We are very glad these days to have Brother G. H. Lang amongst us. He is not the only visitor to our country from Australia this summer.
We are going to let him, in the will of God, have an innings now. Thus he will knock up, by the Holy Spirit, a heavy score, and go back to Australia with something better than ashes.
I do feel, friends, that it is fitting at this point to take a moment for what may be personal. I think you will understand and, if necessary, forgive me; but I feel a moment should be taken to pass on a personal word.
Firstly, I do want to express gratitude to the Lord for His great goodness in allowing me to be here amongst you at this time, and for this season of fellowship together with the Lord over His Word. The Lord has made it possible for me to be here, and I believe with all my heart that I am right in the centre of His will. There is, therefore, an expression of gratitude to the Lord for having made that possible.
I think I do hold the long-distance record as far as this conference is concerned. It is just a month or so since I came away from Melbourne, and I have had the joy of meeting Christian friends in different places en route. They also send greetings—not only the friends in Australia who know that I am over here at this time. There are friends in Melbourne and Brisbane, particularly, who are heartily with me, and with you also, in loving prayer in these days. They send greetings.
But I have also had the privilege of meeting other friends who are well known to you in other places: some in New Zealand who have been right here in our conferences. I met them a few weeks ago in Auckland. There have been others, like Brother Harrison in Los Angeles, with whom I have been able to have fellowship, and Mrs Harrison. Well, I cannot go on with the whole list, but I have had the joy of meeting friends in various places who send loving greetings to you in the Lord’s name.
And I do want to express gratitude, friends, for the prayers which I know have been going up to the Lord from your hearts and from your midst for us over in Australia. Possibly later we will be able to tell you a little more about that, as we meet different ones of you here and there. We will be able to tell you more of what the Lord has been doing, but we are very grateful for your loving prayers.
The Lord is working. Blessed be His name.
And I must bring greetings particularly from my dear wife. What it would mean to her if she could be here amongst you all this afternoon! She values your friendship and your fellowship more than all I could ever say.
She is a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I must stop speaking about my wife, but she is a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and she is carrying on faithfully in Melbourne during these three and a half months or so that I expect to be away from that land. But I know she would want me to pass on her loving greetings to her sisters and brothers whose friendship and fellowship she prizes so much here in this place.
Well, there is much more I could say along that line, but I think we must leave that there. My heart is very full of praise to the Lord for all His goodness in bringing me here, and I would ask prayer that the Lord’s purpose in bringing me here may be fully realised.
I have a sense of my great need. I came away from Australia feeling very needy, and needing something, believing that the Lord would minister to that need by my actually being amongst you for a little while. And so, please pray that all the Lord’s purpose in my being here for these few weeks may be realised.
Perhaps also, in the Lord’s goodness, I may be able to minister some help to others. We do have an advantage when we come from different places and perhaps see things from a new perspective. We can perhaps say a little word that is helpful here and there.
My heart is up to the Lord that all His purpose in bringing me here for these few weeks may be fully realised to His praise and glory.
I do feel very reluctant, brothers and sisters, to break into the conference in this way this afternoon; and yet I am trusting it will not be a breaking in. I am trusting that, through the Lord’s grace, there will be something of real continuance in the Spirit in what I may be led to say here this afternoon.
And I do believe there is a connection between what I find in my heart and what has been occupying us in the meetings yesterday afternoon and evening particularly. To make that connection, may I ask you to turn with me now, just for a moment, to that last verse in Ezekiel 48? It is the thirty-fifth verse.
The second half of the verse, Ezekiel 48:35:
And the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.
The Lord is there.
Now please turn to Ephesians 2:21-22:
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord;
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Then Ephesians 3:14-21:
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
That ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
I want to direct your thoughts this afternoon, brothers and sisters, to that wonderful prayer which the apostle prayed for the Ephesians and has set out for us here in these verses at the end of this third chapter.
As you know, there are two great prayers in the Epistle to the Ephesians. There is the prayer at the end of chapter 1, which I think we must say is a prayer for objective revelation of the Person of Christ and of the purpose of God in that Person of Christ. It is a prayer for objective revelation. He is wanting them to see something. He is praying that God will give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, that prayer at the end of chapter 1 is for objective revelation: the opening of the eyes to see what Christ really means and to see what God’s purposes are in that wonderful Person.
