In this sermon, the speaker shares an illustration of a bus journey with a fellow passenger who was trying to read a book but was unable to due to the unsettledness of the bus. The speaker relates this to the idea that there are certain things we can only grasp when we are still and focused. The speaker then discusses a sequence of separate petitions that are important for us to understand and apply in our lives as we seek to become a habitation for God. The sermon emphasizes the need for strengthening by the Holy Spirit in our inner being and the importance of inviting Jesus into our lives and allowing Him to have full control.

We are very glad in these days to have our dear brother Goldsworthy amongst us. He is not the only visitor to our country from Australia this summer. We're going to let him, in the will of God, have an innings now. Thus he'll knock up, by the Holy Spirit, a heavy score and go back to Australia with something better than ashes. I do feel, friends, that it is fitting at this point just for me to take a moment for what may be personal. I think you'll understand and, if necessary, forgive me, but I feel a moment should be taken to pass on a personal word. Firstly, I do want to express gratitude to the Lord for his great goodness in allowing me to be here amongst you at this time and for this season of fellowship together with the Lord over his word. The Lord has made it possible for me to be here and I believe with all my heart I'm right in the centre of his will. And there is, therefore, an expression of gratitude to the Lord for having made that possible. I think I do hold the long distance record as far as this conference is concerned. It's just a month or so since I came away from Melbourne and I've had the joy of meeting Christian friends in different places en route and they also send greetings, not only the friends in Australia who know that I'm over here at this time. There are friends in Melbourne and Brisbane particularly who are heartily with me and with you also in loving prayer in these days. They send greetings but I've also had the privilege of meeting other friends who are well known to you in other places, some in New Zealand who've been right here in our conferences. I met them a few weeks ago in Auckland and there have been others like Brother Harrison in Los Angeles with whom I've been able to have fellowship and Mrs Harrison and well I can't go on with the whole list but I've had the joy of meeting friends in various places who send loving greetings to you in the Lord's name. And I do want to express gratitude friends for the prayers which I know have been going up to the Lord from your hearts and from your midst for us over in Australia in recent years. Possibly later we'll be able to tell you a little more about that as we meet different ones of you here and there we'll be able to tell you more of what the Lord has been doing. But we are very grateful for your loving prayers. The Lord is working, blessed be his name. And I must bring greetings particularly from my dear wife what it would mean to her if she could be here amongst you all this afternoon. She values your friendship and your fellowship more than she or I could ever say. She is a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I mustn't start speaking about my wife but she is a good soldier of Jesus Christ and she is carrying on faithfully in Melbourne during these three and a half months or so that I expect to be away from that land. But I know she would want me to pass on her loving greetings to dear sisters and brothers whose friendship and fellowship she prizes so much here in this place. Well there's much more I could say along that line but I think we must leave much unsaid. But my heart is very full of praise to the Lord for all his goodness in bringing me here. And I would ask prayer too that the Lord's purpose in bringing me here may be fully realised. I have a sense of my own great need. I came away from Australia feeling very needy and needing something. Believing that the Lord would minister to that need by my actually being amongst you for a little while. And do please pray that all the Lord's purpose in my being here for these few weeks may be realised. Perhaps also in the Lord's goodness I may be able to minister some help to others. We do have an advantage when we come from different places and perhaps conceive things from a new perspective. We can perhaps say a little word that is helpful here and there. But my heart is up to the Lord that all his purpose in bringing me here for these few weeks may be fully realised to his praise and glory. I do feel very reluctant brothers and sisters to break into the conference in this way this afternoon and yet I'm trusting it won't be a breaking in. I'm trusting that through the Lord's grace there will be something of real continuance in the spirit in what I may be led to say here this afternoon. And I do believe there is a connection between what I find in my heart and what has been occupying us in the meetings yesterday afternoon and evening particularly. And to make that connection may I ask you to turn with me now just for a moment to that last verse in Ezekiel 48 it's the 35th verse the second half of the verse Ezekiel 48 verse 35. And the name of the city from that day shall be the Lord is there. The Lord is there. Now please in Ephesians the second chapter verse 21 and verse 22. