God is our Sufficiency

From time to time those of us who have been deeply moved by God's Word try to find words in our vocabulary to express how we feel within our hearts for God's goodness to us. As workmen we have studied God's Word. We have seen that the Pauline epistles are such informative and uplifting revelations. These epistles reveal the significance of what was brought about because of Jesus Christ's sacrifice of himself. We could study the gospels until we were exhausted, but we would never find revealed the greatness that Christ was our substitute. We see this only in the epistles. We would never see the reality of the new creation within each of us believers in the gospels. Again, it is in the epistles. In the gospels we do not see the ministry of Jesus Christ for the saints at the right hand of God; it is the epistles that show the ministry of Jesus Christ as he is now seated with God.

During the gospel period, people had no spirit so the body and soul believers could only observe life from a senses point of view. Men in the gospels asked Jesus the following.

They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? What dost thou work? -- John 6: 30

Time and time again inquirers asked for tangible proof. Here is Thomas’s example.

The other disciples therefore said unto him [Thomas], We have seen the Lord. Except I [Thomas] shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. – John 20: 25

In the gospels, people had to see in order to believe. But the Church epistles establish the order that a person first believes and then he sees. Thus you and I do not first see and then believe; we first believe God's Word and then we see the truth of it bear fruit in our lives as we walk on it.

Another critical difference between the time of the gospels and the time of the epistles pertains to power. In the gospels, the people were overwhelmed at the miracles that Jesus Christ did. They stood in utter amazement at the power he had. In the gospels it was Jesus Christ who controlled devil spirits; he delivered people from sickness; he raised the dead. The information that believers have God-given power comes like a thunderbolt in the Church epistles. In the gospels we see Jesus Christ as the conqueror.
We never see the revelation in the gospels that we also, as born-again believers, are more than conquerors, that we are to be filled with all the fullness of God. This revelation is given in the epistles, and the epistles are addressed to us. They are addressed to the Church of Grace which began on the day of Pentecost.

There is only one true God, and that God can only be known from His Word. A person cannot get the knowledge of God from any other source than God's Word. I learned this from over twenty years of experience in searching everything but God’s Word. I once searched almost every religion and every popular movement such as transcendental meditation, even white and black witchcraft. I was so depressed, I used to rehearse what I was to say before I went into a restaurant! So I know most of the arguments against the reality of God's Word; I've been there. This part is not from my research materials – I lived it. But having come to the position of accepting God's Word as His Will, I have something to say to this generation that is absolutely true and that is absolutely sure:

No man can know God's Will without knowing His Word.

In understanding that God is our sufficiency, there is a basic truth in God's Word which we believers must realize. That truth is that God has given us all things necessary for an abundant life.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God. -- II Corinthians 3: 5

So we cannot be lacking anything. That is what it says and that is what it means. Now if I declare anything other than what the Word says, either God's Word is lying or I am. It is as simple as that. Perhaps I don't feel that my sufficiency is of God. That makes it no less of God. Feelings do not validate or invalidate God or His Word. Feelings come and go, but the Word of God lives and abides forever. When you begin to believe the Word, then the manifestation of the greatness of the spirit from God becomes a reality.

According to II Corinthians 3: 5, our sufficiency is of whom? Of God. Not that we would think anything of ourselves, but God is our sufficiency. Our sufficiency is not of ourselves; it is not of any other individual; it is of God.

If God says we have His sufficiency, how much do we have? His sufficiency. I would say that more sufficiency than that is impossible to come by. Now what does God's sufficiency include? Ephesians 1: 6 tells us part of it.

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath [has] made us accepted in the beloved. – Ephesians 1: 6

The Bible says God has made us accepted. Well, if I'm going to be sufficient, I have to be accepted by God. It has nothing to do with my feelings; He simply caused me to become this way. In Christ Jesus I came from God's spiritual factory having what God says I have. He made me accepted. Since that is what the Bible says, that is what it means. Isn't that wonderful? Ephesians chapter one further explains how we are sufficient.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness [remission] of sins, according to the riches of his grace; -- Ephesians 1: 7

Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. -- Ephesians 1: 7

Besides being redeemed, we also have been accepted, and we have received remission of sins. All of these qualities contribute to our sufficiency.

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: -- Ephesians 1: 9

[That] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance [is] in the saints. -- Ephesians 1: 18

We are also to know the hope of His calling and the greatness of our inheritance from God. There is another translation which says we should "enjoy our share of the inheritance." In order to enjoy our share of the inheritance, we must first of all, find out how much that inheritance is, and then we have to develop the ability to use it wisely. The second chapter of Ephesians unfolds more of these great truths.

And [God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. -- Ephesians 2: 6

Even while we are here on earth as ambassadors, as far as God is concerned, we are already seated in the heavenlies. God has already placed us in the heavenlies while we are yet working down here. That is good spiritual insurance. It is a tremendous guarantee. Should we be discouraged? Why, if nobody believed God's Word, it is still God's Word, and I'm still seated in the heavenlies. I want to tell you, we cannot lose.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God. -- Ephesians 2: 19

This is part of our sufficiency which is of God. Isn't it wonderful to belong to God and His household? We've got blue-ribbon credentials.

I am still choosing a few of the scriptures that demonstrate the sufficiency which we Church members have.

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet [adequate, sufficient] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. – Colossians 1: 12

God has made us adequate to share in His inheritance. He made us sufficient. Isn't that wonderful?

[God] Who hath delivered [past tense] us [rescued us] from the power of darkness, and hath translated us [given us citizenship] into the kingdom [by the work] of his dear Son [or "by the love of His Son"]. – Colossians 1: 13

God has delivered us, He rescued us, from the power of darkness. We are delivered and given citizenship in His kingdom.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness [remission] of sins. -- Colossians 1: 14

God casts our sins from us as far as the east is from the west and as deep as the deepest sea, and He will remember them no more. So if God Almighty, who gave me sonship, refuses to remember my sins, then I've got to be foolish to continue remembering them. I shouldn't want to live below par when God has made it possible for me to be more than a conqueror. This certainly would be a tremendous contradiction of the revelation addressed to the Church. Look at Colossians 2: 10.

And ye are complete in him, which [who] is the head of all principality and power. -- Colossians 2: 10

We are complete in Christ Jesus. Well, if we are complete, we are not lacking even one thing, we are sufficient. If we lacked one thing, we would be deficient instead of sufficient.

The reason I have all these good things is that God gave them to me. I am what the Word of God says I am. And it says we are complete. So how can a Christian pray, "O Lord, give me this, give me that"? Our God has already made everything available in Christ Jesus. When we were born again of God's Spirit, we received God in Christ in us, the hope of glory. That is the completeness. Our prayer of believing is simply one of thanking God for what He has already given us according to our knowledge of His Word. When we thank Him for what is already available, our request is filled and comes into manifestation in our lives. We are complete in Christ Jesus. We've got to start walking with that completeness not by the letter of the law but the spirit of life, which is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. This walk includes living with tenderness, peace, love, forgiveness, and understanding.

What we look at is what we become. If I am with people who are always negative, I will be influenced by that negativism. If a person lives long enough with people who have ticks, that person will eventually get ticks too. But if a person immerses his mind in the Lord Jesus Christ, he'll move from glory to glory. He will reflect the greatness of Christ within. Then a lot of these things which obstruct most people will just fall by the wayside, and life will begin to have a joy and a glow to it.

The glory walk is more than an earthly existence where we endure life's troubles just because we want to try to live through another day of confusion. Rather, life becomes a time for thanksgiving, a time of joy, and a time of blessing, because we are changed into what we look at which is the Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for us and in us. Then we become as he is and manifest what he is. We hold forth the greatness of God's Word which is contained in the revelation addressed to the Church. Remember the little old poem:

God has no hands but our hands
With which to give them bread.
He has no feet but our feet with

Which to move among the almost dead

We say that we are His and He is ours

Deeds are the proof of that, not words
And these are the proving hours.

God wants us to exude the beauty of Christ which is in us so that we can enjoy life and so will others who observe us and who choose to walk in that same deliverance. This we are able to do, because God is our sufficiency.

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