If you were satan and you wanted to tempt Adam and Eve into sinning against God, how would you do it, what lie would you use? How would you tempt them when they have need of nothing? They lack nothing, they have been provided everything they will ever need. Yet, satan convinced them that they needed more and that God had not provided everything they needed. This lie served satan well in the garden and is one that he has been using successfully on the church ever since.
The church culture that I grew up around was one of constantly crying out for more. This is the sales pitch of religion, that we’re lacking something; that we’re dirty and we’re distant. We are told that we need more commitment and more dedication, maybe then we can get clean and get close to God. Many go from church to church, conference to conference, looking for something more.
We would pray for more of God, for more faith, for more anointing, for more, more, more. I would often hear the phrase, “more of Him and less of me” or “all of Him and none of me”. Prayers like, “Lord may I decrease, and you increase”, were common request. You may be thinking, “What’s wrong with the cry for more?” Because it insinuates that the problem is on God’s end, that He has withheld things that we need from us and that all our problems could be solved if He would just grant us more of Him. Listen, God can’t give you any more of Himself than He has already given you. You have been given Christ Jesus, the fullness of the God-Head dwells within you by His Spirit.
Is the Christian life all of Him and none of me? This is not a statement of humility, but ignorance. Your life is not all of Him and none of you. Think about this, when Jesus came to earth, was it all of God and none of Him? NO-it was all of God and all of Him. Theologians describe it this way, Jesus was 100% God and 100% man.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV) – But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
It is possible to make Christianity just another religion. How? Every religion has a founder, a teacher, and some teachings, which people look back on and seek to imitate and obey his teachings. That’s not the way it is with us.
Romans 7:4 (NKJV) – Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another–to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
The resurrection means that we carry the teacher Himself within us. We have not just a ticket to heaven when we die, but His life lived through us here and now.
The Bible message is not “Christ instead of your life”, It’s not “let go and let God”, it’s not that “I need to get out of the way so He can move without me”. God is not trying to replace you, He already has, He wants to embrace you, every aspect of your being. It is CHRIST IN YOU the hope of glory! Jesus lived in real human flesh to show that His divinity is entirely compatible with your humanity. Christ is my life now. This is very different from Christ being a part of my life or saying that I’m going to make Christ a “priority in my life”. Apart from Christ we have no life!
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) – I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
We were never made to live this life from our own power, our own wisdom, or our own resources. If it’s all of Him and none of me, that makes us passive, we will just sit back and attempt nothing and blame it on “waiting on Him”. We lack nothing. Jesus possesses all of God the Father. We possess all of Jesus and He possesses all of us. It’s a complete union:
Colossians 2:9-10 (NKJV) – For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
You have been given His “fullness”, not His “half-ness”! You are complete in Him! What does it mean to be complete in Him? It means the search is over, no more hungering, and no more thirsting. I hear Christians saying, “I’m hungry for the Lord or I’m thirsty for Him”. But Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). If we are hungry for the Lord it’s not God’s fault, it’s because we’re not eating. Jesus is the “bread”, we can eat anytime we desire.
The Bible teaches that God has given (not will give) us ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness.
2 Peter 1:2-3 (NKJV) – Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
Ephesians 1:3 (NKJV) – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
I realize this is hard for some to accept, but the only thing that we are lacking is knowledge in the finished work of Jesus. You will not find any of the apostles praying for more of God in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul never prayed for “more of God”, but he did pray that “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” be given to us.
John 1:16 (NKJV) – And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
1 Peter 4:10 (NKJV) – As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Peter spoke of the manifold grace of God. He says they are various forms of grace. In other words, there is not just one side of grace. Grace is multifaceted. Most define grace simply as unmerited favor. This is true, grace is unearned, underserved, it’s a gift. If you had to do something to earn it, then it’s not grace. Grace is received, not achieved. But grace is more than unmerited favor, grace is what God did for you, independent of you. By Grace, Jesus died for the sin of the entire world. He didn’t wait until you sinned and needed grace, He provided it independent of you, before you were born. God’s grace provided salvation from the foundation of the world. Therefore, if He provided everything you would need independent of you, then it has nothing to do with your performance, your worthiness, etc.
Titus 2:11 (NKJV) – For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
The grace of God has been made available to all men, saved men, lost men, God lovers, and God haters. If grace alone saved us, then everyone would be saved. Not everyone is saved. WHY? Because, we are not saved by grace alone, but by grace through faith (Eph 2:8). You must respond to God’s grace with faith in order to receive it. God’s grace alone doesn’t save you, heal you, or bless you.
Hebrews 4:2-3 (NKJV) – For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
The gospel must be responded to by faith. Faith doesn’t move God, it moves us into a place to receive. God is not the one that needs to move, we are.
In Acts chapter three, Peter and John encounter a lame man at the gate of the temple. Peter looks at this man and says, “such as I have, I give thee”. Peter didn’t say, “such as heaven has or such as God has, he said, such as I have”. Peter didn’t even pray and ask God to heal this man. What did Peter have? He had an understanding of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. He understood that God has already provided by His grace the healing that this man needed. When you understand grace–that God has already provided everything–you will become a commander instead of a beggar, a believer instead of a doubter.