One word from the lips of the man who has actually heard the lute play will have more effect than a score of sermons by the man who has only heard that it was played. Acquaintance is always better than hearsay.
~A.W. Tozer
Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of His power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in Whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
Anyone getting even the least bit excited yet…?
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him Who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles in Ephesians 3
Oh beloved, it is true, if one does not burn a little bit when one reads a passage like this, our wood is probably a bit wet. And while we do indeed live in a world that wants us to think our glass is half-empty, there are those optimistic crowds who would have us look at the same vessel as half-full.
And both groups are missing the point altogether.
Surely our circumstances in this place are real. It is just that they become irrelevant. We are no more bulletproof when we came to know Him, than before. It is just that bullets simply do not matter any more.
As His beloved, we no longer measure the success or failure of our lives based on the circumstance of our lives. We have come to realize that without Him, we are nothing – and in Him, there is absolutely nothing that can stop us.
We do indeed come through bigger and bigger waves in our lives, and it is in all of this that we begin to realize we are indeed more than overcomers (read hyper-triumphant) through Him who Loves us and has given us His life for us.
And in being these hyper-victorious believers He is making real, right-here and right-now, we begin to see that we truly are overflowing the capacity of our own frames to contain the flow. For it is rivers of Living Water that now flow out of us. And the Wellspring of this flow is the Infinite Source of everything.
Said simply, we are full of, and overflowing with, Him – and He never runs out.
Can we see it?
