Today, we're going to take a posture of peace
by recognizing that our demise is not on God's agenda.
Hi, I'm Lindsay VanZale.
Posture is a podcast that serves a short audible fist bump
to remind you that God is in everything.
Together, we're gonna be emboldened
to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
If you missed yesterday's episode,
please be sure to go back and watch it.
All this week, I'm sharing clips
from my recent conversation with Graham Cook.
This was a part of a three-day challenge
we hosted together on Facebook.
It was really fun.
People from all over the world joined in for three days,
and we're hoping to do it again soon.
So if we do, I will let you know
on how you can join our next challenge.
In this clip, Graham and I are talking
about the beautiful truth highlighted
in Colossians chapter two, verses nine and 10.
You know, God is not dealing Himself out to you
in incremental measure.
He has given you His fullness,
and you now live from His fullness, not towards it.
And yesterday, I mentioned,
when we're talking about key number one
and the us who is alive,
I realized I had to stop thinking like a dead person.
Right.
I had to renew my mind like Romans encourages us to do,
stop being conformed to the patterns,
those habits of the world,
but be transformed by the renewing of my mind.
Stop thinking like a dead person.
Start thinking about a person who is alive in Christ.
And one of those dead thoughts that I had to get rid of
had to do with fullness.
It was the thought of everything being in measure,
everything being incremental.
Right.
And you really helped me break free from this.
Can you explain the difference between fullness and measure?
I think, first of all,
the scripture in Colossians 2, 9, and 10 says,
for in Him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.
And in Him, you have been made complete.
And so if Jesus is in you in fullness,
then He cannot be in you in measure.
It's like, it's one of those dead things.
Measure has to go away.
It has to go away, you know, because fullness is here.
So, and I love the idea of, you know,
that the whole idea of being double-minded
is because you've got the new man thinking,
and then you've got your old man thinking.
And that's what being double-minded is.
And sometimes your experience in the world
makes you cancel out what is truth in the kingdom.
You know, so we have a double mind
and we hear two voices.
We hear, we want to hear the voice of the Lord,
but most often we hear the voice of the dead person,
you know, and so it's fascinating.
Part of our development is getting rid of those anomalies.
So starting from fullness in Jesus means
you always start from where He is,
because He's the yardstick.
He's the leader on our journey.
He's bigger than us, a lot bigger than us.
So we take all our cues from who He is
as the Son of God, as the Savior, as the Redeemer,
as the one who knows us best and loves us best.
So fullness in the kingdom
is where God gives you everything up front
and then teaches you how to use it, you know?
So in the kingdom, in the world rather,
you do so much and then you get an upgrade,
you get an increase, you get a raise.
So increase is incremental,
but in the kingdom, it's a solid block.
This is all yours,
but I'm just going to teach you how to use it.
So when you come into your next situation,
you've got all of this to draw from
and I'll give you something in particular from it
that will help you right here.
That's why God's provision is ongoing,
because it's part of fullness.
So we don't have to beg God to give us something.
We know that we're in Christ, we have an inheritance.
And that's what fullness means.
You have everything up front.
It's not out there and the Lord isn't saying,
well, you know, when you get out there,
when you get to that point, you'll receive it.
It's not like that.
It's like, you're here right now
and everything is available
because you are actually living with us.
We're living with you,
but you primarily, you're living with us.
And so you get everything we have all the time.
That's why we said yesterday
that it's a gift that keeps on coming.
You know, Jesus said, I think it was John 4, 10, to the woman at the well,
he said, if you knew the gift of God, you would ask.
And this is what God is doing by talking to us about fullness. He's saying, no, it's all full,
it's all here right now, and we're gonna teach you how to use it, how to move in it, how to expect it.
You know, because he wants us living from a different mindset, not that what have I got to do to get that,
but it really is, I am somebody in Christ right now, and all this is available.
And as God, you know, releases it to me, it makes me bigger and more full. So it's a mindset, really.
This is, I mean, this is huge. And like, I've heard this truth, and I've lived this truth,
but I will never not be astonished by this truth. Because this is what empowers us to not have to work on the negatives anymore.
You know, you say something like that, like, hey, we're not working on the negatives.
And the initial thought sometimes is, how is that even possible?
You know, when I'm anxious, when I'm fearful, how do I not focus on those things or try to fix,
you know, that's the first response is like, how do I not be anxious?
Versus, how do I receive peace?
Right. I mean, it's, peace is already in you. It's not you that has to apply peace to your circumstances.
The Prince of Peace is living in you. This is what fullness means. It means everything.
Everything you need is already in you, in Christ. So we're just going to teach you how to ask differently.
So I honestly, I think it's time that we stopped praying like a widow and started praying like a bride.
Say it again, Graham.
It's time that we stop praying like a widow. You know, we're begging, we're pleading.
Oh, Lord, please, if you could see your way to whatever. We're not praying like a widow who's got nothing.
We're praying like a bride who's just come into everything.
So when you get married, as soon as that ceremony is over, it's like you are now operating a whole different level of life.
And that's what salvation means. It means that God does away with our thinking from the world and says,
you don't need to think the way the world thinks. This is the way we think.
So Colossians 3 says, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Why? Because they see differently and they think differently.
And what they're doing when giving you fullness is they're teaching you, this is the line of your privilege.
Don't fall below it. So get your thinking, gear your thinking up.
And the Holy Spirit is amazing at that, the way he teaches us how to think like Jesus thinks so that we have the mind of Christ.
So not praying like a widow, but praying like a bride means we're praying, you know,
in the context of who God is for us and what God wants to be for us.
So I love that. So measure is all is a part of that process.
So fullness is a part of that process. So everything that God is doing in us,
everything is always about us understanding the fullness that is available.
And because he won't think any other way. Here's the thing I know about God.
Two things I know about God that I most love. One, he says, I am the Lord.
I don't change. Therefore, Graham, you are not consumed. I don't change.
So, you know, your demise is not on my agenda. I don't change.
And then it says, that's in Malachi 3.6. And then in Hebrews 7.25, in Hebrews, it says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
I don't change. I'm always the same. So I feel like my life is lived in that space between those two verses because they are concrete.
Because God is an absolute. He doesn't change. That means he is the same towards you on your worst day as he is on your best.
He doesn't change. It's not like, oh, well, I'm modifying my blessing because you just did that.
I mean, that's legalism. That's religion. It's not Jesus. It's not how God thinks.
Today, settle into this truth. Your demise is not on God's agenda.
He's not working on fixing the dead you and he is not looking to use your old, dead, sinful nature as a means to separate himself from you.
Because of Jesus, God is relating to the you who is alive and he's not changing.
You have His fullness today, and He is delighted in teaching you how to live in it.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3, and in Hebrew it is Shalom Shalom, meaning
complete wholeness.
Nothing missing, nothing broken.
This is who you are in Jesus.
Let's declare this together.
Today, I am kept in perfect peace.
With my whole heart, I trust the Lord.
I am strong.
I am victorious.
I am whole.
Remember, friend, you are a living testimony of Jesus' ultimate win.
Not because of anything you did, but because of what He did for you.
With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus' victory on display and Satan's defeat
on replay.