Christ Making Home

Yesterday morning in our brothers' fellowship with a mature brother I was enlightened to see what it actually means to allow Christ to make His home in my heart. Doctrinally I know that my mind, emotion, and will need to be transformed to be gained by Christ so as to make my heart His home.  But how do I experience that?

What does it mean for Christ to make His home in our hearts? 

That Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith, that you are rooted and grounded in love. Ephesians 3:17

In Joshua 5:12 footnote 1, we have the three stages of eating; the Passover lamb, the manna, and the good land. All these are types of Christ in different stages in our experience. We might consider having passed out of Egypt having eaten the Passover lamb and also passed out of the wilderness having eaten the manna, but in actuality, we still need the three stages of eating.  

All these years we have been meeting together, to enjoy Christ which is to eat the lamb and to appreciate the redemption of Christ. To eat the lamb means we have nothing. We cannot get out of Egypt by ourselves. The Lord has to show us that we are in a totally destitute situation. 

Why the Israelites were 400 years in Egypt? Just to ensure that they thoroughly understood that without the redemption of Christ they can never get out of Egypt. In the same principle, the Lord has to allow us to fail again and again and again until we eat the Passover lamb for our complete redemption. There are two things the Lord uses very effectively to work on man: 

1. Failure 

2. Time

Why the 400 years? Time is necessary for man to realize that he can not save himself. Then and only then is he prepared to take Christ as his redemption. We fail to such an extent that every part of our being becomes a failure. Our wise God knows how long we should remain in our period of failure. The last 2000 years of church history may be a fulfillment of the 400 years of Israel’s failure in Egypt. Individually, Moses has to be in the wilderness for 40 years. During those 40 years, he was being prepared. He was prepared by living in the wilderness for 40 years. The same is true of every one of us. Did Moses fail in the 40 years? Yes, indeed! He was a total failure! After having such a good start with all the learnings mentioned in Hebrews 12, he ended up with 40 years of training in the wilderness. If you think you are useful in God’s hand, perhaps, you need 40 years of dealing and training. 

What is the preparation of the servant of the Lord? Failures and time. The earlier you recognize this spiritual truth, the better off you’ll be. After 40 years, he didn’t have many struggles. Moses needed 40 years. So, do we. The Lord has to exhaust our hope, then we’re ready for redemption. 

How to experience redemption? Redemption is not just for non-church kids but also for the church kids. We need to eat the lamb our whole life. In the New Jerusalem, Christ is still the Lamb God. There is a remembrance of redemption even in eternity. Eating the lamb is not once for all. Redemption is not once for all. We don't graduate from eating the lamb. Our worshipping the Lord is our enjoying and eating of the Lamb God. The more we see that we are not, the more Christ will be. So, if you fail, again and again, it means that God is teaching you to know Him as the redemption, as the lamb of God, so that you’ll appreciate Christ as your redemption. Even eating the Passover lamb is not so simple - it is intrinsic and organic. 

We need 400 years of Israel corporately and 40 years of Moses personally, the exhausting of Moses’ ambition to serve the Lord, to work for the Lord thinking that he can deliver God's people, should be completely uprooted from our being. That hope is a false hope. Because he can never serve God and deliver God's people and be a blessing, the Lord had to show and expose him to convict him. To the point that he thought at 80, he was finished and good for the grave. The Lord has to bring each one of us to that stage. 

In this light, if you still have hope in yourselves, through failure and time, the Lord will expose your condition. There are no shortcuts in spiritual experiences. It was the 400 years that prepared the Israelites to eat the lamb and received God’s redemption. Gradually we need to have the revelation and see it. The Holy Spirit as the spirit of wisdom and revelation will continue to work out and reveal what we are. We are good for nothing. The question is whether you know it or not. If you don't know it, your enjoyment of Christ is limited. You need to see that you are hopeless. 

After 40 years Moses was ready to enjoy the lamb of God. Otherwise, you’ll think you don't need redemption. You may know the verse in Jeremiah 15:9 that your heart is incurably wicked. But do you realize it? It is a matter of seeing what we are. The sooner we realize it, the better off we will be. It should be no longer I but Christ living in me. Our whole Christian life is Jeremiah 15:9, that we are wicked. The Lord needs to convict us that we are evil. Then you’ll appreciate Christ as redemption. 

Eating the lamb has a precondition: 400 years corporately and 40 years individually of failure and time. You have to be hungry to eat. If you’re oppressed by Pharoah, you want to get out of Egypt. Are we not daily oppressed by Pharoah, Satan? The more you know and see it, eventually after exhausting your hope, you can eat Christ adequately. You think you are not 100%  bad and not incurably wicked. 

In Hebrews 4:12, we have the word operating in us discerning the thoughts and intentions of our heart. Do you think it’ll show how good you are? According to Hebrews 4:13, All things are naked and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we are to give an account. Our actions and thoughts are altogether incurable. Adam and Eve saw their terrible condition. Then God came to prepare a covering for them. Only when we see it, will Christ become our redemption.

How Christ makes His home in our hearts? It means, we see that we have no more hope. We are always not, but we have to see that we are not before we could receive Him who is, to be us. We are all hopeless. If we don't see it, we'll be struggling and trying. If you try, you'll fail. Only one who sees that he is not will enter into rest. The entering into rest in Hebrews 7 and 8, is Joshua 6. 

The good land is called rest in Hebrews. Are you at rest? If you still have hope in yourselves, you’re not at rest. When we are not, we’ll enter into rest. The good land is the rest. In your soul, you can rest. There is no longer a struggle in you. You have experientially understood Matthew 11:28-30. The Lord has to defeat the 7 tribes, the enemy in us. Then we would have Christ as our rest. So, what is Christ making His home in your hearts? It is very subjective, experiential, intrinsic, and organic. It is Christ becoming our rest. 

When we have rest, we have no struggle in our mind thinking about this or that, for our mind will be subdued. Joshua's victory is about subduing the tribes. Our mind, emotion and will need to be subdued. This is the process of Christ making His home in our hearts. 

Do you have problems in coordination? Our love is natural, not Christ. So Christ has to subdue our natural love and preference. When we fail, we give up hope and get exhausted, and don’t fight anymore. Our fighting is a kind of rebellion to be good and independent from God. 

One test from Brother Witness Lee was, “Can you stop”? If you cannot, you can't rest. God's way is to show you that you cannot do anything and give up. Then, you rest. That's the time Christ is beginning to make His home in our hearts. He’ll then be and then become what we are not. That is the defeat of the 7 tribes in our mind, emotion, and will. Thank the Lord for the spirit of reality who guides us into all reality. That's how the Lord subdues our rebellion and independence and natural man. Only then we can rest and see Christ coming into us as everything to us. That's when you begin to feast on the unsearchable riches of Christ in Ephesians 3:8 as Christ would slowly make His home by convicting us that we are not. That is the eating of Christ as the produce in the good land. 

After his fellowship, I declared to all the brothers and to the Lord that I am good for nothing and can do nothing. I simply should eat the lamb for the feast? 

Praise the Lord for this revelation! I should have no hope in myself but only in the Lord.