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit. Chapter 3 verse 14. For this cause and I believe friends that phrase goes right back to the verses which conclude the second chapter. It's having all that in mind all that the apostle has been saying at the end of chapter 2 having all that in mind he continues in chapter 3 verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height. And to know the love of Christ which part of knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end amen. I want to direct your thoughts this afternoon brothers and sisters to that wonderful prayer which the apostle prayed for the Ephesians and has set out for us here in these verses at the end of this third chapter. As you know there are two great prayers in the epistles of the Ephesians. There is the prayer at the end of chapter one which I think we must say is a prayer for objective revelation of the person of Christ and of the purpose of God in that person of Christ. It's a prayer for objective revelation. He's wanting them to see something. He's praying that God will give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes that prayer at the end of chapter one is for objective revelation. The opening of the eyes to see what Christ really means. To see what God's purposes are in that wonderful person. Now in chapter three we have the second of those two prayers and the emphasis is quite different as you will know in the prayer in chapter three. In chapter three the apostle is praying that those same Ephesians might have subjective experience of Christ. Objective revelation of Christ in chapter one. A subjective experience of Christ in chapter three. In chapter one the emphasis is upward. In chapter three the emphasis is inward. For instance you have that phrase strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. And then you also have mention of Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. And at the end of the prayer we have that wonderful expression that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Yes it's a prayer for subjective experience. And one thing we must notice friends is this that when Paul prayed that prayer he had a glorious objective in view. And I believe it's only as we grasp that objective that we can grasp all that he says in leading up to that objective. You see what he's got in his heart is well what he mentions at the end of verse 19 that ye Ephesian Christians brothers and sisters ye God's people there in that city that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. That you might be there in Ephesus a people who are really filled and flooded with the fullness of God. That was what Paul had in mind for those Christians at Ephesus and in those other localities which we were reminded yesterday were also in view when Paul wrote this epistle. He could see them in those various places at Ephesus right in the center of all the others. And his longing as he got down on his knees was that there in those places there might be a people who are indeed filled with all the fullness of God. That was his objective. And we did say that what he is praying there at the end of chapter 3 is very much related to what he has been saying at the end of chapter 2. In fact we pointed out that there was a link indicated by that phrase for this cause. You see he has pointed out at the end of chapter 2 what we might call the temple purpose of God. God has got a purpose and we've been thinking of that yesterday afternoon and evening. We'll call it now just for a moment the temple purpose of God. That's what he's been discussing at the end of chapter 2 is it not? He speaks about our being built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And he says that in Christ all the building fitly framed together groweth an holy temple in the Lord in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. God is preparing his own dwelling place. I suppose that simple little sentence comprehends all that's in the Bible really. God is securing and he is preparing his own sovereignly appointed and predetermined dwelling place. The tabernacle of God is with men. Bible ends with that statement doesn't it? The tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell among them. The Bible begins with a similar picture. The Lord God walking in the midst of the garden. There was the potential of a of a godly race. A humanity according to the mind of God. And God is taking up his residence with Adam and Eve in the garden. Well the tabernacle of God is with men. But there was a great challenge against that was there not? We know the whole Bible tells us about the reaction to that sovereign purpose of God. And then thank God the Bible tells us about God's own reaction to that reaction. In redemption God has reacted. God's purpose stands. The end of the story is going to be indeed the tabernacle of God is with men. It shall be said the Lord is there. Well Paul sees that of course. God has revealed it to him. And he's described this temple which is growing in the Lord in which or shall we say in whom we are built together. Parts of that human habitation for almighty and eternal God. He's described it at the end of chapter two. Well now he's going to pray about it. He says for this cause because that is the revealed purpose of God. Wonder of wonders it all relates back to God's unquestionable sovereignty. But it is his purpose to dwell with men. Well if that is his purpose Paul says for this cause then I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is something friends that demands prayer. This is something which requires the great workings of God himself to get through to such an end as that. There must be nothing less than the energies, activities, workings, mighty workings of God himself. And those workings can only be released through prayer. So Paul does the logical and the spiritual thing. He says I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He knows well what the psalmist said in Psalm 127 verse 1. Except the Lord build that house they labor in vain that build it. Friends this is something that is right out of the hands of men. It takes some of us a long time to learn it. But this is something that is right outside the hands and the handling of mere men. This is something which God himself must do. So Paul bows. And friends I believe that all of us have really seen what I call the temple purpose of God. If we've really seen it we have to bow. We can't