[“To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles:
which[a] is Christ in you, the hope of glory” Col. 1:27 NKJV]

It is very wonderful. Yes; the heavens, even the heavens of heavens, with all their light and glory, alone seem worthy of Jesus Christ [Rev. 5:9,10]. But even there He is not more at home than He is with the humble and contrite spirit that simply trust in Him [Isaiah 57:15]. In His earthly life, He said that the Father dwelt in Him so really that the words He spake and the works He did were not His own, but His Father’s [John 14:10]. And He desires to be in us as His Father was in Him, so that the outgoings of our life may be channels through which He, hidden within, may pour Himself forth upon men.

It is not generally recognized. It is not; though that does not disprove it. We fail to recognize many things in ourselves and in nature around, which are nevertheless true. But there is a reason why many whose [spiritual] natures are certainly the temple of Christ, remain ignorant of the presence of the wonderful Tenant that sojourns within. He dwells so deep. Below the life of the body, which is as the curtain of the tent; below the life of the soul, where thought and feeling, judgment and imagination, hope and love, go to and fro, ministering as white-stoled priests in the holy place; below the play of light and shade, resolution and will, memory and hope, the perpetual ebb and flow of the tides of self consciousness, there, through the Holy Spirit, Christ dwells, as of old the Shechinah dwelt in the Most Holy Place, closely shrouded from the view of man [1 Cor. 6:19].

It is comparatively seldom that we go into these deeper departments of our being. We are content to live the superficial life of sense. We eat, we drink, we sleep. We give ourselves to enjoy the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Or we abandon ourselves to the pursuit of knowledge and culture, of science and art. We make short incursions into the realm of morals, that sense of right and wrong which is part of the make up of men. But we have too slight an acquaintance with the deeper and more mysterious chamber of the spirit. Now this is why the majority of believers are so insensible of their Divine and wonderful Resident, who makes the regenerated spirit His abode [1 Cor. 6:17].

It is to be accepted by faith [Eph. 3:17]. We repeat here our constant mistake about the things of God. We try to feel them. If we feel them, we believe them; otherwise we take no account of them. We reverse the Divine order. We say, feeling, FAITH, FACT. God says FACT, FAITH, feeling. With Him feeling is of small account. He only asks us to be willing to accept His own Word, and to cling to it because He has spoken it, in entire disregard of what we may feel. [“For we walk by faith, not by sight” – 2 Cor. 5:7.]

I am distinctly told that Christ, though He is on the Throne in His ascended glory, is also within me by the Holy Spirit [Rom. 8:9]. I confess I do not feel Him there. Often amid the assault of temptation or the fury of the storm that sweeps over the surface of my nature, I cannot detect His form or hear Him say, “It is I.” But I dare to believe He is there; not without me, but within; not as a transient sojourner for a night, but as a perpetual inmate; not altered by my changes from earnestness to lethargy, from the summer of love to the winter of despondency, but always and unchangeably the same.

And I say again and again, “Jesus, You are here. I am not worthy that you should abide under my roof; but You have come. Assert Yourself. Put down all rule, and authority, and power. Come out of Your secret chamber, and possess all that is within me, that it may bless Your holy name.”

Part 2 of 2 from The Secret of Guidance ch. 3 (Fleming H, Revell: 1896) http://www.ccel.org/ccel/meyer/guidance.txt Biblical quotations are from KJV except indicated otherwise. Bracketed references and Scripture added. Old English updated; italics added for emphasis.