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LIVING THE FULFILLED LIFE
By
Lawrence Walkup
God is one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:4-6). God does not expect us to comprehend that, but he does expect us to apprehend that by faith. Man was created by God with a body, soul and human spirit (1 Thess. 5:23). God's original intent for man was for God's Holy Spirit to reside in man's human spirit (Rom 8:16); (1 Cor. 6:19). Man was created for the sole purpose of expressing the invisible God. This is exactly what we had in Adam and Eve before the fall; and also what we had in the life of Jesus. One was created spiritually alive and the other was born spiritually alive. The spirit of God residing in man's spirit is what produces the fulfilled life...the fulfilled life that God had always intended for us.
The Bible defines God as a spirit, and it also defines him as love (John 4:24). 'God is love' (1 John 4:16). Ultimately what God wants us to experience is his love. In order for love to operate legitimately, it has to be based on free choice. It has to be based on freedom. There is no such thing as being forced to love. When God's spirit is residing in our spirit, we are participating in the divine nature (11 Pet. 1:4). We are having fellowship with God. We are having a relationship with God. For now, in order for us finite physical beings to engage an infinite spiritual being, the closes we can get to that, is through the dynamic of faith. For now, we don't even have a clue as to what spirit is exactly. God does not want us to be concerned with that anyway. We will know those details when we are on the other side...in heaven (1 Cor. 13:12).
The dynamic of faith is key because this is how we get to the love of God. Our faith in God is what releases God to live through our human spirit and then out through our soul. The Apostle told us that all that matters is faith expressing itself in love (Gal. 5:6). Faith in God results in the love of God...resulting in living a fulfilled life. Our faith in God is actually our love for God (1 John 5:3; 1 John 3:23). This is why faith pleases God (Heb. 11:6). It is a demonstration to God of our love for God. Faith is defined as the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). If our love for God was demonstrated in the things that could be seen; who or what would determine when the demonstrating was enough? This is where we start to get into trouble. When we start talking about man and all the things that can be seen, that is when we start entering into the religious world...the world of pleasing men...the world that God is not a part of (Gal. 1:10). This is why it is faith that is the demonstration of our love. And it is real faith that will produce real works...naturally and effortlessly...not religious works coming from flesh.
Faith like love is based on free choice. God wants us to make the decision in our mind to put faith in him voluntarily. To continually put faith in God is to continually love God. If it wasn't for God loving us first, there is no way we would even know love at all (1 John 4:19). God first loving us is demonstrated in the giving of his Son. Our faith in that event results in God invading our human spirit with his Holy Spirit. We do not even understand what has happened to us? We have all of the love of God indwelling our bodies...because God himself is indwelling our bodies. We're not going to get anymore than what we already have. We didn't just get a part of God...we got all of him. All the love of God that we will ever get is already inside of us (John 1:14). It resides in our heart. However, we only comprehend the love of God more and more as it works its way up to our mind that is being renewed more and more (Eph. 3:18-19). We are being transformed by the renewing of our mind in order to become like God himself...a giver (Rom. 12:2). We in turn give out the love of God to others. 'It is more blessed to give than to receive' (Acts 20:35)...and this results in living the fulfilled life.
If living the fulfilled life is living a life with God's Spirit, then that has to mean living a life without God's spirit is living the unfulfilled life. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. This means when they were created, they were created with God's spirit indwelling them. They were created spiritually alive. However, after they fell, any subsequent human beings born after them were no longer created in the image of God; they were created/born in the image of their father before them (Gen. 5:3). Subsequent human beings were born spiritually dead...without God's Spirit indwelling them. From that moment on in the Old Testament, and if you keep reading through up to the time of Jesus; you will see all the result of man living the unfulfilled life; the life lived without God's Spirit indwelling him. We're talking about 4000 years of history written down on paper. In fact the Old Testament can be summed up in one word...failure. One reason we have the Old Testament for us today is so we can go back and see why man failed and then learn from that (Rom. 15:4). In the general sense for all of mankind...is that happening?...not at all. Today anyone taking heed to the Old Testament would be labeled a radical extremist. Makes you feel like you're a terrorist or something.
