God wants you to experience wholeness. How so? You’ve been created in God’s image—a likeness representing aspects of His identity. You have: relational and creative capacities—abilities to gain knowledge, think, create and communicate; functional capacities—abilities to love, produce and do awesome things; and a moral capacity—ability to discern right and wrong. You, therefore, have been created with certain God-given endowments and have the capacity to bear amazing fruits in and through Him.

So God truly wants to reveal His purposes for you. He, therefore, desires that you know His love and grow into the fullness of the measure of your nature in Him. This was the thrust of Paul’s message regarding coming “to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Paul recognized that Messiah—Christ in you through the Holy Spirit—is the true standard of measure.

Gain a Strengthening View of Wholeness

We typically fall short of realizing wholeness. Why so? We typically have a hard time receiving the fullness of God’s love and grace. As a result, this makes it difficult to develop the wholeness of the measure of our capacity in God. So we fall short of allowing the endowments God has given us to grow within us.

So this is why Paul persevered to help people apprehend and possess a strengthening view of the multidimensional nature of God’s love. He hoped to see people blessed by God’s amazing grace and love. He, therefore, earnestly prayed this heartfelt prayer:

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Wholeness Increases Your Personal Capacities

Truly, God sees a greater capacity in you than you think. How so? Genesis 1:26 simply states that you have been created in God’s image and likeness. But it sounds like a mystery. It is. The reality is, it happens as you become “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).

In His image, you have greater capacities than you think! Really? So you might wonder how this can be. It happens as you engage in a genuine relationship with God.

See it’s not about ritual or formal religion. It simply takes engaging with God. It’s about being willing to participate with God in the things He desires to do. Truly, through the Holy Spirit, God is able to fill you and release within you greater measures of His likeness than you can imagine!

See the Framework of Wholeness

Note how Paul frames his prayer, acknowledging the relationship within the fullness of the Godhead; “I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.”

Within his understanding of God was a deep awareness and appreciation of the triune nature of God. Peter, too, had such a strengthening view of the nature of the Godhead. He too, framed his entire message in 1 Peter with the view of their respective roles; “To the pilgrims…elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ…”

Their framework or worldview was rooted in the core message of the Scriptures, expressed in Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one (echad)! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Note the Hebrew word, echad. It means a plural unity or wholeness. It speaks prophetically of the unity of the whole triune nature of God (Father, Holy Spirit, Son). It also speaks of man’s response and approach to God.

How Wholeness Connects to Unity

How does the wholeness of God connect to our unity with God? It speaks in terms of an undivided heart. So it speaks of a whole commitment to God. In reality, this includes your mind’s thoughts, heart’s desires and will’s strength and resources. Therefore, it refers to a relationship with God where the wholeness of your being– your desires and inclinations — is centered and consumed in devotion to the union– or covenant– with God.

This centerpiece message also reveals how you reap the wholeness of the benefits and values of wholehearted active response and engagement with God. So it speaks  of being united in a bonded relationship with God.

Therefore, it speaks of loving God with your whole inner being; your strength, passions, efforts and resources.  So you experience life, peace and joy in covenant relationship with God. As a result, this fulfills God’s purposes– for your benefit and His glory. Truly, it’s all centered in God’s love and grace!

Connect the Dots to Gain Strengthened Vision

The 1st-century believers connected the dots of the Scriptures. The word became real and alive to them as their hearts warmed up to the love of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14)

They were impacted when the Holy Spirit became real and penetrated their beings. The Scriptures took on a new dimension! Their hearts were softened. Their minds were opened and vision refocused. As a result, their lives became transformed.

They had known of God before, but the Holy Spirit added a whole new dimension of grace and empowerment that changed their perspective of God and relationship with God. You too can be impacted by such a multidimensional view of God.

Embrace the Reality of a Multidimensional Whole View of God

Messiah Yeshua-Jesus manifested the very presence of God’s grace and truth; His love. He gave the world a taste of the Kingdom of God in the earth as it is in heaven. He represented the reality of the triune or WHOLE God.

