Colossians 2:9 (NLT) For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

For most Christians, Jesus is the loving Savior who forgave them of their sins, declared them righteous and who gave them the hope of heaven, and that's where they stay in their hearts and minds. While I am forever humbled and grateful for this miraculous form of mercy and grace from our Lord Jesus and will never be able to thank Him enough, there is so much more to Jesus than that. As incredible as salvation is, that is just the starting point for those that have come into the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has also given us the authority to use His Name to ask for and receive things through prayer. We all have received one blessing after another from the Lord Jesus and we are humbled and thankful for that as well. But that is still not the whole story.

First of all, we must realize that Jesus is fully God. While He was here on earth, the fullness of who God is dwelled in Him. It wasn't a special dispensation for just His time here on earth, but He was and is and ever will be fully God. And because He is the fullness of God, we can claim that fullness through our union with Him. We have the unbelievable ability, given to us by Jesus, to dwell in Jesus and have Him dwell in us. That is meant literally. It's not just a nice saying or a nice thought or a spiritual metaphor that we use to describe an intimate relationship with Him. Jesus literally lives in us through the (His) Holy Spirit. That's the fullness of God dwelling in us...that is, when we look to be filled with Him. It is something that we must ask for (Luke 11:13) and it is something that we must desire with all of our hearts. But once that union is in place, we are complete.

Nothing else in all of this world can complete us. A person can't, a husband or a wife can't and nobody can. Only Jesus can. We were made to live in His fullness and His fullness supplies what our souls need and long for. It's from that fullness that we get peace and joy and the sense that we are loved like no one else can love us. It's that love that makes us firm and secure, knowing that it is well with our souls here on earth and forevermore. It's everything else about Jesus that a lot of believers miss out on because they haven't looked hard enough to see the treasure of it all up close and personal. Thank God for the fact that our sins have been forgiven and that we are going to heaven, but there is so much more to our relationship with Jesus than that. Live it all as you give Him first place in your heart and life and enjoy everything else that He is to us and for us!

Pastor Joey Vazquez