The burden that the Lord has put upon my heart is on this matter of unto fullness.
At the beginning of this conference, we had two sessions on this matter of unto fullness. For the sake of those who were not there during the first two sessions, and also to refresh the minds of those who were there but probably have forgotten, I would like very briefly to go over what we have already covered in order to lead us to the point we would like to share together this morning.
In the first session, we shared together on this matter of the call to fullness. Brothers and sisters, God is calling us. He is calling us unto His fullness.
God’s calling is an on-high calling. His calling is a heavenly calling. His calling is a holy calling. And He is calling us to nothing less than unto His fullness. Why? Because this is in line with His own character.
Our God is a God of fullness. You cannot think of God other than fullness. He is full. He is forever full. He has no lack. There can be no improvement upon Him. He is perfect. He is complete. He is whole. He is full. This is the very nature of God.
That is the reason why anything and everything that has any relationship with God, that is related to God, has to be in this realm of fullness. If it is not fullness, it is an affront to God.
Therefore, when God calls us, brothers and sisters—and thank God we are all being called—when He calls us, He calls us to nothing less, nothing lower, than fullness, because this is His very nature, His very character.
But, of course, here we have a real problem. Because we are finite beings, and for us finite beings to comprehend the infinite God is beyond us. I think we have to recognize at the very beginning that, so far as we ourselves are concerned, this calling is beyond us. It is impossible to us.
It is for this reason that we really need vision. In other words, unless God does reveal Himself to us, unless God opens up Himself to us, we will never be able to know Who He is, what He is, and how full He is. This is basic to our understanding of God and of His calling.
I mentioned during the first session that our dear brother T. Austin-Sparks gives more or less a definition of vision. What is vision? What does a vision tell us?
Now, of course, by vision, I hope nobody will mistake it as if it is something physical. By vision, I simply mean the unveiling of God’s heart and mind to our spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thank God, our God is a God Who reveals Himself. It is His pleasure to reveal His Son in us. And when God reveals, then we see. Revelation comes from God, and vision becomes our portion.
What does a real vision, a scriptural vision, tell us about? A vision that is from God will tell us three things:
When these three things become our understanding and our portion, we know that we have received a vision from above.
So, in this matter of the fullness of God, we need vision. We need God to reveal His fullness to us. Otherwise, it is always true that we make Christ small. We make Him as small as we are. And we make the church insignificant because we do not see the church as the fullness of Christ.
We need a vision of the fullness of Christ. As we find in Colossians 2:9-10:
For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
And in Him ye are made full.
What is the fullness of Christ? How full is our Christ? How big is our Christ? How great is our Christ?
All the fullness of the Godhead—anything that you can think of in the attributes and character of God—all the fullness of the Godhead makes its permanent residence in Christ. The fullness of Christ is nothing less than the fullness of the Godhead. Oh, the fullness of the Godhead makes its home in Christ. This is how full our Christ is.
That is the reason why it takes us not only a lifetime to enter into the fullness of Christ; it takes eternity for us to do that. We will never reach the end. It is from fullness unto fullness, because Christ is so full.
At the same time, we need a revelation of the fullness of the church. In Ephesians 1:22-23, we find that God made Christ Head over all things to the church:
Which is His body,
The fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
Brothers and sisters, what is the church? The church is the fullness of Christ. As the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, so the fullness of Christ makes its permanent residence in the church. This is what the church is.
Brothers and sisters, have we ever seen Christ? We may think, surely we have seen Him; we know Him. But do we know Him? Do we know the fullness of Christ? Do we know Him as God knows Him?
Do we know the church? We probably say we do; we know what the church is. But do we really know what the church is? Have we seen it? It is the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ makes its home in the church.
These are the visions that we need to see, because we know Christ and the church are the eternal purpose of God. We need to see the principles that govern Christ and the church, and we need to understand why and how we are being led away from what Christ is and from what the church ought to be. We need such vision.
Now this morning, we would like to continue on, and we would like to consider together this matter of the way to fullness.
Let us read two portions of Scripture: Philippians 2:6-11 and John 12:23-26.
Who, existing in the form of God,
Counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
But emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,
Being made in the likeness of men;
And being found in fashion as a man,
He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death,
Yea, the death of the cross.
