Experiencing the Fullness of God's Love (part 3-final)

Who am I?

Well because of Christ IN me I am… A beloved daughter, a friend of Jesus, a saint, I am one in spirit with Christ, a new creation, righteous, an heir with Christ, free from the yoke of sin, blessed with every spiritual blessing, I am chosen, holy and blameless, redeemed, forgiven, made ALIVE, God’s workmanship, created to do good works, brought near to Christ, made complete, Can I "hear" an amen!!

Here is something really amazing – God wants to make me His holy temple and He wants to fill me with ALL the fullness of Himself. I long for that, my soul longs for it. I want to be holy and have an even closer intimate walk with Him. I want to be filled with the fullness of God!!

That desire that grows in me is there because He put it there, why? Because it is His desire too!

God wants His glory to fill my spirit, soul and body to overflowing!!! He desires that I live lavished in His love. Why? First it brings Him pleasure, but HE also knows that if we are living lavished in His love, we will desire to be obedient, we will choose to do His will, we will want to be about His purposes.

So today I’d like to ask you. What lies are you clinging to? Who do you say you are in your mind? Do those things line up with who Christ says you are?

You see the enemy would like me to think and live as if I was still trapped inside a body that was silenced, that was abused, taken advantage of. But Christ came and took all her sin and shame and nailed them to the cross. And with Christ I was raised from the dead. God made me alive with Christ. He forgave all my sins. He concealed the record that contained the charges against me. Because of what Christ did I should not let anyone condemn me.(including MYSELF) (Col 2:12-16)

So what do we do now? As I thought about this God brought to mind the story of Lazarus. If we look at the miracle we see a man that was dead for three days, but Jesus raised him up and gave him a new life. Jesus, through the power given Him by His Father, brought Lazarus out of the grave and gave him newness of life. Jesus has done that for you and me also.

It was interesting as I read that story again and saw something I don't think I paid much attention to before. Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave. When Lazarus walked out of the grave he still had his grave clothes on. He still smelled of death and looked like death. It would have been difficult for Lazarus to try and walk around entrapped by his burial clothes. If we look John 11:42,43 It says that Jesus cried out with a loud voice , "Lazarus , come forth .“ The man who had died came forth , bound hand and foot with wrappings , and his face was wrapped around with a cloth . Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go. “
…. Jesus asks those around him to remove his clothes. This is community. God does not expect us to rid ourselves of those things that smell of death like sin, shame and fear; we are to allow those around us to help.

My dear sisters, God never intended any of us to try and rid ourselves of those things that keep us from living loved. God desires us to first seek Him and to know truth, speak truth but He also wants us to allow our sisters in Christ to come along side us and help remove that which still smells of death.

Quite honestly I would not be where I am today without first seeking God and by seeking God I mean being in His word, asking Him questions, praying, longing to draw closer. We need to be passionate in our pursuit – my passion to know God, to experience God came out of desperation. I did not want to stay where I was – I was no longer content staying in a garbage can. The second thing I did was surround myself with a couple women who would speak truth to me. I allowed them to know those lies I would speak in my mind so that they could help speak life into me. You see we don’t always see or hear the lies, because we have believed them for so many years they seem like truth. So we need those around us to speak life into us.

Beloved God does not want you to continue to believe lies, He doesn’t want you to continue to live among the garbage of your past or present for that matter. He wants you to be free of all that hinders you so that you can live a life filled to the fullness of God’s love.

My challenge to you today is find one or two women you know you can trust and begin to be real with them, share those things you are struggling with, allow them to speak life into you. But that means that we have to be real with one another doesn’t it? None of us have come to the point where we have arrived and no longer need someone speaking truth or reminding us of truth. That is another lie straight for the enemy. HE would love for us to believe that we are strong enough, mature enough that we don’t need one another. But my sisters, God created us to have community.

So we need to stop believing the lies that are in our minds – verse 25 of Eph 4 says “Therefore (because you are a new you and filled with the fullness of God’s love) laying aside false hood, SPEAK TRUTH each one of you with His neighbor, for we are members of one another.” (word in parenthisis mine)

So the old you is dead, it died long ago, but you keep resurrecting it every time you believe the falsehoods that the enemy speaks. God sent HIS SON to die so that you could live with a new SPIRIT. A new Spirit now and forever lives in you. We need to allow God’s Spirit to renew our minds, listen to the spirit of TRUTH for He speaks of righteousness and holiness of TRUTH.

Ladies please hear me!! You no longer have to walk as if you are dead, for you, if you are in Christ, have been made ALIVE in CHRIST.”

This is what I believe God wants us to understand, this is what we need to be reminding one another of. We need to help our sisters walk in TRUTH!

You know none of this is going to be easy I can promise you that. It will be hard, for the enemy will do what ever he can to keep you living among the dead.

We will need to daily choose truth over lies. And we will need to choose to believe truth even on those days when our emotions are screaming something different. God calls us to walk in truth, in newness of life. e does not say we are to walk according to our emotions. Our emotions and feelings will always lie to us. We need to stop living as if our feelings are truth and live according to what God’s truth says.

God says you are no longer dead. God says th we CAN live in the fullness of His love. God says we are HIS, we are Beloved, Holy, righteous, redeemed...

So today who will you believe? God or the enemy of your mind?