Are You Experiencing the Fullness of God?
Photo by Nerfee Mirandilla
How many people would be willing to accept help in the coming year? And how many people would decline such assistance if it was offered to them? It's important to acknowledge that sometimes, we can't achieve our desired goals in life alone. However, God has made provisions for us and all we need to do is accept His divine gift of help.
This gift is the HOLY SPIRIT.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our HELPER.
John 14:16–17 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
The Holy Spirit is a GIFT from God.
Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The Holy Spirit helps us EXPERIENCE God.
The first thing we must understand is that God wants us to experience Him. In Psalm 34:8 it says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
Many people are not willing to try new foods. They won’t even take a little bite to see how it tastes. After trying a new food, most people will say it was better than they had anticipated, but their preconceived fears of what it will taste like or what the texture will be often keep them from experiencing something new. Once you experience God, you will not be disappointed. Taste and see that the Lord is good!
The problem is that our flesh does not desire God on its own. In fact, our flesh desires everything that is opposite of who God is. So I won’t pursue God because I don’t have the inward motivation to do so. We need to combat that through the power of the Holy Spirit. When my spirit engages with God, through the Holy Spirit, it comes alive, and my spiritual hunger is increased!
We don’t need more religion; we need an encounter with God.
Religion consists of external things we do to connect with God. This is not a bad thing, but it must move past just the superficial level and move to a spiritual level that brings life transformation.
One thing I have experienced is that the more you get of God, the more you want Him. This is a spiritual principle, but it is not always true when it comes to natural things. This is because the Holy Spirit keeps you hungry for more of God. He gives us a desire to be in the Word, to pray, and to worship the Lord and be in His presence. Without His help, these are the last things on my mind.
Paul’s Amazing Prayer for the Church.
The Apostle Paul prayed a very powerful prayer for the church in Ephesus, and I continue to pray it over myself and our church. Let’s break down the important components of this prayer and see how the Holy Spirit helps us to experience God in a great way!
Ephesians 3:16-19
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 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, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
1) That we would be strengthened with POWER by His Spirit in our inner being.
Inner strength is a tremendous benefit for us that is provided by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Paul also wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16, Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. It doesn’t matter what we’re going through outwardly; we can be strong on the inside. There’s no amount of money you can attach to the value of this spiritual dynamic.
This power that is spoken of is "the power to perform through God’s ability." It is used 120 times in the New Testament. This is something we should tap into. The reality is that, without power, some things just won’t work. They won’t function the way they were designed to. You won’t get the maximum benefit out of them. But when you plug them in, they “come alive,” and all the benefits can be achieved. The same goes for our spiritual lives. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can “come alive” and truly experience God!
2) That we would be grounded in love.
As Christians, we should be people of love. Everything we are should be rooted in love. In fact, Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) Love is not a warm feeling toward someone, but a commitment to their success. The world’s problems would be eradicated if we truly loved one another. The church should absolutely be a place of healing because love is flowing and touching the hearts of each member. We can’t love people like this. It’s the power of the Holy Spirit that cultivates this kind of love in us for one another.
3) That we would truly understand the love of Jesus.
We know that God’s love is unconditional; He gives it freely, and nothing can separate us from it. However, it’s one thing to know about someone’s love and another thing to experience it. The Holy Spirit reveals the love of Christ to us on a spiritual level on the inside, and it’s undeniable and life-giving.
We have a God who loves us, and Paul describes it as “surpassing knowledge." If our human brains can’t truly grasp the vastness of His love, how can we truly know it? Through the power of the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives, He gives us the power, or supernatural ability, to grasp the amazing love that every human on planet Earth desires to experience.
4) That we may be filled with all the fullness of God.
If Paul is praying for the church to experience the fullness of God, then I think it’s safe to conclude that there are lesser experiences some may have with Him. Experiences where we are not experiencing His fullness but a lesser portion. I don’t know about you, but I want to experience everything that God has for me.
When you begin to understand God’s love for you and experience it firsthand at the spiritual level, a door opens that you can walk through to access the greater things God has to offer and experience His fullness! This brings an awakening in your life that goes from a mere religious experience consisting of passionless, external duties to a vibrant, fulfilling relationship with the God of the universe!
BONUS
If you continue to the next verse of Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:19, he throws in a little bonus that, in all actuality, is a big bonus. Paul had walked through that door and experienced God in His fullness. He knew what God was capable of and described Him as the one who could do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." This has huge implications for us!
He goes on to say that He accomplishes this “according to the power that is at work in us." How does God do more than we could ask or imagine? Through the work of the Holy Spirit within us. He initiates a release of God’s blessings on us that will exceed all of our expectations.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a wonderful gift from our loving Heavenly Father. It is His strategy to empower us and give us the ability to experience Him in all of His fullness. Ask Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Go through the door and experience the fullness of God, and you will never be the same again!
-Pastor Nick DiBenedetto
from the sermon series, “The Year You Always Wanted.” (1/21/24)