If you go halfway with God, then don’t be surprised when He goes halfway with you. You determine the degree to which God will fill you. It’s not that you limit what God can do, but you limit what you can receive. You are the limiting factor in the equation of faith filled up in you.
Nobody is filled by a fraction of the Holy Spirit but the fullness of God. “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. …be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18 NKJV).
For a cup to be filled with one thing the most, it must be emptied of all other things that are currently in it. You are the same. It is all the things of this world that you hold onto that prevent all the things of heaven from filling you up. You must pour out for the Lord to pour in.
It is one thing to know about God, and quite another to be filled with God. “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19 NKJV).
The fullness of faith is not determined by your ability to reach it but to receive it. You cannot add to your faith, but you can yield to faith that it can be added onto you. If you want to believe for more, you must trust for more. Trusting is not done out of strength but out of surrender.
We trust in ourselves too much and in God too little, and the results show it. “If you want favor with both God and man, and a reputation for good judgment and common sense, then trust the Lord completely; don’t ever trust yourself” (Proverbs 3:4-5 TLB).
When we trust our heavenly Father, we will allow ourselves to wait on Him for all we need. You cannot gain a satisfaction in this world that will last, but He can give you a satisfaction from heaven that will never end. So long as you only drink the world, His living water will never quench you.
You cannot be happy unless you are holy. Every carnal pleasure comes to an end, but every spiritual pleasure only has a beginning. Worldly pleasures are fleeting, but His pleasures are forevermore. “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11 NKJV).
The more time you spend with the Lord, the more time He will spend with you. Separation from God is by our choice and not His. No matter how far we are from the Lord, He is right there, but He will only be near to us when we draw near to Him.
Prayer is a place that puts you nearest to God. “The Lord is close to everyone who prays to him, to all who truly pray to him” (Psalm 145:18 ICB).
The Lord will speak to you in a hundred ways, but will you even listen? Every circumstance you go through is an opportunity to hear Him. Good or bad, seek His face in everything that happens. Let the Lord into your life, and He will always be there to comfort you.
Anybody can listen to their flesh, but it’s the blessed person who is led by the Spirit of God. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:13-14 ESV).
Your prayer life on earth is a reflection of your heart once in heaven. Prayer is a place to be with the Lord, and heaven is where it will never stop. Never think that your prayer time is a task, for it is everything else that is a task. Prayer is a privilege reserved for those who love God.
The more prayer you add to your life, the more your life has the fullness of God. It is by prayer you can reach God, and likewise, it is by prayer that God can reach you. The Lord Jesus taught, “…that men always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1 NKJV).
When Jesus walked on this earth, His life was directed from the Father. What He did was what He was led to do. He lived His life an example for us who follow. If we are to walk in the will of God, we must listen for His instructions. The more you listen, the more you hear.
It’s not enough to pray for direction, but you must go where He leads you. “The Lord says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you’” (Psalm 32:8 NLT).
There is a life you were meant to live, and that life is Christ inside you. It is the Holy Spirit who can fill you, and it is Jesus who can then live through you. The only way to have the fullness of faith is to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the life of Christ, and the fullness of love from the Father.
If you’re not filled with the love of God, then you’re not filled with God. “…God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him” (1 John 4:16 NASB).
The secret to becoming full of faith is to be empty of yourself. Let everything bad go, and He will put everything good inside you, and your life will show it. You don’t have to do a thing but only be willing and surrender to the Lord. There is nothing that God can’t do if only you would let Him.
The presence of God never depends upon the efforts of man. You need never plead for the Holy Spirit to fill you, but only ask. “…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man …that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16,19).
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius