Introduction
We conclude this series with Part VII from the booklet Spending Time With God, written by Pastor Danny Hodges of Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg in Florida.Fellowship with God is a tremendous privilege. It's also meant to be an amazing adventure every believer can experience. With inspiration and personal insight, Pastor Danny presents practical steps for developing a vibrant daily devotional life. Discover the privilege and the adventure as you learn the keys to spending time with God.
Read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V or Part VI.
The Results of Spending Time With God
What are the results of spending time with God?We Will Experience God's Fullness in the Body of Christ
The body of Christ is not a building. It's a people. Even though we commonly hear the church building referred to as "the church," we must remember that the true church is the body of Christ. The church is you and me.
Chuck Colson makes this profound statement in his book, The Body: "Our involvement in the body of Christ is indistinguishable from our relationship to Him." I find that very interesting. Ephesians 1:22-23 is a powerful passage concerning the body of Christ. Speaking about Jesus, it says, "And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." The word "church" is ecclesia, meaning "the called out ones," referring to His people, not a building.
Christ is the head, and mysteriously enough, we as a people are His body here on this earth. His body is "the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." That tells me, among other things, that we will never be full, in the sense of our growth as Christians, unless we are rightly related to the body of Christ, because that's where His fullness dwells. We will never experience all that God wants us to know in terms of spiritual maturity and godliness in the Christian life unless we become relational in the church.
Some people aren't willing to be relational in the body because they are afraid others will find out what they're really like. Surprisingly enough, as we become involved in the body of Christ, we find out that other people have weaknesses and problems just like we do. Because I'm a pastor, some people get the wrong idea that I have somehow arrived at the height of spiritual maturity. They think I don't have faults or weaknesses. But anyone who hangs around me for very long will find out that I have faults just like everybody else.