  • He revealed the heart, knowledge and creative nature of the Father.
  • He released the revelatory nature and active ministry of the Holy Spirit.
  • He related God’s redemptive nature to mankind as Son of God and Son of Man.

So He brought to life the Sovereign God who declares Himself to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He revealed the Heavenly Father’s heart to forgive your iniquities and heal your diseases.

Feel the Love of God

Feel the amazing abounding love of God. In His loving-kindness He offers you tender mercies to redeem your life from oppression and destruction. Therefore, He executes true righteousness and justice for the oppressed (Psalm 103).

In addition, as Author of life and Creator, God is always creating and inspiring the creation of new things. As the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit reveals the hidden and deep secrets of life (see Deuteronomy 25:14 and Daniel 2:22). As Redeemer the LORD’S purposes are always redemptive in nature.

Yeshua-Jesus came as Messiah to demonstrate this reality. He manifested the presence and relational nature of God. He prayed for all mankind. He prayed for you, and still makes intercession that you be found by God and become WHOLE in God. What would that mean?

  • That you be found in Father’s will and nurtured by His love.
  • That you be immersed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
  • That you be strengthened in intimate union with the Son.

What Limits Such a Strengthened View?

For one thing, sin and hardness of heart limits our ability to see God. However, the reality of God as a relational God became lost to the western world after the 1st century church became dominated by Greco-Roman philosophies froth in thinking based on dualism. How so?

The Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, rationalized various theories to explain the complexities of life, nature and the spiritual world. They rationalized things like the material and spiritual as well as good and bad nature of man, and present world and future/eternal world.

So while they contributed much in the ways of science and mathematics, Greco-Roman or Hellenistic philosophy has created a particular problem in discounting the relationship between God and man by separating mankind from God. This has been accomplished by: a). creating a wedge between God and man by rationalizing about a superior perfect spiritual God and inferior sinful material man; and b) creating forms and approaches to God that intellectualize and de-personalize man’s relationship with God. Humanity at large has been influenced by such philosophies.

Embrace the Concept of Wholeness to Set Living Paradigms in Motion

Paul came to understand that Messiah came to redeem mankind from sin and reveal the nature of God and how to walk in intimate relationship with God—through Messiah by the Holy Spirit. He taught and encouraged believers to embrace such a holistic framework to grow in Christ and come “to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Therefore, Paul recognized Messiah Yeshua-Jesus releasing the presence and power of God in us through the Holy Spirit. So, in essence, he revealed God’s intent in creating man in God’s image and likeness, as spoken in Genesis 1:26.  Paul knew that through a relationship of trusting faith one could be strengthened in Messiah-Christ by the Holy Spirit and grow into the fullness of their grace gifts—God’s endowments—to experience the new life of faith.

What Holds God Back from Releasing These Grace Gifts?

Many of us fall short of developing the fullness of the measure of God’s image because we fall short of allowing God’s nature to grow within us. In other words, we fall short of pressing into God enough to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the deeper truths and impart greater measures and endowments of His virtue, character and inner strength.

So we get busy and continue to do things our way, not yielding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit or words of wisdom coming from others. Truly, God sees a great capacity in you because He is able to work within you according to His amazing grace and awesome power!

How we grow in a relationship with God and our fruit-bearing is directly related to the level of our engagement with God and other believers actively engaged in relationship with God. The more we actively engage with God and receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit and other people of faith, the more the fire of God is stoked and the life of God is stirred and stimulated within and around us.

We all have such capacity for growth. That growth is enhanced as we come to experience the reality of God’s power.

Understand the Concept of Wholeness to Bring Real Transformation

Paul understood the dynamics of transformation. He understood the process of allowing God’s nature to dominate the fleshly nature by renewing the mind and progressively and intentionally turning from the ways of the carnal nature to God’s spiritual nature.

