Why is Being Filled with the Holy Spirit so Critical? ~ blog

Why do you think God calls us to live a holy life? Is it because He is some cosmic killjoy and just wants us to suffer with feelings of guilt and shame?

I seem to remember Jesus talking about His followers about living a life of abundance with rivers of living water gushing from within us. He said these words to his disciples at the Last Supper;

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

Abundant Life? Complete Joy? And how about this promise;

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Are these words from the lips of Jesus true or false? Since Jesus is God and cannot lie I would have to make the case that they are all true and what He said is entirely possible. However, there are a few conditions on which this abundant life, complete joy, and fruitful life depend. The promises are true, but we need to read the fine print.

These are quid pro quo statements. There are some conditions Jesus mentioned as well. Words like…

“If you keep my commands…” 

“Love each other as I have loved you.”

“You may ask me for anything… in my name, and I will do it.” 

Oh boy, this is where it all falls apart for us because we have not been keeping His commands. We are not doing so well in loving one another. We do not understand that asking for anything “in my name” means. That phrase “in my name’ means according to His will. So, the real promise is if we ask anything that is according to His Will then He will answer that prayer.  However, not immediately.

We would like all these wonderful things to happen in an instant. However, this full and joyful life will be the fruit of living a Christ-like like and for those of us who have become addicted to porn that truly seems to be absolutely impossible.  All our best efforts have failed and we find ourselves face down on rock bottom doubting is God even knows we are alive or if He does know does He still love us?

There are lots of doom and gloom memes on the walls at rock bottom. A chorus of demons in the wings tweeting to you that you are worthless and abandoned. A long rap sheet of your criminal activities choosing to continue in sin instead of walking in the Spirit. By the way, if you look around my initials are carved in the wall as I lived there for 8 years. Which begs the questions…

How did I get out?

How can you get out?

Yesterday we learned the need for us to daily offer our bodies to God as a living sacrifice which is our spiritual act of worship. If we want the life God has for us we must have the attitude that He owns our body and has purchased us through the death of Christ. We are His slaves or bondservants, yet we still have a free will. So, we need to surrender our will and our body to Him daily.

The second thing we need to do is to ask for the Holy Spirit to fill us as we are told in Ephesians 5:18;

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.

Instead, be filled with the Spirit…”

Being filled with the Spirit is not a one time shot and you are filled for life. It is not a matter of volume as if the Spirit is leaking out of you as you go through your day. He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us so He is always there and He is always there 100%. You do not need to ask Him for more of Him. That is not what this verse is saying.

To unlock what this phrase means look at the parallel thought that we are told we are not to be doing…and that is being drunk on wine. What do these two ideas have in common? It is not that the wine is filling you … but the wine is influencing you.  We say someone who is drunk is under the influence of alcohol. It is affecting the way they feel, the words they say, and the actions they take.

So, this command of us being filled with the Spirit, which is a command and is to be something that is happening continuously, is for us to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit.  That we are surrendering our body to Him and asking Him to lead and guide us throughout our entire day.

And as we begin to do this consistently, day after day, and we learn to walk in the Spirit, which means we are allowing Him to guide us in what we think, do, and say…then He will guide us and we will begin to bear His fruit.  Continuously walking in the Spirit is supposed to be the normal Christian life.

Then His fruit begins to develop in us and one of those fruits is self-control.  Guess what self-control will help us all to do??? It will help us obey His commandments, live in obedience instead of sinful rebellion, and our abundant and joyful life will begin to be discovered.

More Tomorrow …

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