April 15
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18)
We’ve talked a bit over the last few days about grieving the Spirit with sins of many different types. The first step clearly in my mind to being filled with the Spirit is to work hard at eliminating the sins that cause us to quench the Spirit’s working. This should be an obvious starting point, and for some of us it is the place we need to put the most focus and effort. Even if we think we are doing pretty well, don’t become complacent. Keep seeking and asking the Lord and others to reveal to you hidden sins and blind spots so you can confess and repent of them.
Beyond eliminating the sins that grieve the Spirit, there are also the sins the quench the Spirit, sins that put out the fire that is burning or beginning to burn in us. Sin of course can do this, but refusing to obey the Spirit’s leading is another area. This, then is the next area of focus, listening for the Spirit’s “voice” and obeying it. I don’t mean we should expect or wait for an audible voice, although in rare circumstances some believe they heard God speaking audibly to them, but for His prompting, for ideas and thoughts that come into our heads that we can be pretty confident are from Him.
How can we be confident the ideas and thoughts as to what we should do are from Him? Well, they will be consistent with His word in all respects, they will have love for the Lord and love for others as their core, they will be peaceable (see James 3:17), gentle, reasonable, and fruit bearing. They will not elevate us or inflate our pride, but will usually take humility to carry out. In my experience, many of them will be hard and will require effort that we usually don’t want to do. I am not sure I can recall a single time when I felt the Spirit was indicating to me that I should goof off or waste time or do things that would feed my laziness, and we know that certainly He would not lead us to do anything that would cause us to sin or cause ungodly thoughts to enter our minds, as entertainment today so often results in.
Learning to listen to the Spirit and obey Him is not easy. It can be very difficult at times. He may lead us to do exactly what we don’t want to do. He may want us to reach out to the last person on earth we want to interact with. He may want us to do the hardest things on our to list, first! But those often are the most rewarding things. Doing the hard things is a great discipline in life, and I am finding that that is usually what the Holy Spirit wants me to do. Because only when I do the hard things, the uncomfortable things, do I accomplish meaningful things and grow as an individual. But it takes a lot of denying oneself and discipline. And that is the hard part, isn’t it?
Tomorrow we will touch once more on the importance of praising and thanking Him and other elements to being filled with the Spirit.