He further understood that this process will bring us to the end of self, for he related to the human dynamic of wrestling with God; “I don’t understand my own behavior — I don’t do what I want to do; instead, I do the very thing I hate!” (Romans 7:15 JNT)

Paul, though, found strength in God. He experienced the reality of the One who “must increase” in us as we “decrease” (John 3:30). He experienced the grace and power of God’s word and Spirit working in Him. He found God’s likeness and capacity working within him. Though he endured many trials, he experienced a fulfillment and contentment in life that only God can impart. So can you!

Embrace the Paradigm Shift that Brings Transformation

Yes, God is in the healing and transformation business! Paul—and countless others over the centuries—came to experience and understand the nature of transformation and experience the new life. As Paul revealed, “to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). Such life—or new life—and peace can be found in Messiah Jesus.

Such transformation, therefore, begins with a shift in perspectives; from knowing about God through intellectual rational reasoning to knowing God through real and dynamic relational engagement empowered by His Spirit. Truly, God is relational, and seeks to relate with His creation in such a way.

It’s also about shifting your focus from doing to being; from doing merely what you want to do and what the world impresses you to do to becoming who God created you to be. So when you choose to allow God to take control and transform you, He enlarges your capacity to receive the things of His Spirit and nature.

Receive the Transforming Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Truly, God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, carries God’s capacity to reveal truth, wisdom and instruction to your heart. It is His Spirit that connects with your spirit in your inner soul to illuminate your vision, comfort your heart, and empower you to grow and truly walk in His love.

God wants you to experience such a connection with Him! It’s a matter of acknowledging and desiring His works to work within you; then asking for it. “LORD, how manifold are Your works!” (Psalm 104:24).

The Holy Spirit will nurture your heart, cultivate spiritual vision and grow measures of His capacity in you to fashion you according to His likeness—His way. He knows how you are wired. He wants you to connect with His capacity—the gift of access to His awesome and amazing grace.

It comes, however, by faith. It’s His promise.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).

Truly, God designed you to relate and enjoin with Him in such manner. In Messiah Yeshua-Jesus, you are a new creation with a new identity in God! It is a matter of coming front and center before God and participating in His process of allowing His Holy Spirit to dominate your thoughts to reveal and manifest His nature in and through you.

Be Who God Created You to Be

As we’ve been discussing, since we were created in the image and likeness of God, we have been given special endowments—measures of God’s nature. So God sees us is in relation to how that measure has been developed.

Our tendency, however, is to focus on our physical needs and satisfy our carnal desires. God cares about those things. But God, who is Spirit, focuses on spiritual issues first. God would, therefore, have you focus on developing the spiritual endowments He deposited in you as well as His character and virtues so you can bear His fruits outwardly.

Truly, God sees us in a different light. He desires to cultivate His nature and capacities in us. So will we allow God the opportunity?

Embrace Gideon’s Testimony

One Bible character who tried to hide below God’s radar was Gideon. He came from a family that he considered to be amongst the weakest, and he considered himself to be the lowly one of the house. As soon as the Angel of the LORD found and approached Gideon, He exclaimed, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

Gideon surely didn’t look like a mighty man of valor; quite the opposite. Gideon was a man of little hope. After he expressed his skepticism and doubt, however, the LORD responded with still more encouragement, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”

Gideon must have wondered what he meant by “Go in this might of yours?” Who was the Angel kidding? God, however, disregarded Gideon’s fear, doubt, despair and insecurity. He gave Gideon a bold assignment because He knew Gideon could go in His capacity; and in His favor. All he had to do was trust God and follow instructions.

That’s all God asks us to do. That was the key lesson Paul learned directly from the heart of God. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

That’s your opportunity; to allow God to transform you so you can grow into the fullness of the measure of His capacity in you. As a result, God is glorified through you. It happens as you actively engage with Him through active, trusting faith; reaching higher and pressing further as you pursue His upward call.