get up and get busy if we've really seen. There's only one thing we can do if we've really seen and that is to bow. Bow down. Make room for God to accomplish his own glorious end. I bow. I bow. The Lord has been saying anything to me and probably to you through the years it's just that. That if this purpose which is gloriously revealed in the word of God is to be gloriously realized there's got to be a great bowing before God to do it. And for God to do it in his own way. In his own way. Ways that seem strange to us. I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in the prayer that follows it's one prayer but it's a prayer made up of a number of separate requests or petitions. The goal is set as we said at the beginning that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. That you might really be there in Ephesus and in those other places that you might really be a habitation for God by the Spirit. That's the objective but leading up to that there is a sequence of separate petitions which I believe brothers and sisters are very important. And from which I believe we can learn much that will be helpful as we give ourselves over into the hands of God to be by his grace to become by his grace a habitation for God. You see he starts off by saying I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be. Now he goes right to the very beginnings of this necessary working of God if we're to get through to this glorious destination. To be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That's the very beginning of the work. We need in the first place to be strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man. Paul says that you Ephesians will never get through to that place where you're a habitation of God by the Spirit unless there is first what he calls a being strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. They need first friends to be a strengthened people a spiritually reinforced people. If they're going to get through to this glorious destination there must be a reinforcing work of the Spirit of God. They need to be strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man. I think there's a relationship between that verse and what he has said a little earlier in the same chapter. Do you notice verse uh 13 he says wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you which is your glory. I think the apostle detected in the Ephesians and those other churches a tendency to faintheartedness. Those Christians loved their apostle and I'm sure they were following him very closely and very prayerfully and I'm sure their love and prayers had followed him not only on his missionary journeys but they'd followed him into that prison where he was at the time of writing this letter and they could see at least something of the tremendous suffering that their beloved apostle Paul was involved in. They could see where his ministry had taken him to a prison and when they watched that if they weren't careful they weren't spiritual if they weren't adequately in touch with the Lord that itself could bring about some faintheartedness in them. Is it is it worthwhile going right on with the Lord into the Lord's deepest biggest things is it? Well judged superficially the answer is no looking at the apostle Paul shut away there in that prison in Rome and uh when they considered those sufferings that their beloved apostle was knowing it could have spread some faintheartedness in their own midst and the apostle says there in verse 13 I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you which is your glory. Now don't get fainthearted when you see what is involved in going right on with the Lord and let the enemy turn that into some devastating faintheartedness. Paul says no I'm bowing my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and I am praying that you may be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man divinely reinforced for all that lies ahead if they are really to become a habitation of God. Later on in chapter six he speaks about being strengthened with might doesn't he in that tenth verse of chapter six he says finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Why did he say that there in chapter six well it goes on to say put on the whole armor of God for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places. We need to be strengthened friends unto spiritual conflict if we're to go through to what we have called the temple purpose of God. We heard something about that did we not in our meetings yesterday afternoon and evening what forces immeasurable forces are set against the purpose of God. We learned something about it in Ezekiel the forces that are set against God getting what his heart is set upon. Well we needn't dwell upon that just now but it is a warfare friends it is a warfare and that's why i believe the apostle begins by saying now i'm praying that you may be strengthened with might by God's spirit in the inner man. Thank God he didn't have to pray that the Holy Spirit would be given to them he'd already been given. Chapter 1 13 makes that claim you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit but after having been sealed with the Holy Spirit there is need for this further work of being strengthened inwardly by that blessed spirit of God who praise God is already within. He's there let him do this reinforcing work making us strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and able to press through the antagonisms of principalities and powers wicked spirits in high places. It begins there friends. I wonder if the Lord finds us this afternoon a strengthened people strengthened by God's spirit within us. I wonder if it's true that in all our hearts there's that violence of which the Lord himself speaks in Matthew chapter 11 verse 12 when he says the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Are you this afternoon am I pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? Is