Now can you see why the Bible says Christ dwells in our heart by faith? The issue is one of relying on God's faithfulness, just as the Lord Jesus had to rely on God's faithfulness when He took on Himself the sins of the world.

Can you imagine the horror Christ would have experienced if God had put on Him the guilt of the sins of the world and then abandoned Him? God did not fail Christ. He will not fail you. You can count on this.

The two kingdoms are Babylon and the Kingdom of God. Babylon is the kingdom of self-will. "Let us build a city." "Let us make three tabernacles."

The Kingdom of God is the kingdom of God's will. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

What kingdom do you want to live in, the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of self?

Then let your idol, that which God is calling for, go!

This was the issue raised in the Garden of Eden. Were Adam and Eve to do God's will or were they to take matters into their own hands?

God finished everything in six days, all the way through to the new heaven and earth reign of Jesus Christ.

While He was creating He developed a place in His Kingdom for you—a specific task and role designed for you. Then God rested.

Are you going to strive to turn away from your self-will and enter God's rest so you may find yourself in your foreordained role? Or are you going to spend your life creating your own heaven and earth? The choice is yours: stay in Babylon and create your own heaven and earth, or turn aside from your anxious striving and ambitious undertakings, endeavoring to assure your own survival and security, your own pleasure, and your own achievement, and trust the Lord for your security, your pleasure, and your achievements. Which is it going to be? You cannot have it both ways.

The expression "the righteous live by faith" means the righteous choose to look to Jesus Christ for every decision of life. The unrighteous strive anxiously to establish their own security, their own pleasure, and their own achievements.

The issue always is one of faith; and not just faith per se, but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why does the Father, from whom the whole family of the elect is named, strengthen us through His Spirit?

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, May have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, (Ephesians 3:17,18—NIV)

The end result is that we may be filled with God's love. Paul says the same thing in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians.

To be continued.