Being Filled with the Full Knowledge of God’s Will to make Christ Everything to us

...We also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease praying and asking on your behalf that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Col. 1:9

The book of Colossians is a book concerning the great, eternal will of God, and our prayer is that we may be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will.

God does everything according to His will; He has a pleasure, a purpose in Christ, and He has the counsel of His will, which is the way to accomplish and carry out His will.

God’s perfect will needs to be carried out; however, God has a certain time when He wants to carry out His will, and He does things in His own way.

God the Father knows us, all His children; He knows our natural makeup thoroughly, and He knows how He will work out His will in us. We simply need to open to Him and ask Him to reveal His will to us, even to bring us to the full knowledge of God’s will.

We can tell the Lord,

Lord, what is in Your heart concerning me? Whatever is in Your heart concerning me, Lord, I choose that over anything else. I put my will aside, I put my emotions and feelings and planning aside, and I take Your will.

God’s will is His determination for the carrying out of His purpose; our God is determined to carry out His will, and He will carry it out.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that we are like robots cooperating with Him; rather, we love Him, we open to Him, we enjoy Him, and we allow Him to work Himself into us, so little by little we cooperate with Him for the carrying out of His will.

As we read the New Testament under the Lord shining we have a revelation of the mystery of His will in Christ; through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension God makes us know the mystery of His will.

And the will of God is concerning the all-inclusive, extensive Christ; He wants His Christ – who is everything in His economy and who is the first in the old creation and in the new creation – to be our everything.

When we enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and take Christ as our everything, and when we allow Him to make His home in our heart and impart His riches into us, we will get to know not only a limited Christ but an all-inclusive Christ, a Christ that is vast and immense.

This will produce us to be the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all and in all. The all-inclusive, extensive Christ has a Body, the church, which is His fullness, and we all are here for this – for Christ and the church!

Seeing the Great Will of God and being Filled with the Full Knowledge of God’s Will

The will of God mentioned in Colossians 1:9 is not His will in small matters. It is not merely for us to know what school to go to, what house to buy, or whether or not to marry. These things are too minor. The will of God mentioned here is the eternal will of God, the great will of God. It is related not to the things in our daily life but to God’s purpose, God’s intention. To know this will requires that we have full knowledge and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. CWWL, 1964, vol. 2, “A General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, Part 2 — Romans through Philemon,” p. 327The will of God mentioned in the book of Colossians is not His will in small matters such as what job should we take, where we should live, whom we should marry, etc. These things may seem very important and quite crucial to us, but in God’s eyes they are small compared to the vastness of the universe.

Colossians is a book concerning the great, eternal will of God (Col. 1:9; 4:12); this is the eternal will of God, the great will of God.

We do need to check with the Lord concerning our decisions, concerning whom we should marry, where should we live, what kind of job should we have, whether to take a PhD or not, and so on, but above all we need to see and know the great will of God.

The great will of God is the will in Rev. 4:11 which caused Him to create everything because He wants something, He wants to gain something.

Colossians in particular reveals what God’s will is according to His desire and intention in the whole universe, in creation, in redemption, in the present age, in the coming age, and in eternity (Eph. 1:5, 9, 11; 3:9-11; Matt. 16:18; Rev. 19:7-9; 11:15; 21:2).

We need to be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will (Col. 1:9).

In writing this epistle Paul told the Colossians, whom he has never physically met but heard of their faith, that he did not cease praying and asking on their behalf that they may be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding (Col. 1:9).

Furthermore, Epaphras, who was one of them, a slave of Christ Jesus, was always struggling on their behalf in his prayers that they may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God (Col. 4:12).

Wisdom is in our spirit and understanding is in our mind; wisdom is in our spirit for us to realize, sense, and perceive the spiritual things, while understanding is in our mind to interpret what we perceive.

For us to have the full knowledge of God’s will we need to have all spiritual wisdom and understanding; this is not in us by default, we need to pray that the Lord would give spiritual wisdom and understanding.

May we be those who know the great will of God by having the full knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

To understand the will of God we need to both exercise our spirit (where the spiritual wisdom is) and our renewed mind (where the spiritual understanding is).

We all need to exercise our spirit to perceive God’s will concerning the all-inclusive, extensive Christ.

We should not be passive; sometimes passivity is in our nature, so we should stand against it, exercise our spirit, and seek to know and be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will. Only the spirit can perceive God’s eternal will.

And when the spirit perceives God’s will, we need to be renewed in our mind in the word of God and in the ministry that opens up the word so that we may understand and rightly interpret what we sense in our spirit. Amen, may we pray and ask the Lord,

Lord Jesus, fill us with the full knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding! Amen, Lord, may we see what the great will of God is, and may we be filled with the desire and intention of God! Make Your heart’s desire be our heart’s desire. Fill us with the full knowledge of the will of God, and fill all the saints with the full knowledge of God’s will! Lord, we exercise our spirit to perceive what the will of God is, and we exercise our renewed mind to understand the will of God and even be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will!

God’s Plan is to make Christ Everything in the Divine Economy and in Us; this is His Will

Epaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. Col. 4:12What is the will of God spoken of in Col. 1:9? God’s will in this portion is His will regarding His eternal purpose, regarding His economy concerning Christ (Eph. 1:5, 9, 11).

