Discovering "The Fullness of the Spirit"

Another resource that was important to me was a message by Stuart Briscoe entitled The Fullness of the Spirit.  I could have given you proper answers to theological questions about the Spirit, but the everyday outworking was lacking.  I must have listened to this message more than twenty times.  Here’s something of what was said:

"It isn’t some spooky sort of arrangement, some ghostly sort of thing, some ecstatic experience, something that’s got to take place in a strange sort of situation.  It isn’t this at all.  It is a very simple down to earth experience that you are supposed to be enjoying constantly.  Nothing less than the control and the domination and the directing and the motivation of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

"Now would you say that the driving force and the dominating force and the motivating force of your experience is the indwelling Holy Spirit?  If so, you are filled with the Spirit.  If not, you’re not.  It’s as simple as that.

"When you received the Holy Spirit, you became his habitation.  You became the place where He lives.  You are the area in which He moves.  You are the vicinity in which He has His being.  And the thing that excites me about this is very, very straight forward.  If I am a habitation, then I am the living place, and if I am the living place, then the Spirit of God must be alive.  The thing that is so exciting about Christianity is this it is a lively business.   The One who died didn’t stay dead, and the One who didn’t stay dead is very much alive, and the One who is very much alive is very much alive in me. 

"The genius of the Gospel is not that Jesus Christ died for you so that you can live for Him.   The genius of the gospel is that Jesus Christ died for you that your past might be dealt with and rose again to live in you that He might be all that you need and simply invade your life with Himself.  You are His living place.  He is very much alive and all the mighty power of His wonderful life is in you. 

"What does it mean to be alive?  Are you the sort of being that thinks once in a while?  Having thought do you ever decide once in a while?  Having decided do you ever move into action?  Having moved into action do you see things brought to fruition?  Having seen things brought to fruition do you ever say to yourself ‘it’s good to be alive?’  You are you and you are you thinking and you are you desiring and you are you deciding, and you are you acting, and you are you bringing things to pass.  That’s what living is all about…isn’t it? 

"Well now, then, if that’s what living is all about for you… I wonder what living for Jesus in you is all about?  It would seem to me He is doing a bit of thinking.  Do you ever give any evidence of Jesus doing some thinking by His Spirit in you?  It would mean of course that He is doing a bit of deciding.  Do you ever give any impression of Jesus Christ alive in you making decisions, stimulating your will?  If He is making decisions of course, it will mean of course that He is moving into action.  Can you honestly think of any evidence of Jesus Christ really being in action?  And of course if He is moving into action, things will be coming into fruition.  Is there any evidence of things being brought to fruition that can only be explained because it’s Jesus Christ by His Spirit? 

"One of the sad things about our Christianity so often is this, we can explain it all in terms of honest endeavor, enthusiasm, and good solid training.  Now if you can explain all your Christianity in terms of enthusiasm, honest endeavor and good training, think again….Your Christianity is intended to be nothing more and nothing less than Jesus Christ thinking, deciding, acting and bringing to fruition through you.   And the things He is doing will be so obviously beyond you that you will have living evidence of the living reality of the living Christ."