*This month of May has blessings embedded in it..... check it out...... “May your finances be more than enough... May your health be vibrant and miraculous, May your family be loving and strong..... Mayyour friends be loyal and true.... May your worries be removed far from you.... May you increase in every spiritual endeavor.... May the Lord bless and keep you and may His grace and purpose be sustained and fulfilled in you.... May this month of blessing be your launching pad for the year ahead”....
Today, let’s look at “Living Life In The Fullness Of Christ” When someone tells a someone else, “You’re full of it”... they don’t usually mean Jesus... but I want you to tell someone, “You’re full of it”!!! And let’s change the meaning of that statement!
Colossians 2:9 (NKJT) “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power”.
The New Living Translation says it this way, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are full and complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
When we are saved, we don’t get a little salvation, we get it all. The whole package. But the problem many struggle with, is understanding WHAT they actually have, so they can apply it in their daily life. There is no child sized Holy Spirit, or an adult sized Holy Spirit.... ONE SIZE FITS ALL. Again, it’s not about the measure we have received in Christ. It’s about our understanding of what we have received in Christ.
After reading Colossians 2:9, I wrote this in my notes....”Begin your thinking and your planning and your choices from the point of Jesus’ fullness in your life. Always begin your words, thoughts and actions from the place of the abundance of God! Face life and everything in it from the position of all you have received in Christ”! (I’m going to repeat that for myself!)
I recall the story of the little lad who loved to go down to the country store and stand by the big open barrel of molasses and think what it would be like to have all the molasses he could possibly enjoy.... He would stick his fingers in the molasses and lick them off. One day the owner was upset cause he would do this every time he came in the store, and he walked over to the boy and just shoved his head down into the barrel of molasses.
It was up his nose, It was in his hair, in his eyes, and running down his face onto his shoulders and chest, and the boy ran out to the front porch and stood *there........licking his face and praying loudly... “Lord give me a tongue sufficient for this blessing.”
Our prayer should be “Lord, help me to apply all the fullness that you have given unto me”!! Let’s say it....
When I invite Jesus into my life, He doesn’t give me an arm and a leg. Or a foot and a hand.... I get the whole deal....I get all of Him..... THE SAVIOR AND HIS FULL SALVATION PACKAGE. THE MASTER, THE LORD OF GLORY, THE HEALER, THE DELIVER, THE RESTORER, AND EVERY VICTORY HE HAS WON, IS IN ME.....
Jesus talked about making application and the result would be a fuller and more complete life.....2 John 14:23 “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come into them and make our home with them”. Wow, that means we get to do what He’s doing and go where He’s going!
2 Corinthians 6:16 ”God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And then look also at....
Matthew 28:20 “Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you (and in you) always, to the very end of the age.”
This is not about how I feel when I get up in the morning, or my feelings after a hard day. What if I got up in the morning, after not sleeping well, and said to Winnie, “are we still married, cause I don’t feel it”!! She would think I had flipped out!! It has nothing to do with how I feel.
We are being told here to trust God, who is telling us that He, in His fullness has moved inside of us, and is residing in us from the moment we received Him as Savior and Lord, and He is planning on being in us until the end of the age....
That is not a feeling, it is trust in His promises to us, and His commitment that as we are working out an understanding of what we have, and learning to apply it to our life situations. He is in us, in the full expression of Himself!
Feelings can betray us and we can’t go by feelings. Feelings are like a faulty fuel gauge. I can be driving my car to Miami, and feel like my tank is full when all I have is enough for 1 more mile. Or I can drive, always feeling like I am near empty and lose all my peace and joy, andall I have to do is check the gas gauge. The word of God is your fullness gauge, not your feelings. Let me repeat that....”The word of God is your fullness guage, not your fickled feelings!”
John 4:14 “But whoever drinks of the water (Holy Spirit) that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up (filled up) unto eternal(never ending) life.”
John 7:38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will overflow rivers of living water.” (You can’t overflow if you’re not full)
Look at the problem we are dealing with when it comes to understanding and applying what we already have in regard to his fullness.
1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know (recognize and accept) them, because they are spiritually discerned”. You can’t grow in the things of God, if you’re hanging out with foolish people, who don’t care about God....We should be a witness to our carnal friends and neighbors, but if you’re going to ever understand who you are in Christ and what you have, you don’t hang out with bobble heads (folks who are constantly wavering and vacillating . We can be friendly without being friends by participating in their ignorance. Jesus had only a few in his inner circle, then there were the 12, then the 120 and then those outside his circle. But He constantly confronted the bobble headed religious leaders and their ignorance of spiritual things. Satan is constantly trying to get you back to the place you prayed your way out of. Don’t ever go back to Mr. bobble head!
Romans 8:7 “The carnal mind is the enemy of God.... 9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in you...... 10 And if Christ is in you, the carnal mind is not in charge, but the Spirit now rules, because of righteousness”.
God has unveiled the mystery! We no longer have to call God down, we don’t have to feel saved, if we are saved. We no longer have to feel spiritual, if we are spiritual. The mystery is that salvation is not just about having healing, righteousness, provision, gifts of the spirit, signs and wonders.... It is that we have Jesus, by His spirit in us, so we have all the rest that comes with HIM!
Salvation, in Christ, is a package deal for the mind, Spirit, and body. It is freedom from the penalty of sin. Jesus took all of that, so we don’t have to....He rose victorious over it and now His victory is living in us!
Hey, Remember how the King told David that if he would go out and fight Goliath, and defeat him, he would get wealth, not have to pay taxes the rest of his life, and get the King’s daughter in marriage.... Well, David knew if he had the king’s daughter, he had the keys to the kingdom!!!
And if we have Jesus, we have it all.... That’s what salvation is! Didn’t Jesus tell us that He was giving us the keys to the kingdom!
