Paul prayed to the Father, "of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named" (3:15). The Father is the source, not only of us, the regenerated believers, the household of faith (Gal. 6:10), but also of the God-created mankind (Luke 3:38), of the God-created Israel (Isa. 63:16; 64:8), and of the God-created angels (Job 1:6). In the heavens there is the angelic family. On the earth there is the family of mankind, the family of Israel, and the family of the faith. The Father is the source of these four families. To the family of the faith, the Father is not only the source as the creating One, but also the source as the begetting One. The other three families have only the created life of God as their source, but we, as the family of the faith, have the divine life with the divine nature of God Himself. We have the Father's life with the Father's nature, because the Triune God has entered into us. The apostle prayed that the Triune God's entering into us would be deeper. He prayed that the indwelling Christ might make His home, become fully settled, in our hearts. The thought of the apostle's prayer here is very deep.

Christ's making His home in the believers' hearts was actually initiated, not by the Triune God but by the apostle Paul. The Triune God may be likened to a big machine, of which Paul was the operator. His prayer "turned the wheel." We have to learn one lesson, that is, that there is a high principle in the entire universe. This principle is that God wants to do something, but He will only be the "machine," and He needs someone to be the operator. Today I hope that the church would be the operator. Whatever the apostle Paul did was done in a representing way. He was a representative of the entire Body of Christ. Now the operator of the universal "machine," the Triune God, is the church, the Body of Christ. But just because the church operates does not mean that the church in itself carries out. The church operates, but the "machine," the Triune God, carries out.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the three "parts" of this universal "machine," and the Body is the operator. The Father is the source, the Spirit is the means, and the Son is the aim, the goal. According to Ephesians 3, the operator asks the "machine" to strengthen the operator through a channel. The Spirit as the channel does the work within us to strengthen every part of our being into the inner man so that the goal, the aim, the Son, might make His home within all the parts of our heart.

The picture presented in Ephesians 3:14-19 again shows us the very beautiful, fine, and deep coordination of the Triune God. The Father answers the operator's prayer. Then the Father works, not by Himself but by the third One, the Spirit, as the channel. Neither the Father nor the Spirit do something for Themselves. Both the source and the channel do something for the goal, the aim, the Son. Furthermore, the Son's making His home in all His believers' hearts is not for Himself. Each of the Three does not act for Himself. Eventually, whatever They do is absolutely for the very fullness of the Triune God. This is a beautiful picture of the Divine Trinity in His deeper work within us. He works in a very complete and deep way to make His home in our hearts. Our hearts are composed of the mind, the emotion, and the will, plus the conscience of our spirit. Christ is making His home in these four parts by the preparation made through the channel, the Spirit, as an answer to the apostle's prayer made to the source, the Father. Eventually, the Son becomes settled in each part of our heart.

Whenever a person moves into a new house, it takes him a while to become settled in that house. His getting settled is his making his home in the house. This is what Paul means by Christ making His home in our hearts. Christ wants to become settled in every part of our heart. Paul realized that the believers in Ephesus had Christ in them, but that they did not have Christ making His home, getting Himself settled, in every part of their heart. This is why Paul prayed such a prayer. Our emotion, mind, will, and conscience must be touched by Christ and gained by Christ. The indwelling, occupying Christ needs to take over our emotion, our mind, our will, and our conscience until He gets Himself fully settled in all the inner rooms of our inner being. This is carried out in a coordinated way by the Divine Trinity. The Three coordinate together in a beautiful way so that Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, can become fully settled in our inner being.

While Christ is making His home in our hearts, we are rooted for growth and grounded for building. Christ making His home in our hearts is a matter in faith, not a matter of sensation. We must believe that today Christ as the very embodiment of the Triune God is settling Himself in our inner being. While He is doing this, we are rooted for growth and grounded for building in love.

Then we can apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ—the breadth and the length and the height and the depth. In our experience of Christ, we firstly experience the breadth of what He is, and then the length. This is horizontal. When we advance in Christ, we experience the height and depth of His riches. This is vertical. These are the dimensions of a cube. Our experience of Christ must be so rich, strong, perfect, and complete like a cube.

Then we will know the surpassing love of Christ, issuing in the fullness of the Triune God. The fullness is the expression. If a cup is filled up with water until it is overflowing with water, the overflow of the water is an expression. That overflow is the fullness, and the fullness is the very expression of what is contained within the cup. When we experience Christ in such a deep way, this will issue in the fullness of the Triune God. This fullness is the church, the Body of Christ, as the very expression of the Triune God.