His home in our heart, then we are hitting the mark. The problem is that we try to be so right, yet we do not have Christ making His home in our heart. Therefore we must see that the central point in Ephesians is Christ making His home in our heart. This is the way we can participate in all the unsearchable riches of Christ.
What a salvation we have in that we can live by another person! The unbelievers do not have another person; they only have themselves. We have someone else, and our person can be replaced by Him. It is altogether not a matter of religion, but of a living person making His home in our heart. I can testify that I have experienced the riches of Christ in these past years. I have been enjoying Christ in a rich way. When we turn to our spirit and take Him as our Person, we simply enjoy His riches. And it is by enjoying His riches that He makes His home in us. The practical experience of the indwelling Christ is to let Him make His home in our heart. It is not my doing, it is not my behaving, it is altogether my letting Him make His home in me. All day long we must learn to say, “Lord Jesus, I take You as my person.” Then He will take over every part of our being, and our heart will become His home.
The book of Ephesians also tells us that after we were saved, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit. “In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest [foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13b-14). Many people ask whether we have received the Spirit or not. But this is just talk. We have the facts. Ephesians 1:13 tells us affirmatively that after we believed, we were sealed. God put a seal in us, and this seal is just Himself in His last Person. The Spirit is the last Person of the Triune God. When we believed in Jesus Christ, at that very moment, God put the Holy Spirit into us as a seal. This seal gives us the impression and the image of God.
But this is not all. This sealing Spirit is also the foretaste of our inheritance. What then is our inheritance? It is altogether God Himself. We are going to inherit God Himself. Some people would like to inherit heaven, but I don’t want that. Heaven is not a person. Praise the Lord that we are going to inherit God. God is our inheritance. The Spirit that seals us is a foretaste today of our inheritance. It is an earnest, a guarantee to certify that we are going to obtain that inheritance. Praise the Lord for such a foretaste!
Then Ephesians 4:30 says, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Because we are sealed with the Spirit, He is so near to us. It is easy to grieve someone who is close to us. If I am a hundred miles from you, I could never grieve you. But if I am your roommate, I will grieve you every day. The sealing, the indwelling Spirit is so close to us; so it is easy to grieve Him. Therefore, Paul tells us not to grieve the Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit were far from us, we could never grieve Him. But, praise the Lord, He is within us. When we are not happy, enjoying the Lord, it means that He is grieved. So we must turn to the Lord in our spirit, taking Him as our person, and letting Him make His home in our heart. Then we will not grieve the Spirit. Anything that keeps us from the enjoyment of the Lord, grieves the Spirit. Whenever we are not joyful and praising the Lord, we can be sure that the Spirit is grieved. This is the guideline of the Christian walk. All Christians should be joyful. They should be happy. We should not have a long face, but a wide face. Whenever we have a long face, we must realize that we have grieved the Spirit. We must learn to enjoy the Lord by taking Him as our person.
Paul also tells us in Ephesians that we should be filled in spirit. “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled in spirit” (Eph. 5:18). This is related to the matter of grieving the Spirit. If we are filled in our spirit with the fullness of the Lord, surely we will not grieve the Spirit.
To help us to be filled in spirit, we need to pray-read the Word. This is seen in Ephesians 6:17-18, according to the following translation: “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit” (literal Greek translation). Paul tells us to take the Word of God by means of all prayer. We must learn to pray with the Word, pray over the Word, and pray about the Word. This is what it means to pray-read. If we pray-read the Word wherever we are, we will be filled in spirit. Whether we pray-read loudly on the freeway or silently at work makes no difference. We must learn to take the Word by means of all prayer. It is so simple, so easy, and so satisfying. Just pray, “O Lord Jesus, keep me from grieving the Spirit. Thank You, Lord, that I have been sealed with the Spirit, and the Spirit is the foretaste of my inheritance of You. So keep me filled in spirit with Your fullness.” If we would pray-read the Word in this way, we would be so joyous and happy, and we would be filled in our spirit with all the fullness of God.
These few things are the main points in the book of Ephesians. We must let Christ make His home in our heart. We must keep from grieving the Spirit. And we must be filled in our spirit with Christ by pray-reading the living Word. Then we will enjoy all of the unsearchable riches of Christ, which will produce the Body of Christ, the real church life.