Like me, have you also heard that various investigators and prosecutors are cautioned never to ask a question they don’t already know the answer to? I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, it’s obviously intended to prevent them from being blindsided with some totally unexpected response they don’t know how to deal with. No professional interrogator wants to be caught with nothing to offer except one of those looks you might get when finding a live snake in your toilet bowl. Regardless, there’s an intriguing question that came to mind in one of my conversations with God recently. It’s one I don’t recall ever hearing anyone ask about Jesus, or for that matter, any of His more modern-day followers, but it may be good to do just that.

Keeping It in Context ~
Before we get to it, let’s be sure to keep it in context by reminding ourselves what this extended discussion we’re having is all about. With a series title like, Emptying Our Way to Fullness, it’s pretty obvious that our objective is to explore the concept of fullness and God’s process of achieving it. And as we pointed out, in the very beginning, God displayed a preference for fullness and abundance in everything He created. Every principle and procedure He established was designed to ensure that every living thing had access to all it needed to achieve and maintain that state of fullness He envisioned. That was especially true when it came to those incredible creatures He fashioned in His very image. Included in that image was not only a built-in desire for seeking fullness, but the responsibility for promoting and maintaining it, as well. His intent was evident when He delivered their first job description: 

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28 NKJV)

Like every other good and righteous thing God imparted, sin perverted our approach to those qualities and responsibilities associated with seeking fullness. In spite of that, God has endeavored to keep a desire for fullness alive in us. Throughout our history, He has continued to systematically call us, draw us, entice us, equip us, and reward us for seeking the kind of fullness He offers. Finally, after delivering untold examples and illustrations of the kind of fullness God wants for us, He did the ultimate thing. He took on human flesh, became one of us, and lived it out among us. In the person of Jesus, the living God became the living, visible, touchable example of what fullness looks like. And beyond that, Jesus became the way through which the fullness intended from the beginning was made available to any and every human being who wants it. And Jesus made sure we didn’t miss that astounding reality of who He is and the opportunity He presents. He did that by inspiring His New Testament writers to inscribe comments like these: 

For it pleased the Father that in Him [Jesus] all the fullness should dwell. (Colossians 1:19 NKJV)

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; (Colossians 2:9 NKJV)

At least two things are undeniably clear. The first is that Jesus was the consummate example of what being filled with the Spirit is really like. The second is that God’s desire is that following Him includes personal participation in that phenomenon. He made His intention clear with comments like these: 

…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17–19 NKJV)

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18 NKJV)

An Unusual Exchange ~
That concept was on my mind during one of my prayer walks recently. I was  pondering the fact that Jesus was continually filled with the Spirit and that God’s expectation is that we follow His example. And in the course of that conversation I recalled a friend in my seminary days who used to irritate fellow students just by walking up and asking, “Are you filled with the Holy Spirit right now?” It led me to wonder what God would do if I just asked Him to fill me with His Spirit right now. So I did that. Then, in what felt like an unusual, almost awkward silence, it seemed as though I heard a very clear, one-word response. “Why?”

It was shockingly simple, mind-numbingly direct, and personal. I wondered, of course, ‘why’ God would ask me, “Why?”  It’s like we had back and forth “Why” questions. And as I contemplated what my honest answer would be, some other questions seemed to emerge from God’s side that were clarifying. Some of which were these: 

• • Do you want to be filled with the Spirit so you can do supernatural things and be seen as more spiritually powerful than others?
  • Do you want to be filled with the Spirit so you can speak more eloquently, and worship more expressively, and lead Bible studies more creatively than others? 
  • Do you want to be filled with the Spirit so you can order devils and demons around and send them running when you come around?
  • Do you want to be filled with the Spirit so bad things don’t really affect you like they do other people? 
  • Do you want to be filled with the Spirit so others feel unusual things when you lay your hands on them to pray?
  • In a nutshell, do you want to be filled with the Spirit for Me – or for you? 

As those things ran through my head, a statement came into focus that Luke made as he described an episode where Jesus was busy doing the kinds of things He commonly did. In an almost off-handed kind of way, Luke said this about Jesus: 

And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. (Luke 6:19 NKJV)

Then another comment came to mind. In Mark’s account of Jesus healing the woman with the issue of blood, we find this: 

For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” (Mark 5:27–30 NKJV)

The Key Unveiled ~
And therein lies the key to understanding what God intended with that strange process that began with us asking each other, “Why?” God’s whole point in wanting us to be filled with His Spirit is revealed in those simple observations made by the inspired Gospel writers who said, “power went out from Him.” . . . God wants to fill us so He can dispense what He puts in us to those who need it – End of story. 

His passionate desire to fill us isn’t to make us more special, or more powerful, or more productive, or to make us better church members. It’s so that when we’re confronted with questions, our answers sound more like Him than us. It’s so that when we run across someone broken, lost, hurting, hungry, angry, or hopelessly confused, we respond like He would. God wants to fill us with qualities that belong to Him so that He can send them out from us to others. 

God has a thing about ‘empty’ spaces. He likes to fill them with what they were designed to contain, so, if you find yourself asking God to fill you with His Spirit, don’t be surprised if you hear a still, small voice asking, “Why?” And as we think through that, it may be good to also do a regular inventory of what’s gone out from us lately.

__________________________

Thanks so much for joining us today, and please consider returning next week for Part 4, which will be our final installment for this series. 

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to Tweet & Share from the pull quotes below. Each quote links directly to this article through Twitter.

• • • God has endeavored to keep a desire for fullness alive in us. Throughout our history, He has continued to systematically call us, draw us, entice us, equip us, and reward us for seeking the kind of fullness He offers. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • Jesus became the ultimate kind of fullness God wants for us by taking on human flesh, becoming one of us, and living it out among us. In that, the living God then became the living, visible, touchable example of what fullness looks like.  @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • God’s whole point in wanting us to be filled with His Spirit is revealed in simple observations made by the inspired Gospel writers who said, “power went out from Him.” God wants to fill us so that He can dispense what He puts in us to those who need it. End of story. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
    • His passionate desire is to fill us so when we find someone broken, lost, hurting, hungry, angry, or hopelessly confused, we respond like He would. God wants to fill us with qualities that belong to Him so He can send them out from us to others. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)

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