27. God Filling His House

Covering Ephesians 3:

God’s Pro-Thesis is the blueprint of a House built for Him. God’s Purpose is a House built for Him, in which to dwell. The Good Pleasure of God’s Desire is a House built for Him, that He might be known by all created things. There is no other purpose. And EVERYTHING God has done among humans and in our own lives has worked inexorably, relentlessly, steadfastly towards this very goal.

“Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up” (John 2:17). – This is the Jesus who lives inside our hearts. Nothing is more important to Jesus than to complete the House of God that God might fill that House with His presence made known. And that House is the gathering together of the Church.

The Biggest Statement Ever. “Zeal for Your House” is a topic that fits better elsewhere; here we want the Gospel comments for Ephesians Chapter 3, and especially for Ruling Verse 2. This is Ruling Verse 2, the biggest statement ever uttered, that God designed humans, that He designed you and me, to be FILLED with ALL the FULNESS of GOD!!!

Being filled with all of God has two expressions. It applies to each one of us personally, yes, but even more, it is meant for the gathering together, the House built for God. We want to be sure that both applications are found in the comments. Then consider this. What is the difference between being the body of Christ and being the House of God? What is the difference between Ruling Verse 11 and Ruling Verse 12?

Knit Together Forever. The differences between the Body of Christ and a House prepared for God are significant and clearly expressed. Look at 1 Corinthians 12:12-14. We have already been immersed into one body; we have already been made to drink of one Spirit. It happened the moment we asked Jesus into our hearts, and in that moment, the body of Christ is complete.

The House built for God is quite different. God’s House is “constructed.” It is “knitted together.” And that “being knitted together, being built together,” is an action that is forever. We ARE the body of Christ, but loving one another, being knit together, is forever. Being filled with God as member’s together just is, and we know it through faith. But our togetherness being filled with God as His dwelling place, that is LIVING and ENERGEOING, continuous and forever.

One Ethnicity Together. (Chapter 3) 4 My insight into the mystery of Christ, the secret of Jesus, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it now has been revealed to His devoted apostles and prophets inside of Spirit, • 6 that the ethnic families are joint-heirs, sharing in the same inheritance, belonging to the same body, and are partakers together of the promise inside of Christ Jesus through the gospel; 7 of which I became a servant according to the gift of the grace of God which was given to me, down to the finest details of His power energeoing inside of me.

Israel is the Church; the Church is Israel. The Church, the Israel of God, is entirely former Judeans first, but with we who are formerly of other ethnic families being added into the same body. Now, we are ONE ethnicity together.

Joint-Heirs. The testimony of the false prophet in our world today is that God has placed superiority upon the natural man, regardless of all violation of the old covenant in wicked deeds. This testimony repudiates Paul’s Gospel. Somehow, this fact must find an expression in our gospel comments, at least once.

Definition: The Greek word typically translated “church” is ecclesia, that is, the assemblies of those who received Jesus as the New Covenant God has made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah (see Hebrews 8:8). The mystery of Christ which Paul preached is that members of all ethnic families are now welcome into Israel, now children of Abraham, now joint-heirs with the Judeans who also received the New Covenant. Many Judeans rejected the Messiah for this reason, then and today. They preferred “superiority.”

Might Be Known. • 8 To me, the very least of all saints, was given this grace, to preach to the ethnic families the unsearchable and unending riches and abundance of Christ 9 and to cause all to see what is the stewardship of the mystery that has been kept secret, hidden from the ages inside of God, the One who created all. • 10 That mystery is that now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might be known by the sources, influences, and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to the set-forth purpose, that is, the Pro-Thesis of the ages, which He accomplished inside of Christ Jesus, our Lord, 12 inside of Whom we have all public boldness to speak, and an entrance [into the Father] in confidence, all the way through His faith.

I have kept this a longer quote to address the whole picture.

The Second Jesus Secret. Covenant & Kingdom: The first Jesus Secret is Christ inside of you, the Covenant (see Colossians 1:27). The second Jesus Secret is Christ revealed to all through His Church, the Kingdom, and that non-Judeans are included with Judeans in such a Church. This secret was hidden inside of God until He gave the stewardship over it to Paul; it is the central meaning of Paul’s Gospel. That same stewardship is given to us.

Paul likes to weave many different thoughts together, in just a few lines, and to repeat the essence of every category of Gospel Word over and over. Yet this quirkiness of Paul gives us a great expanse of meaning, especially in how the Ruling thoughts of God fit together in different ways. If we returned to a focused study of the Ruling Verses, we would need to list all the Gospel Comments of each one to study.

Defining Image. Ruling Verse 1: The Pro-Thesis is God’s set forth purpose. Set forth means placed out clearly for all to see. God set forth His purpose in three ways, first, demonstrated inside of Jesus, second, written in our hearts by the Spirit, and third, written in our Bibles as the Gospel. This purpose, then, goes out from God directly to the Church, many brethren just like Jesus, as the image of God, symmorphosed with the image of His Son.

