When people think about receiving the fullness of God, many things might come to mind. Usually involving some type of sacrifice, work or effort on their part. They might think that receiving more of God requires diligent and prolonged periods of study, fasting, or other types of sacrifice. They may think that it comes from attending lots of Christian conferences, or reading a lot of Christian books or articles, or any number of things.
Yet the scriptures tell a different story. That the fullness of God, the totality of His righteousness, His holiness, His peace and all of His blessing, comes a different way, one that we don’t really expect.
What I want to share with you today, is the true vehicle by which the fullness of God comes. Not the religious man-made ideas about how to receive the fullness of God, but rather the truth directly from scripture. And I believe that as you see this today, the burden of religion and the self-effort of trying to reach for God will be lifted away, and you will be free to simply enjoy what Christ has accomplished for you.
Now as I said, I believe this to e a really important issue, simply because I encounter so many people who are struggling, sweating, striving and suffering to try and receive, more of God, more of His fullness, to be closer to Him – and these are honest and sincere people; but through one avenue or another, they have been deceived; they have been sucked-in (if you will) by the system of the world and the thinking of man, to believe a lie, that in order to be closer to God and receive His fullness, that they have to somehow suffer for it or earn it. This is nothing new, and we have covered this plenty of times before in other studies – that is not what we are going to do this time.
Today, having previously addressed the problem, now we will be looking at the solution. We will be looking at what the scriptures truly say about receiving the fullness of God and how it comes. And for this, we will be reading Ephesians 3:14-21:
“For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
We see here that Paul mentions in verse 14 that he is bending his knees in prayer for his brothers in Christ – and he mentions that he is doing so for a specific reason… That he (that is, God the Father) would grant you, according to this riches of His glory, to be strengthen with might by His Spirit in the inner man.
Now stop here for a minute so we can digest what is being said here. Paul is praying something very specific here, and many people rush passed this because the language is a bit hard to understand, but this is important to understand.
He is praying that this Father would grant something to us, according to His riches. Now think about that… If God is granting you something, that is already awesome… but if He is granting it according to His riches, then that is super-awesome! That is over and above anything that you could imagine!
Then we see what this is that we are being granted… to be strengthened with might, by the Spirit, in our inner man. Now again, don’t tune out here just because this is antiquated language. Because he is talking about precisely what so many believers are looking for, but so few have… the strengthening (or empowering), the making-strong with might – that is dunamis in Greek – the miracle-working power of God Himself. This is what a great number of people want, but very few have. They want (and even need) the miracle-working power of God in their lives, and this is exactly how you receive it. Let’s continue…
We see that this strengthening happens by the Spirit – that is, the Spirit of God – the very one that entire denominations reject, deny and ignore today. There are some people who have been so confused and made to be afraid of the Spirit that they just cut the Spirit out all-together, but “by the Spirit” is exactly how this strengthening takes place. And it happens in your “inner man” that is your soul, your mind, emotions.
This is the realm where this thing happens… by changing your mind and your perspective (which is true repentance) and causing you to look away from yourself and look solely at Jesus, as mentioned in the next verse 17: where we see: that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, and as we have studied several times before – the word “heart” here is very misleading because it is not talking about your physical heart muscle that pumps blood, but is again referring to your soul; your mind and emotions. Even though the Greek word is kardia from where we derive our English word cardiac – the Greek word doesn’t refer to the physical muscle in your chest, but to your mind, thoughts and emotions, and it is used to refer to the mind and thoughts in such verses as Matthew 9:4, where Jesus perceived the thoughts of the Pharisees, and asked them why they were thinking such things in their hearts (kardia, again).
So what we can learn from all of this is that, God wants you to be strengthened, built-up and empowered, not just with feel-good- feelings; but with His very same miracle-working power.
This is not an impotent power that rolls over whenever a pressure or even an outright spiritual attack comes – but it is the same power that Jesus operated in when He walked the earth. It is His same power, and His same Spirit that enables it.
God doesn’t want you to be weak. God doesn’t want you to be powerless, helpless, or at the mercy of every spiritual force and attack that may come your way. He wants to strengthen you with His might, His Spirit; He hasn’t left you defenseless.
The trouble is that many people are approaching this whole thing from the wrong perspective, the wrong angle, even the wrong foundation. As I stated in the opening, they are trying to earn the fullness of God. They are trying to apprehend and seize the power of God by their own efforts and strength, and it doesn’t work that way. Take a look at verse 17 again: Christ will dwell in your heart (that’s your mind and emotion, remember) by faith. He doesn’t dwell in you because you’ve earned it, or worked for it, or sacrificed or suffered for it… He dwells by faith – and what faith is this? Being rooted and grounded in love.
Wow! This is huge! The love being spoken of here is the agape-love, which is the divine love of God, for you! That is the faith which causes Christ to dwell in you, and it is the foundation upon which you are both rooted and grounded in Him.
You are both rooted meaning you draw from it… and grounded meaning it is the solid foundation upon which you are built.
His love is the very essence of the fullness of God. Most people don’t expect this because they are so focused on their performance that they miss the fact that Jesus already performed in their place!
Now look at verses 18 and 19, look at what knowing the love of Christ actually does for you… it causes you to be able to comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height
And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Oh, my dear friend, please don’t miss what this is saying! This will rock your world and totally open up the very treasure of heaven for you if you allow it to!
Look plainly at what it is saying without man-made religion getting in the way. It is knowing and comprehending the love of Christ Jesus for you, that fills you with all of the fullness of God!
This is one-hundred-eighty degrees from what traditional religion teaches.
Instead of earning the fullness of God (which is impossible, and just drains you); By receiving and knowing the love of Christ, that is when you are filled with the fullness of God.
When you make that connection, when you know that yes, God loves you. That you are His beloved… you are filled with all of His fullness, and that miracle working power – because that is the only proper position to be in. That is the only foundation upon which to stand – and that is what the devil tries to keep you from receiving. Because once you receive this, you are an unstoppable force.
And I will leave you today, with verses 20 and 21:
“Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Be blessed.