How to Manage Your Mess-Ups

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”GALATIANS 5:22-25

 

PONDER THIS

We all mess up. Nobody is perfect. Our kids want to know how do you manage your mess ups? How do you manage your failures? How do you manage your problems? That’ll be better for them than your phony perfectionism. Share with your kids. Give them an example. The two hardest times of life are middle age and teenage years, and somehow God puts them together in a family. You can still teach others, even as you are struggling. Your kids are going to learn more from your example than from your words.

What are we interested in with our kids? Many parents focus on sports, grades, physical health, popularity, and ability. But there are bigger values for them to learn. Think about the fruit of the Spirit. Is that something the next generation sees exemplified? Where are they going to learn about the fruit of the Spirit? These things are not taught as much as they are caught. We owe those who follow us an example.

What values did you learn from your parents? What values did they prioritize teaching you?

What are some values that are important to you to pass on to the next generation? Why are those important to you?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to a parent or grandparent and ask what values he or she is teaching to children. Listen for, and note, godly insights shared with you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Is Your Life a Sweet-Smelling Fragrance?

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” 1 JOHN 2:27

 

PONDER THIS

In the Old Testament, the anointing of the priest meant consecration. Christ came as the Anointed One, and we carry that designation today. It means we have been set aside and set apart.

Your anointing is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us the fragrance of Christ. Do you want to be near? Do you want to have an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Be anointed. Be surrendered to the Holy Spirit of God so that He can make you a sweet-smelling fragrance, and your very life will be like incense to Him. You know people like that. When they walk in the room you can just smell the incense. This can be our spiritual aroma; wherever we go in our days, the fragrance of God’s presence goes with us to tell the world who He is.

When have you recognized a godly “spiritual fragrance” in someone else?

Why must this transformation come from God rather than from something we can do on our own?

PRACTICE THIS

Encourage someone you know who carries a godly “fragrance.” Ask how that person seeks to walk in step with the Holy Spirit.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sealed and Filled

“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”

ROMANS 8:9

 

PONDER THIS

Once you are put into the Body of Christ, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1:13, Paul speaks of Jesus, saying, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." And in the Book of Esther, we read that no man can break the king’s seal (Esther 8:8). Once the seal, a stamp of melted wax, was affixed to a document, it meant the deal was done, finished, paid in full. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of God. The King has put a seal on you that can’t be broken.

We are called to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This is not simply a blessing to enjoy; it is a command to obey. But it is passive. Paul doesn’t say get filled, he says be filled. This is something God does; it is supernatural.

Every Christian is to be filled with the Spirit, not just the pastor, not just the evangelist, not just the choir leader. We’re all to be filled with the Spirit, young and old. He comes not only to abide but also to preside in us. We are to be filled with the Spirit.

How have you seen the Holy Spirit at work in your life?

The Bible says we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit but also calls us to be filled continually by Him. How can we seek this filling on an ongoing basis?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk with another Christian about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Pray together for God’s filling in your lives.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How Can I Be Filled with the Spirit?

Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? How can we experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our church and ourselves that fills us with indomitable joy and frees us, and empowers us, to love those around us in ways so authentic that they are won to Christ?

Answer: Meditate day and night upon the incomparable, hope-giving promises of God. As Romans 15:4 shows us, that’s the way Paul kept his heart full of hope and joy and love. “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

The full assurance of hope comes from meditating on the promises of God’s word. And this does not contradict the sentence nine verses later that says that the Holy Spirit gives us hope (Romans 15:13). This is because the Holy Spirit is the divine author of Scripture. His word is the means of his work. It is no contradiction that the way he fills us with hope is by filling us with his own word of promise.

Hope is not some vague emotion that comes out of nowhere, like a stomachache. Hope is the confidence that the stupendous future promised to us by the word of the Spirit is going to really come true. Therefore, the way to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with his word. The way to have the power of the Spirit is to believe the promises of his word.

For it is the word of promise that fills us with hope, and hope fills us with joy, and joy overflows in the power and freedom to love our neighbor. And that is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

John Piper 

How Did God Design the Body of Christ to Work?

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”

1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-7

 

PONDER THIS

God gave you a spiritual gift not for your enjoyment but for your employment. Your spiritual gift is to bless the Church, not to bless you. It is a tool, not a toy. Paul told Timothy to stir up the gift of God, and that’s what we need to do too. We need to study to show ourselves approved to God.

If a person has the natural talent to sing, he or she must develop it. So, you also have a spiritual gift, but you have to study it and work at it to develop it. When we start to pursue the Lord with our gifts, growing in our relationship with Him and improving in our gifts, something beautiful happens. Ephesians 4:13 says, “we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” In other words, God has given His people gifts, and when these gifts work together, the body matures and becomes like its head, the Lord Jesus Christ.

