Indwelling Christ

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” —Colossians 1:27 Why do we keep failing even in our best efforts to live the Christian life? Because no one other than Jesus Christ can live it, for the simple reason that He is the Christian life! And only He can live it in our lives as well. Major W. Ian Thomas takes a refreshing look at the pure thrill of living victoriously as you embrace the living Savior’s presence within you. The more you become genuinely and relentlessly available to Christ, the more He can take over so that your Christian walk becomes vibrant and effective! This inspiring devotional, along with the application questions at the end of each reading, will help you focus consistently on Jesus Himself so you can serve and enjoy Him at an entirely new level and dimension. You can try to steer clear of sin. Avoid temptation. Refuse to steal, lie, or use drugs and alcohol. You can indeed try to be sinless. But that is still you. And you are still trying. Jesus Christ was not holy because He focused His efforts on avoiding sin. Instead, “He refused to allow there to be any possible explanation for the quality of His life but the Father, as God, dwelling in Him, as Man,” writes Major W. Ian Thomas. So whom do you want dwelling in you? More of you? Or all of Christ? Story Behind the Book Major W. Ian Thomas was twelve years old when he accepted the Lord with a simple prayer. But by nineteen, “I had been reduced to spiritual exhaustion,” he says, “with no hope or reason for going on.” It was then that he discovered the life-transforming secret of the indwelling life of the living Lord Jesus Christ. God gave him a message through Galatians 2:20, where he learned to say, “Lord Jesus, I can’t—You never said I could—but You can, and always said You would. That is all I need to know.” Major Thomas came to understand it was Christ Himself living through him who would do His work. This is the message he has been passionately proclaiming all his life.

The New Testament presents both the revelation and the experience of the wonderful Christ. While the Scriptures reveal Christ objectively, they also reveal Christ as a wonderful person who indwells the believers for their subjective experience. After passing through many steps to accomplish God's salvation, Christ comes into the believers to be their life and person within.

This book focuses on the relation of God and man as "the central revelation of the whole Bible." It covers the indwelling Christ, the Christ who indwells the believers, through the New Testament, particularly the epistle's of the apostle Paul.

This book, with deep reverence for its subject, takes readers along on a journey of consideration to discover the deeper meanings of the Christian life.

The New Testament presents both the revelation and the experience of the wonderful Christ. While the Scriptures reveal Christ objectively, they also reveal Christ as a wonderful person who indwells the believers for their subjective experience. After passing through many steps to accomplish God's salvation, Christ comes into the believers to be their life and person within. In The Subjective Experience of the Indwelling Christ Witness Lee opens the Bible to show that Christ today is living within the believers as their all-inclusive, life-giving supply. As those who have received Him by faith, we do not need to practice self-cultivation or mere human ethics because we can experience Christ subjectively. In this way, we can enjoy Christ and let Him live Himself out through us to be the reality and content of our human virtues.

Does the Holy Spirit do the same things now and in the New Testament times that He did in Old Testament times? Volume one in the NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY STUDIES IN BIBLE AND THEOLOGY series for pastors, advanced Bible students, and other deeply committed laypersons addresses this challenging subject. God’s Indwelling Presence asks and explores to answer: What are the spiritual differences and similarities between Old Testament and New Testament believers? Did God dwell in Old Testament believers as He does in New Testament believers? Were Old Testament believers born again (that is, experience regeneration)? What do the words indwelling and regeneration mean? How is the Holy Spirit’s ministry similar or different during Old Testament and New Testament times? Users will find this an excellent extension of the long-respected NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY.