Fullness

Happy Sunday guys!
I hope everyone has had an amazing week and weekend so far. 
Last weekend the Lord gave me the strength, motivation, energy, and ability to clean and organize a lot of my home. Its such an amazing feeling coming home to a clean and organized home.... So lets praise the Lord for that, because my flesh is the last thing from organized and cleanly. 
Anyways... Ever since the Lord gave me that bit of information on my name meaning grace grace and the scripture in John 1, the Lord started showing me the word "fullness" is all over His scriptures. So I thought I should ask Him... "God, what is this fullness? Why are you bringing it to my attention? What do you mean by fullness? What does this fullness include? How do we become filled? Why would you fill us?" and on and on. And boy, did I receive an answer.

As believers something we all agree on is that the Lord knows every need and struggle that we have. One of the things the Lord knows that I struggle with is looking at my own flesh, my own abilities, my own strengths to overcome instead of looking at Jesus Christ the Son of the Almighty Living God that now lives inside me. A lot of the time I struggle with looking at what Christ has called me to do as a check list, a to do list, a list of rules.... a law that I am trying to accomplish out of my flesh. Paul says this in Romans 7:
"4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you be married to another - to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."
So this law that I am bringing myself under just brings death. I am not living under the grace that Jesus Christ brings. "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." John 1:17 
Not only was I stepping outside of the grace by doing this, I was looking to my sinful nature to try and do this. This was something the Lord revealed to me shortly after the grace upon grace thing. So after taking that to God and stepping back under grace is when this fullness stuff started up. Coincidence? Nah, the Lord was working on me! 


I believe He was trying to show me the way I am able to do anything good,anything holy. I believe He was showing me the strength and power I have on my side through Jesus Christ. 
First I want to show who I believe lives in me... In Romans 6 Paul explains that as disciples of Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God. 
"4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
I believe since my old man has died, Christ Jesus is the one living inside of me. 
That being said, lets hop on over to John 1. This is where the Lord started answering my questions on fullness....
"14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory , the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth.  15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.' " 16 And ofHis fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace."
My concordance in my Bible defines Fullness of Christ as "the possession of every true believer". That is proved with the phrase "we have all received". So out of this passage we see that His fullness is something we have all received. We also see that the glory of the Father is full of grace and truth. My husband, in reading this, the Lord brought to remembrance a verse in Exodus 33:
"17 So the Lord said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name." 18 And he said, "Please show me Your glory." 19 Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
I feel like this connects God's glory with the fullness of the Son and God's glory with His goodness. Then the Lord took me to John 3:
"27 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before Him.' 29 "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. 30 "He must increase, but I must decrease. 31 "He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 "And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. 33"He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. 34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. 35 "The Father loves the Son, and has given all into His hand. 36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
So in looking at this the Lord connected a lot for me. 1. We can not receive this fullness unless it is given to us from heaven. 2. If we received His testimony - this is when we step into the grace, become true believers... This is when we are crucified and no longer live, but Christ lives in us. 3. God gave the Son all... in what we read in Exodus... It leads me to believe that God gave the Son all of His goodness. He has given the Son the fullness of Him. 4. That because God gave the Son the fullness, the goodness, all of Him and we have the Son living inside of us... We have received this fullness. We have received all of the goodness of God, we have been given access to His glory and all that it encompasses. `We are given, by His grace, everything - His name, character, inheritance, grace, truth, strength, power, love, patience, kindness, every promise in the Bible.. Every spot where it talks about Christ- it speaks to our lives because Christ lives in us. PRAISE THE LORD! 
"19 And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when he raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principalities and power and might and dominion,and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all to the church. 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. " Ephesians 1:19-23
Wow!! Here Paul is showing the power of God.. How He raised Christ from the dead and the authority that He gave to Christ (in turn, because Christ lives in us, He gave us.) He has given us authority over all principalities and power, over all might and dominion. Praise Him!
"9 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." -Colossians 2:9-10


All of this being said... I believe the majority of people understand this. Understand that we have Christ living in us and that means that we have been given His fullness. I feel like where people miss and definitely where I missed was what I am given because of Christ living in me, what I have been given access to, and what my life should look like because of that. 
I feel like these scriptures above have shown that we are given EVERYTHING. Absolutely everything about God was given to Christ and Christ lives in us. The thought of this just blows me away... It brings me to my knees that God would love us enough to allow all of His children to have access to ALL of His goodness. 
So, What should our lives look like knowing that we have access to all of the goodness of God through Christ Jesus that lives in us?
Our lives should look just like Christ. Taking up our cross daily to follow Him (Luke 9:23). I am not talking just the idea that we should wear our W.W.J.D. bracelets, think what would Jesus do, and try our best in our flesh to act like Jesus. I hate to break it to you, BUT YOUR FLESH CAN NOT BE CHRIST LIKE. YOUR FLESH IS FILLED WITH SIN, NOT WITH THE GOODNESS OF THE FATHER. His goodness is in your new man. In Christ. 
I think the biggest thing that I was missing is prayer. Once again I am not talking about shooting up a prayer here and there asking God for a brand new red sports car, but fervent, earnest, warring prayer. Even Jesus went out and prayed. In Luke 5 it says this:
"15 However, the report went around concerning Him and all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by Him of their infirmities 16 So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed."
We should also be set apart. Our lives should not look like people not in Christ, but every aspect of us should shout loud that Christ lives in us. 
"13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all into Him who is the head- Christ. 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. 17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." Eph. 4:13-24
Please do not get me wrong here... When I say we are to do this, I am not saying that we are to try and do this out of our own abilities, which is the entire point of this blog. We are to do this out of the Christ that lives in  us. Only the Christ in us is able to overcome. Only the Christ in us is able to be holy and perfect. Only the Christ in us can be set apart from the things of this world. That is the point of God giving us His Son. So that we can through Him overcome the things of this world. The simple fact that we are able to look at ANY PROMISE ANYWHERE IN THE WORD and know that this is promised to me through Christ brings me to my knees in front of the King. 


I believe the reason He has shown me this because when a test/trial comes at me, instead of looking at it and going "oh my goodness, I cant do this. There is no way. I cant." I can stand in the promised truth that Christ Jesus lives in me and that I have been given the Fullness of Christ which consists of all the goodness of the Almighty Living God and I have access to His power, strength, all of Him to get through it. He has truly shown me that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13) and that I am more than a conqueror though Him who loved us (Romans 8:37). I now see that I can stand on every promise in the Word because through Christ I have been given ALL. What is excluded from all? NOTHING. How can we not desire to chase Him knowing that He wants to give us all our needs according to His riches in glory? (Philippians 4:19) 
Praise the Lord for all knowledge and understanding, because as I referenced before we can receive nothing unless it is given to us from heaven. (John 3:27)
I am so thankful for this and for all the grace that the Lord shows. All the beauty He has brought to my life has been astounding. May His joy continue to touch every one of you though His Word. 


In Christ,
Hannah