We could marvel at the creation forever. Its diversity in the multitudes of species of plants and animals are nearly incomprehensible. Still, there are multitudes that yet remain undiscovered. How they all interact with the earth and each other is a source of continuous discovery and amazement. We now know the planets, stars, and galaxies have an interaction with the earth from billions of light years away that was necessary to begin the earth’s food chain! 

         As we are told in Scripture, all of this is but a “shadow” of the spiritual realm, which has much more substance compared to the physical realm, just as you have more substance than your shadow! If the creation is this expansive, filled with continuous marvels and wonders, how much more the Creator? Who can comprehend how great He is? 

         As King David surmised in Psalm 8, after considering the expanse of the heavens, why would He regard man? Yet He not only regards man, He has also given us the most special place in all His creation, making a way for us to become His own sons and daughters. This is far too remarkable for our human imagination. It was reported after Napoleon had read the Gospel of John, he said, either Jesus was the Son of God, or the one who wrote this gospel was. He said he knew men, and that no man could have made up a story like this. Only God could have conceived something as wonderful as the plan we are now living. 

         God’s creation is so expansive, it seems like God intended for us to take an eternity to discover it and never exhaust its wonders. How much more is this true for knowing God Himself? We know from John 1, Colossians 1, and other Scriptures, that Jesus is the Creator whom all this was made through and for. The One who made the world, came into the world, and walked upon the earth as a man. He did this, though He knew men would not recognize or like Him, but would, in fact, persecute Him and eventually execute Him. He came anyway to gather those who would receive Him, and to them He gave the call and the power to become members of His family.

         As we begin to perceive God’s marvelous plan for us, it results in us being born again into a new nature by His Spirit. This begins to open our spiritual eyes to see Him, so we can comprehend Him and His plan. This also enables us to grow up into Him, to abide in Him, and to become like Him. As we grow in His nature, He will use us to manifest His authority and power. There is no greater quest or accomplishment we could have as human beings than “to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

         Our ultimate calling is to be like Christ and to do the works that He did. We are told how to fulfill this in the next verse: “from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).

         We are all members of the body of Christ, and together we mature and become complete in Him. Because it takes His whole body to fully manifest Him, no one can fulfill their calling without the rest of His body. That is why the Apostle Paul did not write that he had the mind of Christ, but that we have the mind of Christ (see I Corinthians 2:16). No one person can contain the mind of our Creator. It takes all of us coming together with that aspect of Him we have been given.

         We are told in Ephesians 4:16 that His body is built up by that which “every joint supplies.” A joint is not a part, but it is where two parts come together. For this reason, a primary mandate is for believers to find their place in His body, and to function there as we have been given gifts and ministries. As the text in Ephesians states, it takes the “proper working of each individual part” for us to grow up together into Him as we are called. 

© 2021 Rick Joyner. All Right Reserved.