What happened with Adam and Eve at the fall is that they lost the life of God. This is what has been passed down to the rest of us human beings since them. All the rest of us are born into this world void of the life of God. We are born spiritually dead. Now I think we can start to see the significance of the term 'born again.' The first time we were born, we were born dead. We need to be born again (John 3:7). The purpose of Jesus coming was to restore to man what was lost...life. And more specifically...the life of God. Jesus said: "I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). Salvation is not about keeping a bunch of laws...it's about life. The reason why Jesus is referred to as the 'second Adam' is because we get a second chance for a new beginning (1 Cor. 15:45-47).
When you are not living a life for which your creator intended...then what kind of life do you live? The human spirit was created to be inhabited by God's Spirit. So without God's Spirit, what then happens with the human spirit? First, what is obvious is that our spirit is empty of that for which it was created, and therefore what we experience is emptiness. There is a nagging that says: 'there has to be more to life than what I'm experiencing.' And from that point onward, think of all the potential, of what can come from that. Really you don't even have to think about it; you can observe it everyday in the newspapers, television, and internet. Or you can read the Old Testament; but people won't do that because they don't believe it.
Man is a dependent creature. Obviously, he is not self-sustaining. If he is not putting his dependency in his creator, then he is going to find something else in life to depend upon. And all this starts from the pull, the wanting of an emptiness that is longing to be satisfied. This really becomes a huge huge problem for the lost rich. Jesus said not to seek material riches for good reason (Matt. 19:24). If you have an endless amount of money to satisfy the longing; the attempt at satisfying the longing never ends because you can afford to keep going. The end result of this is 'burnout'...and then suicide...which you see all the time. Do you remember the Christian slogan from about thirty years ago that said: 'I found it?' You saw it everywhere. If man does not find out what his purpose for living is, he may at best gain the whole world, but he still will lose his soul (Matt. 16:26).
Our human spirit is dead to the one true God, but it is very much alive to searching for a god. That's what it does...it searches. It searches for meaning and purpose to life and therefore sets itself up to be insatiably religious. This works out perfectly for the 'god of this world' (11 Cor. 4:4). He is the god of religion. His name is Satan. He is the one who has established all the religions of the world for the purpose of distracting from the one true God. What other sole purpose would Satan have for being on this earth, if it wasn't for the purpose of establishing as many mockeries of the truth as he can, in order to be worshiped himself as god. This is what got him kicked out of heaven to begin with (Isa. 14:12-14). The religions of the world have a god that they worship, but it isn't the true God.
People would argue that Christianity is not the first religion of the world. It is the first religion of the world and everything that has come after that are counterfeits...from the counterfeiter. First of all, the word Christianity is not even in the Bible. The word comes from Christ. Christ has always existed (John 1:1-2). In fact, Christianity was already in the works at the fall of man (Gen 3:15)...it just wasn't implemented until the resurrection. God's timing in how he worked everything out does not discredit at all the plan that was intended. If the world wants to know what the truth is...start with the original.
Our dead human spirit needs life and the only life that is being offered is coming from God the Father. He is not offering the life of Akhenaten, Parshva, Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, Muhammad, En no Ozuno, or Padmasambhava, or any other names on the long list...because none of these lives rose from the dead. The only life that rose from the dead, that separates the men from the boys, is the life of Jesus. Isn't that exactly the crux of it all...the resurrection? Argue argue all day long, but who rose from the dead...only One.
God did not give us the law to turn us into religious people. He gave us the law to reveal how we can't love...and then to lead us to the one who did and who can (Gal. 3:24). God has called us to freedom that we can't even imagine (Gal. 5:1). Love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:10). There is no law against love (Gal. 5:22). Love is about no restrictions in our life. It is about freedom which results in living the fulfilled life. When God judges all of mankind at the end, he is simply going to ask one question: "What did you do with my Son?"
'Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life' (1 John 5:10-12).
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