“…to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27
Lately, I have been pondering the reality of Jesus being in me. I have been trying to figure out how to get Him out of me. In other words, I want Him to express His love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control through me. Specifically, I have been focused on receiving His faith in Father and then releasing it out of me.
These last few years have been stormy for me. At times, I have given ground to both fear and anxiety by focusing on the waves, wind, rain and lightning. I know that behind all fear is unbelief. So, I have been praying for Jesus to fill me with His faith; the kind of faith that can easily sleep through storms or walk on the water right through them. As a result, I have been experiencing the release of His faith and His peace even though the storms have not subsided.
In my prayers, I simply cry out declaring my desperate need for Him to fill me with His faith, and He has always done so and calmed my soul. A humble heart will never be despised by the Lord. In fact, a humble heart is what He seeks. Humility is totally dependence on God for all things. I realize that I cannot muster up faith; I have to simply rest and receive the faith of Jesus. He is more than ready and willing to supply me with it. He eagerly awaits my cry, and is overjoyed to fill me with Himself.
We are all designed to need Father. He alone is the Source and Giver of Life, and He wants to give us life abundantly. No one can out give God. He wants to pour His life into me and through me to bless others with His presence. Sin boogers this all up from the moment we are born, but once we are reborn by faith into Jesus’ family, we can once again receive His life in abundance every moment of every day. Why don’t we do this? Our selfish, proud flesh clogs up the flow of His Spirit. It is only when we choose by faith, to put off our selfish flesh, and cry out in our neediness that we can be filled with Him. The flesh does not want to admit its neediness. It wants to do what it wants to do when it wants to do it, and it hates being told otherwise. Even as believers, our flesh hates to admit that it cannot successfully live the Christian life no matter how hard it tries.
Do you really want to experience God’s abundant life flowing through you? The first step to experiencing the filling and releasing of the life of Jesus in you is admitting your inability to do anything apart from Him. So, if you want to experience the fruits of the Spirit, admit your need to Him, cry out to Him in humility, ask Him to fill you with all that He is, and believe that He will answer and fill you with His abundant life!