Ephesians 1:20b–23.He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
We are the fullness of Him who fills all in all. He is going to fill all things, even the world that does not know Him. The knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).
God intends for us, as His Church, to be the fullness of Him who fills all in all. That may be a difficult concept for the religious mind to accept. Our minds do not grasp the magnitude of this truth. The body of Christ is to be the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
The body of Christ has been divided and scattered, but the lord is bringing about a oneness of spirit. Those who have the same spirit shall be joined together to become the army of the Lord.
Ephesisan 4: 8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. God is making an invasion. He is going to fill everything, and He will fill us first. Then we will become a manifestation of His fullness, and that fullness will fill everything else.
There are different spirits controlling different areas, they control territories and actually seem to possess certain areas. The spirit of perversion hangs over certain cities. There are some cities in which the spirit of murder prevails. Self-righteousness hangs over certain areas.
God is not simply concerned about getting a few churches started; He is concerned about our liberating certain areas from spiritual oppression.
We are never going to move forward until we realize that these areas are held in futility. In certain cities, no matter what work of God is started; it is perverted and ends in futility, until the spirits over those cities are brought down.
All creation is subject to futility until we, who are the fullness of Him who fills all things, come forth. We can never rest until every bond of futility is broken for all time. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, henceforth expecting until every enemy is made the footstool of His feet.
Once we begin to believe that there is authority over futility, we will not accept it any longer. We stand firm in this one belief: the day of release is upon us. This is the acceptable year of the Lord.
We must understand this: in Him we have been made complete, and He is the Head over all rule and authority. We are complete in Christ. We may object, thinking that God cannot use us because we have too many problems, but the Scripture does not say that we are not going to have any problems; it says that we are complete in Christ.
If we are weak, He will confound the mighty through us. If we are not too smart, He will confound the wise through us. If we are base, God has chosen the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, the lord will be glorified in us.
The Lord wants us to realize that we are complete in Him. This concept must become a part of us. We have accepted the futility on all of creation; but when we are in Christ, we have to accept the release from that futility. We may still feel the futility, but that is only the assault of the enemy. Futility is not a reality; it is an illusion. What is the reality? Our completeness in Christ is the reality.
We must decide what truth is and what a lie is. The futility is a lie. This is the day of the sons of God. The futility is a lie. We will either come to faith, or we will have futility. As faith is released we will believe in the completeness that we have in Christ Jesus the Lord. We are complete in Him.
The enemy will move through hereditary characteristics in some families to produce certain patterns of frustration and futility which keep coming up again and again. But once we submit to the fullness of Christ within, this trend will change.
Colossians 3:11 speaks of a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
In Christ there is no distinction, but that is just the negative side of the picture. The positive side of the picture is: Christ is all, and in all.
Christ is all, and in all. It does not make any difference what kind of exterior a person has, because the Lord removes it anyway. He takes the Jew and makes him generous. Christ in the Jew becomes a giver. Christ in an Irishman makes him gentle. Christ in a Frenchman makes him stable. Christ in an Italian makes him long-suffering. And so on and so forth.
With all the different nationalities and peoples, Christ is all and in all. He changes us and gives us a new heredity, a new disposition, a new nature. We must become accustomed to thinking that our completeness is in Christ because this is the key to the renewal of our minds. We are complete in Christ. There is nothing lacking.
We may yet see much that needs to be done in us. But we will never see it done as long as we look at the faults and try to correct them. We have to fill ourselves with God, and He will invade every area of our life.
In order to fill us, He first has to empty us; and it is that emptying process that we are experiencing now. One thing we must do is discard the feelings and thoughts and emotions of futility. Those must go!
Have you recently been assaulted with more doubts and delusions than ever? Do you feel that the enemy is really working you over? Good! Satan would not be doing that to you, if you were not ready to break through into the victory.
We are the ones who will manifest the first fruits of the Spirit. Someone has to do it. Someone must face this tidal wave of futility and frustration and stand against it, believing God for the manifestation of the sons of God, and for the fullness of Christ to be manifested.
Someone must believe for more than just a trickle of blessing. There must be a flood; there must be a tidal wave. We have to come to Christ and drink; then out of our belly will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). The fullness has to flow, and this is the time.
We are being changed from the inside out; God cannot fill everything until he fills us first. And then through us he will fill everything.