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God truly loves us. The Bible tells us that He took some tremendous steps in order to save us. As God’s children, we experience His help when we have difficulties and can come to Him with all our cares.
But knowing this, it’s possible for all our prayers to revolve around ourselves. We ask God for things we need, and even when it comes to God’s will, our prayer is usually, “God, what is Your will for me?” Somehow, we always end up at the center.
If we stop to consider that God is the One who created the heavens and earth and all mankind, we have to wonder why He did it. Could God have a goal in mind beyond simply caring for the details of our personal welfare?
The idea that God might want something for Himself may never have crossed our minds. After all, God is Almighty; He doesn’t lack anything.
Have you ever thought to ask God, “Is there something You want for Yourself?” In this post, we’ll read some key verses from Ephesians together with notes in the New Testament Recovery Version to help us find the answer to this question.
First, let’s just consider ourselves. We human beings seek joy, and we make plans and take steps to get what we desire. No one had to teach us to feel or think that way. You could say our desire for joy and satisfaction is a reflection of God’s desire for joy and satisfaction. This shouldn’t surprise us, since Genesis 1:26 tells us God made us in His own image. So this should be a clear indicator to us that God also has a desire, something that will bring Him joy.
But most importantly, the Bible tells us directly that God does indeed want something for Himself, that He has a desire in His heart that must be fulfilled.
Ephesians 1:9 says:
“Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.”
In this verse, we read the words will, good pleasure, and purposed. These words show us that God has something in His heart that He wants. The word pleasure refers to a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment. God has a good pleasure, something that will make Him happy and satisfy His heart. He purposed this good pleasure in Himself, and His will is according to that good pleasure.
Now let’s read Ephesians 1:5, another verse where good pleasure appears:
“Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”
This verse reveals that God’s good pleasure has something to do with our sonship. But what does this mean?
Let’s read the first part of note 2 from the New Testament Recovery Version:
“God’s marking us out beforehand was to destine us unto sonship. We were predestinated to be sons of God even before we were created. Hence, as God’s creatures we need to be regenerated by Him that we may participate in His life to be His sons. Sonship implies having not only the life but also the position of a son.”
God marked us out and predestinated us unto sonship. This means our destiny is sonship. And our sonship isn’t just for our benefit; it’s so God can obtain His good pleasure and heart’s desire!
We received the life of God when we were born again, making us His sons. Now by sharing His divine life, we can participate in and grow in His life. The more we grow in His life—eventually becoming full-grown sons—the more God gains His expression in us. This is why He redeemed us, regenerated us, and is working in us day by day.
And there’s more: God doesn’t want just individual sons. God wants all His sons together to be a living entity, full of His life, that can express Him to the entire universe. What is this living entity?
This living entity that God wants is the church.
The apostle Paul ends Ephesians chapter 1 with writing about the church in verses 22 and 23.
Verse 22 says:
“And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.”
Note 4 on church explains:
“Here this book uses the term church for the first time, pointing out the main subject of this book. The Greek word for church is ekklesia, meaning the called-out congregation. This indicates that the church is a gathering of those who have been called out of the world by God. As such, the church is composed of all the believers in Christ.”
In a book that speaks of God’s good pleasure and purpose, the main subject is the church. This shows us that the church is the desire of God’s heart.
What is the church? According to the Bible, the church isn’t a physical building or a religious organization; the church is the called-out congregation. This congregation is composed of all the believers in Christ who are regenerated sons of God. Together, these sons of God are the church that can satisfy God’s heart’s desire.
So the church revealed in the Bible is a living entity composed of all the believers who have God’s life! The church is God’s good pleasure.
Paul continued in Ephesians 1:23:
“[the church,] which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.”
This verse shows us that the church isn’t just the called-out congregation; the church is the Body of Christ, who is the Head.
Now let’s read note 1 on Body in verse 23:
“The Body of Christ is not an organization but an organism constituted of all the regenerated believers for the expression and activities of the Head. The Body of Christ is the issue of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, who has come into the church. By means of the ascended Christ’s heavenly transmission, we are made one with Him, and thus His Body is produced.”
