HOME MEETINGS
Chapter 2
THE ONLY WAY FOR THE INCREASE AND
THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH
WEEK 2 – MONDAY
Bible Reading: Ephesians 3:14-19
Read and pray: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man; so that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, being rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:14-17)
BEING STRENGTHENED IN THE INNER MAN
Second, to equip ourselves for the home meetings, we must be strengthened in our inner man. Paul prayed for this in Ephesians 3:14-19. Bowing his knees before the Father, he prayed that the Father would grant the believers to be strengthened in the inner man.
Paul uses several phrases to refer to this strengthening. He prayed that the Father would grant them to be strengthened according to the riches of His glory, with power, and through His Spirit. God wants to strengthen us according to the riches of His glory. It is not a small matter that God would do this. God wants to strengthen us in the inner man, not according to the shortage of His strength, but according to the riches of His glory, with power, through the Holy Spirit.
Let me give an illustration. Suppose a brother works in a workshop all day under heavy pressure and comes home completely exhausted. At home, he gets offended by a family member, perhaps his wife or his mother-in-law. Despite his fatigue, he easily loses his temper.
Before this, if you asked him to read a page from the Life-study, he would say, "No, I can’t read. I’m tired." Then you might say, "Well, then let’s pray." But he would answer, "No, I can’t pray. I can’t, I’m not well."
However, when his mother-in-law provoked him, he became strengthened in his bad temper with the riches of the devil’s subtlety. His whole being entered into that bad temper. When you return home after your stressful workday, you need to pray: "Father, grant me, according to the riches of Your glory, with power, through Your Spirit, to be strengthened into the inner man."
Then your whole being will be concentrated in the inner man, which is your human spirit. Thus you can be fully strengthened, you can pray, and you can go to the meeting.
I believe that often the brothers, when they go in the evening to the home meetings, are very tired. This is the proper time for them to be strengthened in the inner man. Do not remain in your tired and exhausted body. Do not remain in your mind. Do not remain in your soul.
You must pray: "Lord, strengthen me in my spirit." Then, by being strengthened in your spirit, you can overcome the tiredness of your body and the dull feeling in your soul. In the following verses we see that this strengthening relates to the meeting life.
After being strengthened in the inner man, verses 17-19 continue: "that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God."
"With all the saints" indicates a kind of meeting. Being strengthened so that you may apprehend the dimensions of Christ with all the saints indicates meeting together. Even "all the fullness of God", which means the church life, the expression of God. I believe this relates to the meeting.
We all need these two things: to be filled in our spirit with the Holy Spirit and to be strengthened in the spirit. Then we will go to the meetings with our spirit filled like the four tires of a car. It is common to go to the meetings empty in spirit. We need to go to the meetings full of air, filled with air, full of "boom, boom, boom."
Even if we are tired and exhausted by the day, we must be strong in the spirit. This is not doctrine; it requires much practice. We all need to practice being filled and being strengthened in the spirit.
We need to practice our seriousness with the Lord in the recovery. If we neglected the home meetings and cared only for the big meetings, we would not need much practice. One or two taking the lead would do things for us. They would be the clergy, and all the others would be the laity.
This is not the church life. There would be no way to build up the Lord’s Body. The building up depends entirely on the home meetings. Thus, we all need to practice being filled in spirit and being strengthened in the inner man. Then we will be filled with the Triune God, filled with His attributes, and strengthened in the spirit.
Then, when we meet, all will be equipped to carry out the home meetings. This is the way. I hope this will not be just another message to you, but an instruction to practice. Practice daily to be filled in your spirit and to be strengthened in the inner man.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn: The Church – "Its Building Up"
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