Now, in chapter 3, we have the second of those two prayers, and the emphasis is quite different. In chapter 3, the apostle is praying that those same Ephesians might have subjective experience of Christ.
Objective revelation of Christ in chapter 1; subjective experience of Christ in chapter 3.
In chapter 1, the emphasis is upward; in chapter 3, the emphasis is inward. For instance, you have that phrase, “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” Then you also have mention of Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. At the end of the prayer, we have that wonderful expression, “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Yet it is a prayer for subjective experience.
One thing we must notice, friends, is this: when Paul prayed that prayer, he had a glorious objective in view. I believe it is only as we grasp that objective that we can grasp all that he says in leading up to that objective.
You see, what he has got in his heart is what he mentions at the end of verse 19: that ye, Ephesian Christians, brothers and sisters—ye, God’s people there in that city—might be filled with all the fulness of God; that you might be there in Ephesus a people who are really filled and flooded with the fulness of God.
That was what Paul had in mind for those Christians of Ephesus, and in those other localities which we were reminded yesterday were also in view when Paul wrote this epistle. He could see them in those various places, at Ephesus right in the centre of all the others. His longing, as he got down on his knees, was that there in those places there might be a people who were indeed filled with all the fulness of God.
That was his objective.
What he is praying there at the end of chapter 3 is very much related to what he has been saying at the end of chapter 2. In fact, we pointed out that there was a link indicated by that phrase, “For this cause.”
You see, he has pointed out at the end of chapter 2 what we might call the temple purpose of God. God has got a purpose. We have been thinking of that yesterday afternoon and evening. We will call it now, just for a moment, the temple purpose of God.
That is what he has been discussing at the end of chapter 2, is it not? He speaks about our being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. He says that in Christ all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in Whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
God is preparing His own dwelling place.
I suppose that simple little sentence comprehends all that is in the Bible, really. God is securing and preparing His own sovereignly appointed and predetermined dwelling place.
The Bible ends with that statement: “The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell among them.” The Bible begins with a similar picture: the Lord God walking in the midst of the garden. There was the potential of a godly race, a humanity according to the mind of God, and God taking up His residence with Adam and Eve in the garden.
Well, the tabernacle of God is with men. But there was a great challenge against that, was there not? We know the whole Bible tells us about the reaction to that sovereign purpose of God. Then, thank God, the Bible tells about God’s own reaction to that reaction. In redemption, God has reacted. God’s purpose stands.
The end of the story is going to be, indeed, “The tabernacle of God is with men.” It shall be said, “The Lord is there.”
Paul sees that, of course. God has revealed it to him. He has described this temple which is growing in the Lord, in Whom we are builded together—parts of that human habitation for Almighty and eternal God. He has described it at the end of chapter 2. Well, now he is going to pray about it.
He says, “For this cause”—because that is the revealed purpose of God. It all relates back to God’s unquestionable sovereignty, but it is His purpose to dwell with men. Well, if that is His purpose, Paul says, “For this cause, then, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is something, friends, that demands prayer. This is something which requires the great workings of God Himself to get through to such an end. There must be nothing less than the energies, activities, and mighty workings of God Himself; and those workings can only be released through prayer.
So Paul does the logical and spiritual thing. He says:
I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He knows full well what the psalmist said in Psalm 127:1:
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.
Friends, this is something that is right out of the hands of men. It takes some of us a long time to learn it. But this is something that is right outside the hands and the handling of mere men. This is something which God Himself must do.
So Paul bows. Friends, I believe that if all of us have really seen what I call the temple purpose of God, if we have really seen it, we have to bow. We cannot get up and get busy if we have really seen. There is only one thing we can do if we have really seen: that is, bow down and make room for God to accomplish His own glorious ends.
I bow. I die.
If the Lord has been saying anything to me, and probably to you, through the years, it is just that: if this purpose which is gloriously revealed in the Word of God is to be gloriously realised, there has got to be a great bowing before God, for Him to do it and for Him to do it in His own way—ways that seem strange to us.
