Fullness in God

God desires to bring all Christians into maturity in Christ so that the Church of Jesus Christ on earth might come to the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ. We have been anointed by God in our immaturity but now God is developing within us the very character and the very nature of Jesus and bring us to a place of final fullness.

There are steps we need to follow and we are going to follow the steps of the Biblical character Abraham. In fact it is scriptural that we walk in the steps of the faith of our father abraham (Romans 4:12). Abraham was called "our father", referring primarily to the Jews' natural and physical descent from Abraham. But according to Romans 4:11, Abraham was also called "The father of all those who believe".

Abraham's name means, in the Hebrew language, "the father of multitudes" and God was preparing him to reach the multitudes. God is also preparing us for the same thing - preparing us for the end time harvest where multitudes of soul are going to be brought into the Kingdom of God.

Jesus Himself said, "The harvest is the end of the age" (Matt. 13:39). I believe God is preparing us for something far greater that we are able to imagine.

Abraham's journey to Canaan

Let us take Genesis 12:7 as our foundation text. When Abraham was somewhere between Bethel and Ai the Lord appeared to him, "To your descendants I will give this land" (Gen 12:7, NKJV). The very first thing that Abraham did when God appeared to him was to build an altar. He built an altar first and after building his altar then only he pitched his tent. And then he built another altar to the Lord and called on the Name of the Lord (V.8).

Many Christians get things the wrong way round. We tend to pitch our tent and get involved, perhaps in a Local Church somewhere, without first dedicating our lives fully and completely to the Lord. But the Biblical pattern is to first all dedicate yourself fully to the Lord, build your alter as a confirmative symbolic gesture in the presence of the Lord and then pitch your tent.

Abraham pitched his tent with Bethel in the west and Ai on the east. Bethel means the house of God which speaks of union and communion with Jesus Christ. When you and I come spiritually to Bethel we come into the house of the Lord, a place of union and communion with Christ.

Ai means, in the Hebrew language, a pile of stones or a heap of ruins. God was telling Abraham that unless he allows God to take a hold of him and to do with him what God wanted to do with him, he would end his days as a believer nothing more than a heap of ruins. But as Abraham moved toward Bethel from Ai he decided to yield himself to the Lord and allowed Him to do whatever the Lord wanted him to do. At Bethel the Lord took Abraham, as a living stone (1 Peter 2:5) on a pile of living stones and built them together with other living stones.

A believer in Jesus is just a living stone among a pile of living stones. Some of us are livelier than others but we are all living stones. But God does not want us to stay as living stones. He wants to build us together into Bethel that He Himself would come and fill us with the fullness of His Spirit so that we can reach out to touch the lives of the multitude.

Paul said, "... having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Eph. 2:20 - 22, NKJV).

Biblical Separations

Before God allowed Abraham to reach Canaan, the Promised Land, God required Abraham to make six separations.

God also requires you and I to make some separations in our lives before He is going to bring us to a place of fullness in God. None of us like to separate ourselves from things, even from certain people - especially from things we loved and from people we loved. Separation will hurt us but it will never harm us. When God calls you to separate yourself from something He always has something far more wonderful for you to be separated unto. That is the glorious thing about Biblical separations. It is on one hand separation from and on the other hand separation unto. God has something more wonderful to you and I to be separated unto.

Notice that in the Old Testament there are gems of truth hidden in the names of people and places. For example the place Canaan, in the Hebrew languae, means "To bend the knees" which speaks of submission to God. Coming into Canaan, the Promised Land, means submission to God and coming into our inheritance in God.


There are many people in Church life today who are anything but submission to the will of God. There are many Christians who have never bent the knee of their heart and consecrate their life fully to the Lord.

We often heard people said that Abraham didn't know where he was going, and many of us are just like Abraham for we don't have a clue where we are going. But my Bible tells me in Hebrews 11:8 that Abraham did know where he was going. He was headed towards Canaan but he didn't know every step he was going to take along the way. Similarly we know where we are going but we don't know every step as yet that we are going to take in order to possess our inheritance in Christ. But if we follow the leading of God's Spirit, God will bring us into what Canaan represents - into a real place of submission to Him where we yield to Him so that He can lead us on into the fullness of His purpose for us.

First Separation - The world system

The first place that Abraham moved from was Ur of the Chaldeans (Gen. 11:31). In those days Ur was a very powerful and worldly city quite similar to Babylon. The moment God called Abraham he began his journey from Ur. Similarly the moment the Lord calls us we have to begin our journey away from the world sytem.

Peter said, "Be saved from this perverse generation" (Acts 2:40).

Ur to us represents the perverse generation. If we are in bondage under the corruption of the world system and we allow it to lay heavily upon our lives we will never be able to move on into what God has for us. Someone said, "We are in the world but we are not of the world". If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us (1 John 2:15). If we do not love God the Father how are we going to inherit what He has for us?

Second Separation - Bondage of delay

Abraham's journey to Canaan was stalled in Haren (Gen. 11:31). Haren, in the Hebrew language means "half way".

Many Christians make a good beginning on the things of God but somehow there comes a time they feel that they just can't go any further. God is bringing us to a place where He has us stay for a period of time, spiritually, while certain things are being formed into our lives that will enable us to be more effective as we take the next step.

