Fullness part 4
You're full of it. No, really, you are. In the very best way. Because Jesus is the fulness of the Godhead bodily. All of God in a human body. God in the flesh, love in a body. God in YOUR flesh, love in YOUR body. As He is, so are we in this world. Everything God is, is everything you are. And God is love. Which means, not only are you loved, but you are LOVE. You have been filled with the love of God. And, through the Holy Spirit, you are able to receive this glorious truth. The Holy Spirit IS the Spirit of Truth. And He leads and guides us into all truth. He testifies of our true identity by testifying of Jesus. Because Jesus IS our true identity. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. And when we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with, that's when the hidden man of the heart is no longer revealed. Colossians 1:27 refers to, "...Christ in you, the hope of glory." But the Amplified Bible renders it as, "...Christ within and among you, the Hope of [realizing the] glory." Its not just a hope that someday Jesus' glory will shine. Its not hope deferred with maketh the heart sick. Its us realizing what it means that Christ lives in us. That we live in Christ. Realizing what it means to be full of it. And the only way we can really understand what it means is by testing the height and depth and length and breadth of His love. And we do THAT by loving people bigger than we ever thought we could. I'm telling you, we learn how to love by learning how we are loved. We let the love inside come out when we know and believe that its in there. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. But that's where it can get a little bit tricky, because you've probably heard someone tell you, "I love you," when what they really meant was, "I want something from you." Which is a total perversion of "love." Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. And if you're trying to get something, or control someone, its not love. Period. And I was trying to kind of say this yesterday: I can understand the impulse to try to get what you think you haven't got. Especially when what you think you haven't got... is love. We were created to be loved, and to love one another. So if we think we're missing love, then we think we're missing the key ingredient to existence. The one thing we need more than anything else. But here's what I have to say about that: If you're looking for love in all the wrong places you're (obviously) never going to find it. So go to the source. You can't fill a God-shaped (love-shaped) hole with anything else. No matter how hard you try. Unless its God's love... all is vanity. And the best part is, when I say, "go to the source," what I mean is... look inside. You're full of it. It might be buried under quite a bit of "stuff" (the HIDDEN man of the heart), but its in there. All we have to do is let it out. Fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of that gift that we've been given. Listen to God saying, "I love you and I want the best for you" instead of listening to the world say, "I love you... so gimme gimme gimme." And, of course, when you hear that still, small voice, you give give give. But that's the whole point of BEING full of it. Living out of abundance can't happen if you're living like a beggar. If you're living out of lack, you don't have anything to give. So realize what you've got, and share it. Give it away. And in that way experience it to the fullest degree!