Wherefore also God highly exalted Him,
And gave unto Him the name which is above every name;
That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
Of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth,
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
To the glory of God the Father.
We know the background of John 12:23-26. Our Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem for the last time before His crucifixion. Certain Greeks came to Philip and asked, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” In other words, when our Lord came into Jerusalem, a great crowd welcomed Him, and now even the Gentiles wanted to see Him.
Humanly speaking, it was the most glorious time for our Lord. But listen to what the Lord Jesus said:
The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone;
But if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He that loveth his life loseth it;
And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
If any man serve Me, let him follow Me;
And where I am, there shall also My servant be:
If any man serve Me, him will the Father honor.
Dear Heavenly Father, it is always Thy delight to glorify Thy beloved Son. So, our Father, our prayer today is: glorify Thy Son in the midst of Thy own people. We do pray that Thou wilt reveal to us Thy Son, and reveal to us the way into the fullness of Christ.
We need the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and we need faith and obedience that come from Thee. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I would like to read to you again something from the writings of our dear brother T. Austin-Sparks. As I considered this matter of fullness, I found that I could not find any material from the writings of any servant of the Lord, except in the writings of our dear brother T. Austin-Sparks.
Now, of course, the books that I have are limited. I acknowledge that there might be other writings somewhere in the world that really teach us about fullness. But unfortunately, I searched my own small library, and I could not find any. So I have to quote Brother Sparks again and again and again.
I am reading an article written by him thirty years ago, called “Attaining to God’s Full Thought.” It was published in A Witness and a Testimony in 1956. This is what he wrote:
Let us suppose that God has in His heart and mind a certain fullness of purpose, which He has determined to find expression by means of a people on this earth.
Now, he is putting it in a way of supposing, but of course we know this supposing is really a reality. God does have in His heart and mind a definite purpose, a fullness of purpose. And this fullness of purpose, He has determined, should be expressed by a people on this earth. Thank God for that.
What do you think would be some of the things that He would do in regard to such a company? Now, God wants to find expression to the fullness of His purpose in a people upon the earth. What do you think He will do to this people?
In the first place, would He sovereignly do something inside them? Would He induce within them a sense of need, a right sense of dissatisfaction and disappointment with the existing general condition, producing an inward longing for something more?
A sense that there should be something more; that this existing state is not what the Lord really means for His own full satisfaction. Would He thus reproduce inside these people His own discontent, dissatisfaction, and desire for something more in spiritual measure? Do you not think that is one thing He will do?
What will be the first thing that God will do to His people? The first thing He will do is sovereignly do something within them. It is not something external. He will stir within them a sense of dissatisfaction, disappointment over the existing general condition, and produce in them a longing for something more.
There must be something more. It is that dissatisfaction of our Lord Himself. In other words, God is not satisfied. Because He is not satisfied with the existing state, He creates in a people a similar sense of dissatisfaction.
It is not a wrong kind of dissatisfaction. You know, we can have a wrong kind of dissatisfaction. But it is the right kind of dissatisfaction: that with which God Himself is dissatisfied. That would be the first thing He would do.
Then, possessing perfect knowledge, would He work sovereignly to provide for this inward sense of dissatisfaction and need to be met? Would He have the provision in existence so that there should be no contradiction or inconsistency in His way, so that He should not be seen to be One Who causes a desire and a sense of need but makes no provision for it?
These two thoughts surely go together. Does it not seem likely that this is what He should do in the second place?
In the first place, He will create in us His own dissatisfaction. And then, being God, Who knows everything, surely at the same time He must have made provision to meet that need—to fulfill the hunger and thirst that has been created.
You cannot think of God creating dissatisfaction in us for something more, and yet there is nothing more. He must have provided for us.
Certainly, do you think He will act sovereignly apart from these people, so as to arrange and govern their experiences and their lives that they may really be headed up to His fuller thought?
That is, in some way, perhaps to begin with without their knowing why or what it means, He will bring them within the compass of that intention and provision of His. And He will shut all other doors to them so that they are unable to become absorbed in something else—something more general.
I do not mean by the latter something wrong, but something that just does not meet God in that measure in which He must be satisfied.
In other words, after He has put His own dissatisfaction in our hearts, He will make known to us that He has made provision to meet our need. In order to bring these two things together, He will do the third thing: again, He will act sovereignly.