Just as our physical body is an organism, a living entity, and not a lifeless organization, the church is the Body of Christ. Christ is the living Head, and all He is and has is transmitted to the church, which is His living Body.
[[Free Study Bible]]
Verse 23 further reveals that the church, the Body, is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. What does that mean?
Note 2 on fullness explains:
“The Body of Christ is His fullness. The fullness of Christ issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (3:8). Through the enjoyment of Christ’s riches, we become His fullness to express Him.”
The more we enjoy Christ and His riches, the more we as His Body become His fullness.
Then the first paragraph of note 3 on the word fills explains:
“Christ, who is the infinite God without any limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the church to be His fullness for His complete expression.”
No wonder God longs to have the church. It’s through the church that He can be fully expressed! And His plan for gaining the church includes each one of us. God created us, saved us, and regenerated us for this. Today He’s mingling Himself more with us and working Himself into us for this.
We’ve seen that the book of Ephesians reveals God has a heart’s desire that He purposed in Himself. Our sonship is part of this desire, and ultimately, God wants a full expression of Himself through the church, the Body of Christ.
In future posts we’ll delve further into the matter of the church. The church as revealed in the Bible, and especially in the book of Ephesians, is what God wants. For now, let’s prayerfully consider before the Lord the verses cited in this post to see that God’s desire is the church. We can pray something like this:
“Lord, open my eyes and give me revelation to see the church is Your heart’s desire. Show me what the church is according to Your Word.”
Ephesians chapter 1 is incredibly profound; it reveals that the desire of God’s heart is the church, the Body of Christ. We could only touch on this matter briefly in this post. If you live in the US, we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here so you can read all the verses with their notes in this marvelous chapter. In addition, The Glorious Church is a wonderful book that provides an overview of God’s plan as it relates to the church. You can download it for free here from anywhere in the world.
Have you ever felt discouraged after you experienced a failure in your Christian life? Maybe you wondered why God let you fail, especially since He could have prevented you from making that mistake. After all, doesn’t God want us to have a good testimony as Christians?
In this post, we’ll explore why God sometimes lets us fail, and how our failures can actually help us grow in our Christian life.
First, it’s helpful to understand what happened when we were saved and how that affects the rest of our Christian life. We know we were forgiven of our sins and saved from eternal judgment; the Lord’s marvelous salvation took care of our past and assured our future.
But what’s more, we were born again, and Christ came to live in us. This Christ who lives in us is now our life. Colossians 3:4 says:
“When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.”
In the New Testament Recovery Version, note 1 on Christ in this verse explains:
“That Christ is our life is a strong indication that we are to take Him as life and live by Him, that we are to live Him in our daily life in order to experience the universally extensive Christ revealed in this book [Colossians], so that all He is and has attained and obtained will not remain objective but will become our subjective experience.”
This note helps us realize the Lord isn’t focused on whether we’re perfect and make no mistakes. He’s focused on whether we take Him as our life and live by Him. He wants us not just to know that He lives in us but to subjectively experience Him as our life.
Now that Christ is our life, He wants us to take Him as our life and live by Him in all the circumstances of our daily life. When we live this way, we experience and enjoy Him. Then spontaneously, we express Him to everyone around us. This is the Christian life.
If we don’t realize this, we’ll spend our time trying—and failing—to live what we think is a God-pleasing life by our own effort. Even if we were to somehow succeed, this isn’t what the Lord wants. He’s our life, so He wants us to live by Him.
[[Free Study Bible]]
This is where failures come in. It’s not that the Lord wants us to fail. But He knows our failures can help us realize what our real need is.
For this reason, the Lord faithfully provides the perfect environment to uncover our inadequacies. We may think we’re spiritually strong, but He arranges the necessary circumstances to show us how weak we really are, and how much we need Him.
For instance, we might think we’re loving, kind, and patient. But then the Lord brings someone into our life that taxes our love, making it evident it’s not that deep or lasting. Given the right circumstances, we’re not even that kind. And on top of it, this person strains our patience. Before we know it, we blow up in anger.
This failure shows us we’re not the “good Christian” we thought we were. But this isn’t a negative thing! It helps us realize again that Jesus Christ is the only One who can live a proper Christian life. It reminds us that He came into us to be our life, and that we need to live by Him.
