The apostle Paul was a pattern of one who lived Christ in His inward parts, remaining in the inward parts of Christ and allowing Christ to remodel, reconstitute, and remake his inner being with Himself.
Initially Paul was one who persecuted the church of God, the members of the Body of Christ, and the Bible says that he was breathing out murder against them. He was a devil-man, a Satan-constituted man who wanted to kill and destroy those who lived Christ, but the Lord had mercy on him and turned him completely, saving him inwardly and reconstituting him with Himself, so that Paul became a pattern to those who believe.
Paul became a pattern of one who lived in the inward parts of Christ and who allowed Christ to become his inward parts.
What a contrast we see between such a one and the Saul in Acts 9:1, where Saul was breathing out threatening and murder against the Lord’s disciples!
If Saul would have met us, he would have the intention to bind us and put us in prison, accusing us of heresy and apostasy before the Sanhedrin and desiring that all disciples of Christ would be killed. Oh Lord Jesus!
His whole inner being was filled with such a desire. He was one of which the Lord prophesied in John 16 that would persecute and kill the Lord’s disciples thinking they serve God.
But the Lord showed mercy to this great sinner, this devil-constituted man breathing out murder, and He utterly and radically changed his inner being. Even more, the Lord made him a pattern to all those who believe, see 1 Tim. 1:16.
If the Lord had mercy on such a sinner and reconstituted him so that he would live in the inward parts of Christ, how much more do you think He will have mercy on us today!
We may think we are a difficult case, having a lot of complications inwardly and being full of things in the depths of our being, but we need to believe in God’s central work, for He wants to work Himself into our inner being to reconstitute us and cause us to have His inward parts.
He wants us to know Him, experience Him, and live in the inward parts of Christ, continually experiencing Christ in His inward parts for the Body.
We should therefore not feel condemned or guilty about our past or where we are right now, but we should be full of faith and hope about our future, where we are going, and what will happen, for the Lord’s hand will follow His word, and we will see a glorious development of this all over the earth.
Seeing the Pattern of Paul as one who Lived in and Experienced Christ in His Inward Parts
The apostle Paul was one who continually experienced Christ in His inward parts. Why do we say this, and where can we see Paul experiencing Christ in His inward parts?
In Phil. 2:5 Paul tells us to let the mind of Christ be in us today. Christ had a particular kind of mind, which was one of His inward parts, and we need to let His mind be in us. His mind was that, even though He was equal with God, He humbled Himself and took the form of a man, obeying God unto death, and He fulfilled God’s will.
Paul also said, We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:26). By being organically one with Christ, Paul did not only set his mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6) but he also had the mind of Christ. He lived Christ and experienced Christ in His inward part of the mind.
When we are one with Christ and live Him in His inward parts, we will think the same way that He thinks, and we will know what He knows, for our mind will be actually His mind, and His mind will be our mind.
In Phil. 1:8 Paul said that he longed after the saints in the inward parts of Christ Jesus. He didn’t just miss the saints, he didn’t just want to see their face and have fellowship with them, but he was one with Christ even in the bowels, the inward and tender parts of Christ, in longing after the saints.
Paul didn’t keep his own inward parts but took Christ’s inward parts as his, yearning after the saints in the inward parts of Christ.
Paul’s inner being was changed – he who used to breathe out threatening and murder now was rearranged, reconstituted, and remodeled in his inner being to yearn for the saints in the inward parts of Christ.
This shows that Paul didn’t live a life in his natural inner being but he lived a life one spirit with the Lord, a life in the inward parts of Christ.
In 2 Cor. 11:10 Paul said that the truthfulness of Christ is in him. Whatever was in Christ as truthfulness, honesty, faithfulness, and trustworthiness was also in Paul. He had Christ as his inner being, and the truthfulness of Christ was in him, thus he was a genuine human being having God as his reality for the reality of the Body of Christ.
Even in his love for the saints, Paul said that his love in Christ Jesus be with them all (1 Cor. 16:24). Not just his own love but the love of Paul which was in Christ Jesus, this kind of love be with all the saints.
This is so wonderful yet so mysterious, for here we see that Paul continually experienced the inward parts of Christ to the extent that even his love for the saints was actually in Christ.
What a pattern he was to us in living Christ in His inward parts for the reality of the Body of Christ!
Paul’s love was in Christ for the saints; his yearning for the saints was in the inner parts of Christ; his mind was the mind of Christ, and he enjoyed the grace of God as he remained in the inward parts of Christ.
Thank You Lord for the patter of the apostle Paul as one who continually experienced Christ in His inward parts. Amen, Lord, if You did this with Paul, do it with us and in us for the Body! May our living not be in our natural being and in our natural man but in the inward parts of Christ. Lord, we want to remain here, in Your inward parts, so that our mind would be the mind of Christ, our love would be in Christ, our yearning for the saints would in the inward parts of Christ, and our living would be in Your inward parts for the Body!