“I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the prayer that follows, it is one prayer, but it is a prayer made up of a number of separate requests or petitions.
The goal is set, as we said at the beginning: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”; that you might really be there in Ephesus, and in those other places, a habitation for God by the Spirit. That is the objective. But leading up to that, there is a sequence of separate petitions which, I believe, brothers and sisters, are very important.
From them, I believe we can learn much that will be helpful as we give ourselves over into the hands of God to become, by His grace, a habitation for God.
You see, he starts off by saying:
I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.
He goes right to the very beginning of this necessary working of God, if we are to get through to this glorious destination.
“To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man”—that is the very beginning of the work. We need, in the first place, to be strengthened with might by God’s Spirit in the inner man.
Paul says that you Ephesians will never get through to that place where you are a habitation of God by the Spirit unless there is first what he calls a being strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. They need first, friends, to be a strengthened people, a spiritually reinforced people. If they are going to get through to this glorious destination, there must be a reinforcing work of the Spirit of God.
I think there is a relationship between that verse and what he has said a little earlier in the same chapter. Do you know this verse, verse 13?
Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
I think the apostle detected in the Ephesians and those other churches a tendency to faint-heartedness.
Those Christians loved their apostle. I am sure they were following him very closely and very prayerfully. I am sure their love and prayers followed him not only on his missionary journeys, but followed him into that prison where he was at the time of writing this letter.
They could see at least something of the tremendous suffering that their beloved apostle Paul was involved in. We could say where his ministry had taken him to: a prison.
When they watched that, if they were not careful, if they were not spiritual, if they were not adequately in touch with the Lord, that itself could bring about some faint-heartedness in them.
“Is it worthwhile going right on with the Lord? Is it worthwhile going into the Lord’s greatest things?” Superficially, the answer is no. Looking at the apostle Paul shut away there in that prison, and considering the sufferings their beloved apostle was knowing, it could have bred some faint-heartedness in their own lives.
The apostle says there in verse 13:
I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
Do not get faint-hearted when you see what is involved in going right on with the Lord. Do not let the enemy turn that into some devastating faint-heartedness.
Paul says, “No, I am bowing my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I am praying that you may be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.”
They need to be divinely reinforced for all that lies ahead if they are really to become a habitation of God.
Later on, in chapter 6, he speaks about being strengthened with might, does he not? In that tenth verse of chapter 6, he says:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.
Why does he say that there in chapter 6? Well, he goes on to say:
Put on the whole armour of God.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
But against principalities,
Against powers,
Against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
Against spiritual wickedness in high places.
We need to be strengthened, friends, unto spiritual conflict if we are to go through to what we have called the temple purpose of God. We heard something about that, did we not, in our meetings yesterday afternoon and evening? What immeasurable forces are set against the purpose of God!
You learn something about it in Ezekiel: forces set against God getting what His heart is set upon. We need not dwell upon that just now, but it is a warfare, friends. It is a warfare.
That is why I believe the apostle begins by saying, “No, I am praying that you may be strengthened with might by God’s Spirit in the inner man.”
Thank God, he does not have to pray that the Holy Spirit would be given to them. He had already been given. Chapter 1:13 makes that plain:
Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
But after having been sealed with the Holy Spirit, there is this further work: being strengthened inwardly by that blessed Spirit of God, Who, praise God, is already within. He is there. Let Him do this reinforcing work, making us strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, and able to press through the antagonisms of principalities and powers, wicked spirits in high places.
It begins there, friends. I wonder if the Lord finds us this afternoon a strengthened people, strengthened by God’s Spirit within us. I wonder if it is true that in all our hearts we have that violence of which the Lord Himself speaks in Matthew 11:12:
The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
Are you this afternoon, am I, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? Or is there faint-heartedness? Is there an inclination to stop at something less than the full purpose of God because of the tribulations involved, because of the warfare that is inevitable?
Well, may the Lord do this very thing with all of us. May He do it with me in a new way this weekend: a new reinforcement by the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit, to go on and to go right in with the Lord and with the Lord’s people into all the Lord’s purpose.
That was the first of this sequence of petitions that make up this complete prayer.
