The Dwelling Place of Christ!

"14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Eph. 3:14-19

Two things jump out at me.

1. There is a focus on the internal. What is being prepared for this indwelling? It is the inside... the core of who you are.

2. Divine power is necessary! Why does that require power? At the core of Christianity is the living Christ! It is all about Him! Let me phrase it another way... it is not about you! It demands totally and complete surrender! So how many of us seldom struggle with selfish "all about me" desires? We all do naturally because of our bent toward evil, so power is a must! So we come before the Father and say, "God, strengthen me by Your Spirit so that Christ may dwell in me today! I tend to be all about me on the inside and need Your help to surrender my heart! Give me the strength to deny myself any rule or authority in the dwelling place of Christ."

Here is an illustration that may help. What would your reaction be to someone coming into your house and begin telling you what to do? Most of us would be like... "Who are you! You can't come into my house and start giving orders, buddy!" But lets say, for some reason, you invited a particular individual into your home and surrendered the authority of that home to him, yet you still lived there. He begins to run the house his way, and YOU begin to struggle because YOU are so used to it being ruled by YOU! But the reality is, YOU surrendered the authority of your home to this individual.

Now, transfer that thought to your inner being. You are still there, but you have surrendered your heart (the dwelling place of your soul) to Jesus! He dwells there! He rules there! He has the authority of that dwelling place! That is why we need divine strength! We have ruled that dwelling place for so long that we struggle with allowing anyone else to rule that place... even Christ! So we need the strength by the Spirit of God to say no to any thoughts of "self rule", it is still our home but we no longer have authority over it. Consider this verse:

"20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Gal. 2:20

"Lord give me the strength today, to not position myself in such a way that I take that place of authority in my heart. May my heart be Your dwelling place, and may I surrender complete authority over to You!"

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