Abraham could only get as far as Haran and he had to stay there for a period of time until his father Terah died. Terah, the Hebrew language, means "delay". Abraham's father did not have the call of God upon his life. However Abraham had a very specific call - to come into Ganaan and God is going to make him a father of multitudes. In Abraham's time, the custom of the day was, the eldest son was given the responsibility to look after his aged parents. He had a divine responsibility toward his father Terah, to look after him until he died.

Similarly it is quite possible that you and I also have to wait because of our divine responsibilities. You might want to go out and do something for God but right now you have the responsibility in your family, in you business, or certain responsibility in the Chruch that have to be fulfilled before you can be released. But you can be sure that God is a master at removing delay at the right moment. But during the waiting time He is forming something precious into our character and into our nature.

The Charismatic movement had been arrested for a number of years until God formed the right character in his people. God wants us not only to be men and women of charisma; He wants us to be men and women of character. He wants a balance in His people - Charisma with character. God always bring about the delay for a right purpose.

Third Separation - Carnality

In Genesis 13 God called Abraham to separat from his nephew Lot. Lot was a righteous man according to the Bible because he believed in God. But the Bible also tells us that Lot was a carnal and fleshly man. He was also selfish and had his eyes on the things he wanted for himself. But Lod finished his life dwelling in a cave, a very restricted place (Gen. 19:30).

There are a lot of Christians who are like Lot today - righteous on one hand because they believed in God. But on the other hand they are very carnal and fleshly. They pitched their tents in the wrong direction and end up like Lot dwelling, spiritually, in a restricted place. When you are moving all the time with people who are like Lot you will find they will hinder you from moving on into all that God has for you - even to enlarge your tent. We must reach out for the things that God has for our lives even if it means separation from people like Lot.

But Abraham was not like Lot and he had a generous spirit. He allowed Lot to choose whatever he wanted (Gen. 13). Abraham trusted God and God looked after him. After Lot had separated from him, God showed him the land he and his descendants would possess forever (Gen. 13:14 -18). Abraham built an altar at Mamre and dwelled there. Mamre means firmness, durability and stability.

Forth Separation - Personal rights

Lot and his people were taken captive by evil kings (Gen. 14:12). When Abraham heard about it he armed his 318 trained servants went and pursued these evil kings and released Lot and his poeple. Abraham had a good and unselfish spirit. He separated from Lot because of the call of God. But he loved Lot and concerned about him.

Wouldn't it be wonderful in our Churches when we see some of our brothers taken captive by the enemy and they went into a period of backsliding and we would together move out against the enemy and release them from the grasp of the evil one.

In those days when a king was defeated he must surrender all his people and goods to the one who defeated him. The king of Sodom offered Abraham the goods (spoils).

But Abraham said, "I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strp, and that I will not take anything that is your, less you say, 'I have made Abram rich'" (Gen. 14:23).

Abraham was separated from his rights.

Fifth Separation - Products of the flesh

God was getting Abraham to have a son, from his own body to be his heir (Gen. 15:1 - 4). Abraham knew what God wanted but he moved in the flesh and tried to make it into existence. Abraham didn't wait but moved in the flesh and the product was Ishmael. Ishmael means "trouble maker". Later on when Ishmael was growing up Isaac was born. When Isaac was a little lad playing out in the field Ishmael was found taunting Isaac. Abraham realized that in order to have peace to come into his home he had to get rid of Ishmael. The Bible tells us that Abraham love Ishmael even though he was a son of the flesh. Isaac alone was the son of promise.

In Church life many Ishmaels have been created. God wants us to bring forth Isaac and not Ishmael. Sometimes our Ishmael can be in the areas of our talent, abilities and strength. When we move in the realm of our natural strength, talent and ability to produce something for God, we end up building something for ourselves. Many Churches are caught up in kingdom building and that is building something for ourselves independent of God. God does not want us to spend our time to develop our own ministry, but He wants us to pour our lives into other God's people and to develop their ministries and to release them to the purposes of God.

Abraham did exactly that when he sacrifice Isaac, his only son, for the purpose of God in the next and final separation.

Final Separation - The love of your life

Genesis 22 tells the story of Abraham's separation from Isaac, the love of his life. Abraham hated the sin of disobedience to God's Word more that he loved his only son. At this stage in time, Abraham would be 120 years of age and Isaac would be 20 years of age. Isaac also submitted to the will of God because there was never a word of complaint when his father laid him on the altar. Abraham was fully prepared to separate himself even from that which was holy to God.

In your case it might be your ministry, might be some particular possession that has taken first place in your life. But God wants us to lay the love of our life down.

God saw Abraham was so totally obedient that he was stopped from killing Isaac. He didn't want to take Isaac but He brought Abraham to a place where he was willing to separate himself even from the love of his life. God didn't remove His blessing from Abraham as he might have thought. Instead God blessed him so much that his descendants would be as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. Notice that stars speak of spiritual seed and sand speak of natural see. So Abraham and his descendants were blessed with 100-fold blessing both physically and spiritually.

You can find the evidence in Genesis 26 concerning Isaac:

"Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him" (Gen. 26:12, NKJV, emphasis added).

Abraham, by faith, walked up the same mountain where 2000 years later Jesus walked up and died in your place and my place. We need to know the beating of God's heart and to understand what is God after. God is raising up a company of people who are sons and daughters of promise, who are walking in the step of the faith of Abraham. Just like Isaac they are totally submitted to God in every area of their lives; they will go forth to sow and reap up to 100-fold within the same year until they come in the fullness of the stature of Christ.