Now he says in verse 17 that that strengthening is going to lead on to something else:
To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
Now, that is a verse that used to perplex me for many, many years. Perhaps I am speaking mainly to some of the younger ones here this afternoon who may have shared that perplexity with me. Why did Paul pray that these Ephesians might know the experience of the indwelling Christ?
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Surely Christ was already in their hearts. That was a question in my mind for a long, long time. Why did Paul pray for the Ephesians that they might know Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith?
The answer to that question, of course, lies in the actual meaning of the original word which is here translated “dwell.” I will just pass on to you something from someone who has looked into the actual meaning of that word and has, I believe, compassed the meaning in just a few helpful words.
“Dwell” in this verse connotes the fixed, permanent abode of the One Who owns; His presiding presence permeating and possessing all.
Now, I will just repeat that: “Dwell” in this verse connotes the fixed, permanent abode of the One Who owns; His presiding presence permeating and possessing all.
Brothers and sisters, I am quite sure that all Christians do not know the indwelling Christ in that sense. It is true that He is within us. Does not Paul tell us in Romans 8:9:
If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
Christ is within. Blessed be His name, He is within. But there is a deeper, fuller knowing of Christ within that we need to enter into.
It is one thing for Christ to be in a heart by His Spirit, and it is another thing for Christ to be dwelling, in the full sense, in that heart by His Spirit. It is one thing for you to live in a house. It is quite another thing for you to take over complete control of that house in which you are residing, is it not?
Some of us who have to travel from home to home in connection with our work know that this is very, very true. We do not take over control of all the homes that we are privileged to pass the night in. We would soon get into trouble if we did that, would we not?
That is what the apostle Paul has in mind here: Christ really taking over—complete possession and management of something that He, without question, owns. It is His own property.
Someone has put it very simply in these words: “It is one thing for me to have Christ, but it is another thing for Christ to have me.”
Someone else has said: “It is one thing for Christ to be resident, but it is another thing for Christ to be president.”
Well, that puts our thought into simple words that perhaps we can easily remember.
Now, what I am saying this afternoon has to do perhaps mainly with an individual’s progress into a full experience of the purpose of God. But I believe with all my heart that there is a parallel which applies to a company, and indeed applies to all the people of God.
It is true of the individual, of the local company, and, I believe, of all the people of God. There needs to be this strengthening by God’s Spirit. We need, friends, to be stirred and inwardly reinforced to go through adversity into the divine purpose. That is necessary.
But surely it is equally necessary that we know this taking over by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Let Christ dwell in my individual heart; let Him take it over to manage it as He will. Let Christ dwell in a company in any given locality, to take it over and to manage it as He will, without any human hand or human mind interfering with His right in that fellowship.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
Is not this, friends, what the Laodiceans were really needing? You know the last of the seven letters to the seven churches given to us in Revelation 2 and 3. Remember there, the last of those seven churches? There is a picture of the Lord Jesus outside:
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
If any man hear My voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
That is a message to a local church. In one sense, He was inside; in another sense, as far as real management, real control, real ownership, and real opportunity to express Himself as He will, that was something which those Laodiceans were denying.
He said, “I want to come in. I really want to come in and take over. You shall sup with Me, and I will sup with you.”
There is need for that, friends, if we are to get through to what we call the great temple purpose of God. There is need for us to let the Lord come in and do what He wills, and to do it as He will amongst us.
No human hand or mind, I repeat, must interfere with His sovereign right in the fellowship.
When you do take over a home, you have all rights to rearrange everything as you will. You can change the dining room into a bedroom if you want to. You can put the piano into the dining room if you want. You can rearrange everything.
I believe, friends, the Lord is waiting for that in some of our individual lives: wanting to be given rights to rearrange everything, and to express Himself through all our individual being as He will.
All restrictions and reservations go down, and the Lord takes over. There is no area in my life of which I myself am lord and master. Every corner is given over to Him for His lordship and for His mastery.
That is true in fellowship, friends. There has got to be a new breaking down before an incoming and an indwelling Lord of all.
I will not press that any further, but I believe it is on the way to being filled with all the fulness of God.
You see, something follows that again in verse 17:
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend.
