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When we come to Christ, something amazing happens. Once alienated from God because of our sin, God did much more than reconciling us, he filled us up with Himself! What I shall do is show you that you are filled already with everything you could ever be filled up with. You are full of love, because God is love! You are full of joy, because Jesus gave us His joy that He said was full. He gave us divine health, because He is the Great Physician and the Lord that healeth thee. He gave us His wealth, because we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. When we asked the Lord to save us, we invited Him into our lives.

Imagine that! The creator of the universe, came to live inside us! God lives in you.
Jesus said in John14:10-11 that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. In verse 16, He said that He would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to abide with us forever. He added that He, the Holy Ghost would not only dwell with us, but dwell inside us. He said that if we really loved Him, We would keep His words and when we do, and that both the Father and Himself would dwell within us. All this is found in John 14. According to Him, if we truly love God, we would keep His commandments  (and I am not talking of The Law, but everything the Lord says to us) and then... The Godhead; the Father; the Son and the Holy Spirit would live inside us.
We are filled with God!

Now if we are filled with God, what else could remain there? Can sickness have a legal right to live inside us? I think not. Could poverty live within us? I doubt that. Could fear remain inside us? Certainly not. Could anything not of God have a legal right to make its home inside us? Obviously, the answer has to be, “No”.

If something is full, it is impossible to put more into it. Am I right, or is this a figment of Robert’s fantasies? You can prove this right now.  Get a container of some kind, preferably a drinking glass so you can see what happens. Now start pouring water into it and fill it to the brim. Is it full? Keep pouring water in and see what happens. Obviously it will overflow and if you are not careful that water will be lost if you do not collect the overflow.
There is a good spiritual lesson to be learned in this alone.
Some believer’s “leak”. I do not think that God would pour His good oil into them! Fix it!
Some believers cannot handle everything God can do and He just cannot fill them more than they are able to contain. This can be remedied by learning how to grow and expand in God.

The point is that we who are made in the image and likeness of God, can be filled up with God—not a small portion, or a little touch or sprinkle, but all of the fullness of God. The day that we receive Christ as our saviour, all of this fullness takes up residency inside us. According to the apostle Paul, we become a brand-new creation. This is the potential, but it has to be worked out. We are already saved! We are being saved and we shall be saved. This is a part of our learning experience and such knowledge can never be attained through the natural senses or intellect, but by the Spirit. After all, God is a spirit, so He indwells us by the spirit. We can know more of this every day by reading and meditation of his word and walking in the fellowship with Him and with the saints.
At this point, I would like to share some rather lengthy portions of scripture with you. Take your time in reading them, (several times) because it has an amazing message.

 Once you were under God’s curse, doomed forever for your sins. You went along with the crowd and were just like all the others, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air, who is at work right now in the hearts of those who are against the Lord. All of us used to be just as they are, our lives expressing the evil within us, doing every wicked thing that our passions or our evil thoughts might lead us into. We started out bad, being born with evil natures, and were under God’s anger just like everyone else.
  But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again when he raised Christ from the dead—only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved—and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did.
  And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ.
  Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God.
   Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.
   Never forget that once you were heathen and that you were called godless and “unclean” by the Jews. (But their hearts, too, were still unclean, even though they were going through the ceremonies and rituals of the godly, for they circumcised themselves as a sign of godliness.)
   Remember that in those days you were living utterly apart from Christ; you were enemies of God’s children, and he had promised you no help. You were lost, without God, without hope.
   But now you belong to Christ Jesus, and though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought very near to him because of what Jesus Christ has done for you with his blood.
   For Christ himself is our way of peace. He has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one family, breaking down the wall of contempt that used to separate us.
   By his death he ended the angry resentment between us, caused by the Jewish laws that favored the Jews and excluded the Gentiles, for he died to annul that whole system of Jewish laws. Then he took the two groups that had been opposed to each other and made them parts of himself; thus he fused us together to become one new person, and at last there was peace.
   As parts of the same body, our anger against each other has disappeared, for both of us have been reconciled to God. And so the feud ended at last at the cross.  
   And he has brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were very far away from him, and to us Jews who were near. Now all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, may come to God the Father with the Holy Spirit’s help because of what Christ has done for us.
  
 Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.
   What a foundation you stand on now: the apostles and the prophets; and the cornerstone of the building is Jesus Christ himself ! We who believe are carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly growing temple for God.
And you also are joined with him and with each other by the Spirit and are part of this dwelling place of God
. Ephesians 2 :1-22 (emphasis mine).

Tie this in with Peter’s words.
So get rid of your feelings of hatred. Don’t just pretend to be good! Be done with dishonesty and jealousy and talking about others behind their backs.
   Now that you realize how kind the Lord has been to you, put away all evil, deception, envy, and fraud.
   Long to grow up into the fullness of your salvation; cry for this as a baby cries for his milk.
   Come to Christ, who is the living Foundation of Rock upon which God builds; though men have spurned him, he is very precious to God who has chosen him above all others.
   And now you have become living building-stones for God’s use in building his house.
   What’s more, you are his holy priests; so come to him—you who are acceptable to him because of Jesus Christ—and offer to God those things that please him. As the Scriptures express it, “See, I am sending Christ to be the carefully chosen, precious Cornerstone of my church, and I will never disappoint those who trust in him.” 1 Peter 2:1-6.

Peter then spoke about how precious the Lord is and about the cornerstone, that is the most honored and important part of the building in the next few verses before continuing-
   But you are not like that, for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were less than nothing; now you are God’s own.
Once you knew very little of God’s kindness; now your very lives have been changed by it. 1 Peter 2:9-10.

This has nothing to do with a physical building of course, but it does refer to us. We are God’s temple now. The day you became a Christian, the Godhead took up occupancy.
That is a wonderful and exciting truth, but it is also a sobering thought.
God does not live in an unclean house. He does not occupy a place that is in turmoil. He will not be welcome where strife and contention, bitterness, fear  and anger are present. He cannot cohabit with such things and you know as well as I do what they all are. He lives in holy pure and sanctified homes.
He commanded us to be holy, did He not? It can be done, otherwise He would not ask that of us.
Peter spoke of this in 1 Peter 1, especially verses 15 & 16.  When you read this, go all the way to the end of the chapter. Compare this with 2 Peter 3, especially verse 11.

This brings me now to something that excited me when I first saw it many years ago.

I was making breakfast recently (I do most of the cooking and enjoy doing it), when it leaped into my being as if it was for the first time. Now I want you women to leave the room for a while whilst I say something to the men. Husbands...love your wives! That’s bible guys, so real men do not have to get all masculine and flex their muscles, but show your ladies that you are a real man. Go on! Say it! Say it! “I love you.”
Then prove it...
When was the last time you did something practical instead of sitting in front of the TV and be waited on?
When did you cook dinner, or wash the dishes? Do you open the car door for her, or just pile in and sit down?
Those things go hand in hand with what Paul said about Jesus and His Church in Ephesians.

OK girls, you can come back in now.
I want to tell you something. Reciprocate! Let him loose in the kitchen. Let him do the ironing (I do).
Honor your man.

Before Marjorie and I married, the Lord spoke so powerfully one morning, it shook me. He almost yelled out, “You look after her and you treat her right.” He told her, “Don’t you ever hurt that man.”
Our marriage is proving to be just what He said it would be—a role model; a blessing and an inspiration to many.”

I share this because it is entwined with the kind of thing I am talking about today. If marriage is an illustration of what our relationship should be with Christ, then it should be a good one!
Eve was bone of Adams bone and flesh of Adam’s flesh.
Jesus said that when a man and a woman leave their parent’s homes and marry, they two become as one—united by God with His approval. They do not live together without being wed.
They do not try it to see how things work out.  They are two separate individual beings who are joined in a holy union—when ordained by God.
This is an outward symbol of the mystical combining of one human being with the Almighty God when He comes to live within.
This is why marriage is under such attack today. The devil hates it.

