In Ephesians 5:8 the apostle Paul refers to the believers as beloved children. Eph. 5:1 says “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.” As born again Christians we are all children of God born of God to have the life and nature of God.
Paul exhorted the believers in Ephesians 5 with the basic elements of love and light admonishing the believers to walk in love and walk as children of light. Eph 5:2 says “And walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.” Eph 5:8 says “For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” In our ordinary everyday human walk with the Lord we should live with the substance of God’s love and God’s shining element as our inner source. God as love and light should be what constitutes us and thus be the source of our daily living. To be constituted means that God’s love and light are permeating and saturating our being from within. To do this we can pray “Father God, I want to be constituted with your living substance and divine element.”
Brother Watchman Nee who died in prison because of his testimony of faith in Christ was one who was permeated and saturated in this way. We can see this from his writings. By the end of his life while in prison he wrote that he maintained his joy. How was he able to do this even though he was in an extremely difficult environment? This was the fruit of being constituted with God’s loving substance and permeated with God’s shining element.
When we wake up in the morning and know we have a busy day ahead we can pray “Lord please be the inner source of my life today. You know all that I need to do today and I want you to be my source as I walk with you. I want to experience your shining element guiding me today.”
DB