The next thought is stability, is it not? “That ye, being rooted and grounded in love.” The word “rooted” would, of course, refer to a tree. The word “grounded” would refer to a building. Well, the Christian and the church are both God’s tree and God’s building, so the Holy Spirit has used both words here: “rooted and grounded.”
While the words differ according to the picture that is in view, the thought is the same in both cases. It is the thought of stability. I was going to say “fixity,” but I do not like that word. Stability, I think, is a better word.
There has been the thought of the strengthening of the Lord. Then there has been the thought, shall we say, of the sovereignty of the Lord in this vessel which He takes possession of. Now there is the thought of the stability of the Lord. I believe that is the order, friends.
Do we want to be stable? Well, we shall only know spiritual stability if there has been what we have been discussing in verse 16 and verse 17. I believe we are only really stable, friends, when we are fully surrendered to the Lord’s mastery—His indwelling, His permeating all, and His ordering all according to His own will.
Once that has been settled, there is a new stability known by the individual and, I believe, known by the company. When there has been a great surrender to His absolute indwelling, mastery, and management, then there will be the great stability which is the result of that great surrender.
Oh, it is wonderful to meet individuals and to meet companies who are stable. They are rooted and grounded.
A little later on in this same letter, he speaks about Ephesians 4:14:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,
By the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
Paul did not want that to happen to these Ephesians: tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men. He wanted them to be a stable people, rooted and grounded in love.
Wonderful, I repeat, when you meet a Christian who is stable, dependable. And it is wonderful when you meet a company that is stable and dependable, rooted and grounded.
Then, going on a little further:
Rooted and grounded in love, that ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
There is a blessed result from that stability.
The strengthening has led to surrender, shall we say. That surrender has led to stability. Now the stability is leading on to something else. If you are rooted and grounded, you will then be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
You become a comprehending people.
I believe, friends, we begin to see something when we are stable, and we never will see as long as we are unstable. When we are, as it says there in chapter 4:14, tossed to and fro, not knowing real fixity in God and real stability in the Spirit, as long as this vacillating condition continues, mysteries, I believe, will be closed to us.
There are wonderful revelations of God that can only be known by individuals who are at rest in God and rooted in God, and by companies who are at rest in God and rooted and grounded in love.
There are revelations of the divine glory which are only given to those who are at rest in the divine sovereignty. There are lengths and breadths and depths and heights, to use the words that we have here, of the love of God which are undisclosed to many of us because we are not yet through to settledness, not yet through to stability. There are still reservations.
I remember once, by way of a simple little illustration, travelling in a bus in India along a typical Indian country road. When I got into that bus, I handed some of my fellow passengers some gospel booklets. I said, “Now, here is something you can read during the journey, and towards the end of the journey we will talk about it. I may be able to say something personally that will help you to understand what you have been reading.”
This dear Indian friend seemed a little bit overawed to have a book put into his hands at the beginning of the journey. Perhaps he was a little frightened of this European who had given him the book. He very diligently tried for the whole of that journey to read what was in that book.
But I realised, soon after I handed him the book and the journey commenced, that I had done a foolish thing. If you know what an Indian bus is like and what Indian roads are like, you know that it is almost impossible to read the small print of a small gospel booklet.
This dear fellow was doing his very best. I can see the picture today: as the bus was getting along, the book was going up and down, he was going up and down, and yet he was persisting because he had more or less promised that he would read it and discuss it with me at the end.
But, of course, there was so much unsettledness that he could not understand the message.
Well, I take it you will suffer the illustration. I believe there are some things that we can only grasp when we are still. As long as we are having this kind of experience, I believe there are wonderful truths that remain beyond us.
It was the first chapter of John’s Gospel that that dear fellow was trying to read, yet none of it registered because he was not settled; he was not still. I do not blame him, but I believe that just illustrates my point.
I believe we need to come to that place, friends, where we are at leisure from ourselves, where the Lord is Lord in our midst, and the whole matter of His dominion is settled for ever. We are rooted and grounded. Perhaps the lordship of Christ, without question, is settled.
Now, once that is settled, I believe there are unveilings of the divine glory which may be our portion. In fact, it is the natural sequence according to this prayer.
