“All the fullness!”
- Mar 20
- 6 min read
We visit the Ephesians 3:17-19 text one more time. Let’s see if we are getting to know God better! Did you know, we are able to “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (v19)? Wow!
I have a book on my bookshelf entitled Revival: A People Saturated with God. It’s a very perceptive and helpful book by Brian Edwards. In the book, the writer lists 57 major revivals from 1150 to 1972 and begins to answer the questions - What does God’s extraordinary work of revival look like? What are its distinguishing characteristics? He simply answers, "Revival is a people saturated with God."
Brian Edwards says, “Revival is not when the churches exchange members, but when the Holy Spirit changes lives. Revival is needed, not because of the state of the world, but because of the state of the church."
Filled with the Fullness of God (3:19b)
Here, Paul is talking about something radical, in the fullest sense of that word: something that produces a total life change. He is praying that through a marvellous inner transformation, the Ephesians will be utterly different from folk around them and from what they have been so far. This is what happens when we get to know God better!
What does Paul mean, "may be filled" (v19)? Let me try to explain!
The picture Paul’s using could be drawn from the world of sailing! Say you own a boat on Lake Windermere. You arrange to go out on it. You are rowing away, then suddenly the wind picks up and it becomes a struggle to make any headway pulling at the oars. You may wonder what this has to do with being “filled to the measure of the fullness of God”! It’s the picture of those on board running up the sail to catch the wind.
There are two ways to live out your Christian life. One, the heavy way, which is the way of human reliance, doing things in your own strength, pulling ceaselessly at the oars of life. But the other is to “hoist the sail” to catch the wind of the Spirit. To know the reality of Christ!
Let’s see an end to pulling at the oars of self-made ministry, where we’ve mislaid our calling, lost our identity or even fallen asleep spiritually!
Wayne Barber writes, “[God’s] power and presence now fill all the universe and all things. He fills it. It is there. Do you know how it is manifested? Through the people of God who have tapped into the divine ability of His Spirit working in them.”
I believe that if you and I ‘tap into the divine’ and give God the total space of our life, He will come and fill it completely, with overflowing richness. Not just a touch, or a taste, but filled with everything in every way. Wow!!
So, why have we settled for less? Perhaps the problem is that we limit God; we try to limit the limitless God according to our own human limitations.
It’s only natural, we know our strengths, our weaknesses, we know what we can do, what we can’t do! So, we try to contain the uncontainable God within our own human plans, but these will always be too small for Him.
“…that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Being filled with all the fullness of God means allowing ourselves to be immersed in His love, in His ways, in His Spirit, and in His word.
Is it really possible I hear you ask?! Paul knew: "I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ" (Rom 15:29).
We have a huge God who is absolutely uncontainable. He doesn’t fit. We and the world cannot accommodate all of Him. He is the uncontainable God. But it must be always our desire for God to become so big in us that His plans become our walk of faith and we consistently reveal Him as the uncontainable God in us and in His church.
A.W. Tozer describes it this way, “We cannot contain all of God because God contains us... we can have all of God that we can contain. If we only knew it, we could enlarge our vessel. The vessel gets bigger as we go on with God.”
The goal of every Christian (in seeking to know God better) must be to be filled completely with God and having a life saturated with His communicable attributes, such as love, goodness, grace and so on.
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form and in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Col 2:9-10).
Our spiritual growth is not by addition, but by subtraction. God takes away everything of me and replaces it with everything of Him. As we draw on Christ’s fullness, we then grow from the inside out. Interestingly, when this happens, our homes, churches, workplaces and schools will also be filled with the fullness of Him.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “When a person is born again into the family of God, he is born complete in Christ. His spiritual growth is not by addition, but by nutrition. He grows from the inside out.”
Or as Ephesians 3 says, being filled “to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
We’ve looked at some of the great sayings in this prayer, but listen - to be FILLED with God is a great thing; to be filled with the FULLNESS of God is still greater; but to be filled with ALL the fullness of God, absolutely amazing. We become believers saturated with God.
Let me explain my understanding of the Greek word for ‘fullness.’ The Greek is ‘pleroma’ and I love what some commentators refer to when seeking to understand what it can mean in the context of Ephesians 3:19. It’s the image of a ship’s hold that is packed with cargo ready to sail. An amazing thought!
What if we were to move out of safe harbour, hoist the sails to His Spirit and live in the fullness of all that God has for us!
May we, today, know the reality of being filled by God again, like a ship being prepared for a new journey of discovery! And know that Christian walk journeying towards spiritual maturity allowing us to experience more and more of God’s fullness.
Karl Barth says, it "equates with concepts of the shekina (glorious presence), spirit or wisdom of God.... God fills his house or the earth with his presence, so that his 'fullness' resides at the chosen place and manifests itself with power...."
Note the phrase, "his 'fullness' resides at the chosen place." You and I are God’s masterpiece, the ‘chosen place’ created in Christ Jesus. Wow!
Being His, created and filled with Him, gives that assurance we’re God’s people and we belong to His family. We’re loved, we’re significant, we’re holy, we’re unique, we’re accepted, forgiven, free and complete in Him. To make us like Himself, God fills us with Himself, with all He is.
Isn’t this incredible?
John 1:16: "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace."
This "fullness" isn't a reward for elite Christians, it’s actually a gift available and necessary for every believer in Christ. Look at Colossians 1:19: “God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him.” Then look at Colossians 2:10: “you are complete in Him."
So, why live empty lives when God has given us His fullness?
I was reminded of an experience many years ago. Alice and I were away with friends at a Sunday celebration. One of the leaders of the church shared a vision they had had before the service started. It was of four people coming to the church that evening and their hearts were like ‘sponges!’ ready to soak up all that God had for them. We knew it was us!
The point of being filled to the fullness of God is not that we get more of Him, but that we
actively yield to Him, and as a consequence, He gets more of us!
The most wonderful thing is, we have Christ, therefore we can’t be missing anything spiritually. So, I wonder, if Jesus walked through every room of your heart today, your private thoughts, those secret ambitions, perhaps even your financial habits, would He find Himself truly 'at home'?
I guess the test is: when life squeezes us what leaks out? Is it the 'fullness of God' or is it the 'life of self'?
Now you know, we are able to “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God!” (v19). Wow!
Is this your desire? Do you truly hunger to be filled to overflowing with God?
Matthew 5:6: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
By the way, overflow is not just found at the end of the process, it can be experienced throughout the journey.
Psalm 25:5: "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows."
Even though our series on ‘Knowing God better’ has come to an end, our desire cannot!
Prayer
"God, of your goodness, give me yourself; you are enough for me, and anything less that I could ask for would not do you full honour. And if I ask anything that is less, I shall always lack something, but in you alone I have everything." Julian of Norwich
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