How have you used your spiritual gifts to build up the Body of Christ?

How have you benefited from someone else’s spiritual gift?

PRACTICE THIS

Take a spiritual gifts test to see what your gifting is, or if you know your gift, put it into practice to build up the Body of Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Experience the Spirit Through Faith

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:5)

Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul said, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). The Spirit came to you the first time when you believed in the blood-bought promises of God. And the Spirit keeps on coming, and keeps on working, by this same means.

So Paul asks, rhetorically in Galatians 3:5, “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” Answer: “By hearing with faith.”

Therefore, the Spirit came the first time, and the Spirit keeps on being supplied, through the channel of faith. Whatever he accomplishes in and through us is by faith.

If you are like me, you may have strong longings from time to time for the mighty working of the Holy Spirit in your life. Perhaps you cry out to God for the outpouring of the Spirit in your life or in your family or church or city. Such cries are right and good. Jesus said, “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

But what I have found most often in my own life is the failure to open myself to the full measure of the Spirit’s work by believing the specific promises of God. I don’t mean merely the promise that the Spirit will come when we ask. I mean all the other precious promises that are not directly about the Spirit but, perhaps, about God’s provision for my future — for example, “My God will supply every need of yours” (Philippians 4:19). God’s Spirit is supplied in an ongoing and powerful way precisely through specific acts of faith in specific promises for specific situations. Do I trust him right now to do what he has promised to do?

This is what is missing in the experience of so many Christians as they seek the power of the Spirit in their lives. The Spirit is supplied to us “by hearing with faith” (Galatians 3:5) — not just faith in one or two promises about the Spirit himself, but about all the soul-satisfying presence of God in our future to do for us, and be for us, whatever we need.

John Piper 

How Can I Be Filled with the Spirit?

Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? How can we experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our church and ourselves that fills us with indomitable joy and frees us, and empowers us, to love those around us in ways so authentic that they are won to Christ?

Answer: Meditate day and night upon the incomparable, hope-giving promises of God. As Romans 15:4 shows us, that’s the way Paul kept his heart full of hope and joy and love. “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

The full assurance of hope comes from meditating on the promises of God’s word. And this does not contradict the sentence nine verses later that says that the Holy Spirit gives us hope (Romans 15:13). This is because the Holy Spirit is the divine author of Scripture. His word is the means of his work. It is no contradiction that the way he fills us with hope is by filling us with his own word of promise.

Hope is not some vague emotion that comes out of nowhere, like a stomachache. Hope is the confidence that the stupendous future promised to us by the word of the Spirit is going to really come true. Therefore, the way to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with his word. The way to have the power of the Spirit is to believe the promises of his word.

For it is the word of promise that fills us with hope, and hope fills us with joy, and joy overflows in the power and freedom to love our neighbor. And that is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

John Piper 

The Window of the Heart

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:3)

One of the most remarkable capacities of the human mind is the capacity to direct its own attention to something it chooses. We can pause and say to our minds, “Think about this, and not that.” We can focus our attention on an idea or a picture or a problem or a hope.

It is an amazing power. I doubt that animals have it. They are probably not self-reflective, but rather governed by impulse and instinct.

Have you been neglecting this great weapon in the arsenal of your war against sin? The Bible calls us again and again to use this remarkable gift. Let’s take this gift off the shelf, and dust it off, and put it to use.

For example, Paul says in Romans 8:5–6, “Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (my translation).

This is stunning. What you set your mind on determines whether the issue is life or death.

Many of us have become far too passive in our pursuit of change and wholeness and peace. I have the feeling that in our therapeutic age we have fallen into the passive mindset of simply “talking through our problems” or “dealing with our issues” or “discovering the roots of our brokenness in our family of origin.”

But I see a much more aggressive, non-passive approach to change in the New Testament. Namely, set your mind. “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2).

Our emotions are governed in large measure by what we consider — what we dwell on with our minds. For example, Jesus told us to overcome the emotion of anxiety by what we consider: “Consider the ravens. . . . Consider the lilies” (Luke 12:24, 27).

The mind is the window of the heart. If we let our minds constantly dwell on the dark, the heart will feel dark. But if we open the window of our mind to the light, the heart will feel the light.

