More of God
I went to a weekend conference with our youth group, and there was something that the worship leader kept saying that bothered me. Now, don’t get me wrong. He was a great guy, and the band was great. You could tell that they love Jesus and wanted to lead students into a powerful experience of worshiping the Lord. And they did. It was great.
But the thing he kept praying for over and over again throughout the weekend was for more of God.
“We want more of you God.”
“God, we need more of you.”
“Give us more of you God.”
It really began to bother me. Do we only get a portion of God when we believe in Jesus for salvation? If I need more of God, how much more? Will there ever be a time when I don’t need more, or is it possible to finally come to a point where I’ve got all of God a person can get?
If I need more of God, how do I get more of Him? Does He show up when we ask Him to through prayer? Do I get more of Him if I am truly worshipping Him, behaving more like Jesus, or reading the Bible every day?
The truth is that we don’t need more of God because we get all of God the moment we put our faith in Jesus for salvation.
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
When a person receives Jesus’ free gift of forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Christ, he or she is indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul teaches this in Ephesians 1:13-14.
13 … When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance…
(Ephesians 1:13-14)
Notice that Paul says at the moment of belief, the Holy Spirit is deposited into a believer’s life. There is nothing more a person must do in order to have God, the Holy Spirit. God comes to live in you in an instant.
Notice also that the Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance. In other words, He isn’t going anywhere. God will dwell in us forever from that time on. You won’t ever have to pray and ask Him to come because He’ll always be there.
Union with Christ
The other thing that happens at the moment of salvation is that you enter into a spiritual union with Jesus.
In that same Ephesians’ passage that shows the Holy Spirit is deposited into us, Paul also says we are included in Christ.
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
(Ephesians 1:13)
To be in Christ means to be in a spiritual union with Him. God, the Son dwells in you and you in Him. That also is a spiritual union that will last forever. As a matter of fact, in Christ, you are already spiritually seated in heaven (Eph. 2:6).
What is crazy is that through this spiritual union, you become one with God.
17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit
(1 Cor. 6:17)
You are so intertwined in a spiritual union with Christ, that you are one with Him. There is no “God up there and you down here.” There is no separation of any kind. You are one with the Lord.
You have all of God
As the Spirit comes to dwell in you and unites you to Jesus, you are not just getting part of God. You are getting all of God. It is not a partial filling or a partial union. It’s a complete filling of the Spirit and union with Christ.
Here’s the way the apostle Paul writes about it in Colossians 2:9-10…
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.
(Colossians 2:9-10)
In Christ, you have been brought to fullness. There’s no more of God to add. You have all of Him, all of the time.
The apostle John puts it this way in 1 John 4:15…
“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.”
(1 John 4:15)
If you’ve acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God and your Lord and Savior, you don’t need to ask for more of God. The fullness of God lives in you and you in God!
More of God
Too many Christians are living their lives trying to get more of God when the truth is, they already have the fullness of God! When you fall for this lie, you will live your life constantly trying to get filled up with more of God in worship or through the spiritual activity in your life.
Sometimes you’ll feel close to God and sometimes you won’t, but that is not because you’ve gotten more of Him or because He’s left you for some reason. Our feelings fluctuate. That’s why we must know the truth and renew our minds to that truth.
If you don’t, you’ll spend the rest of your life exhausted from the need to get more filled up. You’ll go to church, and you’ll feel like you get more of God. Then you’ll leave, and you’ll feel like you get further away from God throughout the week. You’ll have to come back week after week to get more filled up with God, but you’ll never be able to truly rest.
Instead, learn to live from the fullness of God in you and you in God. Walk by faith that it is true even when you don’t feel like it is. Rest in all that you have in your union with Him and allow His fullness to be expressed through you to impact others around you.