Even probably without your knowing, He will lead you. He will shut you up to a way, to a place, where you just cannot be distracted by anything else. You have to stay occupied with this one thing.
Now, it is not that the other things are not good. There are many, many things that are good. There are many, many things with which we can be occupied. But because God has a purpose, He will not allow you to go to the right or to the left. He will guide you and shut you in to the one thing that will give Him full satisfaction. That is what God will do.
Dear brothers and sisters, we live in the Laodicean period. If you take the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 from the prophetic standpoint, you will see that we today, prophetically speaking, are living in the Laodicean period.
What is the feature of the Laodicean period? Lukewarmness—neither hot nor cold. In other words, today you find God’s people living in a state of complacency, of indifference.
We do not see our need. On the contrary, probably we are like the Laodiceans. We think that we are rich; we are in lack of nothing.
Now, in a sense, it is true. We have a very rich Christian heritage. Think of what we have received through the twenty centuries—all the riches that God has deposited in His church. So, in one sense, it is true: we have received a very rich Christian heritage.
But is it really ours? Do we have the vision? Do we have the righteousness?
You remember our risen Lord, in writing to the church in Laodicea, said:
Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
Yet, at the very same time, these people thought that they were rich. They lacked nothing. They knew everything. They had it all. Is it not true that today we, as God’s people, are in the same situation?
If our Lord Jesus were walking in our midst, what would He see in us? He will not be deceived by outward appearance. We may be deceived, but we cannot deceive Him with our outward appearance. He knows our heart. He tries our reins. He knows exactly what is within us.
If the Lord should come into our midst this morning, what would He say? Probably, at this very moment, even though we do not verbalize it, this is what we feel about ourselves: we are rich. We know so much. We have received so much. We are in lack of nothing.
Probably we are comparing ourselves with other people and thinking that we are better, that we are holier. But the Lord will look at us. He will see us through, and He will say, “You do not know how wretched you are. You do not know that you are poor. You are naked. You are blind.”
“I have gold for your poverty. I have white garments for your nakedness. I have eye salve for your blindness. But you do not appreciate it.”
In other words, our Lord has much to offer to His people today. He has gold to offer us, that we may be delivered from spiritual poverty. He has white garments—righteousness—to give to us, to clothe our nakedness. But we do not even know that we are naked. We think we are all covered.
He has eye salve to open our eyes that we may see, but we think that we see. We do not know ourselves.
He offers Himself to us in a full way, but oftentimes we even resent Him because we think He misunderstands us. We are in a state of lukewarmness, neither hot nor cold.
Think of multitudes and multitudes in Christianity who are so contented with the traditions of the fathers. They rely upon the sacraments as a means to heaven. They do not desire anything more. They are satisfied.
Think of the multitudes and multitudes of God’s people who want nothing but to be saved and to go to heaven. That is their only desire. If they can go to heaven, that is all they want—nothing more. They do not even have the desire, the longing, for anything more than just initial salvation.
As long as your two feet are within the gates of heaven, you are happy.
Here we can see the heart of God. He is offering His beloved Son, Christ, to us in great fullness, and yet you find there is none to accept His offer. How much it must hurt His heart.
But thank God, throughout the centuries—and thank God, even in our days—God does sovereignly stir the hearts of some people on earth. He does put, if I may say, a holy discontent, a godly dissatisfaction, in the hearts of some of His own people.
We know there are lots of God’s people who are not happy, not satisfied, murmuring about this and about that. They are not contented; they are not satisfied. But that is in the wrong thing.
Where are those people who are dissatisfied in the right sense? They are more disappointed and dissatisfied with their spiritual condition before God than with the poverty around them.
We usually are dissatisfied with what is around us. But are we dissatisfied with ourselves? Do we see that we are not what we should be? Do we see that we are less than what God has for us?
Do we realize that there is something more in Christ? Or do we think that we have it all, that there is nothing more He can offer to us? Has our spiritual progress ceased?
Dear brothers and sisters, God has to create in us a longing, a longing for something more. Now, we may not be able to know what we are really longing for, but somehow we feel within the depths of our being that there is an emptiness, there is a void, that needs to be filled.
This does not make us murmurers—no. This does not make us rebels—no. But this only stirs within us a searching, a seeking, a longing, a desire for something more of God, for something more of Christ.
