I know I have been going painstakingly slow is teaching you how to be being filled with the Spirit. Here, again, is our verse.
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit…”
Paul is talking about two different ways we can go that will impact the way we live. This begins when we get up to start our day. It continues throughout the day as we have to make more choices, and there is an end result we can be experiencing at the end of the day based on the choices we make.
One of the problems is that when we make a bad choice the results of our choice are not so immediate or apparent to us. For example, when I choose to look at porn and act out, yes, I do feel immediate results. The rush of sexual arousal, the growing anticipation as my use of porn increases builds to a climax is all immediate. However, the real result of that choice comes in the aftermath of shame and guilt.
It can be kind of like when you see a police car pull behind you with its light flashing and instead of pulling over you want an adrenaline rush, so you accelerate and try to lose them. Wow, I bet that would be really exciting. However, you know after the thrill was gone there would be some severe consequences that would happen to you.
When we have gotten away with using sex and porn as an escape for the stress and pain in our lives for so long it is a tough job to think about the end result of getting caught and confessing. We choose to remain in this secret life of sexual addiction, and it begins to eat away and everything good in our life.
The problem with being filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit is that there are not any powerful immediate results we can feel like if we are starting to engage in sexual sin. There is no rush of pleasurable experience when we ask the Holy Spirit to fill us and take His escape from our temptation. There is not an intense emotional feeling or physical arousal. Out blood pressure does not increase, and no testosterone is released. And like a teenager in the family van driving to Wally World it is … boring!!!
However, to be being filled with the Spirit is something we are commanded to do and even though there are no exciting immediate results we have to look at the long-range results. I will be focusing on those next week.
So, how exactly are we to be being filled with the Spirit? We already know that the Spirit lives inside of our bodies. It is not like He is presently absent, and we have to go find Him or ask Him to find us. He is right there in us and will be in us forever, according to Jesus.
To be being filled literally means to ask Him to take control of your life. It is putting Him in charge, letting Him sit behind the wheel of your life and you allowing Him to lead you moment by moment throughout your day.
Paul has just said that we are to not be intoxicated or controlled by wine, but instead, we are to be intoxicated or controlled by the Spirit.
Now let me be completely clear about this command and what this truly needs to mean to you and me.
This is the # 1 command for every believer!
I am not using hyperbole or overstating this. The only way any man or woman can truly live the Christian life is if we are being filled with the Spirit. This is not something for those who want to be super spiritual. It is for all believers who struggle with sin. And oh, by the way, if you don’t realize it every single believer struggles with some form of sin. Yes, even your pastor, father, mother, siblings, every member of your church and every human being who is born again and in Christ.
To live a Christ-like life and to be able to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh we absolutely must be filled with the Spirit. When we are enticed and lured away into sexual sin it is because we are not being filled with the Spirit. When we believe that another season of viewing sexual images to get an orgasm will really help us feel better, we are listening to our flesh and not the Holy Spirit.
The way of being filled with the Spirit is simply to ask Him to fill you. When you are beginning to feel the desires starting to become aroused … ask Him to fill you and to show you the way of escape we are promised in 1 Corinthians 10:13.
ASK HIM to FILL YOU and then
FOLLOW HIM to SAFETY.
Here is what every one of us needs to do every day. Ask the Spirit to fill us at the beginning of our day and then continue to be asking Him to be continuing to be filling us throughout the day.
This is one of the most important and essential steps to begin to experience God’s healing from our sexual brokenness.