What are you full of? Your life is filled with something, some good and some bad. Multiple times throughout Scripture we read that people were "filled with the Holy Spirit." To be filled with Holy Spirit mostly suggests that one is controlled by the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit does not force control over our lives. We yield our lives to Holy Spirit leadership. To be filled with the Spirit I will have to empty me of me.
A thirty-something man came to see me this week. While he is unsure of his belief in God, he hopes there is God and desires to have the same kind of experience with God that he sees others enjoy. He asked me what it means to "die to self." He did not understand this concept. I explained that dying to self is to decide to follow the way of Christ, the kingdom of heaven, even though contrary to one's own desire or inclination. The most obvious example is that when mistreated by another the way of Christ is to love and to forgive our offender. My natural inclination is to retaliate or wish ill opon the one who has hurt me.
To be filled or controlled by Holy Spirit I empty myself of the need to get even. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 exhorts his readers to "lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely." Not everything that takes up space in our lives is sin. Some things are just unnecessary. Our lives can be so full of weight to such the extent that there is no space left in our lives for Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit will guide us away from danger, defeat, etc. He guides us into truth, victory and God's will. Holy Spirit does not always lead us down the easy path. Holy Spirit led Christ into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan according to Luke 4:1.
A thirty-something man came to see me this week. While he is unsure of his belief in God, he hopes there is God and desires to have the same kind of experience with God that he sees others enjoy. He asked me what it means to "die to self." He did not understand this concept. I explained that dying to self is to decide to follow the way of Christ, the kingdom of heaven, even though contrary to one's own desire or inclination. The most obvious example is that when mistreated by another the way of Christ is to love and to forgive our offender. My natural inclination is to retaliate or wish ill opon the one who has hurt me.
To be filled or controlled by Holy Spirit I empty myself of the need to get even. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 exhorts his readers to "lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely." Not everything that takes up space in our lives is sin. Some things are just unnecessary. Our lives can be so full of weight to such the extent that there is no space left in our lives for Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit will guide us away from danger, defeat, etc. He guides us into truth, victory and God's will. Holy Spirit does not always lead us down the easy path. Holy Spirit led Christ into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan according to Luke 4:1.
Why doesn't Holy Spirit lead us more? Perhaps our lives are filled with so much noise that we cannot hear his voice? We don't invite him into our lives and decisions as we ought. My father often said, "The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He will not force himself on us." Some times we are not led by Holy Spirit only because we tend to accept only the leadership we desire. Patrick Morley in The Man In the Mirror blames much of our ailment on “cultural
Christianity.” Cultural Christianity means to pursue the God we want instead of
the God who is. It is a the tendency to be shallow in our understanding of God,
wanting him to be more of a gentle grandfather type who spoils us lets us have
our own way. It is sensing a need for God, but on our own terms. It wants the
God we have underlined in our Bibles without wanting the rest of him too. It is
God relative instead of God absolute.
Saint Francis of Assisi said, "I want what God wants, therefore I am merry." Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Peace,
Stan
