For this reason the apostle Paul does not pray lightly. For the cause of God's purpose and for the cause of the church, he bowed his knees that the Father would grant us to be strengthened in the inner man. Our spirit must be strengthened. There is no need for discussion. The more we talk and argue, the more we exercise our mind. Our mind has been overdeveloped, yet we still continue to develop it. When any cell of the body is overdeveloped, it becomes a cancer, which brings in death. It would be so profitable if we changed our talking and discussion into prayer! We need to forget about our thoughts, imaginations, understandings, and concepts, and bow our knees before the Father to exercise our spirit to pray—not just once, but constantly!

In order to exercise our spirit to pray, we must repent. The word repentance in Greek means "to turn the mind." When we repent by turning our mind away from other things to the Lord, our conscience will be exercised to bear witness where we are wrong and concerning what we specifically need to confess. By repentance we turn our mind to the Lord, and by confession we exercise our conscience. The mind and the conscience are the two main parts of the heart. And since the heart surrounds the spirit, it is the very gateway of the spirit. It is by repentance and confession that the two main parts of the heart, the mind and the conscience, are opened. Then the gateway to the spirit is opened so that the Lord may come in more and more in order to fill and strengthen our spirit. When we repent and confess in this way, our emotion will follow with love to the Lord, and our will then will choose to seek the Lord. This means that the whole heart is exercised and opened so that the spirit is free to receive more of Christ. Then the Lord, as the living Spirit, will infill and strengthen our spirit; and spontaneously, Christ will make His home in our heart.

When our spirit is strengthened, Christ will increasingly make His home in all the parts of our heart. Christ is now in our spirit, but He is imprisoned there because our mind is set on other things and our conscience is not exercised. Because Christ is imprisoned in our spirit, we need to repent by turning our mind to Him. Then we must confess our sins and tell the Lord how much we love Him and choose to seek Him. By doing this, our whole heart is opened for Christ to fill and strengthen our spirit. Then from our spirit, He will spread Himself to make His home in our heart. This means our whole being will be His dwelling place and His home.

The apostle then goes on to say, "That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God" (vv. 17-19). In verse 17 the words rooted and grounded are very meaningful. To be rooted means to grow in life, and to be grounded means to be built. So these two words mean that we have to grow and to be built up. We are to be rooted and grounded in love that we may be strong to apprehend, not by ourselves but with all the saints corporately, what the breadth and length and height and depth are. This means that when we have Christ making His home in our hearts, we will be joined with all the saints. We can never be built together by knowledge. The more knowledge we have, the more arguments and divisions we will have. But when we have Christ making His home in us, we will forget about the knowledge, the divisions, and all other things. We will only say, "O Lord, be merciful to me; I am just short of You. I am filled with knowledge, but I am short of You. I may even have a lot of gifts, but I lack You."

It is when Christ is able to make His home in our hearts, which means He will occupy every inward part of our being, that we will be able to be built up with all the saints. We are no longer individuals, but we are built up corporately with all the saints to realize how immeasurable Christ is. How broad is the breadth? How long is the length? How high is the height? How deep is the depth? These are the dimensions of Christ! Christ is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth; He is immeasurable and unlimited. We must realize the unsearchable riches of Christ and be filled unto all the fullness of God. We are not to be filled with material things, scriptural knowledge, nor the so-called spiritual gifts, but with God Himself. It is only by Him that the Body can be realized. Otherwise, we may talk about the Body life, but there will be no reality. The reality of the Body life is the inner experience of the indwelling Christ.

We all need to kneel and pray-read these very verses until the heavenly vision is revealed into us. I say again that it is not something outward like knowledge, gifts, and signs; it is wholly the inner experience of the indwelling Christ. The inner man must be strengthened in order that Christ may make His home in our hearts, that we may be filled inwardly unto all the fullness of God Himself. It is by these inner experiences of the indwelling Christ that we can be built up with all the saints.

As we go on to chapter four, the first verse uses the word therefore. This means that the writer is going to say something based on what he has already said. We all know that chapter four deals with the Body life and the building up of the Body. We are clearly told that Christ as the Head never builds His Body directly but through the gifted ones such as the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. And even they themselves do not build up the church directly, but they perfect all the saints by ministering Christ, that the saints may grow to realize the inner experience of the indwelling Christ and grow up into Him in all things. On the one hand, Christ will make His home in their heart by occupying their whole being; and on the other hand, they will grow into Christ in all things. Then they will receive something from Christ and share Him with one another, thereby making an increase of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. It is by this experience of Christ that they will be built up as a Body.

So, the key factor of how the church will be built up is the inner experience of the indwelling Christ. The gifted persons do not minister gifts to the saints; they only minister the unsearchable riches of Christ which they have experienced, that the saints might be perfected in Christ and grow up into Him. If we read these two chapters carefully and pray-read them before the Lord, I believe He will give us the vision to see that this is the only way for the church to be built up.

I must repeat again that the church is not built up by knowledge and gifts. The more knowledge we have, the more divisions we will have; and the more gifts we have, the more trouble we will have. It is only by the inner experience of Christ as life that we can have the reality of the church life. The inner man must be strengthened so that Christ will make His home in our hearts and we will grow up into Him in all things. Then we will be filled unto all the fullness of God, by whom we will be built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.