there faint-heartedness? Is there an inclination to stop at something less than the full purpose of God? Because of the tribulations that are involved because of the warfare that is inevitable well may the Lord do this very thing with all of us. May he do it with me in a new way this weekend. A new reinforcement by the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit to go on and to go right in with the Lord and with the Lord's people into all the Lord's purpose. That was the first of this sequence of petitions that make up this complete prayer. Now he says in verse 17 that that strengthening is going to lead on to something else. To be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Now that's a verse that used to perplex me for many many years and perhaps I'm speaking mainly to some of the younger ones here this afternoon who may have shared that perplexity with me they may be sharing it this afternoon. Why did Paul pray that these Ephesians might know the experience of the indwelling Christ? That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Surely Christ was already in their hearts. That was a question that was in my mind for a long long time. Why did Paul pray for the Ephesians that they might know Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith? Well the answer to that question of course lies in the actual meaning of the original word which is here translated dwell. And I'll just pass on to you something from someone who's looked into the actual meaning of that word dwell and has I believe compassed the meaning in just a few helpful words. Dwell in this verse connotes the fixed permanent abode of the one who owns. His presiding presence permeating and possessing all. Now I'll just repeat that. Dwell in this verse connotes the fixed permanent abode of one who owns. His presiding presence permeating and possessing all. And brothers and sisters I'm quite sure that all Christians don't know the indwelling Christ in that sense. It's true that he is within us. Doesn't Paul tell us in Romans chapter 8 if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his. Christ is within. Blessed be his name. He's within. But there is a deeper fuller knowing of Christ within that we need to enter into. It's one thing for Christ to be in a heart by his spirit and it's another thing for Christ to be dwelling in the full sense in that heart by his blessed spirit. It's one thing for you to live in a house. It's quite another thing for you to take over complete control of that house in which you are residing is it not. Some of us who had to travel from home to home in connection with our work we know that this is very very true. We don't take over control of all the homes that we're privileged to pass a night in. We'd soon get into trouble if we did that wouldn't we. And that's what the apostle Paul has in mind here. Christ really taking over complete possession and management of something that he without question owns. It's his own property. Someone has put it very simply in these words. It's one thing for me to have Christ but it's another thing for Christ to have me. Someone else has said it's one thing for Christ to be resident but it's another thing for Christ to be president. Well that's putting our thoughts into simple words which perhaps we can easily remember. Now what I'm saying this afternoon has to do perhaps mainly with an individual's progress into a full experience of the purpose of God. But I believe with all my heart that there is a parallel which applies to a company and indeed applies to all the people of God. It's true of the individual, it's true of the local company, I believe it's true all the people of God. There needs to be this strengthening by God's Spirit. They need friends to be stirred and as I said just now inwardly reinforced to go through adversity into the divine purpose. That's necessary. But surely it is equally necessary that we know this taking over by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That Christ dwell in my individual heart. He take it over to men as he will. That Christ dwell in a company in any given locality to take it over and to manage it as he will without any human hand or human mind interfering with his rights in that fellowship. Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Isn't this friends what the Laodiceans were really needing? You know the last of the seven letters to the seven churches given to us in Revelation two and three. Remember there the last of those seven churches is a picture of the Lord Jesus outside. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in and sup with him and he with me. That is a message to a local church. In one sense he was inside, in another sense as far as real management, real controls, real ownership, real opportunity to express himself as he will. That was something which those Laodiceans were denying him. He said I want to come in. I really want to come in and take over and you shall sup with me and I will sup with you. There's need for that friends if we're to get through to what we call the great temple purpose of God. There's need for us to let the Lord come in and do what he wills and to do it as he wills amongst us. No human hand or mind I repeat interfering with his sovereign rights in the fellowship. When you do take over a home well you have all rights to rearrange everything as you will. You can change the dining room into a bedroom if you want to. You can put the piano into, you can change the dining room into a bedroom if you want to. You can put the piano into the dining room if you want to. You can rearrange everything and I believe friends the Lord is waiting for that in some of our individual lives. He's wanting to be given rights to rearrange everything and to express himself through all our individual being as he chooses. All restrictions and reservations go down and the Lord takes over. There's no area in my life which