Tag: fullness of God

Full

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19

If you’ve ever stuffed yourself at dinner, you know that feeling. You feel full and heavy. But if you’ve ever fasted for a few days, you know the opposite feeling. You feel lighter but not full. What if, spiritually, you could feel both simultaneously?

“Somehow, I feel both lighter and fuller at the same time!“

This is a quote from a person who had just received inner healing and deliverance prayer. Read it again and let those words really sink in. This is what happens when the power of God comes to set people free from the heavy spiritual oppression of demonic spirits and then fills them with the Holy Spirit. When God comes in power to set you free, you feel both lighter and fuller at the same time. Only God can do that!

As we pray for people and these oppressive spirits leave, we always ask the Holy Spirit to fill the places in the person’s life that have just been vacated. We invite the Holy Spirit to fill every place in their heart, soul, mind, and body that had previously been occupied by the enemy.

Paul prayed something similar for the Ephesians when he prayed that they would be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” This is also what he was saying when he told the Ephesians,

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…

Ephesians 5:18

Instead of being filled with the heaviness of sin and darkness, we are called to be people who walk in the lightness of the Spirit because we are filled with the Spirit.

If you have a heaviness that seems to follow you around, you may discover that you need freedom. You may have some spiritual parasites that have globbed onto your life and are sucking the life out of you. Demonic spirits love to bring a heaviness that feels empty. Instead, the Holy Spirit brings a lightness that feels full. This is the difference between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of God.

Jesus paid a high price so that we could walk in freedom, lightness, and fullness. His Name is the only Name with the authority to set people free from demonic darkness and usher in the fullness of the Spirit.

All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!”

Luke 4:36

he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth…

Philippians 2:8-10

Ephesian Prayer (Part 2)

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Christians continues:

being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:17-21

Paul has been praying that the Father would take some power out of His storehouse of glorious riches and distribute it to followers of Jesus through the Holy Spirit for their inner strengthening. This is a strengthening that would allow Christ to dwell on the throne of their hearts in at atmosphere of faith.

Now Paul transitions to the connections between power and love. Because they’ve already surrendered their lives to Jesus, they are now rooted and established (or grounded) in love. The foundation of their house has been laid and the material used was love. The starting line of their journey of faith has the letters L – O – V – E spray-painted across it. The grace and love of the Father is the foundation of their life in Christ.

Yet, what we learn from Paul’s prayer is that there is more! This power that Paul is asking the Father to release will actually empower them to grasp or comprehend something that is incomprehensible. You see, the love of Christ isn’t just the foundation of the mansion; it’s also the wide corridors, the long hallways, the deep cellar, the multi-story high ceiling. His love is not only the beginning, but it’s also the end and everything in-between. The love of Christ is our starting line, it’s what sustains us on the journey, and it’s what is waiting for us at the finish. This kind of love is so expansive that it “surpasses knowledge.” The only way “to know this love that surpasses knowledge” is with a download of the supernatural power of God.

The beautiful thing is that as the Father’s power gets poured out on us, we begin, little by little, to comprehend this incomprehensible love. And as we do, we begin to get filled from the inside out with “all the fullness of God.” A couple chapters later Paul will remind them of this as he gives the Ephesian Christians the command to “be filled with the Spirit”(Ephesians 5:18).

Both this prayer to be filled with the fullness of God and the command to be filled with the Spirit are given to Christians who already have the Spirit. In other words, there is always more of God, more of the Spirit, to experience. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a liquid or a force, so it’s not like we get “more” of Him over time. What happens is that He gets more of us. Like a fragrant incense filling every room of the house, He begins to pervade every part of us. As we surrender every room of our life to Him, rooms that have already been purchased by Christ, the Spirit fills them with more and more of the characteristics of Christ, the fullness of God.

When the Spirit comes to fill us, he brings with him all the fullness of God, causing an overflow from the inside out. That’s why Paul writes next, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Paul is asking that the Ephesians be filled with the full measure of God and knows that, when God comes to fill His people with His Spirit, there is no limit to what can happen. God can do more in and through filled Christians than we can even imagine.

And when He does, all the glory goes back to Him. It’s not about the Christians that are used so powerfully but about the God who, in His generosity and love, was so pleased to use them. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.