From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
October 6 For this is what the high and lofty One says--he who
lives forever, whose name is holy--"I live in a high and holy place, but
also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit
of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." Isaiah 57:15 O what a mystery that God should have two
dwelling-places! The "heaven of heavens" that "cannot contain him;" and
the humble, broken, and contrite heart! But in order that the Lord of heaven
might have a place in which he could live and lodge, God gives to his people
gifts and graces; for he cannot come and dwell in the carnal mind, in our
rebellious nature, in a heart full of enmity and wickedness; he therefore
makes a lodging-place for himself, a pavilion in which the King of glory
dwells, the curtains of which are like the curtains of Solomon. His abode is
that holy, divine nature which is communicated at regeneration--"the new
man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Thus
Christ dwells in the heart by faith; and is "in his people, the hope of
glory." And this made Paul say, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I
live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me." This is the object of God's dealings--that the Lord God
might dwell in his people; that there might be a union between the Church
and her covenant Head--"I in them, and they in me, that they might be
perfect in one." This is the unfolding of the grand enigma, the solution of
the incomprehensible mystery, "God manifest in the flesh,"--that the Lord
God might dwell in his people; "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and
I will be their God, and they shall be my people;" and thus glorify himself
by filling their hearts with his grace and glory, as Solomon's temple was of
old, and that they might enjoy him, and be with him when time shall be no
more. This is the grand key to all the Lord's dealings with the soul, and
all his mysterious leadings in providence--that the Lord God might dwell in
the hearts of his people here, and be eternally glorified in them in a
brighter and a better world.