No one is a complete body.  The Body of Christ encompasses all of us living the blessed life that He has prearranged for us to live.  We are distinctively gifted and anointed IN CHRIST to fulfill who He called us to be yet unified in His love for one purpose, and that is to be loved by Him, to love Him back by loving our neighbors the very way He loves us.

“But as it is, God has placed and arranged the limbs and organs in the body, each [particular one] of them, just as He wished and saw fit and with the best adaptation.”  (1 Corinthians 12:18 AMPC)

One of the ways for us to be strengthened in the Lord is to fellowship with one another.  When we share our testimonies or listen to someone else’s of God’s goodness and faithfulness, it builds us up.  When two or three gather in His name, He is in the midst (Matthew 18:20).  When He is in our midst, SURELY He moves in ways and means that way surpasses our intellect.   He renews our minds, touches our hearts, transforms our lives and glue us together in His love.

“May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp WITH ALL THE SAINTS [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it] … ”  (Ephesians 3:17-18 AMPC)

We can never be rooted and grounded in love without people.  Love needs an object of our affection.  Love needs to be experienced in us and expressed through us.  We can only get better and better with each other.  But the source of all love is Him Who Himself is LOVE and as we personally soak ourselves in His loving presence, we are graced and empowered to diffuse His fragrance to those around us.

One day, I saw this verse “When you open your generous hand, it’s full of blessings, satisfying the longings of every living thing.” (Psalm 146:16 TPT).  Truly my heart was overwhelmed by the exceeding generosity of our Heavenly Father.  He never withheld anything from us, not even His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, because of His great love for us.  He knows that only He can satisfy the longing soul, and the hungry soul only He can fill with good things. (Psalm 107:9).  He knows that apart from Him we can never be complete.  Why then would He withhold Jesus from us if the only One and the Only Way  who can make us WHOLE is Himself?  Great is His love that even after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, His heart was still set to be with us.  He sent us the Holy Spirit to abide in us forever that we may never be alone, not a single moment in our lives.

Yes, no one is ever complete without Him.  In Him is FULLNESS.  But as we take it further and farther, the Body of Christ can never be complete without us living and expressing each other in love.  Jesus is the Head of the body, His church.  He is love, therefore, as He is, so are we.

Lately, I saw this same verse again but this time it illumined in a different way.  “When you open your generous hand, it’s full of blessings, satisfying the longings of every living thing.” (Psalm 146:16 TPT)  He impressed in my heart that because we are in Christ, living in the FULLNESS of Him, our hands become the generous hands that will bless others that those around us can taste and see how good our Heavenly Father is and how loved we are by Him.

Because of this revelation, it is but norm to experience the measurability of this verse for He always watches His word to come to pass in our lives.

I suddenly received a text message from a friend whom I haven’t seen for quite sometime.  She asked for prayers and so I opened my schedule to meet her for lunch with an open ended afternoon.  I yielded to the word that was spoken in my heart that when I open my hands blessings will flow.

Soon after such text message, I got an invitation for dinner in which I said yes.  Little did I know that the person whom I haven’t seen for years carried a wonderful testimony.  As I sat and fellowshipped with her, I was “overly overwhelmed”.  I couldn’t imagine how she managed to live for twelve years being left behind by her parents who migrated to another country, let alone the fact that she is the only child.  During the petition for immigration, her papers were overlooked by her father that when the decision came, her name wasn’t included.  But God is so rich in mercy and abounding in love Who filled her heart with His fullness.  At first she wasn’t pleased with what had happened at all, but sooner than she thought, as she made her way to pray and know the ONLY ONE Who can satisfy her longing soul, she was filled with joy that became her strength.  With her mother’s prayers and guidance, she came to realize her purpose why she was left behind.  A few days ago, she got an email from the embassy for her interview to migrate. Hallelujah!

The journey of knowing Him while we are going through in the valley is what makes us secure in who we are in Him, how loved we are, how thought of we are, how cared for we are, how provided for we are BY HIM.  It awes us that when the real breakthrough comes, it would seem like just another little one.  Our relationship with Him that was built in the valley indeed is what sustains us when we get to the top of the mountain.

Then, when the set time came for me to meet my other friend who asked for prayers, I was filled with joy by the testimony I just heard.  I never knew that her challenge was all about her only child who has an absentee father.  And so I shared with her my other friend’s testimony that awesomely blessed her.  Yes, we prayed and the afternoon ended with us in high spirits.  Thank God!

All things work together for our good.  We all learn from each other and get strengthened together.  When we say “YES” and submit ourselves to the word that He speaks into our hearts, He equips us and fills us with what is needed to be poured out.  All He needs are yielded vessels who are accountable in the house of God that is rooted and grounded in His love.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good [more satisfying] reward for their labor; For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie down together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone? And though a man might prevail against him who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.”  (Ecclessiastes 4:9-12 AMP)

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank You, for choosing us to be Your holy vessels in the earth, carrying Your love and compassion that all may come to know You.  As You make Yourself known to us, we will make You known, not by our own strength but empowered and anointed by You alone.  Thank You, Jesus, for giving Your life for us that we, too, are graced to keep ourselves open for Your very life to flow through us.  Thank You, Holy Spirit, for filling us with Your manifest presence that as we yield to You, You may be free to flood out through us.  As we continually lift You up, Jesus, people will be drawn to You and Your love is the unifying factor in the body of Christ. Amen!