Such desire is the beginning on the way to fullness.
Our Lord Jesus said:
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness:
For they shall be filled.
Unless we have a hunger and thirst after righteousness, brothers and sisters, do we feel that we are pretty righteous? One thing that is a real snare to God’s people, especially for those who really seek the Lord and have received something from the Lord, is self-righteousness.
We can be so self-righteous that there is no longer a hunger and thirst after righteousness.
The psalmist, in Psalm 42, says:
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.
Brothers and sisters, this is the kind of spirit that God has to create within us: that we may pant after God. A hart chased by a hunter, when it sees water, pants after the water with all its soul. That is what God has to create in us: such a panting after the living God.
In Psalm 84, you find the same feeling:
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God.
Brothers and sisters, do you not think this is the first thing that God will really do within us? If we are people who are so contented and satisfied with what we are—and it is the grace of God—but we are so contented that we just sit there as if there is nothing more, do you think God can do anything with us?
If He wants to do something with us, do you not think that He has to create such a dissatisfaction, such a longing for Himself within us? That has to be the first thing.
As our brother has suggested, God will put that kind of dissatisfaction in us. He is the very One Who makes provision for us.
When you are really seeking Him with such thirst and hunger, brothers and sisters, He will reveal the fullness that is in Christ to you.
Do you not wonder sometimes that you have been saved for ten years, but it seems that during the last two years God has never spoken to you? God has never revealed Himself to you, and all your knowledge of Him is just two years old.
Nothing fresh, nothing living, nothing new, nothing more. Do you not wonder why it is? Is it because He has nothing more to offer you? Is it because Christ is that small, that limited? Is it because He does not want you to enter into His fullness? Or is it because there is not a thirst and hunger after Him?
When you first believe in the Lord Jesus, you have such a thirst for Him. You cannot live without Him. You seek after Him, and because of that, you find that He is always available. He is always there. He answers your heart’s desire. But no more.
Oh, that we may cry to the Lord and ask Him to create in us a thirst and a hunger for Him. If it happens, you know, revelation is on the way.
God does not reveal Himself to those who have no desire for Him. God will not waste His revelation on those who are indifferent. But to those who seek, they shall find.
It is His good pleasure to reveal Christ—the fullness of Christ—to us. Brothers and sisters, actually, it is a cycle. Sometimes, in His condescending mercy, even though we are indifferent and we are not seeking, He gives us a revelation. He reveals something of Christ to us, and that revelation stirs us up to seek.
At another time, when we are seeking, He reveals Himself. When you are seeking, when you are looking for Him, you will find Him. It is a cycle.
The more you seek, the more you see Him. The more you see Him, the more you seek Him. The more He gives Himself to you, the more you long for Him, because He is infinite. That is the way that you gradually enter into His fullness.
To the Corinthian believers, Paul was not able to share with them the fullness of God. Why? Because they were very satisfied with the little of God, and they made that little a big thing.
But with the Ephesian believers, Paul was able to open his heart and share with them the whole counsel of God.
But, you know, when God does give us vision and revelation, it requires obedience. Revelation is a very costly thing. If you are afraid to pay the cost, do not ask for revelation.
Sometimes we think, “Well, revelation—that is glorious, because you are being taken to the third heaven, and there you see God.” Glorious! But are you prepared to pay the cost for it?
Paul, on the road to Damascus, received the revelation from above. He was shown the broad outline of the fullness of Christ and the fullness of the church. Through the years, that vision increased. Why? Because he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
In other words, when the Lord begins to reveal to you His fullness, He demands your obedience. If you obey, then He will reveal more to you. If you do not, then you will stay where you are, and perhaps go backward.
This leads us to the third point. When God has created in us a desire for His fullness and begins to reveal that fullness in Christ—because you cannot find it anywhere else—the question is: what is the way to fullness?
The Colossian believers wanted fullness, but they tried to find fullness in something other than Christ. They tried to find fullness in philosophy, in asceticism, in keeping certain rules and laws, and in mysticism.
But Paul said, “It is not there.” All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. In other words, Christ has the exclusive fullness of the Godhead. It is exclusive. You cannot find fullness anywhere else.