Abiding in, Experiencing, and Living in the Inward Parts of Christ for the Body
When we see the pattern of Paul as one who was living in the inward parts of Christ for the Body, we can open to the Lord and allow Him to love us, cherish us, heal us, mend us, and care for us.
Under His loving care and shepherding we will eventually tell Him, Lord, I decide that I will stop protecting myself – I will let go of my inward parts, and I receive Your inward parts as my inward parts!
This has to be our decision; this is not a promise or a vow, not a response to an altar call, nothing quick and outward; whenever we’re ready and have the peace before the Lord, we can tell Him. We may even be afraid of what will happen if we make such a decision, so we can tell Him,
Lord, we are afraid of what You will do when we take such a decision. We are afraid of many difficult things that will come…but Lord, we give You permission of an inner parts transplant. We let go, Lord – we don’t hold on to what we feel, what we think, what we are, what we intend, what we dream, and what we expect. Lord, we are willing to let it all go, because we see in You such a wonderful Person, and we want to be those living in the inward parts of Christ for the Body!
Such prayers and opening to the Lord will allow Him to change our inner being, rearrange things in our being, and remodel us; then, the Lord will be at home in us, and we will be very much at home with Him in our remodeled inner being.
When Christ works Himself into our inner being, we will have the truthfulness of Christ in us; our love for the saints will be an expression of the divine reality in human genuineness, and we will be filled with reality, the reality of Christ.
When we live the church life, we will love one another in the inward parts of Christ, and the Body will build itself up in love (Eph. 4:16), the bride will be perfected in her love, and the love that is in Christ’s inward parts will become the love that is in our inward parts.
This was Paul’s testimony – he lived in the inward parts of Christ, and he gladly spent and was utterly spent for the saints, even though the saints didn’t love him as much as he loved them.
We may have no love in our natural man, but when we live in the inward parts of Christ, the love of Christ as the nature of His essence will fill us.
We need to remain in the inward parts of Christ and live a life not in our natural being but in the inward parts of Christ (Col. 3:12).
We need to make a decision before the Lord: How do we intend to live for the rest of our life, both humanly or spiritually?
If the Lord in His mercy shines on us in our time with Him, searching our heart and our inward parts, and He shows us every aspect of our natural life with all its manifestations, we will realise the contrast between the divinely-human life and our living…
Then, we will make a decision – not a vow or a promise, which we can’t keep, but a decision in His light, Lord, we choose to live in the inward parts of Christ.
This is similar to a sister accepting the marriage proposal from a brother; she senses his love for her, she is willing to acknowledge that she also loves him, and she says, Yes, I will marry you! She doesn’t know what marriage is all about – she will learn to be married by being married.
We don’t have to make a decision after we arrive at maturity but rather make a decision so that we may arrive at maturity. Tell the Lord, Lord, I want to make a choice to live in Your inward parts, so I’m asking You to train me and shepherd me to do this. Do this in me for the Body!
If we would be those who are in Christ, we must be in His inward parts, in His tender and delicate feelings (John 15:4).
To live Christ is to abide in His inward parts and there to enjoy Him as grace (Phil. 1:7; 4:23); the result of abiding in Christ’s inward parts is that we enjoy God as grace to be supplied to live in the inward parts of Christ.
Then, whatever we do and wherever we go, we will refresh the inward parts of the saints for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Dear Lord Jesus, we love You with the love that You have put in us for You and for all men. We open to You, Lord, and we want to live a life in the inward parts of Christ Jesus. Amen, Lord, we want to abide in Your inward parts and enjoy You as grace. May our living be no longer according to our natural inner being but in the inward parts of Christ Jesus. Oh Lord Jesus, we choose to live such a life, and by Your mercy give us the experiences we need to live in the inward parts of Christ for the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 84-85 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 5, Living in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Living in the Inward Parts of Christ Jesus.
- Hymns on this topic:
# I am made so awesomely / And so wonderf’ly— / Inward parts and hidden part— / That I might know Thee. / Jesus, Lord, I come to Thee, / With an open heart. / I, my spirit exercise— / Inward, hidden parts. (Song on, Inward, Hidden Parts)
# Draw closer to the Lord and drink the river of supply, / With every choice and turn allowing Christ to occupy / Our heart in all its inward parts, as open as can be, / Maintaining our enjoyment of the Lord continually. (Song on, The Cross is Not a Suffering)
# I open now, / With all my heart. / Lord, more and more possess each part. / Oh Lord, I pray / Subdue my soul. / Until You have the full control. (Song on, Oh Lord, break through)
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