Definition: An image is defined as a visible representation of an invisible spirit. Jesus said, “He who sees Me sees the Father” – image. Paul then places that same definition on the Church, that through the Church, the wisdom of God might be known by all creation. By the word “manifold wisdom,” we know that Paul means all of God revealed. The Church is God’s image, the revelation of the Father.

God’s Desire. Speak Christ: There is a direct connection between the Pro-Thesis of God, His set forth purpose, and speaking Christ our life with boldness. That Pro-Thesis is written in our hearts; we speak that which we are, just like Jesus. In this context, we speak with all boldness that God reveals Himself to all creation through our interactions together as the Church, that is, through our love for one another.

The Form for God through Jesus: God is invisible Spirit, All Here Now. God cannot be “seen” by anyone, for He has no boundary, no beginning or end. Pro-Thesis is another word for Covenant, and the Covenant is an expression of God’s desire to be known by all created things. God has chosen the Church, specifically our love for one another, to be His form, what God looks like, to all forever.

God Always Answers Us. I wrote these comments larger to express God’s full meaning, because what’s coming next is bigger than anything else.

14 For this reason I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 out from Whom every [ethnic] family in the heavens and on earth is named and called. • 16 I pray that He might give you, down to the finest details of the riches of His glory and great value with power, to be strengthened through His Spirit in the inner man, the inner self –.

I used to imagine that the words, “I pray,” weakened the marvelous statements now coming through Paul. Now I see the opposite, that nothing could be more powerful than, “I pray,” for God always answers us. Paul prays that we be strengthened – for the beyond-all, beyond-all with which he is about to hit us.

The Inner Self. The inner man – the inner self. My inner man is not my spirit, but rather, me, my story of self inside of my consciousness of myself, that I exist. My spirit and my body together are my outward form to heaven and earth. Here inside my own story of self I must be strengthened for what is about to come. And I am strengthened as the Spirit causes me to know with POWER every detail of the riches of His Glory. Now that is saying a lot. Jesus shares His glory with us. – The Church is His glory made visible.

Definition: The inner man, the inner “self,” is the story of words, our souls, inside our consciousness of ourselves, that we exist. Our spirit and body together are our outward form to heaven-earth. Our story of self must be strengthened by the Spirit that we might know what is coming next.

Defining the Human and Tabernacles. I chose Ephesians 3:17-19 as the Second Ruling Verse because it is the strongest and most important definition of what being human is, found in the Bible. This reason is coupled with the Third Ruling Verse as essential to that definition.

~ Containing all of God; revealing God to all. ~

We are like God in that we are designed to fit Him in every conceivable way. And we are the image of God in that His knowledge flows out from us into all creation. People see our love for one another and know that God is real. Inside the Flow of Gospel Word, we are also seeing Ephesians 3:17-19 as the Purpose of being built together as a dwelling place for God, that God might fill that House.

God filling His House and flowing out is Tabernacles.

Ruling Verse 2: Filled with All of God. • 17 I pray that Christ might dwell inside your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded inside of love, • 18 might be fully able to seize hold of, to comprehend together with all the devoted ones, what is the breadth and length and height and depth [the full extent of God], • 19 and to know even more the surpassing, beyond-all knowledge of the love of Christ, that you might be filled full with all the fullness of God.

Paul is praying for three things. 1. That Christ might dwell in our hearts through faith. 2. That we might comprehend God together. And 3. That we might be filled with all of God. These three things are found inside of Love, for God is Love. To be like God is to Love one another. To Love one another is to be like God. There is no other God.

Defining Tabernacles and the Church. Being filled with all of God through Christ in our hearts must begin with each of us, that it might then proceed immediately to God filling His House, the Church, with all of Himself. God filling His House, Ruling Verse 2, is the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and Rivers Flowing out, Ruling Verse 3, is the eighth day, the Great Day of the Feast. Our gathering together into Christ is the in-between days. As these two Ruling Verses define what God means by making us human, so they also define what God means by making us His Church.

My hope, now, is to keep these three things in mind as I write the Gospel Comments for this verse, the meaning of being human, of the Feast of Tabernacles, and of being the Church.

Defining the Rule. I now see that the phrases and meanings of Ruling Verses 2 and 12 are to be woven together. Jesus builds us together for God inside Himself, yet also as the One inside each of us.

Defining the Rule: God fills His House with all of His Fulness, with ALL that He is. Even as Jesus builds us together for God inside of Himself, so also, God sent Christ Jesus into us that we might know the Father. Christ lives inside of our hearts through faith, through knowing that He does, regardless. God is Love, and we are rooted and grounded inside that Love individually and together. Inside that Love, inside of Jesus, we have a task to do together, the task of comprehending the Father, His full extent of meaning and reach. This knowing of our beyond-all Love of Jesus for one another prepares us to be filled with all the fulness of God, as individuals and as His House together.

Expanded and Personal. Christ Jesus lives inside each one of your hearts, in Person and for real, through His own Faith now shared with you, regardless of any outward human judgment. You are rooted into and grounded upon a God who is Love, as soil and as rock. Inside of that Love, together with others devoted to God, you search out to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth, the full extent and meaning of God. In doing so, you come to know even more the surpassing beyond-all knowledge of the Love of Christ inside yourselves and for one another, that you, individually and as one House together, might be FILLED to capacity with ALL the FULNESS of God.

Christ Made Personal: Jesus lives in my heart. I am rooted and grounded inside of Love. I am filled with all the fulness of God. God fills His House, my devoted brethren and I together.

Life and Covenant. Life: Knowing the Father is age-unfolding LIFE (see John 17:3). For God to be known, He must have a created Form in which to dwell. That Form is the expressed love of Christians for one another. This Temple, then, is God-Life for all. 

Covenant: “Christ lives inside your heart through faith” is the essence and meaning of the New Covenant.

Speak Christ: There is no more important confession of faith than to say, over and over, “God, my Father, You fill me with all that You are.” It is for this purpose that Jesus lives in our hearts, that we might KNOW God-with-us. In the night watches, in the hard and lonely places, say, “God, my Father, You fill me with all that You are,” until you know that it is True, until you know that God shares all with you.

Symmorphosed and Filled! Ruling Verse 1: God’s set-forth Purpose, accomplished inside of Jesus, is to have for Himself a dwelling place inside creation, a Form, that He might be known. It is many brethren, just like Jesus, who are that image of God through their great Love for one another. God’s determination is expressed as the Zeal of Jesus inside of us for that House.

Ruling Verse 2: Ruling Verse 2 is the definition of the human. God designed us for Himself; He custom built us to fit God, to be compatible with Himself. He crafted even our weakness to be FILLED to capacity with all that He is. Because God is Love, that House must also be our togetherness, our Love for one another in daily life together. God filling His House is the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and our life together as Communities of Christ is the meaning of that Feast.

From Rivers to Intimacy. Ruling Verse 3: Ruling Verse 3 is the second part of our definition as humans, that God created us as His image, that all would know God through the Rivers of Life and Love flowing out from us. The full release of the River of Life is the Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the final result of the Feast.

Ruling Verse 4: The Power and the Kingdom are out from God, yet they come through the authority of Jesus now given to us. We must know God with us for the sake of the Church before that power flows to protect the gathering together.

Ruling Verse 5: This great Treasure of all of God filling us full comes to us only inside of Jesus. It is our weakness that God fills, our human flesh, that the Glory might be God and not any boasting in ourselves. Thus the Rivers flowing out carry to all the same precious intimacy of union with Christ Jesus.

From Boldness to Love. Ruling Verse 6: The task of apprehending all that is God for ourselves is a task we must do together. We are able to do such a thing in full assurance of faith, because we KNOW that Jesus has carried us fully into Love.

Ruling Verse 7: God fills our life together as the Church because we are confident together that He does so. We know that the knowledge of God goes out from us into every place.

Ruling Verse 8: Love is as the earth; we are grounded upon the Rock; we are rooted deep into the Soil that is God. Nothing can be real in our lives except we know this Love into which Jesus has placed us. But as we comprehend God together, we discover a Love that is even more than we can imagine, we know the Love of Jesus for one another, we know Love as all our interactions together, God among us.

The Rock and the Fire. Ruling Verse 9: God subjected creation to vanity only because of His great Hope that Jesus would craft the Church into His dwelling place, that through the Church, He might be made known to all. We are built together as the dwelling place for God for Father’s sake, that God might receive all created things back into Himself, that the knowledge of God would set creation free through our Love for one another.

Ruling Verse 10: Jesus Himself constructs us together as God’s house inside Himself, the same Jesus who dwells inside each of our hearts, sent by God. His purpose is that God be known and glorified, that God might be acknowledged as God by all. For this reason, we clothe, not just ourselves with the Lord Jesus, but especially all our brethren, the entire Church of Christ, the entire House of God.

The Kingdom as Father Made Known. Kingdom: Three things are found in-between Jesus Sent into us and knowing that we are filled with all of God. Those three things are being rooted and grounded inside of Love, comprehending God together, and discovering the beyond-all Love of Jesus for one another that we now possess. This Love, in all its varied meanings, is the Pattern by which all creation is ordered, the Form of God being Himself inside creation.

