FULLY ALIVE



“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

John 10:10 (b)




God isn’t satisfied with you just breathing today, His desire is that you be fully alive, acutely aware of His presence. It was Irenaeus who captured the thought best when he penned the words, “The glory of God is man fully alive” and so the question that begs to be asked then is, what does it mean to be fully alive?

If ever there was a man who was fully alive it was the apostle Paul who discovered for himself that it’s in Jesus Christ that “we live and move and have our being”. The apostle Paul said it best when he wrote down these words in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain”. From reading his letters it seems as if the apostle Paul often felt like he was caught between two desires. He knew to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord and that was his ultimate goal. But he was also very much aware of God’s sovereign plan and that every day the apostle Paul was on this earth there came with it a chance, a new and exciting opportunity to experience the very presence of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Since the day of his conversion the apostle Paul was on a mission you might say to know God fully and to make Him known. Thats why he would say in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Paul wanted to live each day as if he was walking in Jesus shoes. The apostle wanted nothing more than to continue on the ministry that Jesus would have for him and to fulfill the Lord’s desire for giving life to Paul to begin with.

The famous evangelist D.L. Moody came to understand what the apostle Paul was striving for in his own life when he, Moody would say, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God's help, I aim to be that man.” What the apostle Paul and D.L. Moody had in common was a desire to live, to live life to the fullest because they both came to know that the best life is a life lived completely for God.

Sunday church wouldn’t be enough to suffice the passion in each of their lives. These men of God were “all in” you could say. They wanted nothing more than to experience God in every way shape and form. They wanted to know God on the mountain top of life and in the valley’s low and everywhere in between. Philippians 3:10 captures the heart of both these men perfectly when the apostle Paul wrote,” that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” In other words, if Jesus did it or experienced, the apostle Paul and D.L. Moody wanted to experience it too.

How about you? Are you aware of God’s presence in your life today? If you are then you are fully alive! That’s God’s goal for you and me today, that we might know Him. To know God is with you and in you, leading you and guiding you, providing all that you need along the way in this journey we call life. God wants you to know He is not just with you but that He is in you. He desires that we live in awareness of Him. May you be overwhelmed today by the presence of God like the psalmist as you walk and talk with God. May the eyes of your understanding be enlightened to the reality that God is there. May knowing that wherever you are today He is there and my that knowledge cause you to become fully alive as you come to know personally like the song of old would sing, “there ain’t no mountain high enough, and there ain’t no valley low enough, and there ain’t no river wide enough… to keep me from getting to you.”



“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.”


Psalm 139:7–12













Michael Osthimer

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