The Fullness Of Being by Maxie Dunnam

Join me in your imagination. We are a part of a Christian congregation in Ephesus. At one of our gatherings, a fellow member reads a letter written by the great apostle, Paul. He is seeking to shepherd the new emerging Christian movement and he is praying for us. Hear him, now.

I kneel in prayer to the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name, that out of the treasures of his glory he may grant you strength and power through his Spirit in your inner being, that through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love. With deep roots and firm foundations, may you be strong to grasp, with all God’s people, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge. So may you attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself. (Ephesians 3:14-19) 

The Essence of Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians

The prayer is packed with meaning that should leave us somewhat breathless. Paul was filled with emotion as he thought of these new Christians, in his mind probably rehearsing  his own Damascus Road experience. How could he say what he was feeling and thinking? What did he need to say?  All he had was words and words are never enough.

He sounded his deep prayerful desires for them: So may you attain the fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.  Take a moment to ponder some of his words leading up to that blurt of deep passion:

• “strength and power …in your inner being”
• “grasp… the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ”
• “through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love”

Then what feels climatic: So may you attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.

Personal Reflections on Spiritual Formation

I recall a particularly trying time early in my ministry which led me to passionately pursue being alive in Christ. I discovered that the indwelling Christ, along with justification by grace through faith, were Paul’s two major themes, and that the indwelling Christ is as prominent in his writing as justification. No theme has occupied my thinking and ministry more. Fullness of being, the fullness of God himself, is ours through Christ who dwells in us. It was in this reality of the indwelling Christ that prayer as a specific act and prayerful living took on vibrant and powerful meaning for me. It is in this reality of the indwelling Christ that my understanding of spiritual formation and growing on in full salvation is rooted.

Early on, as I immersed myself in the dynamic of the indwelling Christ, abiding in him, I developed a working definition of spiritual formation: that dynamic process of receiving through faith and appropriating through commitment, discipline, and action the living Christ into our own life to the end that our life will conform to and manifest the reality of Christ’s presence in the world.

The definition encompasses the full measure of prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace. It also calls for discipline and witness. Three disciplines are essential for recognizing, cultivating awareness of, and giving expression to the indwelling Christ. One, not only is the presence of God in Jesus Christ to be experienced on occasion, but the indwelling Christ is also to become the shaping power of our lives.  Two, what Christ has been and done in our lives we must be and do for others. Three, we allow the working power of God in the past to be brought into the present. 

In my study, reflection, and experience, this has been made clear to me: the indwelling Christ in an affirming presence, a forgiving and healing presence, a guiding and creating presence, and a converting presence.1 

The indwelling Christ as a converting presence is the dynamic we claim for going on and growing on to full salvation.

Reclaiming the Concept of Conversion

When I was writing the book Alive in Christ, I struggled with the word that best communicated the shaping dynamic of the indwelling Christ. I confessed that though converting and conversion are common words in religious language, I hesitated using those words because of how narrow fundamentalists had distorted their meaning. I confessed, “Not being willing to be squeezed into that mold we have given up one of our powerful and descriptive words: conversion.” 

We have gone even further in many quarters of the church. Not only have we given up the word, we have diminished a cardinal principle of the gospel which the words describe. We simply do not think much about conversion.

But think! In our Wesley understanding, we are “going on’ to salvation.” We are not finished, but you could say we are “under construction,” maturing into the measure of the fullness of Christ, believing the extravagant possibility of attaining to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.

The purpose of spiritual disciplines is to keep alive the conversion process, Paul’s prayer being answered in us: So may you attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself.