Convo with Pastor - FILLING by EMPTYING

T O D A Y ' S   Q U E S T I O N

How can I be filled ... and overflow? Part 2

 

Do not quench the Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:19

 

Yesterday we said we wanting to be like Jimmy Dean -- "drinking from my saucer 'cause my cup has overflowed."

 

Since overflow, we said, is the measure of being filled with the Holy Spirit, we started yesterday by praying to be filled (and by praising God from whom all blessings flow).

 

Today is the next important step ...

 

Our verse for today says, "Do not quench the spirit." Does it say that God quenches his Spirit? No. It implies that a quenched spirit is our own doing!

 

Therefore, the Apostle Paul talks repeatedly about how the flesh (the worldly side of us) battles with the Spirit and the spiritual. We call this battlefront "sin." And Paul reminds us -- Romans 8:6 -- that "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."

 

If prayer and praise were our first steps to overflowing with the spirit, then confession is the next. In the most famous confession in scripture -- Psalm 51 -- an utterly broken King David cries, "3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight ... 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, And do not take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by your generousSpirit."

 

If you desire the joy of salvation and the filling of the Holy Spirit, your next step is confession. Filling your heart with the Spirit begins by emptying it more fully through the confession of sin ...

 

What do you need to confess?

What do you need to quit excusing?

What subtle ways are you compromising

with the ways of this world?

In what ways are you too complacent? too comfortable?

From whom are you withholding your forgiveness,

even while you're asking God to forgive you?

 

In Christ's Love,

a guy that's easy to convict

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I need to quit allowing myself to use the past as an excuse. The ways I compromise with this world are not too subtle. They are way too blatant ... and I excuse them by saying 'I can't' too often. 


The rest I am not answering on here, but what would your answers be? How convicted are you now?