6 – That Christ May Dwell in Your Hearts by Faith

Reading 6

by H. Avellaneda

“THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS BY FAITH” – Ephesians  3:17

 

Dear brothers  and sisters around the  world, it is a  great  joy  for me to share this message from God’s word with you during this Week of Prayer. I pray that the Lord will establish your hearts at the end of this year 2021, a year that  brought astounding events  showing  that  the  coming   of Christ will be soon. I pray that  we will all be prepared for eternity.

Ephesians 3:17 is the  basis of  our reading for today:  “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;…” This is a very interesting phrase, especially as related  to spiritual  life; let’s go a little back in history and consider the great mercy that God has had for His people throughout all time.

When the majestic temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem was completed, on the  dedication day he knelt in front of Jehovah’s altar and prayed before the entire congregation with his hands lifted to  heaven. He asked the Lord a question:  “But will God  in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot  contain  Thee; how  much less this house  which I have built!” 2 Chronicles 6:18.

The Biblical  account  (2 Chronicles 7:1, 3) tells that, in response  to  Solomon’s  question, God’s glory and presence  were  manifested and  filled the Ephesians  3:17 whole  house. “And when all the children  of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon  the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon  the pavement, and worshipped and praised the Lord,…” Such power and manifestation were a matter  of pride for  the  people of Israel, because  God  kept  His promise in the temple, above the ark of the covenant.

However, the Scriptures record that, in the second temple, the  Lord’s presence was face to face and complete in that place when the great De­ sire of all ages came and taught in person, teaching, performing miracles, and preaching.

Christ entered not only the temple at that time, but also various houses, where He was well received; and from that moment on, nothing was ever the same again, because everything changed radically in His presence. As an example, we can list some  of the miraculous events that  marked  His life on earth: When He entered Zacchaeus’ home, salvation was declared for him  and his family; there  was life in Jairus’ home  when his daughter was restored to life; and the same thing happened when Jesus was at the home  of Martha  and Mary after the resurrection  of their brother  Lazarus brought joy and comfort  to his family and friends. These simple  examples show that  wherever Christ  dwells there is salvation, life, restoration, and transformation.

Dear  brothers  and sisters, let  us go  back to  the  theme  text,  where it says that  Christ wants to  dwell  in  our hearts. In his prayer, the  apos­ tle makes four specific requests  on behalf  of the  Ephesian believers. He prayed, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.”  This implies knowing the  Lord’s thoughts. It also implies  a relationship of companionship, fellowship, acquaintance, and God’s will for His people’s  lives. That is why the apostle could say, in Galatians 2:20, “I live; yet not I, but  Christ liveth in me:…”

VISITOR OR FAMILY MEMBER

Throughout all time, and especially today, Christ has not come for just a brief  visit. He said to His own in John 15:4: “Abide in Me, and I in you.”

He has come  to live with us permanently through the  Holy Spirit  in our lives. And in John 15:5, He stated: “I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth  much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.”

“When the  heart is cleansed from sin, Christ is placed on the throne that self-indulgence and love of earthly treasure once occupied. The image  of Christ  is seen in the  expression of the  countenance. The work of sanctification is carried  forward  in the soul. Self-righteousness is banished. There is seen the putting on of the new man, which after Christ is created in righteousness  and true  holiness.”  -Review and  Herald, September  11, 1900.

The word  “enthroned” means  that  Christ  is not  an occasional  visitor; He dwells in the heart of the Christian always to be an inexhaustible source of power  that enlightens  and purifies the soul. He promised: “If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode  with him.”  John 14:23.

How beautiful! The words say, “We will come unto Him, and make Our abode  with  him;”  not,  We will pass by  and visit him.  No!  It talks about Their staying in the person and making Their home there!

WHO WILL ABIDE

“As a Christian submits to the solemn rite of baptism, the three highest powers in the universe-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit-place Their approval on his act, pledging Themselves to exert Their power in his behalf as he strives to honor  God. He is buried in the likeness of Christ’s death, and is raised in the likeness of His resurrection….

“The three great powers  of heaven pledge Themselves to furnish the Christian with all the assistance he requires. The Spirit changes the heart of stone  to  the  heart  of flesh. And  by partaking of the  Word  of God, Christians obtain  an experience that  is after the divine  similitude. When Christ  abides  in the  heart by faith, the  Christian  is the temple of God. Christ does not  abide  in the heart  of the sinner, but in the heart  of him who is susceptible to the influences of heaven.” -Signs of the Times, Au­ gust 16, 1905.

The word” abide” does not mean  just to be inside of a house, which

for the subject we are studying is the heart of the believer, but to be there as at home, totally embraced as a permanent member of the family, not as a stranger  or usurper. Furthermore, Christ cannot dwell  in a heart that does not joyfully  submit to the  conditions of heaven. It is necessary for the  Holy  Spirit to control  the  entire  life  of the  believer for  Christ be  at home.

WHAT DOES THEIR PRESENCE DO FOR US?

“If  we have Christ abiding with us, we shall be Christians at home  as well as abroad. He who is a Christian will have kind words for his relatives and associates. He will be kind, courteous, loving, sympathetic, and will be educating himself  for an abode  with the family above. If he is a member of the royal family, he will represent the kingdom to which he is going.  He will speak with gentleness  to  his children, for  he  will realize  that  they, too, are heirs of God, members of the heavenly court. Among the  children  of God  no spirit  of harshness dwells;…” -Review and  Herald, September  20, 1892.