Through our failures, the Lord is able to shine on us to expose our real inner situation before Him. His light reduces the high estimation we have of ourselves. He shines so we can recognize how short we are of living by Christ in our experience. This causes us to turn to Him, to call on Him, and to even cry out to Him in prayer. It’s when we fall that we begin to grasp our need to take Christ as our life and truly experience Him with every person and matter in our lives.
Under the Lord’s light we’re humbled, our self-assurance is broken, and we become fearful of relying on ourselves. Consequently, we’re much more open to Him than when we thought we were doing fine. The Lord needs this kind of openness in order to grow in us.
Furthermore, when our shortcomings are laid bare by the Lord’s light, we aren’t quite so trusting in our own ability or goodness. We see that our goodness means nothing, and we’re more willing to let Christ live in us and through us. All of the Lord’s shining on us when we fail makes us more willing to turn to Him and behold Him, and to be refreshed in our love for Him.
None of this means we should deliberately fail or think it’s okay to be careless with sin. To maintain our relationship with the Lord, we need to care for the condition of our heart and heed the voice of our conscience. And when the Lord makes us aware of sins we’ve committed, we need to confess those sins to Him to receive His forgiveness and cleansing. These are all healthy and necessary spiritual practices we need to take care of to have a normal Christian life.
But we will fail, and when we do, we can view these failures as helpful and necessary instead of being discouraged. Through our failures, Christ has the opportunity to shine on us and cause us to turn and open to Him. We’re reminded that Christ is our life, and we must live by Him.
If we have this understanding, we won’t be overcome by discouragement and disappointment when we fail. Instead, we’ll turn more quickly to Christ and even thank Him for His wisdom in dealing with us. We’ll open to Him in a deeper way so that we can learn to truly take Him as our life.
In this post, we only quoted note 1 of Colossians 3:4; note 2 sheds more light on Christ being our life and points out how Colossians reveals the riches of Christ for our experience and enjoyment. If you live in the US, we encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here to read these and other notes that will help you enter into a deeper experience of Christ.
As those who love the Lord Jesus, the One who loved us and gave Himself up for us, we want to do something for Him in return. We may ask Him, “Lord, what do You want me to do for You?” or “How can I be useful to You?”
God already has a multitude of angels who serve Him, so does God also need us human beings to serve Him and do something for Him?
The Bible reveals that what God desires isn’t that we do something for Him. He wants us to express Him. In this post we’ll read some verses and notes in the New Testament Recovery Version to explore what the Bible reveals about what God wants from us.
In another post, we discussed the great matter of God’s plan for humanity. God’s plan sprang from His desire to share His divine life with us by coming into us. By joining Himself with us inwardly, He would be our life and fill our whole being. Being filled with God, we would live by Him and spontaneously express Him.
Expressing God would be the result not of our doing something apart from Him but of our being one with Him and filled with Him.
In fact, we may perform many good deeds for God, but in doing them, we don’t express God at all. Instead, we may simply express ourselves because we do them by our natural person and natural energy, and not by the life of God in us.
[[Free Study Bible]]
So that we can contain Him and be filled with Him, God created us a certain way. The Bible reveals God made us as vessels. One of many verses that show us this is Romans 9:23-24:
“In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory, even us, whom He has also called.”
God is the divine Potter, and human beings are vessels, designed with a human spirit that can contact, receive, and even contain Him.
Before we were saved, we were empty vessels. But when we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we received Him into our spirit, the deepest, innermost part of our being. He came into us, lives in our spirit, and wants to fill us completely.
To express God, we must be filled with Him. What we’re filled with is what we automatically express. If we’re filled with God, we’ll express Him. If we’re filled with other things, we’ll express those things.
So God’s concern isn’t that we would do something for Him but that we would be filled with Him.
Now that we’re saved, God wants us to continue to receive Him until our whole being is filled with Him and even overflowing with Him.
God not only made us with a human spirit that can receive Him but He also created a thirst in us for Himself. This thirst causes us to long for Him. Nothing but God can quench this thirst.
