Today's thought comes to you from a gentlemen named Jon Bloom, co-founder and staff-writer for desiringGod.org, a ministry most closely associated with John Piper (whose thoughts I have passed on to you before). This article was found on the desiringGod.org website. I pass it on to you for your serious and prayerful consideration. To simply read it is one thing, but to read it and then pray in the manner he advises is another thing altogether -- and surely the author's hoped for response on any readers part. Read. Pray. Enjoy.
Lord, Fill Me With Your Spirit
“The
kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (I Corinthians
4:20). If we are not disillusioned with how much we have allowed our talk
to pass for our walk, discontented with the sparse amount of spiritual fruit we
are truly bearing, and disappointed by the impotence of our own efforts, we
will never be distressed enough to really plead with God to fill us with the
Holy Spirit. If we’re not disturbed by how little we can do in our own
power, we’ll never be desperate enough to ask God for his.
What Is the Filling of the Holy Spirit?
But
when we pray for this, what are we asking God for? In the words of Wayne
Grudem, we are asking God for “an event subsequent to conversion in which a
believer experiences a fresh infilling with the Holy Spirit that may result in
a variety of consequences, including greater love for God, greater victory over
sin, greater power for ministry, and sometimes the receiving of new spiritual
gifts.” (Grudem 1242) Now, of course every Christian receives the Holy
Spirit upon conversion. Being born again is the greatest miracle any human
being can possibly experience, and it only happens by the omnipotent power of
Holy Spirit (John 3:3-8, I Corinthians 12:13).
But
the reason we talk about the filling of the Holy Spirit as “an event subsequent
to conversion” is because that’s how the New Testament usually talks about it.
Paul was exhorting born-again Christians when he wrote, “be filled with the
Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). And almost all of Luke’s description of
Spirit-fillings occurred to people who were already born again (see Acts 2:4,
4:8, 4:31, 9:17, 13:9, 13:52). And we’re actually talking about events (plural) because, just like the same people
received repeated fillings of the Spirit in the book of Acts, we also need to
be filled repeatedly. According to the New Testament, we need to be repeatedly
filled with the Holy Spirit for two primary purposes: empowered worship and
witness.
Intoxicated with God
When
Paul told the Ephesians Christians to “be filled with the Spirit,” he was
talking about Spirit-empowered worship: "And do not get drunk with wine,
for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord
with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:18-20). Be careful
as you read these verses. Don’t let your familiarity with it or your
experience-based preconceptions about worship styles or other things cause you
to dodge the punch the Holy Spirit intends to land here. Paul is
saying, don’t be intoxicated with alcohol, but be intoxicated with God!
His
words confront each of us with the penetrating question, “Are you intoxicated
with God?” Does our heart so overflow with love for God that our heart, whether
light or heavy, can’t help but sing, both to God and to one another? No matter
what our circumstances, are we overflowing with thanks to God? If not, we
need to be filled with the Holy Spirit because we are not worshipfully enjoying
God according to the grace available to us. That means we are not glorifying
God as we ought, and are we not experiencing satisfaction in God like we might.
Empowered by God
When
Luke described this experience of Spirit-filling among Christians, its purpose
was for Spirit-empowered witness: "And now, Lord, look upon their threats
and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed
through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the
place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness"
(Acts 4:29-31). Those early Christians were feeling fear from the threats
of the religious authorities, the same ones who had crucified Jesus. But their
response was to ask God for boldness to preach the gospel and supernatural
power to minister to people. And God answered their prayer.
Don’t
let yourself be immediately distracted by popular controversies, like whether
all the miraculous gifts in the New Testament continue, or some have ceased.
Those questions are important in their place. But there are more fundamental
questions for us here. “Are you responding to your fears of real physical
threats, disapproval, or scorn with desperate prayer for God to empower you to
overcome?” Are we laying hold of God until he answers? If not, we need to be
filled with the Holy Spirit because we are allowing fear and unbelief to gag or
mute our witness to the reality and gospel of Jesus Christ. And because we are
silent, people who need the gospel aren’t hearing it.
Whatever It Takes, Lord
Here’s
wonderful news: our heavenly Father loves to give his Holy Spirit to those who
ask (Luke 11:13)! “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds,
and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11:10). Do you feel
dry? Are you weary? Are you tired of talking so much about glorious theology, but not experiencing the
reality of it? Does your worship feel distracted and hollow? Are you lacking in
gratitude to God? Do you long for more fruit, both the internal fruit of the
Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:28-29) and the external fruit of empowered
ministry? Then you are a good candidate for the filling of the Holy
Spirit. Your dryness and discouragement may, in fact, be invitations from God
to press in to him. The desperation that comes from living with low-ebbing
affections and spiritual impotence can itself be a gift from the Holy Spirit,
because it's when we become disillusioned enough with our mere talk, our anemic
worship, and our weak selves that we really become prepared to pray: Whatever it takes, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit and any
gifting you would be pleased to give me."
As
one who has been preaching and sharing the Gospel for 37 years in various
capacities now, I must confess his opening words rung true. It is because
I have frequently been, "disillusioned with how much [I] have allowed [my] talk
to pass for [my] walk," and have indeed been,"discontented
with the sparse amount of spiritual fruit [I am] truly bearing," and have been deeply, "disappointed
by the impotence of [my] own efforts," that I habitually, "plead with God
to fill [me] with the Holy Spirit." I find it impossible
to think there is even one person involved in Christian ministry of any sort
who does not do this. For ministering in merely human strength, and nothing
else (and I know when I am), cannot help but bring bring about fruit that will
not last. That's what we must eventually ask ourselves: Do we yearn for fruit
that bears the stamp of a power that is not from us? For only if we do
will we confess our inability to produce it in our own strength and plead for
the power of the Spirit to do through us what only he can do. Lord show
us our weakness that we may plead for your strength.
In
His Service, Pastor Jeff