Now, it is true: sometimes we seem to find fullness in the world. It seems as if the world satisfies us, but that is only for a short time. Then you find, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” That is what the wisest of men told us. He experienced it, and he told us that you cannot find fullness anywhere else but in Christ.
When you find fullness in Christ, that is fullness. It is satisfying, complete, perfect.
But what is the way to fullness? The way to fullness is by emptying. Emptying is the way to fullness. Death is the way to life.
This is a principle that you find in the Word of God. When we have a desire for fullness and God begins to open up our horizon to see more of Christ and more of what the church is to be, we think the next step will be that we enter into fullness, that we experience fullness. No.
The next step is that you enter into death. You enter into emptying. It is the surprise of our life.
This is illustrated throughout the Word of God. Take the Old Testament. Think of Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob. He was given the vest of many colors. It meant the birthright. And he dreamed dreams. God gave him dreams. God gave him vision.
But because of that, what happened to him? You find that he went lower and lower. Before his father put that vest upon him, probably his brethren were still friendly with him. But after his father put that vest of many colors on him, his brothers began to be jealous of him.
Before he dreamed a dream, probably his brothers would still try to live with him. But after he dreamed a dream, his brothers felt that they had to get rid of him.
He went lower and lower. Not only was he sold as a slave, but he was even put into the tower—the prison. He hit the bottom before God exalted him to the throne. That is the principle.
Think of David. Even though he was neglected by his father and sent to take care of a few sheep, he lived a very tranquil life. A shepherd’s life is a very tranquil life. Then he was anointed.
After he was anointed, one thing after another came upon him. We would think that, being anointed, he should sit on the throne. But being anointed, he became a fugitive. Humanly speaking, these two things are far apart. You cannot see the connection between them. But this is the way of God.
Think of our Lord Jesus—how He emptied Himself. Of course, He could not empty Himself of His deity. That is impossible, because that is what He eternally is.
But He did empty Himself of all the glory, honor, and position connected with His deity. He took the form of a man and humbled Himself. He even went to death, and the death of the cross. In other words, it is the death of all deaths.
But God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name. At that name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the Father’s glory.
Before He went to the cross, when the Greeks came and wanted to see Him, He said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth alone;
But if it die, it beareth much fruit.
In other words, the way to fruitfulness is through dying. The Lord said this is not only true with Me, but with him who follows Me. The same thing will happen to him.
If you love your soul-life, you will lose it. If you are willing to deny your soul-life for His sake, you will gain it unto eternity. If you follow Him, the Father will honor you. Now, this is the principle that governs the vision.
The Apostle Paul told us how he was raptured, caught up to the third heaven, how he was caught away to paradise and heard things that could not be uttered. Glorious! But the next thing was a thorn in his flesh.
We think a vision will make us strong. But when you receive the vision, you become weak, that He may be strong in your weakness.
You remember the story in the Old Testament of the widow of one of the sons of the prophets. Her husband died, leaving nothing. She was so poor that the creditor came and wanted to take away her two sons. A pathetic situation.
How could the widow of a son of the prophets be sent into such deep poverty? It revealed the condition of God’s people at that time. They did not care about the things of God. They did not take care of the prophets, the sons of the prophets, not to speak of the widows of the prophets.
She came to Elisha and asked what she should do. Elisha said, “What do you have?” She said, “I have nothing, except a pot of oil.”
Sometimes I wonder why she still kept a pot of oil. Evidently, she had sold everything—the furniture, anything and everything that could be turned into money. But why did she still keep a pot of oil?
I do not know whether I am right; if I am wrong, please correct me. I think it was because her husband was one of the sons of the prophets. In other words, he was training to be a prophet. And, of course, oil is almost a symbol to a prophet. A prophet used oil to pour upon the king. It was, in a sense, his trademark.
So probably, for sentimental reasons, because her husband had died—and he was supposed to be a prophet, though not yet a prophet—the wife kept that pot there as a kind of remembrance. For sentimental reasons, it was the last link.
She said, “Nothing but a pot of oil.” The prophet said, “Go and borrow empty vessels—do not borrow a few. Then shut the door, and pour from that pot of oil into these empty vessels.”
So she and her two sons borrowed many empty vessels, shut the door, and began to pour from that pot of oil. It filled every empty vessel until there was no more empty vessel, and then the oil stopped.
