"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit" Ephesians 5:18.
Most off us as Christians obey the command, "do not get drunk on wine', but what about the other part? Be filled with the Spirit. Most of the time we limit ourselves to what the Gospel commands and think its enough. In regards to being filled with the Spirit, a lot of us do quite that. Sometimes its because of a lack of knowledge, prejudice, or a complete miss understanding of what being filled with the Spirit is. Like, being in a state of high emotion, or reaching a level of perfection that we can never claim. As Andrew Murray said "Being filled is simply this: The whole personality is yield to His power, when the soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God Himself will fill it". Are we truly filled?
Christ spert three years training the disciples for the day of Pentecost in which they will become filled in Him. So in order to be filled, we must look at how the disciples lived. Do as the disciples do. First, they forsaked all to follow Christ, yeilding themselves to His will, and not only believed Him as Savior, but Him as Lord. Look at Luke 14:26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple". They did just this, and so should we. Christ is Master of all we have and are, If we do not yield everything to Him, how can we expect to have Him in us and with us.
Secondly, they had an intensely close relationship with Christ. His heart was their hearts. They could not be separated from Him. We trust in Christ as our Savior, this brings us salvation, but there is this crazy good relationship, this very personal attachment that means He is my best friend, my Master, the only one whom I obey. And we are missing it. How can we as believers blow this off, how can we dismantle truth. False religions give up more then we do. Look at Muslims! they are far more disciplined towards there beliefs then we are. How can that be? We have made our God, the Creator of Heavens and Earth, equal to us. When Christ died, we died too. If we truly want to be filled with His Spirit, we must die to self. So that we may attain this attachment of joy in Him.
Thirdly, they had faith in His promise. A promise puts us in direct contact with Christ. I'm sure the disciples weren't to sure what was going to happen in Acts when Christ told them they will be filled with Him. But they took the words of Jesus, and ran with it. Completely trusting in Him, and prayed. They looked to God alone.
It is not enough to believe... also comes humility, trust, and a crap load of obedience.
Be filled.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Be Filled.
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2 comments:
Who do you think you are?!
..... callin' me a dude and whatnot.
Unforgivable!
But since I ACTUALLY have a heart, I'm going to tell you that I like this post (Romans 12:17-21). It's funny how legalism so often creeps in and we put so much more emphasis on the "Don't"s in Scripture, and make ourselves believe that if we're not doing the things we shouldn't do, then we must be doing everything we SHOULD do... definitely far from the truth! hmmm.. thanks for provoking my thoughts :]
Hey Travis!
I just stummbled upon your blog. Hope you are doing well.
I just read this post and gave it some thought. You mentioned a lot about being filled with the Holy Spirit and how this happend on the day of Pentecost. Something intersting that I found in Acts is how Peter takes action and leads where as before he denied Christ and who He was. But when Peter is given the chance, he takes it and he shares to all these people that are in this room what just happened and who Christ is and what they did to Him. He was the Son of God and they crucified Him.
The key is what Peter says in Acts 2:37-38.
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you wil receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
The Lord gives us a way out. And Peter shouts it the first chance that he gets. In front of many different types of people.
Further on you said:
"If we truly want to be filled with His Spirit, we must die to self. So that we may attain this attachment of joy in Him."
I encourage you to read Romans 6:1-11.
This is about dying with Christ and what actually happens. Every human on this earth is born into sin. We are born into the sin of Adam which is the sin of seperation from God. All men are born seperated from God. And the whole point to life is to seek the Lord out. And to be reconnected with Him in Truth.
It takes obedience to be filled. God gives us a way. No man can change it or wish it to be another way. The only thing we can do is obey the word of God.
I hope you are doing well in Mexico man. Talk to you later.
Steve
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