Above all, this great capacity of our minds to focus and consider is meant for considering Jesus (Hebrews 12:3). So, let’s do this: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

John Piper 

Are Any Rooms in Your Heart Off-Limits to God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” Ephesians 5:17-21

 

PONDER THIS

Be filled with the Spirit. There’s no place for the devil when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not some sort of a liquid with you as the jug, that’s not the idea. To be filled with the Spirit of God means there’s not one room in your life where God is off-limits. There’s not one closet He doesn’t have a key to. You are filled with the Spirit in your sex life, in your business life, in your political life, in your church life, in your social life, in the big things and the little things, in your money, in your exercise, in your sleep, in your eating, in your lying down, in your waking up. This is the heart we need to have: “Jesus, I give you the keys to it all; I am filled with Your Spirit.” When you’re filled with the Holy Spirit there’s no more room for Satan.

If there’s room for Satan, the Spirit is grieved, and you are not filled with the Spirit. Don’t try to repent until you’re honest and face your sin, don’t try to resist until you’ve repented, and don’t try to be filled until you resist Satan and yield to God’s blessed Holy Spirit.

What areas of life have you submitted to God’s authority?

In what areas of life have you struggled to give God authority? What needs to change?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray and surrender to God the areas of life over which you have not given Him full control.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God’s Grace in Spiritual Gifts

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (1 Peter 4:10)

When we use our spiritual gifts, we are stewarding grace — not yesterday’s grace, but today’s, arriving in every moment of need. And this future grace is “varied grace.” It comes in many colors and shapes and sizes. This is one of the reasons spiritual gifts in the body are so diverse. The prism of God’s gifts in your life will refract shades of divine glory that would never come through my prism.

There are as many future graces as there are needs in the body of Christ — and more. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to receive and dispense the future grace of God to those needs.

But someone may ask, “Why do you take Peter to refer to future grace? Doesn’t a steward manage a household store that is already on hand?”

The main reason I take Peter to refer to future grace is because the next verse illustrates how this works, and the reference there is to ongoing supplies of future grace. He says, “Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). The word is “supplies,” not “supplied.” As you serve, serve in the power of the ongoing supply of God’s grace to do what you need to do.

When you fulfill your spiritual gift to serve someone tomorrow, you will be serving “by the strength that God supplies” — and the supply will be tomorrow, not today. “As your days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25).

God goes on, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, supplying the “strength” in which we minister. He does this because the ongoing, inexhaustible supplier of power gets the glory. “Whoever serves, [let him serve] by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

John Piper 

Are You Walking in God’s Spirit?

PRAY OVER THIS

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Galatians 5:16-18

 

PONDER THIS

To “walk in the Spirit” means the Spirit is to be the circumference of my walk. If I said to you, “Walk in this building.” That means you are supposed to stay in this building. This building is the parameter, the circumference, the environment, and the element in which you walk. If you step outside this building, you’re not walking in this building.

The Holy Spirit is to be the parameter in which you walk. Are you willing to do that? Our flesh often says, “Don’t fence me in!” It tells us that outside of the Spirit, there are certain pleasures, ideas, and fulfillments you need to make you happy. A person with a Spirit-controlled life has come to this settled conclusion: there is nothing worth having outside of Jesus. If you don’t come to that conclusion, you will never live a victorious life. All the things you do are to be within the context of the Holy Spirit of God leading and directing your life. When I step out of bounds, the Holy Spirit says, “You are out of bounds.” And so, I repent, and I step back in. That is a Spirit-controlled life.

Can you truly say you are seeking to live within the parameters set by the Holy Spirit?

When has God shown you that you were out of bounds? How did you respond?

PRACTICE THIS

Take some time in silence to consider where you have seen the Holy Spirit direct your life. Listen to where the Spirit is leading you now.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are You Choosing Spiritual Life?

PRAY OVER THIS

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

 

PONDER THIS

Part of choosing life is presenting spiritual life. I have four children on Earth and a little boy in Heaven. My children are a long way from perfect, but they all love God. When my son, Steve, was a teenager, I watched him and noticed I didn’t see the beauty of Jesus in his life, though he’d walked down the aisle and made a profession of faith. I said, “Steve, get in the car with me. Let’s go for a ride. Let’s go out and walk in the woods.” During that day together I said to him, “Son, daddy has got to know that you know Jesus.”

We talked, and out there in the woods we kneeled and prayed. During our conversation, he assured me, “Daddy, I love Jesus.” From then on, I started to notice him showing it through his life. One day I prayed, “Lord, if any of my children are not saved, I don’t want to go to Heaven without all my children.” I didn’t say anything to my wife, Joyce, or the children about it. But the next Sunday when I gave the invitation, my oldest daughter, Gayle, came down the aisle and she said, “Daddy, I don’t believe I’ve ever really and truly been saved. I want to be saved.” I believe that was directly related to that prayer. Families need to choose spiritual life.

