The Essence of Wholeness

I received an email and the pastor asked about wholeness. Some thoughts came together and I wanted to share them with you. Enjoy.


Whole Singles make great couples.
Whole Couples make great parents and produce whole families.
Whole Families make great members and servants of Christ.
Whole Members make great citizens.

There are those who remain whole single for the rest of their lives. Marriage would not make them whole.
There are those who remain who couples and do not have children. Children would not make them whole.

The answer lies in being able to answer the question, What does a whole person look like? What does it mean to be whole?

Two fractions marry and they multiple into a smaller fraction and eventually leave the marriage worse than they came in.

Whole means
1. There are two type of people in the world. The MORE-ites and the THANK-ites. The More-ites believe that you need more of God, more faith, more giving. They also believe you need more money, more time, more of something to make you whole. Some MORE-ites are very religious while others are very anti-religious. But they all believe that MORE is the answer. The THANK-ites are grateful for what they have. They may seem to need more but they are so overwhelmed with what they already have, it seems more than enough to them. They are grateful to their bones for what God has done in their life. To be whole means to be a THANK-ites. See Psalm 50 and Romans 1:18ff. The essence of sin is MORE. The Ten Commandments are about MORE versus ENOUGH.

2. Means a heart transfer. I trust God with my heart better than I trust myself. God has proved Himself faithful to the desires of my heart. I have proved myself faithful to my own lusts and selfish desire. God has set me free from me through His love and care. I entrust my heart into His hands and His care. I rest in His care and do not fret or worry. He is faithful. I know because I keep the score every week. Failing to keep the score and observe what God is doing in my life, leads me to doubt God and neglect His work in my life. Taking the time to write down the things God is doing and to stay up with Him means I am aware of the score. I am weekly humbled by His presence and power in my life. It is easy to give my heart to someone who is so dedicated to JOY in my life.

3. True to the Holy Spirit of God who resides in my heart. Integrity means that my life corresponds to the convictions of my heart. I do not live by shame or fear and though Satan is screaming my weaknesses, faults and failures before God 24/7, I can hear the Father quietly whispering who I am in His Son. I chose to believe and abide in the whispers of God’s heart rather than the shouting of Satan’s condemnation. When the Spirit of God convicts me of sin, though I may not fully understand what I have done, I simply respond by confession of the conviction. This brings cleansing and usually understanding comes after the obedience. I am also true to the Holy Spirit convicting me through those who are closest to me. They are wonderfully confident in my intimate relationship with God because of the times that He has used them to humble before their eyes and I submitted to what God was saying through them.

4. They live by joy and not happiness. Happiness is related to happy events while joy is related to relationships. They have learned that real grief always begets joy, always. So they are confident in God that when they encounter grief in their life or a friend’s life that it will be matured eventually into joy. This confidence is unexplainable to the one who does not know God and is powerfully attractive to those who sense they are lost. People centered by worship and joy are able to laugh and enjoy life without taking from life. They are able to pass through and have tasted the place of real, unending joy – heaven.

This person is whole. They are centered in their worship and their idols have been weakened and are in the process of being revealed and destroyed. They have been through the fire and hammer and their metal is tested and true. They are confident and yet gentle by His power present in their life. They are submitted to authority and handle power cautiously. They are able to enjoy happiness but do not need it to live. They live for JOY and therefore know how to go through the valley of grief to the mountain of joy.

Getting married, going into the ministry does not make you whole. The celebrated presence of Christ in your heart makes you whole. The wholeness is moving into the mind, will and feelings but the heart and center of the being is whole when Christ is Lord and Savior of the heart. 1-4 happen because we allow Christ to be who He is – they are a fruit issue of letting Christ BE. His BEING changes our BEING. A new being now sees different and begins to do different. But his doing is out of his BEING. The Law demanded a new BEING out of DOING and it did not work. Christ creates a new BEING person and we begin to DO what our heart wants to do and we are saved and being saved.

Getting married, going into the ministry, do what God told you to do, however, does make you complete. It is important to know the difference. What I do is a mission issue, a doing issue, a fruit issue. It is not a being issue. Being whole is a being issue. Nothing is added to me by being complete. I am completed by fulfilling my mission, by those gifts being drawn out of me and given to the Church and world for His sake. My being is not changed by my doing. My doing proves what my being is. I am complete when I do what I am supposed to do. I am whole when I allow Christ to complete my being. There is nothing but Christ to add to my being. This rest is wonderful and powerful. I highly recommend it.