September 8
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;” (Ephesians 5:18-20)
| FROM Conformed to the World | TO Transformed in Christ |
| 12. Thinking lightly of the Holy Spirit within us and caring little when we grieve Him; allowing ourselves to be consumed with fleshly lusts, drunkenness, and other destructive dissipations. | 12. Being immensely grateful for the presence and fellowship of the Holy Spirit within us; not wanting to do anything to grieve Him; being continually filled with the Holy Spirit. |
This next transformation is one that ultimately every Christian must make if they want to be Christ-like, fruitful, and fully victorious over sin. We must be filled with the Spirit. Not just occasionally, not just in times of emergency, not just when things are going well and we want to praise and thank God for progress and success, but all the time.
Similar to the previous transformation of valuing and treasuring Christ and His holiness above all, I think most Christians live their lives in the flesh. We get through life in the best way we can. We pray for God’s guidance and wisdom, His prosperity and success, but for the most part, I think many of us walk in our own strength, doing our own will in our own way. I don’t think for the most part we are conscious of the Holy Spirit living within us. We relegate Him to the position of “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” We entertain ourselves with the programs we want. We pursue the things we want. We have our hobbies and interests, and often they are not aligned with what the Spirit would lead us to do.
If you doubt what I am saying, make a list of every program you watched, all the things you viewed on your smart phone or computer in the last week, all the things you put into your mind, all the conversations you had, all the things you read, all the time you spent and how you spent it, and ask yourself, “How many of these things will stand the test of eternity? How many of these things will I be glad I spent my time doing when I stand before Christ on the judgment day? And if anyone is engaged in viewing pornography or immoral activities, the answer is pretty obvious.
My point is that we ignore the Spirit and grieve the Spirit much more than we think we do. We have relegated Him to the back seat, or the trunk, or we have tried to leave Him out of our lives altogether. The transformation we must make is from a person who ignores the Spirit and perhaps is even afraid of Him and the changes He might bring to their life, to a person who is filled with the Spirit and empowered and emboldened by the Spirit. We need to be transformed from people who regularly quench and grieve the Spirit to those who are in the control of the Spirit.
More on this tomorrow.