of which I myself am Lord and Master. Every corner given over to him for his lordship and for his mastery and that's true of fellowship friends. I believe we've got to know a new breaking down before an incoming and an indwelling Lord of all. I won't press that any further but I believe it's it's on the way to being filled with all the fullness of God. You see something follows that again in verse 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend. You see the next thought is stability is it not that ye being rooted and grounded in love. The word rooted would of course refer to a tree. The word grounded would refer to a building. Well the Christian and the church is both God's tree and God's building so the Holy Spirit has used both words here that ye be rooted and grounded. Now while the words differ according to the picture that's in view the thought is the same in both cases. It's the thought of stability. I was going to say fixity but I don't like that word. Stability I think is a better word. There's been the thought of the strengthening of the Lord. Then there's been the thought shall we say of the sovereignty of the Lord in this vessel which he takes possession of. Now there's a thought of the stability of the Lord and I believe that that's the order friends. Do we want to be stable? Well we shall only know spiritual stability if there has been what we've been discussing in verse 16 and in verse 17. I believe we're only really stable friends when we are fully surrendered to the Lord's mastery for his indwelling for his permeating all and ordering all according to his own will. Once that has been settled there's a new stability known by the individual and I believe known by the company. When there's been the great surrender to his absolute indwelling and mastery and management then there will be the great stability which is the result of that great surrender to his mastery. Oh it's wonderful to individuals and to make company to a stable. They're rooted and grounded. See a little later on in this same letter he speaks about verse 14 chapter 4 that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Paul didn't want that to happen to these Ephesians. Tossed about by every wind of doctrine by the slight of men. He wanted them to be a stable people rooted grounded in love. It's wonderful I repeat when you meet a Christian who's stable dependable and it's wonderful when you meet a company that's stable and that's rooted and grounded. Well then going on a little further rooted and grounded in love that ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. There's a blessed result from that stability. You see the strengthening has led to the has led to the surrender shall we say. That surrender has led to the stability and now this stability is leading on to something else. If you're rooted and grounded you will then be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. You become a comprehending people. I believe friends we begin to see something when we're stable that we never will see as long as we're unstable. When we're as it says there in chapter four verse 14 tossed to and fro not knowing real fixity in God real stability in the spirit as long as this vacillating condition continues there are mysteries I believe that will be closed to us. Believe there are wonderful revelations of God that can only be known by individuals who are at rest in God and rooted in God and by companies who are at rest in God and rooted and grounded in love. There are revelations of the divine glory which are only given for those who are at rest in the divine sovereignty. Believe there are lengths and breadths and depths and heights to use the words that we have here of the love of God which are undisclosed to many of us because we're not we're not yet through to settledness not yet through to settledness. There are still reservations. I remember once pardon a simple little illustration I remember once traveling in a in a bus in India along a a typical Indian country road and when I got into that bus I handed to some of my fellow passengers some gospel booklets and uh I said now here's something you can read during the journey and I said towards the end of the journey we'll talk about it I may be able to say something personally that will help you to understand what you've been reading. Now this dear Indian friend he perhaps seemed a little bit overawed to have a book put into his hands at the beginning of the journey perhaps he was a little bit frightened of this European who'd given him the book and he very diligently tried for the whole of that journey to read what was in that book but I realized soon after I handed him the book and the journey commenced that I'd done a foolish thing because if you know what an Indian bus is like and what the Indian roads are like you know that it's almost impossible to read uh the small printing of a small gospel booklet but this dear fellow was doing his very best and I can see the picture today as the bus was going along he was the book was going up and down and he was going up and down and yet he was persisting because he'd more or less promised that he would read it and discuss it with me at the end. But uh well of course there was so much unsettledness that he couldn't he couldn't understand the message. Now there's what I take to be if you'll suffer it an illustration I believe there are some things that we can only grasp when we're still as long as we're having this kind of experience I believe there are wonderful truths on those perhaps it was the first chapter of John's gospel that that dear fellow was trying to read and yet none of it registered because he wasn't settled he wasn't still I don't blame him but I believe that just illustrates my point I believe we need to come to that place friends where we're at leisure from ourselves where the Lord is Lord in our midst and the whole matter of his dominion is settled forever