Fullness part 2
Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All of God inside of a human body. And Jesus... lives in us. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. That's why we can experience all that He is. That's why we can understand the height, and depth, and breadth, and length of His love for us. He gave it ALL to us. God didn't hold anything back. He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He didn't want us to perish. He wanted us to live. To experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love by letting Jesus live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. That's what rest is all about--it's not inactivity, it's Holy Spirit directed activity. It's being still and knowing that HE is God. Being still and knowing that whatever God wants to accomplish... HE will accomplish. Again--in you, and through you, and as you. I think a lot of the time we miss out on what is available to us because we are too busy trying. Trying to be someone we're not in order to get something we think we haven't got. Trying to earn something that can't be earned. Or trying to get other people to fit into our idea of who or what they should be. But guys, let's be real: When you put expectations on someone, all you're really doing is setting yourself up for disappointment. Because people are going to be who they're going to be and people are going to do what they're going to do. And let me say this: If you have to beg someone for something... even if you get it, it's not worth it. If something is not given freely from the heart... it's not real. If you guilt someone, or trick someone, or in some other way coerce someone into doing what you want... I'm telling you, it's not worth it. If getting what you want is your goal... get a different goal. Because love is never about getting. Because love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. Putting others first. Living a life of service. This is how we experience the fullness of what we've been given. Because this is who God is. God is love. If you want to feel love... love somebody. Give what you've got. If you want to feel forgiveness... forgive somebody. Give what you've got. If you want to feel mercy... be merciful. Give what you've got. The Divine Order of things, and the secret of life, is receiving and releasing. Letting God love the hell out of you and then loving Him back by loving the hell out of the people you come into contact with. Being who you are--who you really are, which is who you are in Christ, which is who Christ is in you--by letting Jesus be who HE is. And, one more time, He is love. Period. Rest is not inactivity. It is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the only thing the Holy Spirit ever leads us, guides us, or directs us to do... is love. What else could the Spirit of love direct us to do? And why else would God fill us with all of His fullness if He didn't want what's inside of us to come out of us? He filled us up with the fullness of Himself. All we have to do is fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Scientifically, being "full" of something means overflowing. It's not technically full until no more can fit and it comes tumbling out. That's what it means to be filled with the fullness of God. That's what it means for His love to fill us up. It overflows out of us with every breath we take and every move we make. It utterly consumes us and, last time for today, leads us, guides us, directs us, and protects us! So let what's inside come out. Experience the fullness of God--His love--by giving it away!