Spirit-filled Lives: The Hour’s Need
Posted by Jerry Osborne on Sunday, January 6, 2013
“Be filled with the Spirit” is the command given to all Christians in Ephesians 5:18. Let us not explain it away; let us embrace it. What is the need for this filling?
The need stems from the fact that the Holy Spirit is often crowded to an inferior place in our heart. Sin, or maybe even legitimate things, have taken first place. The desire to be a Spirit-filled Christian is the desire for the Holy Spirit to have His proper, rightful place.
Our part is to deal with sin and all obstacles. As sin, and anything else that comes before God, goes, the blessed Holy Spirit within is able to occupy more and more of the heart.
I read of a teacher who told his students to write all they knew about the Holy Spirit and the Devil. At the end of class, one boy quickly scrawled on the bottom of his paper: “Sorry, I got so involved with the Holy Spirit that I didn’t have time for the Devil.”
Could there be a real secret here to the Spirit-filled life? As we KNOW BETTER, LOVE MORE, YIELD ALL, and GET INVOLVED with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, then and only then will we “give no place to the Devil.”
Then and only then can we by faith, ask, expect, and rejoice in the truth that God the Holy Spirit is no longer crowded into part of our heart, but filling all. Then we can enjoy all the blessing and power that comes from the Spirit-filled life.
The need stems from the fact that the Holy Spirit is often crowded to an inferior place in our heart. Sin, or maybe even legitimate things, have taken first place. The desire to be a Spirit-filled Christian is the desire for the Holy Spirit to have His proper, rightful place.
Our part is to deal with sin and all obstacles. As sin, and anything else that comes before God, goes, the blessed Holy Spirit within is able to occupy more and more of the heart.
I read of a teacher who told his students to write all they knew about the Holy Spirit and the Devil. At the end of class, one boy quickly scrawled on the bottom of his paper: “Sorry, I got so involved with the Holy Spirit that I didn’t have time for the Devil.”
Could there be a real secret here to the Spirit-filled life? As we KNOW BETTER, LOVE MORE, YIELD ALL, and GET INVOLVED with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, then and only then will we “give no place to the Devil.”
Then and only then can we by faith, ask, expect, and rejoice in the truth that God the Holy Spirit is no longer crowded into part of our heart, but filling all. Then we can enjoy all the blessing and power that comes from the Spirit-filled life.
