Contentment is not just a theoretical concept, but the place from which you can practically live. In this chapter we’ll explore the very real implications of entering, abiding and living out of this position of fullness.
Col 2:11 – Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. ….and then Gal 3:19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Paul found a greater motivation than being driven to impress God! That motivation is the realisation that God is already impressed with you!
I am convinced that our experience of His fullness, our grasp of the love that surpasses knowledge has everything to do with simply being aware of what He achieved on our behalf. Fruit is not an effort for a fruit tree – it is the natural and spontaneous product that occurs when the life within the tree is too abundant for simple survival – it has to overflow into fruit. Draw upon the reality of His indwelling – there is more in you than what you know.
There is a ‘place’ where we experience the peace, the fountain of life. The question is how do we ‘abide’ in this place, rather than visit it from time to time.
Rom 6:6-11 (AMP)
We know that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.
For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, because we know that Christ, being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.
For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.
I’m exited about that phrase: ‘living in unbroken fellowship with Him’. So much of the religious teachings I have heard were about ‘dying to sin/old self’ … whatever they called it, it came down to some sort of effort from my side to achieve or reach this place of fellowship. What strikes me in these verses is that the death we died to sin is a singular event – ‘once and for all’! It is not supposed to be a continual struggle. And the way I finally put to death the old man is by: ‘considering, calculating, coming to this conclusion’: I died with Him! …. I was also raised with Him to a new life. My life is now consumed by new realities. I no longer live to attain anything, but because of what He attained on my behalf. The throne room of God is not our final destination, it is our current position. We were raised with Him, and seated with Him in heavenly places, from there to reign and rule in life through Jesus Christ.
I am convinced that the ‘old man’ – the flesh – thrives off whatever attention we give it. It shrivels to its appointed place of insignificance when we place all our attention on Christ – who He is and who we are because of who He is.
Psalms 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, in thy likeness.
To ‘wake up’ requires no conscious effort – it is simply the point at which my mind’s attention shifts from unreal imaginations to seeing reality.
Desire
Even our desires can be birthed out of this place of fullness, rather than a consciousness of lack. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘desire’. If you were brought up religiously, chances are that you associate desire with something evil, something to be avoided. Religion has made much of the negative side of desire, how evil and destructive it can be. The Bible, however, has many positive and exciting things to say about desire.
To celebrate our eighteenth wedding anniversary, Mary-Anne and I spent a long weekend in the Lake District. The first evening we found a restaurant that was highly recommended. I ordered scallops for a starter - something I’ve only eaten once before and thoroughly enjoyed. The scallops weren’t that good this time, but the rest of the meal was excellent.
Twenty four hours later both of us became desperately ill. We later discovered that scallops are able to eat a certain algae that is highly poisonous for people. I lost my appetite completely (very unusual). I had no desire for anything. I did not want to read. I did not even want to think!
Two days later when we started to recover, I thought of the Buddhist concept called ‘Nirvana’ which means a total absence of all desire. After experiencing a fraction of what it means to be without any desire, I could not understand why anyone would aspire to reach such a place! For me it was the closest thing to death while still breathing. I later learnt that ‘Nirvana’ is exactly that: annihilation.
There is no fulfilment, no satisfaction, no contentment, without desire. Proverbs 13:12 says that a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Psalms 20:4 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans.
Jesus taught about desire as well. John 15:7: If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
To abide means to remain, to make your home, as apposed to an occasional visit. In Mark 4 Jesus speaks about soil that is hardened, soil in which the seed cannot remain or abide, because the birds eat it before it finds root. When Jesus explains this parable from verse eighteen onward He shows that the soil symbolises our understanding, our imagination. Mark 4:20: And those sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the Word and receive and accept and welcome it and bear fruit--some thirty times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some a hundred times as much.
Allow His word to find its permanent home within your imagination. Embrace His thoughts, welcome them and watch as the fruit-bearing effect of the seed of God’s word, God’s logic, finds expression in the environment that He designed as the natural habitation of the Logos - your understanding.
Abide and remain until you are no longer in control of this relationship! Embrace this Word until you find yourself in the grip of the One who is much larger than anything you can take hold of.
So we looked at the first part of John 17:5 “...abide in Me and My words abide in you”. The second part has such a significant sequence in the original Greek. It literally says: and you will desire, and you will ask, and it shall be created. Desire is the natural and inevitable consequence of abiding in Christ Jesus. His companionship, His conversation (word), stirs up desires, good and godly desires. The reason that He stirs these desires is not to disappoint you, but to fulfil you!
When you abide in Him, His word is going to develop these desires to such intensity that eventually you will not be able to keep quite ... you will ask. And your Father will delight in creating that for which you asked, because that request began as His desire! Through your friendship (abiding), His desire has become your desire. Your request is the most beautiful music to His ears as He hears how accurately you have understood Him, grasped His thoughts, perceived His intentions and expressed it in words. He delights in creating the fulfilment of such desires.
Our requests no longer have their origin in need, but in gratitude. That’s why Paul says: Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (Phil 4:6) Even our requests are based on gratitude!
We are so used to ending our prayers with ‘Amen’, but did you know that one of the most effective prayers, is one that starts with ‘Amen’?
“Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us.” 1 Cor 1:20-21 MSG
Discover what was given to you in Christ and simply respond with ‘Yes, Amen’. There’s another scripture somewhere that says: agree with God and be at peace. So many of Paul’s prayers were simply asking that our eyes would be opened to the glorious riches that were given to us in Christ.
Amen!