In all of our lives there are things that try to drain, our joy, our peace, our vitality, and our motivation. It’s like an overflowing sink, and we’re mopping and mopping, with little results. We feel inspired one moment and then we wonder where did it go?
I heard that when a person is in a mental facility, they can tell if he has improved enough for release, by turning on a faucet and letting it overflow the sink, then give the person a mop. If he starts mopping without turning off the faucet, they know he’s not ready to be released yet. Hey! Jesus gives us the fullness so we can not just mop up the mess, but turn off the water and stop the source of the mess !!
Every mom will know that you can’t potty train a child until they’re tired of their mess. A lot of folks haven’t got tired of their mess yet. When that point comes, they are willing to make the changes they weren’t willing to make before.
So, Jesus is the head over every power and authority on earth, that keeps making a mess in your life. The key to walking in that authority is to be under authority. This is a powerful key to making things happen in your life.
Matthew 8:5-10 (NASB) “And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, 6 and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” 7 Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 “For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel”. You have authority as you stay under authority.....God refers to those who refuse to be under authority, as having a lawless spirit. They despise authority and yet expect to have authority.
So, continuing with what you have already received....The one who is the head over every power and authority on earth, has made mecomplete while I am being completed.... Let me say that again “ Hehas made me complete while I am being completed”. Colossians 2:10 “And you have been made complete in Christ who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
(You see, The artist sees the complete painting before he ever touches the canvas with the brush) The sculptor sees the outcome of what he’s carving before he puts the chisel to the stone. I am complete in the mind of God, who sees the finished work the moment I invite Him into my life.
Paul describes our completeness in another way in Colossians 2:12 “And having been buried with Christ in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead”.
Paul describes water baptism as being buried with Christ. (Have you been baptized?) But more than this, the word, “buried in baptism” in the original language means to be “placed into or joined to” and in this case it is being placed into Christ or joined to Christ..... which has a deeper application than just water baptisim, but it has to do with being placed into and joined to Christ himself. Therefore we are joined to His righteousness, His resurrection, and we are joined to His victory.
We didn’t have that kind of authority, but Jesus did. And all of the authority of Jesus is now available to us. All of the victory of Jesus is available to us, under His authority. We have been placed into and joined with the authority He brings to the situation.
A 16 wheeler, could run right over a single cop, standing in the road with his hand up in a gesture to stop. But that 16 wheeler stops, because the entire law enforcement community backs him up. He has been joined to and placed into that level of authority... Praise God!!We’ve been baptized into Christ’s authority and victory! Satan recognizes Jesus in us and must yield, if we understand what we have been given.
Paul continually prayed that the church would understand this... Colossians 1:9 “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
It’s not about how we feel, it’s about what He says about us.... GOD IS OUR INHERITANCE, and we are His children, and if we are His people, then we are also His heirs. Therefore, all of God’s resources are ours, and as we freely receive them, we are to freely teach and impart them to all those He calls even as He called us.
There are many who know all about God, who have the right theology and doctrine, but they don’t have an understanding of what they really have, even though they are joined to Christ and have access to all He is....So they are constantly subject to Satan, the world, other people, and the cares of life, that keep them below their potential, their power, and their authority in Christ.
However it’s important to understand that this authority demands humility in our lives, so folks won’t mistake our confidence in Christ for fleshly pride. We must always make it about Jesus and not about us.
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who CALLED YOU OUT OF DARKNESS into His marvelous light.” I’m reminded of the lady who came to a pastor at the end of a service, and was very outspoken in her gratitude. She said, “That was the most wonderful sermon I’ve ever heard. That was absolutely fantastic! It was so powerful, it has changed my life!” Well, what does a pastor say to something like that? This one decided that he had to be very humble about it, so he said, “Oh, thank you madam, but it was not me, it was the Lord!” And she said, “Oh, please, it wasn’t that good!”
When the light comes on, the darkness has to flee. Jesus said we are the light of the world. Don’t hide it, but put it on a hill, so it can be seen and folks will glorify God....The light we have is Jesus on the inside. Without Him, there is only darkness, and all you have to do is look around and we can all see where that is taking us all.
*Our answer is not somewhere outside of us, it’s the power that is working within us, right now. If we don’t get that right, no one else is going to be able to give it to us. Know what you’ve got, know how to apply it to your daily life. Stop looking for it somewhere around you, He’s closer than the breath of your nostrils, than the next beat of your heart, than your next thought....
The point is, we must allow Jesus to be central to everything. If you don’t give Him His rightful place, you don’t have what satisfies the deepest longings and yearnings of our lives.
In closing, Let’s make a declaration together.....
”I declare that I will see the light of a new day at the end of this tunnel. I look up at the dark clouds and see the silver lining, for l know without any doubt that there is a silver lining waiting for me. I declare that God didn’t bring me this far to leave me. He will never leave me or forget about me. I know that all things will work together for my good as I continue to love God and seek His calling and His purpose, because He is the constant and faithful One. He is the unchanging one, and He is not God some of the time, or most of the time. He’s God all of the time.
I will always remember that He called me for what He wants to do through me, not just so I can do what I want and have things go the way I want. He’s not God in some things or most things, He’s God in all things. And I need to remember that this means ALL things. MyGod is not a God who wastes, nor does He do anything without a purpose. He is the ultimate redeemer, so I’m getting ready for my life to improve in extreme, and wonderful, new ways. I am ready for the new and improved me, handcrafted by God, who has completed me while I am being completed.
I will be patient and hold steady as He does His work with a sense of expectancy, and I know that He wants to do amazing things, but He will do it in His own way and in His own time. I trust in Him, I have faith and I believe Him. He is not a man that He can lie. He won’t let me down. He knows the plans He has for me, to give me a future and a hope, for the Glory of God.