The things that excited me deal with our one-ness or union with God. Once separated and destined for hell, He reached down and chose us in Him before Jesus came to earth, but we didn’t know it. See Romans 5:8.
After our conversion, we started a new life. Think in human terms when a man and a woman start a new life as husband and wife. They have to get to know each other, make adjustments, want to please each other and do those things that make a marriage a marriage.
When we are born again, we have to start making adjustments, get to know God, want to please Him and learn what we can about Him. The best thing however is that it is already a finished work. When He comes in, everything about God—who He is, what He is like, what He does, what He likes or dislikes and what He possesses in all areas is already placed inside us, because He is inside us.
We need not ask for more. In fact if we keep asking Him for what He has already given us, I think that we are offending Him. We certainly are giving Him the message that we do not believe it.
Divine health is already inside us. Divine wisdom is already inside us. Divine provision is already inside us. There cannot be any more.
The only problem is that we just do not know it, or if we do have some understanding, it is only partial. Therefore we have to discover these truths and put them to work.
This is why Paul said that he prayed for us. In Ephesians chapter one, he spoke about the mystery of His will and that his prayer was that the Father would give us revelation of all these things. See Ephesians 1:9; 15-23.

In Ephesians 3, he spoke on the same things. He talked about getting to comprehend the depths of all there is to know and to be filled with all the fulness of God. There it is!

   When I think of the wisdom and scope of His plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God—some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth—that out of his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit.
   And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself. Ephesians 3:14-19.

Look now at Colossians. What a marvelous book this is. Here is a sample-
   
...ever since we first heard about you we have kept on praying and asking God to help you understand what he wants you to do; asking him to make you wise about spiritual things; and asking that the way you live will always please the Lord and honor him, so that you will always be doing good, kind things for others, while all the time you are learning to know God better and better.
   We are praying, too, that you will be filled with his mighty, glorious strength so that you can keep going no matter what happens—always full of the joy of the Lord, and always thankful to the Father who has made us fit to share all the wonderful things that belong to those who live in the Kingdom of light.
   For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins. Colossians 1:9-14.

Paul spoke of the absolute authority of Jesus who created all things and that all things exist because of Him and then said in verse 18 that He is the head of the body—the Church and then said that it pleased the Father that in Him (that is Jesus), all fulness dwelt. Surely if All fulness dwells in Him and if He dwells in us, all fulness also resides in us. Now, I am not trying to say that we are of more importance than we are and get off onto some strange trip of some kind. I am saying that we do not really fully understand precisely what Jesus has already done for us. This truth has to come out by revelation of His word. This truth can only really be understood when we are God inside minded! Do you see how important it is that we renew our minds by application of God’s word and to put on the mind of Christ? I’ve spoken of the mind of Christ before, but this stuff really hit me this time. In verse 19, Paul said that it pleased the Father that in Him (Jesus), all fulness should dwell. 

Such things have to come by revelation because without that, it is a mystery. Paul said so.
   God has sent me to help his Church and to tell his secret plan to you Gentiles. He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.
   So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them. This is my work, and I can do it only because Christ’s mighty energy is at work within me. Colossians 1:25-29.

Paul had great revelation of these truths that he said were mysteries. A mystery is something that is hidden, but once revealed, it is no longer a mystery but workable fact and knowledge. In the next few verses (in chapter two), Paul spoke of having our hearts knit together in love—and unto All riches of Full understanding...
That stuff is all inside us right now!
I saw this at least ten years ago and it was a jaw dropping experience then—but it has only just really hit home now. I went, “Wow!” when I started reading this again.

I hope you get it.

According to Paul, such comprehension is to the acknowledgement of the Mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ. Please look at it and take note of my  emphasis.
     That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:2-3.

He continued, saying as we have received Christ  the Lord to walk in Him. That’s learning to grow. He told us to be rooted and grounded in Him, not man’s religion and to abound there in with thanksgiving.
Now comes a warning in verse 8, followed by something great and wonderful that explains things. Emphasis mine.

   Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said.—For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power. Colossians 2:9-10.