Whose spiritual health do you regularly pray for?

How can you choose spiritual life through your daily routines?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for any family members who don’t seem to show fruit of the Spirit in their lives or who have wandered away from their faith.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Have “Me-ology” or Theology?

PRAY OVER THIS

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”

1 Corinthians 12:7

 

PONDER THIS

There was a lady who took a first aid course. Later she said, “I am so glad I took my course in first aid. Out in front of my house, there was a terrible car accident. An old man, driving a car, went up the curb and hit an oak tree. He was thrown out of the car. When I got there this man was in terrible condition, and the scene was gruesome. It was horrible!” Then she said, “I remembered my first aid. I remembered if I would put my head between my knees I wouldn’t faint.” That’s the kind of theology that many have today, which is really “me-ology.” Many people are only thinking about themselves.

Your spiritual gift is given to profit the entire body. We are to, as the hymn says, “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.” That’s why you have a spiritual gift. The gift is designed so that you might be a blessing to your entire church. God wants you to be a blessing to your church and make the church a blessing to your community and your community a blessing to the world.

When have you sought to use your gifts purely for your own benefit? Why is this easy to do?

How have you seen someone else use his or her spiritual gifts to bless the Body of Christ?

PRACTICE THIS

Encourage someone you know to use his or her spiritual gifts to bless the Body of Christ. Tell that person how he or she has impacted your life through obedience to Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are You Filled with the Holy Spirit?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19

 

PONDER THIS

How are we to be filled with the Holy Spirit? This is a command and everything that God requires of us He also teaches us how to do. Do not think of the Holy Spirit as a substance. The Holy Spirit is a person. Don’t refer to the Holy Spirit as “it.” Refer to the Holy Spirit as Him. Jesus said, “He will teach you all things” (John 14:26). You wouldn’t say of a person, “It wore a maroon tie.” You’d say, “He did.” Don’t depersonalize the Holy Spirit. Don’t think of being filled with the Spirit as if you are a vessel and the Holy Spirit is a liquid, or as if you are a battery and the Holy Spirit an electrical charge. No, the Spirit is a Person, and you are a temple.

How does it change your perspective of the Holy Spirit to remember that He is a Person, not a thing?

What is the connection between Bible study, prayer, and being filled with the Spirit?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of qualities of the Holy Spirit that you have learned from Scripture. Research these as needed but seek to remember that He is a person, and you are His temple.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are You a Christ-like Employee?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.”

Ephesians 6:5-7

 

PONDER THIS

I want to let you in on a secret. If we would begin to live on Monday like these verses describe, people would start believing what we preach on Sunday. What better place could there be to witness for Jesus Christ than on the job? Your job is your temple of devotion; it is your lamp stand for witness. The boss would say, “I don’t understand these Christians. They’re here on time. They work with smiles on their faces. They’re very careful. They’re honest. They don’t steal a thing. I can trust them with the entire business. They seem to be devoted to the business as if they own it.” When a man goes to hire new workers, he ought to think, “Those are the kind of people I want.”

But it’s not in human nature to do that. Human nature is to get by with as little as you can and get as much as you can. How are we going to live as these verses describe? You don’t have what it takes. That’s not your nature. By nature, you are selfish, but being Spirit-filled you can live this way.

How does your relationship with the Lord change the way you work each day?

How does this change your perspective on daily routine tasks?

PRACTICE THIS

What tasks are in front of you today? Consider how it would look to do these tasks to the Lord and take action to follow through.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Need a Spiritual Awakening?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: ‘You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples; and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.’”

Genesis 28:1-4

 

PONDER THIS

Isaac was a man who was shaken. He was a man who came to his senses. He was a man who came back to the Word of God. God had brought great conviction to his heart, and he was shaken to the core.

Today, there are some of us who need a similar awakening. We should assess where we are and look at our families. We should ask where the path we are headed on will eventually take us. Ask, if your family is going to change, who’s going to change it? Where does God want to wake you up to be part of the solution? God knows how to discipline you, and He will for your good. First Corinthians 11:31-32 reminds us, “if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” God wants to wake you up, for your sake and the sake of those around you. Will you respond?

Where might God want to wake you from your spiritual slumber?

How might you best position yourself to receive this awakening?

PRACTICE THIS

Dedicate time today to sitting in silence and asking God to reveal the areas in which you have been spiritually asleep. Ask Him for next steps in response.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do We Need Another Pentecost?

