Agapé 8
Filled With All The Fullness of God
Do you ever feel empty? Does it ever feel like there is a void within that needs to be filled? Well, the good news is that it is possible to be filled with all the fullness of God. And that is the only thing that can truly satisfy us. Jesus is the only One that can truly remove our feelings of emptiness. The void on the inside of us is so big that only God Himself can fill it. It is a God-shaped void.
If we look to anything or anyone else for fulfilment, then we are going to end up disappointed, discouraged, and disillusioned… And eventually, we will feel even emptier. Why is this so? Why did God create us with a void on the inside that only He can fill? Because He wants us to come to Him and be in relationship with Him in order to receive everything that we need. He wants to be our Source and the Satisfier of our desires. He simply desires for us to allow Him to love us… That we might come to know and experience His love…
Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV
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.
Knowing the love of Christ results in being filled with the fullness of God. The fullness of God is encapsulated in a revelation of His love. All of Who God is, and all that He has, is accessed through knowing the love of Christ. If you are not filled with the fullness of God in any area of your life, then it is simply an indication that you have not yet fully comprehended the width, length, depth and height of the love of Christ. You haven’t come to fully know and experience it yet. That is not something to get discouraged about. It is something to get excited about!
None of us have “arrived”. The very one who wrote that prayer – Paul, the apostle – had not yet come to fully know and experience God’s love. Towards the end of his life and ministry, in Philippians 3:12 (NLT), he said: “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.”
The Greek word translated comprehend, in Paul’s prayer, means to perceive. But it also means to take eagerly, apprehend, seize, and possess. It is the same word that was used in Philippians 3:12. The love of God can be seized and possessed. And yet we cannot come to the end of it. In another place, Paul said this…
1 Corinthians 13:12-13 NLT
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love.
We see in part. We know in part. We haven’t yet even scratched the surface of the revelation of God’s love, which itself is the full revelation of Who He is, His true nature and character, because He is love. Paul said that he had received grace to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8). The word unsearchable means past finding out. Unfathomable, incomprehensible, untraceable, and boundless! And just before that, he said that we have been raised and seated in heavenly places in Christ so that in the ages to come God might show us exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness and goodness towards us through Christ Jesus. It is going to take ages! There is so much more to know. There is so much more to experience. And so, we might as well start now!
Notice how Paul prayed that we would know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. How do you know something that passes knowledge? We will look at that next time…
Peter
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