“To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).
One of the great doctrines of Christianity is the doctrine of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, who lives in the heart of each believer who trusts in Christ for salvation. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?” (I Corinthians 6:19).
At the same time, God is one God, so all three persons of the Godhead must, through the Spirit, likewise indwell the believer. Note Paul’s prayer for the believers in the Ephesian church (Ephesians 3:14–19).
1. That He would grant you … to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). This request acknowledges the indwelling Spirit. Christ also prayed for this: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter… the Spirit of truth … for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16,17).
2. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Ephesians 3:17), that we might “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (v.19). Here is the indwelling Son. This is also revealed in Galatians 2:20 (“Christ liveth in me”) and Colossians 1:27 (“Christ in you, the hope of glory”).
3. That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). This can only refer to the indwelling Father, as well as the entire tri-unity of the Godhead. Can this indwelling be ours? Note also that the entire prayer was addressed in the first place to “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:14). This, likewise, is a reflection of Christ’s promise: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). “Filled with all the fulness of God!” What a wonderful privilege—and responsibility—is ours.