Before I was married sports posters adorned my walls and recycled furniture littered my
apartment. However when my wife moved in I quickly discovered my idea of "acceptable" decor and hers were quite different. My ugly, but very comfy, couch was replaced with a matching sofa and love seat. This was not all bad, a grown man needs to be taken seriously, and a Fran Tarkenton poster hung on the wall might not be the best way to convey, "Hey I am an adult, please take me seriously." To be honest, I was glad when my wife moved in and began to decorate and put together our house, it felt a lot more like a home and a lot less like a dorm room. It became a place where we could raise a family and enjoy our lives together.
Paul writes in Ephesians about the home the Triune God is constructing in the Church, "In him (Christ) you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22)." Like the new wife, when we start a relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit "moves in" with Christ, taking up residence in our hearts. Paul's prayer for the Church at Ephesus was, "I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being...(Ephesians 3:14-16)." This work of filling, indwelling, conforming or "moving in" can only be accomplished through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. All this power is used by the Spirit to create in the Church, a home for Christ that is filled to the brim with the love of God. Paul's prayer continues, "...that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19)."
This "moving in" requires change, in the heart of the believer and in the life of the Church. As believers Joyfully cooperate with the Spirit, he enables them to move out the old, hateful decor and replace it with a new loving decor. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:30-32)." In the life of the Church, Paul speaks in terms of being harmoniously controlled by the Spirit in our conduct toward one another. "Do not be drunk with wine, ...but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with you heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Chris (Ephesians 5:18-20)." At Lighthouse, may we joyously cooperate and harmoniously be controlled by the Spirit as Christ changes into a household filled with the love of God.