All of God is in Christ. When we have Christ, we have everything. When we have Christ we are also filled with God. This is not man’s interpretation of some strange doctrine. There is it in black and white.

You and I are filled with all that can possibly fill us up with God. There is no more to put in there. Nothing more could be put in there (unless we choose to allow that to happen).
This does not mean that we are superman or someone with special powers in that sense. You and I are real people with real issues and problems in life. The difference is that with God inside us, we have the ability to draw off what He has placed there.

If, for example, we need wisdom to handle something, we do not need to rely on our own abilities or natural talents only, but can draw out of the well of living water God has placed there. God has also given us other helps such as the Gifts of the Holy Spirit—so use them.
If you lack, ask God for it. James tells us that when we need wisdom.

If you need something in the natural realm, we have the same Jesus inside us who calmed a storm, fed a multitude, gave a man a net-breaking, boat swamping catch of fish as payment for borrowing his boat and prevented an awkward moment in a time of need when He turned water into wine.

I know many good people who panic when things are not going well. They complain and whine about shortages, needs, problems and so on and do not tap into the source that is already inside them. It is not always easy and I know that, but it is not impossible either.

I recall an incident when I was a very young and immature Christian. I had been talking with the Lord about the Old Testament fathers like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and asked Him how did they know where to dig for their wells? It was a simple enough question and I was not complaining. I was genuinely curious so I asked Him how they did it.
He did not answer me. That is, I never got an audible voice from Heaven (I have only had that once in my life).

We later came into a time of drought at the time and my garden was dying. For that matter, many of my neighbors were also suffering, but isn’t it interesting how we can so easily think that there is no one else in the world like us; that we are the only ones with that problem and no one cares. Get a life! Get over it!
One day I was walking around he house and the thought came back to me, so I asked the Lord if He would show me where to dig a well.
He did not answer me.

The problem is that I was looking outwardly for an answer, but it was already inside me. I did not know this then. I must have asked Him several times and still no answer.
Have any of you acted like that? Hehe... Of course you have. We all do. At such times, do not start muttering and murmuring. Complaining will shut down the blessing real quick. Shut up and tune in!
I then said to Him something like, “Lord. I have this need and it is a legitimate need, so I will do what I possibly can do and start walking in my yard. When I reach the right place to get water, I will know it and that is where I will get the contractor to sink a bore”. I walked clockwise and reached a spot and stopped, pointed at the ground and said, “There”.
I then walked counterclockwise and repeated the process and pointed at the same spot.
Fresh water was 16 feet below where I stood.

What happened?

I drew off the living water that was already inside me.

Everything you can possibly want is already provided. Everything you can possibly do is already done.

Let us look at the provision of God for a moment. When Israel was in the desert, they had no way of getting fresh food. God provided. They did not manufacture it. They did not have to dig gardens and plant crops for it. They were told what to do by God when to do it and what to do with it. They went to sleep at night and rested! Do you see it yet?
If they wanted to toil and worry, God would let them go ahead, but nothing would have worked.

He told them to wake up in the morning and pick up what they wanted. It was there and they ate angel’s food!
Where did it come from? I cannot answer that, but it sure did not come from their own self effort, stressing out and sweating. They slept on it.

I am not saying that we do nothing. That would be foolish. What I am saying however is that God either is who He says He is and that He does what He said what He would do, so trust Him.

That inner, still, small voice will tell you what to do and when, so just do what He says. Where does that voice come from? It comes from within you—from your spirit man—from the depths of your belly as Jesus said.
   He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.
John 7:38.


According to Him, it is all inside those who believe and it can flow, not once, not twice, but continually from out of you, not from some other place. God can and does use man to help another man, but the source is inside both men.

May  we all learn what we’ve already got and start to draw from that. This source never runs dry.
This message as been prepared to help you, but it has been a message I must also apply to my own life.
I invite testimonies from those of you who have applied this and discovered the truths revealed today.
I could publish them as a witness to what God has done and it could inspire and encourage all of us. Would that be a good thing to do?

Blessings,

Robert

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