Strngthened With Power - The Fullness Of Being In The Body Of Christ Series

II. The Power of the Body… And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. May have power = to have full strength, i.e. be entirely competent . The word “grasp” means to take eagerly; to possess or seize. God wants you to competently seize every dimension of His love… that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. The words used here are words of excess. If you can remember I have told you in the past that the word translated “Abundant” means to super abound. It goes beyond having enough… but refers to what it is like to have more than enough at all times for all things. Listen to me. This full power or competence is from the Lord. It is magnified in the church when a body of believers comes together to know the love, the power, the fullness of God. As an individual you have power. But together we have great power. When I worked maintenance in a factory I found out some things about machinery. Each one had great potential, but there was, in each machine a 12 volt control circuit that told each part of the machine what to do. There were some parts of the machine that operate individually and those saws ran on 110 volts controlled by the 12 volt circuit. But there were other parts of the machine that had to operate in unison with other parts and those parts required 220 volts. And still there was the drive portion of the machines that needed 440 volts. You can look at the church this way. The 110 volts are individuals each doing their own part. The 220 volts is the local church coming together to accomplish what is need locally. The 440 is the universal church – the drive mechanism – taking the church to its fullness. But it is the 12 volt circuit – the Holy Spirit – that brings it all together to make it work as the body of Christ.

III. The Potential of the Body… 20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, This has always been one of my favorite verses in the bible because it incorporates who we are “IN HIM” with who He is, and helps us to understand that the power and authority that He has given us is without limit in the spiritual realm and is intended to flow out of us into the natural realm. Look at Mark 11:22-24, 22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. What do you think that Jesus is trying to tell His disciples? Isn’t that beyond belief? Isn’t that more than you can imagine. Would you ever ask for something so big? Yet Paul says that power is at work in us. It’s not our power – it’s His – at work in us…21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.