Walking in Our Full Potential
Devotion 3 - Walking in our Full Potential
Col.1:19 – “For it pleased the Father
that in Him all the fullness should dwell…”
Col.2:9 – “For in Him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily…”
These
two scriptures give us an important key to a successful Christian life. Christ
was filled with the fullness of the Father and He walked in the perfect will of
God. We can have the potential to walk in the same measure if only we could
have the fullness of God dwell in us too.
The Scripture also tells us
clearly that we all have the potential to walk in perfect Christlikeness, “ till
we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ…”
Although
our Heavenly Father may love each of us equally, not all of us are always
equally conscious of His love. Jesus, when He was
physically manifested on earth, had twelve apostles, hundreds of other
disciples and thousands of followers. He loved all equally, yet only one
disciple wrote that he was “the disciple whom Jesus
loved” (Jn.13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20, 24).
For that
reason, Paul prayed this remarkable prayer for the Ephesian Church:
Eph.3:14-20 –
“For
this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from
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 through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in
love, may be able to comprehend with all the
saints what is the width and length and depth and
height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that
you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to
Him who is able to do exceedingly 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 to
all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
The main focus of the prayer is that they might be able to
comprehend the vastness or fullness of God’s love. Paul understands that to the
degree they can comprehend the Father Heart of God’s love, they can be filled
with His fullness.
Many people think, “If I have more anointing, if I have a
greater measure of the Holy Spirit, if I have a greater impartation of the Spirit,
I would be able to do more for God”. However, the bible tell us that the
presence of God is the key for God to work exceedingly abundantly through us,
and that comes through our comprehension of His Love!
Dan.11:32 – “The people who [are
spiritually mature and] know their God will display strength and carry out
great exploits.” (AMP)
Daniel
said it well, that those who are mature will do great exploits for Him. God is love. To be spiritually mature and to know God
intimately and experientially, is to know Love.
Gal.2:20 – “I have been crucified with
Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Paul was effective in ministry. He had a successful and
fruitful life because he acknowledged that the life, he lived was not his own, but
that Christ lived in him. And he emphasised that he can live out a Christlike life is because of
his confidence in Christ’s love for him. A Christian life is not about learning
more and more about His commandment and then trying to practice it. It is about
letting Christ live His life through us and this is possible only if we can
rest completely in His Love for us.
More
than conquerors Through Love
Rom.8:37-39 – “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Note, Paul says it is confidence in God's
love for us that renders us more than conquerors.
We are MORE than conquerors
because we do not need to conquer anymore – Christ has conquered for us– which
means that there is nothing else for us to do but to enjoy the victory that
Christ has wrought for us. We rest in His victory and partake of the benefits
of His victory. This becomes a reality when we are one with Christ and in union
with Him.
Our
ability to walk in great faith and great grace depends on the greatness of our
confidence in God’s love. Truly, if only we can fully
rest in the magnitude of God’s love for us, that is nothing in the world that can
conquer us. Unfortunately, due to our lack of knowledge of His love, we are
often conquered rather than conquerors of our emotions and life’s situations.
The devil
uses trials, temptations and tribulations to serve only ONE purpose - to make
us doubt whether God loves us. All our doubts and fears are always centred on
ONE thing - whether God loves us enough to take care of us. Even
the temptation of Eve is based on this one thing. The serpent insinuated that
God was hiding something good; God did not love them enough to give them
everything that was good for them. May we not fall into the same deception.
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