That ye may be rooted and grounded in love, and thus able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height;
To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
Friends, as long as we have controversies with the Lord, individually or as a company, I believe there are revelations that will be closed to us. There are depths that we will not be able to enter into.
That has a further meaning than may be obvious to all just now. So it is a fact, friends: let us settle the matter. Let the Lord be Lord in our midst. Let Him have His way amongst us. Let all human hands be withdrawn, and let the Lord be Lord. Let Him dwell within.
Let us be rooted and grounded in love, and then we shall be able to comprehend the length and breadth and depth and height. We shall know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
It is one of the wonderful paradoxes of the New Testament: we will begin to know something that cannot be known. If we are rooted, if we are grounded, we will begin to know something which cannot be known.
And it says here, “with all the saints.” It needs all the saints to really comprehend the length and breadth and depth and height of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Do not think that you can compass that alone.
You need every other brother and every other sister: his measure, his experience, his revelation; hers. Those who meet with us and those who do not meet with us have all got a measure of the love of Christ. If you ask each one to tell his story, her story, of the love of God in his life or her life, what a story he or she could tell!
Ask them to show you how much of the love of God has streamed into his heart or her heart. Well, each would have a great story to tell. If you put all those stories together, I believe that is what it means to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
That takes us right on to what I said was the destination of this prayer. When you have got there, you are really through to this temple purpose of God. When you have got a people who are apprehending the unspeakable grace of God and the immeasurable love of Christ—when that is their one consuming consciousness—you have got a people who are indeed filled with all the fulness of God.
You have reached “The Lord is there” when you have got a people of that kind and with that vision: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
May I just point out in closing, in case some of you have not noticed it—perhaps you all did years ago—that the actual preposition used there, “filled with all the fulness of God,” could better be translated, “filled into all the fulness of God.”
That ye may be filled into all the fulness of God.
Now, what actually does it mean to be filled into anything? “Filled into”—those are strange words, are they not? But thank God for these strange words that bring us to the Lord with fresh inquiries as to the truth that He intends to convey through them.
Filled into all the fulness of God. Yes, that is the word which the Holy Spirit has chosen to express this thought: filled into all the fulness.
I sometimes say, friends, suppose you were travelling on a ship. Imagine you were travelling on a ship, and you had a cup in your hand. Now, there are two ways of filling that cup. You can go down to the cabin, put the cup under the tap, turn the tap on, and fill that cup with water. That is one way of filling the cup.
But there is an easier way of filling that cup if you are travelling on board a ship. That is simply to throw the cup overboard. The cup will very soon be full. It will sink down into the depths of that almost unfathomable ocean, and almost from the moment it touches that ocean, it will be filled and keep on being filled. Even though it turns over and over and over, it will still be filled.
Would it not be lovely to meet some Christians and some churches who, even though they are being turned over and over and over, are all the time still full? You see, that is what it means to be filled into all the fulness of God.
It is not a matter of being filled with the fulness. How could we be filled with the fulness of God? But we can be filled into the fulness of God. The difference is a very significant one, I believe.
In the first case, you retain possession of the cup. In the second place, you give up possession of the cup.
I believe there is a lot behind that, brothers and sisters. The vessel is gone. If that vessel is to be filled into all the fulness of God, human possession of the vessel has to be surrendered. It is the Lord’s.
You must let your vessel go out of your control and possession. Individually, your own life—lose it in the ocean of God. Brothers and sisters, lose it. Then you will know what it is to be filled into the fulness of God.
Corporately, it is the same. Let it go into the great ocean of God. Let Him fill it and keep on filling it.
So, once we settle those matters and have been through those experiences, we know something of what that word, “The Lord is there,” really means. The name of that city shall be called, “The Lord is there”—a habitation for God in the Spirit.
Well, may the Lord work out all these things in our individual lives and in us as companies of His people in different parts of this world.
May we know what it is to be strengthened to go right on. May we know what it is to be indwelt in this particular sense that we have attempted to describe. May God bring us to that stability which results from all reservations going and Christ’s lordship being fully accepted in all areas of our being.
God give us that stability, and then God give us revelations from that point of stability—revelations of glory that we never dreamed of—until we are lost in Him, filled into the fulness of God.
May He do it. Blessed be His name.