The economy of God is God’s arrangement to accomplish His purpose by dispensing Himself into us for Him to produce and build up the church as the Body of Christ, His fulness.

God has a purpose, and His economy is His plan and arrangement to accomplish His purpose.

Part of His arrangement is that He created us, He regenerated us, He shepherds us, and He dispenses Himself into us; the center of this plan is Christ.

God’s plan is to make Christ everything in the divine economy; as seen in Matt. 17:5, the only Person that matters to God is His Christ, His Beloved.

God doesn’t agree with any other persons, matters, and things to replace Christ as being everything in His economy.

When we have the revelation of God’s plan, when we have the full knowledge of God’s will, the way is opened for us to have more experience of Christ (Col. 2:16-17; 3:4, 15-16).

For us to enter into the spiritual reality, we first need to see it; in Eph. 1 Paul prayed for a spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may be filled with the full knowledge of God, and in ch. 3 he prayed for our experience of Christ.

First we need to have the revelation and then we need to enter into the experience. Christ is everything in the will of God; the will of God is in Christ – it is concentrated in Christ and is for Christ.

We need to have the revelation of God’s plan so that through this revelation we know what God plans to do in this universe.

Once we have this revelation, we can enter into the experience of God’s will, and we can be one with Him for His will to be done on earth.

To be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will simply means to have the revelation of God’s plan so that through this revelation we know what God plans to do in this universe.... What did God plan in eternity past to do in time throughout all the generations? We need such a revelation so that we can have the full knowledge of God’s eternal plan. The revelation of God’s plan opens the way for us to have more experience of Christ.... Thus, we need to spend more time to learn about Christ in the plan of God. This is one of the most important reasons why we have to read the Scriptures. We read the Scriptures not to receive doctrine or teachings but to receive the revelation of Christ and the full knowledge of God’s eternal plan. CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The Mystery of God and the Mystery of Christ,” pp. 129-130For us to have a revelation of God’s plan we need to spend more time to learn about Christ in the plan of God; we need to read the Bible with the exercise of our spirit and with a renewed mind, so that we may get not only doctrines and teachings but receive the revelation of Christ and the full knowledge of God’s eternal plan.

The divine revelation is in the Bible; the Bible opens a universal curtain to show us what is in the mind of God and what God plans to do in this universe. In His plan God wants to make Christ, His Son, everything in this universe.

For us to know and experience the all-inclusive, extensive Christ requires all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

We don’t get this spiritual wisdom and understanding by studying more in a secular school but by allowing the Spirit to mingle with us and by asking the Lord to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

This mingled spirit spreading in our mind enlightens our mind, and we will have spiritual wisdom and understanding. Spiritual wisdom and understanding are of the Spirit of God in our spirit (Eph. 1:17; 1 Cor. 2:11-12; 6:17; 1 John 5:20).

Wisdom is in our spirit to perceive God’s eternal will; spiritual understanding is in our mind, renewed by the Spirit, to understand and interpret what we perceive in our spirit (Eph. 1:17; 4:23). Amen!

Lord Jesus, grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ, the all-inclusive, extensive Christ who is everything to God in His economy. Amen, Lord, may we realize that God desires to have His Christ be everything in this universe, and may we cooperate with God for His will to be done! Fill us with all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that we may have the full knowledge of God’s will. May the great will of God become a governing and controlling matter in our being!

Read this article / blog post in Romanian - puteți citi acest articol și în limba românăRead this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Să fim umpluți cu deplina cunoaștere a voii lui Dumnezeu de a-L face pe Cristos totul pentru noi.

References and Hymns on this Topic
  • Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, CWWL, 1964, vol. 2, “A General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, Part 2—Romans through Philemon,” pp. 327-328, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ (2019 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1 on the topic of, The Will of God concerning the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ.
  • Hymns on this topic:
    – O Father of glory, now grant unto me / A spirit of wisdom, a spirit to see; / O give unto me the full knowledge of Him, / Enlight’ning the eyes of my heart deep within. (Hymns #1133)
    – Once ’twas busy planning, / Now ’tis trustful prayer; / Once ’twas anxious caring, / Now He has the care; / Once ’twas what I wanted, / Now what Jesus says; / Once ’twas constant asking, / Now ’tis ceaseless praise. / All in all forever, / Only Christ I’ll sing; / Everything is in Christ, / And Christ is everything. (Hymns #513)
    – All is in Christ; / God’s dear Son is Lord of all. / Jesus Christ is life’s perfection, / Perfect love and perfect light. / Son of God, the true reflection / Of the Father’s radiance bright. / All the treasures of God’s riches, / All the secrets of His wisdom, / All in Christ are hid away. / Let His name be praised today! (Hymns #515)
About aGodMan

A God-man is a normal believer in Christ; the author of this article is one who is learning to be a normal Christian, a daily enjoyer of Christ, a living and functioning member in the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, make us such ones for the building up of the Body of Christ!

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Caleb Cheong
Caleb Cheong
1 year ago

“Rejoice always, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬, ‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

God is interested in every aspect of our lives. Ranging from bread, fish and the Holy Spirit. May His will be done in every aspect of our lives.