The Form for God through Jesus: We are for God. The gathering together of the Church is for God, that He might have a dwelling place, a Form inside creation, that God might be known by all. God filling His House with all of Himself (see 2 Chronicles 5 & 7) is Salvation now come; it is the only answer for everything. Being filled with all the fulness of God, individually and together, must rule our every thought.

God’s Thoughts. How the Ruling Verses grow and grow, especially as they are woven together as one incredible Flow of Gospel Word. I realized that the correct way to call them is “The Ruling Thoughts of God,” or, “God’s Ruling Thoughts.” And the best way to grasp their appearance in Scripture is as a continuous bubbling up, as springs of living water, expressing themselves everywhere and in every way words can describe.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). – Yet it is these very Thoughts that we are to comprehend together (see 1 Corinthians 2:10), that we might think and see and judge all things as the Father thinks and sees and judges.

The Critical Transition. • 20 Now to the One who is able above all to do hyper-abundantly more than we ask or think, according to the power energeoing inside of us, 21 to Him be the glory inside the Church and inside Christ Jesus, to all the generations into the seasons of the ages.

Having written the first part for Ephesians Chapter 4, I come back to this verse and see it as one of the most critical of all transitions in the Flow of Gospel Word. Ephesians 4 is the strongest and most important layout of the inner workings of our life together as the Church in the Bible. Paul is coming out from the most profound expression of God’s Purpose, that God FILLS with ALL of His FULNESS His House built together for His dwelling place. These two verses are the channel through which such Purpose flows.

The Awful Contrast. We must set the awful contrast. We have lived Christian lives of hard and wicked unbelief, as John saw in his vision. – And no one was capable, neither inside of heaven nor upon the earth nor underneath the earth, to open the scroll or to perceive what was written in it. I wept loudly, because no one of sufficient value was found… (Revelation 5:3-4). John had just given the Church his wondrous Gospel of LIFE, yet he saw two thousand years of Christians REFUSING to believe that Jesus is capable of making us to be like Himself.

Paul is NOT talking about imagining a little bit of goodness for ourselves. He is talking about our gathering together being FILLED with ALL of God in all Completion of every Word of the Gospel! Beyond all human thought! This is the POWER energeoing inside of us to accomplish ALL of God Revealed.

The Energeoing Power. The One who is able above all to do hyper-abundantly more than we ask or think, according to the power energeoing inside of us. Yes, such a word does apply to each one of us, but what would it be if we KNEW such power as Church together, as the fulfillment of every Word God speaks.

Kingdom: Jesus fills our togetherness with all energeoing power. That power accomplishes the fulfillment in our lives of every Word God speaks in the Gospel. This line certainly includes the little things we need, but much more, it accomplishes God’s purpose for the Church.

The Form for God through Jesus: This energeoing power appears again in Ephesians 4:16 as the sharing from every member of each local Church. It is the transition between being filled with God and our tender care for one another.

We Get to Be Kind. I am no longer seeing Ruling Verse 2 as a “high point” between Ephesians 2 and Ephesians 4. Rather, I see a progression from being built together as the dwelling place of God to being filled as God’s House with all the fulness of God to that which is incomprehensively higher, far, far higher than anything found in heaven. There are two sets of verses coming up, Ephesians 4:15-16 and Ephesians 4:32-5:2. These two sets of verses fit together and they are the essence and meaning of a House filled with God, Christ Community, the New Jerusalem arising everywhere, brethren dwelling together inside of Love.

To this vision, I have committed my life. To know the sharing of the Energeia of Love together is the ultimate goal. We get to be just like God. We get to be kind.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we would think Your thoughts, we would live inside of Your ways, we would be for Your Glory made known. Father, we devote our lives entirely to You. God, we ask of You, that the Zeal for Your House would eat us up, beyond what we can ask or think. We ask of You that the Passions of Jesus would be our full passions as well.

“Father, we know and receive the mighty Energeoing POWER that is Jesus as every Word You speak and every Thought You think fulfilled in our lives, that He is our all, and that His All-Consuming Desire is now fulfilled inside our hearts. Lord Jesus, we are ready and willing and able in the Day of Your power, as You with us remove the cover from the eyes of all our brethren that they also might glorify God with us.

“Oh God, we are consumed with Zeal for Your House; we WANT You at Home here with us inside Your creation. Now is the time, the Salvation, the Power, and the Kingdom, for we give You our authority that we might share Hheart with You.

“Father, Your Church, Jerusalem, so fickle and wayward, so ignorant of You, yet we clothe her with Fire, with the Lord Jesus Christ in all Glory, for she belongs to You and to us, where we both belong forever. Lord Jesus, we meet You in the air; we meet You in Your Church. We are the Ark of Your Covenant and the Mercy Seat now entering into Your Temple.

“God – FILL Your House with Your Glory. Be All Love among us inside Your Church. God, our Father, You have indeed answered us.”