Ephesians 3:16-19 says that when the Father grants us according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into our inner man, Christ will make His home in our hearts by faith. Then, being rooted and grounded in love, we shall be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, height, and depth, and know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God. If we take time to pray-read these verses and to muse upon them, our faith will be strengthened. Something within us will be strengthened to realize that Christ is making His home in our hearts, that we are being rooted and grounded in love, that we are apprehending the dimensions of Christ, and that we are even being filled unto all the fullness of God. A certain element has been infused into us to strengthen us, and this element is faith.
Before we pray-read these verses, we may feel weak. But after we pray-read them, we shall be empowered. We shall be like an automobile tire that has been filled with air. In our experience we shall realize that faith, the word, and the Spirit are truly one as our portion. Furthermore, we shall have the enjoyment of Christ in faith. We shall enjoy being strengthened with power, having Christ make His home in our hearts, being rooted and grounded in love, experiencing the dimensions of Christ, and being filled unto all the fullness of God.
If we take a portion from Paul’s Epistles and dwell on it for a period of time, we shall sense something rising up in us with power. This is the mingling of the word and the Spirit with our faith. This mingling always results in the enjoyment of Christ. What we enjoy in particular will depend on what specifically the Word conveys to us. For example, should a sinner dwell on 1 Timothy 1:15, a verse which says that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he will be infused with an appreciation of Christ as his Savior. He will know that Christ is able to save him. This appreciation of Christ in this aspect is faith. As we have pointed out elsewhere, faith is the appreciation of Christ and the reflection of what He is and does for us. Whenever a sinner has such an appreciation of Christ, he has the faith to be saved. He truly enjoys Christ as his Savior.
We can also enjoy Christ by pray-reading Ephesians 3:17. In particular, we shall enjoy Christ making His home in our hearts through faith, for this is what this verse conveys to us. What we enjoy in faith always depends on what is conveyed to us by the Word. For this reason, among Christians the enjoyment of Christ is of different degrees.
With genuine faith there is both the joy, or enjoyment, of faith and the sacrifice of faith. We have seen that Ephesians 1:13 speaks of faith. Faith is the issue of the Word and the function of the Spirit.
At least two verses in the book of Ephesians indicate that faith brings us the enjoyment of Christ. Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith.” Because we have been saved through faith, it is by faith that we enjoy Christ as our Savior. Thus, faith brings us the enjoyment of the Savior with His salvation. Ephesians 3:17 says that Christ makes His home in our hearts through faith. This indicates that faith brings us the enjoyment of Christ making His home in us. Although all Christians can say amen to 2:8, not many can say amen to 3:17. I doubt that very many believers enjoy Christ making His home in them. If we would enjoy Christ making His home in our hearts, we need to read Ephesians 3:15-19 and dwell on these verses. Furthermore, we should pray-read this portion of the Word and even sing it.
Galatians 2:20 also indicates that faith is related to the enjoyment of Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” According to this verse, Christ lives in us, and the life which we now live we live in faith. Therefore, according to this verse, faith brings the enjoyment of Christ living in us. What a marvelous enjoyment this is!
In Galatians 5:6 Paul goes on to say, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith operating through love.” The Christ revealed in Galatians can be enjoyed only through faith. It is faith which brings us the enjoyment of Christ.
The book of Colossians also relates faith to the enjoyment of Christ. After referring to the believers’ “faith in Christ Jesus” (1:4), Paul says that the Colossians were “buried together with Him in baptism” and in Him “were raised together through the faith of the operation of God” (2:12). Faith brings us the enjoyment of God’s operation. Once we were dead, but now we can enjoy being raised up from the dead. Faith brings us the enjoyment of the operating God who raises us from the dead.
All these verses illustrate the fact that with genuine faith there is joy or enjoyment. The particular enjoyment we have depends on what portion of the Word we are receiving by faith. In other words, the enjoyment of faith depends on what a certain verse conveys to us.
In Colossians 1:25 Paul speaks of completing the Word of God. If it were not for Paul’s ministry, especially as contained in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, the Word of God would not be complete. This means that if we do not get into Paul’s words in these four books, our enjoyment of Christ through faith will not be adequate. It will not match the riches contained in these books.
Many Christians have a certain kind of enjoyment of Christ through faith. But they do not enjoy the all-inclusive Christ for the church, in the church, and with the church. I can testify that, as a young Christian, I did enjoy Christ to a certain degree. However, I did not enjoy Him in a rich way with the church until I came into the Lord’s recovery. Through my years in the recovery, the four books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians have all become faith to me. Today my faith is not simply the issue of verses such as John 3:16 and 5:24; it is the issue of these four books written by Paul.
I by no means belittle any book of the Bible. Nevertheless, I am sure that by reading the book of Ecclesiastes, you will not have much enjoyment of Christ. You may realize that all things are vanity, and you may earnestly desire that in your living nothing will be vanity. However, this book does not bring you into the rich enjoyment of Christ. The full enjoyment of Christ is found in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.
Before you came into the Lord’s recovery, did you enjoy the all-inclusive Christ? Did you enjoy this Christ in the church, for the church, and with the church? You probably enjoyed something of Christ as revealed in Luke 15, but not the all-inclusive Christ revealed in Paul’s Epistles. We did not enjoy the all-inclusive Christ before coming into the Lord’s recovery because we did not get into the four books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. During the years I was with the Brethren, I attended many conferences which covered the subjects of the tribulation and Bible prophecy. I heard messages on the man of sin, the last trumpet, the rapture, the image in Daniel 2, the seventy weeks in Daniel 9, and the beasts in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. There is no doubt that every chapter of the Bible is God’s breath, even His breathing. Nevertheless, it is a fact that in Daniel 7 we do not enjoy as much of Christ as we do in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Even though Acts speaks a great deal about the church, we cannot enjoy as much of Christ in this book as through the four books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.