we're rooted and grounded for us to live is Christ without a question that's settled now once that's settled I believe there are unveilings of the divine glory which may be our portion in fact it's it's the it's the natural sequence according to this prayer you may be rooted and grounded in love and are able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge friends as long as we've got controversies with the Lord individually or as a company I believe there are revelations that will be closed to us there are depths that we won't be able to enter into that perhaps has a further meaning than may be obvious to all just now but it is a fact friends let us settle the matter let the Lord be Lord in our midst let him have his way amongst us let all human hands be withdrawn let the Lord be Lord let him dwell within let us there after be rooted and grounded in love and then we shall be able to comprehend the length and breadth of depth and height and we shall know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that's one of the wonderful paradoxes of the New Testament we'll begin to know something that can't be known if we're rooted if we're grounded we'll begin to know something which can't be known and uh it says here with all the saints with all the saints it needs all the saints to really comprehend the length and breadth and depth and height of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge don't think that you can compute that you need every other brother and every other his measure his experience his revelation hers those who meet with us those who don't meet with us they've all got a measure of the love of Christ if you asked each one to tell his story her story of the love of God in his life her life what a story he or she could tell if you ask them to to show you how much of the love of God has streamed into his heart her heart well each would have a great story to tell well then if you put all those stories together i believe that's what it means to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge well that takes us right on to what i said was the destination if we may put it so this prayer when you've got there you're really through to this temple purpose of God when you've got a people who are enraptured with the unspeakable grace of God the immeasurable love of Christ that's their one consuming consciousness you've got a people who are indeed filled with all the fullness of God you've reached Jehovah Sharma when you've got a people of that kind and with that vision that she may be filled with all the fullness of God may i just point out in closing in case some of you haven't noticed it perhaps you all had years ago that the actual preposition that is used there filled with all the fullness of God could better be translated filled into all the fullness of God if you may be filled into all the fullness of God now what actually does it mean to be filled into anything filled into those are strange words aren't they but thank God for these strange words that bring us to the Lord with fresh inquiries as to the truth that he intends to convey through those strange words filled into all the fullness of God yes that's the word which the Holy Spirit has chosen to express this thought filled into all the fullness i sometimes said friends that it's supposing you were traveling on a ship imagine you were traveling on a ship there are you've got a cup in your hand now there are two ways of filling that cup you can go down to the cabin and you can put the cup under the tap and you can turn the tap on and you can fill that cup with water that's one way of filling the cup but there's an easier way of filling that cup if you're traveling on board a ship that's simply to throw the cup overboard the cup will very soon be full it'll sink down into the depths of that almost unatomable ocean and from almost from the moment it touches that ocean it'll be filled and keep on being filled and even though it turns over and over and over it'll still be filled it'll be lovely to meet some Christians and some churches who even though they're being turned over and over and over are all the time still full you see that's what it means to be filled into all the fullness of God it's not just a matter of being filled with the fullness how could we be filled with the fullness of God but we can be filled into the fullness of God of course the the differences are very significant when I believe in the first case you retain possession of the cup in the second place you give up possession of the cup I believe there's a lot behind that brothers and sisters the vessel is God's and if that vessel is to be filled into all the fullness of God human possession of the vessel has to be surrendered it's the Lord's you must let your vessel go out of your control and possession individually your own life lose it in the ocean of God brothers sisters lose it then you'll know what it is to be filled into the fullness of God and corporately too let it go into the great ocean of God let him fill it and keep on filling it believe once we've settled those matters and been through those experiences we know something of what that word Jehovah Shammah really means the name of that city shall be called the Lord is there a habitation for God in his spirit well may the Lord work out all these things in our individual lives and in us as companies of his people in different parts of this world may we know what it is to be strengthened to go right on may we know what it is to be indwelt in this particular sense that we've attempted to describe God brings to that stability which results from all reservations going and Christ Lordship fully accepted in all areas of our being God give us that stability and then God give us revelations from that point of stability revelations of glory that we've never dreamed of until we're lost in him filled into the fullness of God well may he do it for his name sake