Yan Handley preached from Ephesians 3:19 last night, talking about ‘being filled to the measure of all the fulness of God’. We were challenged to enlarge our vision of God, seeing Him as He really is. That kind of revelation of God will always change us. Revelation brings transformation: think of Isaiah in the temple, gazing on the Lord (Isaiah 6), being transformed from a compromising priest to a compelling prophet; think of Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), being transformed from a religious bigot to a radical believer; think of John on the island of Patmos (Rev 1), being transformed from an exiled missionary to an elated visionary. The revelation of God brings transformation.
God has a provision of abundance available for our lives. The land the Israelites were given was a ‘land flowing with milk and honey.’ Jesus talked about ‘life in all its fulness’. Life is about so much more than the abundance of our possessions (Luke 12:15). God crowns ‘the year with your bounty and your carts overflow with abundance’ (Ps 65:11); as Malachi says, God will open the floodgates of heaven to pour out blessing on those who honour Him; the blessing of God is ‘pressed down, shaken together, running over’ (Luke 6:38).
The blessings of God are abundant, like a banquet (Song of Songs 2:4, Ps 23:5). The table prepared for us is prepared ‘in the presence of my enemies’. The enemies of fear, doubt, insecurity, failure, frustration and torment can seek to rob us of God’s blessing, but His blessings of deliverance, joy, peace and rest are available to us. He is the great ‘I AM’ and is able to reward all those who diligently seek Him.
In order to approach God and receive His blessings, we need:
1) Passion
2) Priority
3) Purity
1) Passion
Ps 37:4 urges us to ‘delight yourselves in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.’ Matthew 5 urges us to hunger and thirst for righteousness; we need that thirst for God which Jesus talked about in John 7. As the deer pants for the water, so our souls must long for God with the passion of an intimate relationship.
2) Priority
God has to be first in our lives. We need to keep Him as the ‘centre and substance of our being’ (see Ps 16:8, 11). Jesus was very clear about our need to have God as the first priority in our lives:
“seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33)
So often we get our priorities muddled and try to get the ‘other things’ sorted first; Jesus tells us that we need to put God first and He will then sort out all the ‘other things’ that are essential to life.
3) Purity
Compromise and impurity will inevitably affect our relationship with God. Ps 24 talks about the need for “clean hands and a pure heart,who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god” (Ps 24:4). Jesus told us that the pure in heart will see God (Matt 5:8). There is no substitute for purity of thoughts, motives, attitudes and behaviour.
When we make God our passion and priority and have purity in our lives, we can be an effective witness to the power and provision of the Lord. We have to admit our need, believe His promise and respond and receive from God in faith.