John 7:37-38 says:
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”
Notice that Jesus didn’t cry out, “Come to Me and do something for Me.” He said, “Come to me and drink.” He wants us to come to Him and receive Him by drinking Him as the living water. When we drink Him, living water will flow out of our innermost being.
What are these rivers of living water that flow out of us?
Let’s read note 2 on rivers of living water in verse 38 in the New Testament Recovery Version:
“The rivers of living water are the many flows of the different aspects of life (cf. Rom. 15:30; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2 Thes. 2:13; Gal. 5:22-23), originating from the one unique river of water of life (Rev. 22:1), which is God’s Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2).”
Galatians 5:22-23, referenced in this note, explains what the different aspects of life are:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
These items of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 are different aspects of the divine life and the expressions of the Spirit. When we drink Him, He flows out of our innermost being as rivers of love and different aspects of life to others.
So how do we come to Jesus and drink? Of course, Jesus wasn’t speaking of drinking physical water. Right after Jesus cried out to people to come to Him and drink, John 7:39 says:
“But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
The Spirit is the water we drink that quenches our thirst and fills us to overflowing.
Let’s read note 1 on Spirit in this verse. This note gives a brief yet remarkable view of the Spirit in the Bible:
“The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but at the time the Lord spoke this word, the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), was not yet, because the Lord had not yet been glorified. Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). After Jesus’ resurrection, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ, who was breathed into the disciples by Christ in the evening of the day on which He was resurrected (20:22). The Spirit is now the ‘another Comforter,’ the Spirit of reality promised by Christ before His death (14:16-17). When the Spirit was the Spirit of God, He had only the divine element. After He became the Spirit of Jesus Christ through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Spirit had both the divine element and the human element, with all the essence and reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. Hence, the Spirit is now the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ as the living water for us to receive (vv. 38-39).”
The note helps us see that in resurrection, the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus became the Spirit that we can drink today. All He is and all He’s done is available to us in this wonderful Spirit as living water. Now we just need to drink Him.
How can we drink the Spirit? Since this all-inclusive water is the Spirit, we must exercise, or use, our spirit, our innermost being, to receive this water.
A simple and enjoyable way to exercise our spirit to come to the Lord and drink is calling upon His name. When we call, “Lord Jesus,” we contact the Spirit and take a drink of Him as the living water.
All day long, while we’re at work, at home, in class, anywhere, and anytime, we can call upon the name of the Lord Jesus to drink of the Spirit. For instance, we can call, “Oh, Lord Jesus, I’m on my way to work. Lord Jesus, I drink you right now.”
The more we drink, the more we’re filled, and the more rivers of living water will flow out of our innermost being to others. What people will see in us is the expression of God in different aspects of His life.
Rather than trying to do something for God, we should simply drink the living water and be filled in our spirit every day.
Ephesians 5:18-21 says:
“And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father, being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”
Note 1 on verse 18 in the New Testament Recovery Version explains:
“To be drunk with wine is to be filled in the body, whereas to be filled in the spirit (our regenerated spirit, not God’s Spirit) is to be filled with Christ (1:23) unto the fullness of God (3:19). To be drunk with wine in our physical body causes us to become dissolute, but to be filled in our spirit with Christ, with the fullness of God, causes us to overflow with Christ in speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks to God (vv. 19-20) and also causes us to subject ourselves to one another (v. 21).”
And note 1 on verse 19 on speaking points out that the issue is also the way we can be filled:
“Verses 19-21 modify be filled in spirit in v. 18. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are not only for singing and psalming but also for speaking to one another. Such speaking, singing, psalming, giving of thanks to God (v. 20), and subjecting of ourselves to one another (v. 21) are not only the outflow of being filled in spirit but also the way to be filled in spirit.”
We can be filled in our spirit with Christ by calling upon His name to drink of the Spirit, by speaking and singing hymns, and by giving thanks to God. We can even be filled when we’re subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
The Bible is clear that God wants us to be filled with Him. By filling us with Himself, God will be expressed through us, working out His eternal purpose. Every day, we need to be filled in spirit. We encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version if you live in the US. You can read all the commentary on these verses in John 7 and Ephesians 5 to be more deeply impressed with God’s desire that we be filled with Him to be His expression.