PRAY OVER THIS

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

(Acts 2:1-4)

 

PONDER THIS

The power at Pentecost was symbolized by wind and fire. The power was vocalized as the disciples were speaking in strange languages that they’d never learned. And then this power was actualized as seen in verse 4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” This is the abiding miracle of Pentecost.

Sometimes people say we need another Pentecost. We should be careful. We couldn’t have another Pentecost without an indoor cyclone and tongues of fire sitting on every head. It’s not another Pentecost that we need. We don’t need another Pentecost any more than we need another Bethlehem or another Calvary. Bethlehem is God with us, Calvary is God for us, and Pentecost is God in us. We need to enjoy Bethlehem, enjoy Calvary, and enjoy Pentecost. Pentecost was a special day; it was the birthday of the Church. And the miracles that were given—the mighty rushing wind and the flames of fire—these things were illustrative of the mighty power, the filling of the Spirit of God.

What is true for believers today that was true for the believers at Pentecost?

How do we neglect our access to the Holy Spirit within us when we only seek new signs and wonders of God’s power in our lives?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of the ways your life is impacted by having access to the Holy Spirit every day.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

We Experience the Spirit Through Faith

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:5)

Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul said, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9). The Spirit came to you the first time when you believed in the blood-bought promises of God. And the Spirit keeps on coming, and keeps on working, by this same means.

So Paul asks, rhetorically in Galatians 3:5, “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” Answer: “By hearing with faith.”

Therefore, the Spirit came the first time, and the Spirit keeps on being supplied, through the channel of faith. Whatever he accomplishes in and through us is by faith.

If you are like me, you may have strong longings from time to time for the mighty working of the Holy Spirit in your life. Perhaps you cry out to God for the outpouring of the Spirit in your life or in your family or church or city. Such cries are right and good. Jesus said, “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

But what I have found most often in my own life is the failure to open myself to the full measure of the Spirit’s work by believing the specific promises of God. I don’t mean merely the promise that the Spirit will come when we ask. I mean all the other precious promises that are not directly about the Spirit but, perhaps, about God’s provision for my future — for example, “My God will supply every need of yours” (Philippians 4:19). God’s Spirit is supplied in an ongoing and powerful way precisely through specific acts of faith in specific promises for specific situations. Do I trust him right now to do what he has promised to do?

This is what is missing in the experience of so many Christians as they seek the power of the Spirit in their lives. The Spirit is supplied to us “by hearing with faith” (Galatians 3:5) — not just faith in one or two promises about the Spirit himself, but about all the soul-satisfying presence of God in our future to do for us, and be for us, whatever we need.

John Piper 

How Can I Be Filled with the Spirit?

Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? How can we experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our church and ourselves that fills us with indomitable joy and frees us, and empowers us, to love those around us in ways so authentic that they are won to Christ?

Answer: Meditate day and night upon the incomparable, hope-giving promises of God. As Romans 15:4 shows us, that’s the way Paul kept his heart full of hope and joy and love. “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

The full assurance of hope comes from meditating on the promises of God’s word. And this does not contradict the sentence nine verses later that says that the Holy Spirit gives us hope (Romans 15:13). This is because the Holy Spirit is the divine author of Scripture. His word is the means of his work. It is no contradiction that the way he fills us with hope is by filling us with his own word of promise.

Hope is not some vague emotion that comes out of nowhere, like a stomachache. Hope is the confidence that the stupendous future promised to us by the word of the Spirit is going to really come true. Therefore, the way to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with his word. The way to have the power of the Spirit is to believe the promises of his word.

For it is the word of promise that fills us with hope, and hope fills us with joy, and joy overflows in the power and freedom to love our neighbor. And that is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

John Piper 

You Must Be Filled

BIBLE MEDITATION

“And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.”

Ephesians 5:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

What will it take to heal our world? I’m convinced we’re facing one of three things: revival, ruin, or the return of Jesus Christ. I pray God it will be either spiritual revival or the return of the Lord Jesus. But if it is a spiritual revival, how will it come about?

“Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” And what is the will of the Lord? “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:17-18)

People have tried everything. There is only one answer for a world in the need our world is in. The will of the Lord is that the church of the living God be filled with the Spirit of the living God. This alone is the answer.

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? It implies continuous control by the Holy Spirit. The emphasis is on “be filled,” not “get filled.” “Be” implies a continuous control by the Holy Spirit. The fact that you were filled with the Spirit doesn’t necessarily mean that you are filled with the Spirit.

ACTION POINT

Oswald Sanders said, “There is no such thing as a once-for-all fullness. We may, and should, be filled with the Spirit again and again.” Yesterday’s experience is no good for today. Being filled is a day-by-day experience. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers