March 7, 2023 BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
Ephesians 5:18 “And be not drunk with wine, is which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit,”
Acts 4:8a, 13:52 “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,” “And the disciples were continually filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.”
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Romans 8:9 “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of God does not belong to Him.”
Without the presence of the Holy Spirt in us, it would be utterly impossible to live life according to the ways of God-according to the scriptures. Some may think of the Holy Spirit in an abstract way or view the Spirit as a mysterious being. However, the Holy Spirit is real; He is the Spirit of God. Before Jesus ascended back to the Father, He told the disciples that it was good for Him to go because He would ask the Father and He would send the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) who would be with us forever. John 14. The Holy Spirit does not force Himself upon us; in fact, we can grieve, or quench, the work of the Spirit; BUT, we can also yield to the Spirit and be led by Him and used by Him. God gives us a command to be filled with the Spirit; it is amazing that we can choose to be filled with the Spirit. The Spirit is continually drawing us to God, but we must respond to His drawing. To be filled with the Spirit means that I yield myself to the Spirit and that I follow His leading. There are no three easy steps to be filled with the Spirit, but it involves turning our hearts fully to the things of the Lord; reading and obeying the word of God; dying to ourselves and yielding to God; and presenting ourselves to the Lord; this is not some mysterious thing we do; in one sense, it is the practical thing we do since we belong to God. The Spirit does not normally speak to us in an audible voice; in a gentle way He gives us a sense of how He is leading or what He is saying to us; He prompts us to do a particular thing; and He opens certain doors and He closes certain doors for us. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to reveal the Father to us; to show us His ways and to give us power to live according to the ways of God. Countless books have been written about the Holy Spirit and certainly I cannot add to what has been said; but for us today, let us empty ourselves and yield to, and be filled with the Spirit of God.
John 16:13 “But when He, the Holy Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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