Ephesians 3 says that the unsearchable and unlimited Christ desires to make His home in our hearts. Paul prayed for all of us that the Father of all the families would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into our inner man (vv. 14-16). We have a wonderful inner man—our regenerated spirit, which has God's life as its life. The problem is that we do not like to stay there. Instead we like to stay in our mind. A brother may remain in his mind from morning to evening, thinking about how someone has not treated him so well in the past few days. The second place we like to stay is our emotions. The sisters remain in their emotions when they go shopping, buying things according to their likes and dislikes. We also like to remain in our will. These are the three "apartments" of our "building," our being—the mind apartment, the emotion apartment, and the will apartment.
But we have a better place in which to remain. That place is our inner man—our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The human spirit and the divine Spirit are mingled together. We have such a wonderful mingled spirit within us, but we do not like to stay there. Therefore, Paul prayed that the Father God would strengthen all of us through His Spirit with power into our inner man.
In the meetings, most of us are in our inner man. But when we return home, something may offend us, and we will lose our temper in our emotion and exchange words with our spouse in our mind. While we are quarreling, we are in our emotion and in our mind. If Paul were there, he might remind us of his prayer for the Father to strengthen us into our inner man. We must turn back to our inner man. We must turn back to our spirit from our mind and from our emotion.
At times I might have wanted to exchange words with my wife, but I can testify that I did not succeed. When I began to exchange words, the One within me said, "Be quiet! Go to pray. Stop!" Suddenly I stopped and went to my room. I was stopped from exchanging words with my wife. The Lord stops us many times in this way. For a husband to argue with his wife is for him to run away from his inner man to his mind and his emotion. This is why we need the apostle's prayer for us to be strengthened into our inner man. Then Christ has the opportunity to get Himself settled, to make His home, in our hearts.
When I travel to another locality, I need to get myself settled. I need a place to put my clothes, my shoes, my pencil box, my Bibles, my reference books, my outlines, etc. I need a place to make my home. After Christ comes into our spirit, He wants to make His home in all the inner parts of our heart. Has Christ had any chance to make His home within us? Probably we have to confess that we have not given Him that much of an opportunity. But there is the possibility that Christ will have a chance to make His home in our heart. Our heart comprises the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. Through regeneration Christ came into our spirit. After this, we should allow Him to spread into every part of our heart. When Christ gets the opportunity, He will spread Himself into our mind, into our emotion, into our will, and into our conscience to get Himself fully settled in our entire inward being.