Sitting? Walking!

I recall reading years ago that "there is a throne in our hearts upon which God desires to sit, and which we must abdicate."

Certainly there is truth in this analogy. The Lord Jesus Christ is our King, and He does indwell us by His Holy Spirit for the purpose of the will of God being consistently fulfilled in our lives. The imagery breaks down, however, as we consider the nature of our Lord's indwelling activity within us.

"Ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).

Rather than sitting on a throne, the God who inhabits our spirits rather walks in us. He is dynamically active in His ongoing determination to glorify the Lord Jesus in our thoughts, attitudes, word, actions, and relationships with others.

"I also labor, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily" (Colossians 1:29).

"It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

"Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).

Note that the Apostle Paul does not limit the affirmation of God's mighty working to himself. "In you" and "in us" he declares. Consider also that "the power that worketh in us" is beyond our capacity for thought or verbal expression, "exceedingly" beyond. In fact, the redeemed spirit of the born again believer teems with the dynamic activity of the eternally present God who is not sitting in us, but rather walking.

Why then do we not more experience the glory of such truth? Time and space do not allow a full consideration for the answer to this question. However, I am convinced that the primary reason for our failure to more apprehend and express the vibrant reality of our Lord's presence within us is similar to the experience of His own country during His earthly ministry: "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matthew 13:58). Believers are now the "own country" of the Lord Jesus, and our experience of His working in us will be known in direct proportion to our belief in His Biblical declaration of it. "The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).

Do we view God as sitting in us? Do we even view Him as dwelling in us? Or is it the consistent affirmation of our hearts and our words that the Christ who forgave and redeemed us is also the Christ who "worketh in me mightily?" Our answer to this question will go far in determining our experience of the blessed reality of grace that made us the scene of God's dynamic activity on behalf of His Son's glory, the blessing of those with whom we live our lives, and the fulfillment of our hearts. Any lesser confidence, or any other confidence, denotes a tragic failure to "lay hold on eternal life," the life of Christ Himself given to us as a free gift of grace (I Timothy 6:12).

"We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

(II Corinthians 4:7)