Elisha told her, “Go and sell the oil, pay your debt, and live on it for the rest of your life.” Abundance. Fullness.
Dear brothers and sisters, the reason why we are not full, why we do not know the fullness of Christ, is because we have no empty vessel. Or, to put it another way, we have vessels, but our vessels are already filled—already filled with something else.
It is just like the five foolish virgins. No doubt these five foolish virgins had vessels just like the five wise virgins. But probably these five foolish virgins filled their vessels with the precious things upon this earth.
They thought these things were important; these things were precious. They filled their vessels with these things—maybe gold, maybe precious stones, I do not know. But evidently their vessels were already filled with other things except oil.
But the wise virgins filled the empty vessel with oil, and nothing but oil. Today, people will look at the foolish virgins and think they are wise. They will look at the wise virgins and think they are foolish. But one day it will be revealed.
Dear brothers and sisters, are we willing to be emptied?
As a matter of fact, you do not know what to empty unless the Lord reveals Himself to you. When the Lord really reveals Himself to you in His glorious fullness, brothers and sisters, you are hurried to empty yourself that you may be filled.
This is the way with the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, as a great Pharisee, was filled with the best of Judaism. He made a boast of all these things. He was filled.
But when God revealed His Son in him, he said that for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, he counted all things but loss, but refuse. He was willing to empty himself of all that had filled him in the past so that he might be filled with the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, do you have a longing for God? Do you see something more in Christ? If you do, then your vision challenges you to empty yourself.
You know, a vision is always a challenge. The vision will challenge you, and you will challenge the vision. Why? Because God does not give you a vision of the fullness of Christ just for you to speculate or to meditate.
When God reveals the fullness of Christ to you, He means to draw you into that fullness. He means to fill you with His fullness. In other words, the vision has to become your life, your vocation. Or, to put it another way, you must be joined into that vision, to be a part of it.
In order to do that, you will find that you have to be emptied, because you are already filled. Every one of us is filled with something.
When God begins to open our eyes to see the fullness of Christ, then the Holy Spirit will convict us and show us why it is that we are not filled with Christ. This is a time for us to be emptied.
This is the way of the cross. It is the way of death. Humanly speaking, we do not want to go that way.
The only reason why we are able to go through it is because we are constrained by the love of Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, it is God’s love that enables us to be willing to go to death, to be willing to be emptied, to be willing to be purged.
If it is not because of the love of God within you, you cannot do it. Nobody will do it. We love ourselves too much. We think too much of the things of the world. We will not let go. We cannot deny ourselves. We cannot. But thank God, we can.
When the love of God constrains us, then, dear brothers and sisters, there is no cost too costly. The emptying is easy, because the Lord said:
My yoke is easy,
And My burden is light.
Finally, think of the Song of Songs. There you find a virgin. The reason why she pursues after the Beloved is because she is constrained by the love of the Beloved.
Brothers and sisters, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, it is true: God loved the world and gave His only begotten Son to us. It is God’s love. But do you know that when you believe in the Lord Jesus, not only does He love you, but He implants that love within you?
It is the love that is implanted in you that will drive you toward Him, or draw you to Him.
As love draws you to Him, you will find, invariably, that you experience periods of dissatisfaction and periods of satisfaction. He will create in you a dissatisfaction, a longing for more of Him.
You are not satisfied with what He has already given to you. You want more of Him. You are dissatisfied. You cry out for Him. You seek after Him. And thank God, He satisfies you.
Then, after a period, again you become dissatisfied. He puts another dissatisfaction in you, and you have to cry out to Him again and seek after Him. When you are doing that, you find that all the time something of you has to go to death.
You will find in the process that you are being emptied more and more and more, in order that you may really be filled more and more with Him.
That is the reason why you find in the Song of Solomon, in the beginning, she says, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” Then she says, “I am His, and He is mine.” Finally, she says, “I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me.”
In other words, there is no more of self. It is all Him.
When we are filled with the love of God, we are filled with the fullness of God. Ephesians 3 says:
That ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
To the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be strong to apprehend with all the saints
What is the breadth and length and height and depth,
And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,
That ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
Brothers and sisters, when you are filled with the fullness of God, you are filled with love.
Dear Heavenly Father, show us Thy way. May Thy love constrain us to walk in the straight path that leads us to Thyself, to Thy fullness. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.