“Young man embraces the murderer  of  his  brother   in  an extraordinary gesture  of  forgiveness.”  This was the headline in a newspaper in the U.S.A. in October  2019. The trial of a Texas  police woman who was accused of murder had an extraordinary  ending  when the victim’s brother  hugged her in court as a gesture of forgiveness. “If you are really sorry,… I forgive you,” said Botham Jean’s brother to Amber Guyger. “And I know that if you ask God, He will forgive you.”

This  moving  scene  took   place  at the end  of the trial of Amber  Guyger, a 31-year-old white policewoman who in 2018 shot her black neighbor in Dallas after entering the wrong apartment, believing it to be her own.

It is very rare today to find a person with  a heart that  is willing  to forgive someone  who has caused him pain, because the world we live in has a different way of seeing things. The world says: “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;… love thy neighbour, and hate thine  enemy. But I  say unto you, Love your  enemies, bless  them  that  curse you, do  good  to  them  that  hate you, and  pray  for  them  which  despitefully use you, and persecute you.”  Matthew5:38, 43, 44.

However, we do not naturally live or love this way. It is generally very difficult for us to talk about loving our enemies as Christ commanded us, while in fact we sometimes cannot even love our friends and church members  in such a way. That is why today, more than ever, we need Christ to dwell  by faith in our hearts. It is urgent  that the Holy Spirit dwell  in us, so that  we can show  the world,  by  testimony,  that  we belong to  the  family  of  heaven.  Only  when the  Spirit  is invited into  our  lives can He do more in our lives than we ever dreamed possible, as did  Botham Jean’s brother.

Now let me tell you another story, about  the  life of a man  named  Luke. He  was a Bible  worker  for  a Protestant  church in a difficult  region of the world, where evangelism is not always easy and many Christians are persecuted for their faith.

According to the  story, Luke and his  wife  had  a  motorcycle  accident while they were on a trip. It happened when they stopped on the side of the road;  a drunk  motorcyclist came and ran  them   over.  Fortunately,  no  one was seriously injured, but  both  motor­ cycles were seriously damaged.

The man who caused the accident turned out  to be the  chief  of a near­ by town. And,  even though Luke had very little money, instead of getting angry  about  this  accident,  he  asked the man: “How are we going to solve this problem?” Very rudely, the perpetrator replied, “You have to fix my motorcycle!” And  although it seems incredible, without saying  a word, Luke paid  for the  motorcycle repairs. But the matter  did not stop there. Lat­ er he went  to the  village  to  visit this chief and began  to come  up with different ways to help him and his family, including offering to go out and plow his field.

Luke  did  so  many  things  for  the chief  and  his family  that  the  people of the  village  could not  help  but  no­ tice what was going on. “Our  chief is a very tough man,”  someone said to Luke one day. “Why  are you being so kind  to him?  No  one  has been  able to befriend him!” Luke replied to this surprising statement by  saying,  “Be­ cause I love Jesus, and I want to make His love known to others.”

A short  time  later, some  of the  villagers  asked  Luke to  teach them more about Jesus. It was not long before  Luke began to have Bible studies with several of the villagers, and some of them were baptized.

The most  amazing thing about  this miracle  is that this little  town was in an area that  Luke had previously  tried to enter to spread the gospel, but his efforts had never been  successful. Now, through his kindness  to the chief, he was able to have an open  door there. Think about  this for a moment. If Luke had reacted to the accident  in the way that most  of us would have, he would never have been  able to reach the  villagers with the gospel  of Christ. Can you imagine  how different things  would be in our world, our families, and even our church if we went the extra mile and served  one another  with that  same selfless humility, even when we had been  hurt? For this to happen, Christ must  abide  in our hearts by faith; it is necessary that He be the One who carries out that work in us for the salvation  of many souls.

“We  cannot  afford to  let  our spirits  chafe over any real or supposed wrong  done  to ourselves. Self is the  enemy  we most  need  to fear. No form of vice has a more baleful effect upon the character than has human passion not  under the control  of the  Holy Spirit. No other victory we can gain will be  so precious  as the  victory  gained over self. We should  not allow our feelings to be easily wounded. We are to live, not to guard our feelings  or our reputation, but to save souls.”  -The  Ministry  of Healing, p. 486.

MORE  NECESSARY THAN EVER BEFORE

Brothers and sisters, we can conclude that when the apostle Paul said that Christ should  dwell in the believers, He was referring  to the experience of sanctification. The strength of Christians lies in enjoying the presence of Christ in such a way that all areas of their  lives are filled with His fragrance to the depths  of their souls.

Do not put  off this decision, but  let Christ  dwell in you by faith. It is time  to have a clean house  so that  He can dwell in your heart  and feel welcome. Remember, it is not  you, but  He who  lives in you and, most importantly, governs  your life. As a result of such an experience, you can serve Him out of love.

“The last rays of merciful light,  the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children  of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.” -Christ’s  Object Lessons, p. 415.

Dear brothers and sisters around the world, today more than ever before, we need to live this experience personally every day. We need to ask Jesus sincerely to come  and dwell  in our hearts, so that we can show by our testimony that we represent the family of heaven on this earth.

The time we have left is short. What we are living through now tells us that Jesus is coming soon. Ask Him to dwell in your hearts by faith. Life is blessed when God’s presence and glory are manifested and fill the home. I sincerely pray that this is our experience before  we begin the new year.

Christ is coming soon!  Maranatha!

Amen.