Holy Spirit - The Text Messages

July 22, 2022July 23, 2022

Holy Intoxication

Summertime in South Texas is notoriously hot and humid, to compensate, residents of the region gravitate to anything cold and wet: a favorite watering hole, beach or ice cold beverage always hit the spot.

In my younger days, my go to used to be ice cold beer, wine-coolers and other alcoholic beverages. But it was so hot that (in my effort to stay cool) I would routinely drink too much too fast and end up drunk. Overtime (though I did not perceive myself as an alcoholic) I came under conviction about drinking alcohol at all. One Sunday, a day after the 4th of July, upon hearing the pastor preach about drunkenness, I came home and dumped it all: wine-coolers, beer, tequila, rum…..everything and to this day some 30 years later, never picked alcohol up again.

The pastor drilled down on this text:

“And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit…” (Eph. 5:18)

Of course he also shared from Proverbs 20:1, 23:31; Romans 13:13 and 1 Cor. 5:11 but I have a purpose in sharing the focal passage above along with a portion of my testimony. There is a lesson to be learned in this verse concerning spiritual life and it revolves around the words “drunk” and “filled.”

My testimony identifies a commonality for us concerning drunkenness and it boils down to this: We pour alcohol down our throats and it’s effects begin to take hold, slowly changing us, loosening us up and ultimately, for a time taking control of us. The result is termed”dissipation” by Paul: That is, excessive or “riotous” behavior. The Apostle exhorts (literally commands), don’t live this way, suggesting that he was speaking of a lifestyle of drunkenness. Then, right on the heals of the prohibition he connects the dots saying, “But be filled with the Spirit.” In other words, become so immersed in the Spirit of God that His presence and power within you control your attitudes, actions, thoughts and words. Consider the disciples on the day of Pentecost for instance: the Spirit of God fell on and filled them to such a degree that the people thought they were drunk; a supposition which led to an opportunity for Peter to explain what had happened to them in (Acts 2:13-21) and to go on and preach to them the gospel as well.

A person can become spiritually intoxicated in much the same way as they get drunk; only rather than wine it’s the word of God that such a person consumes. Jesus said in (Matt. 5:6) “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Just as I chased cold drink to quench my thirst and refresh my body on a hot day one’s thirst for spiritual refreshment will lead them to immerse themselves in the Word of the Lord and avail themselves to the Spirit of God to such a degree that they become spiritually inebriated. In the best case, every word such a person would say, every action they take and attitude they express then would be informed by the word of God and His Spirit – they would be “holy, as I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16; Lev. 20:7)

I write this because I don’t know too many Christians if any who are as I described above and also because it’s not for lack of instruction that we are not. Just as drunkenness is a choice so too is holy intoxication, both the wine and the word are available to us for consumption, it is up to us to choose wisely and be filled with that which can make us more like Jesus.

September 25, 2019September 25, 2019

Unmistakable Change

In my devotions today I was again reading about the anointing of Saul to be Israel’s first king by Samuel the prophet (1 Samuel 10). What grabbed my attention was another general principal for the Christian found in a very specific prophecy (v.6):

“Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you (upon Saul), and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.“

The principal involves what happens when the Spirit of God is in anyway involved with human beings — they are changed. Saul received unction, or an special enduement to prophesy when the Spirit of God came UPON him. In other words Saul was enabled to do what he otherwise could not – he was changed. As we read on about Saul, after he had been made king, he began to do wickedly before the Lord resulting in the Lord’s rejection (see 1 Samuel 15:26) and ultimately the departure of God’s Spirit from upon the man (see 1 Samuel 16:14).

For those who trust in Christ it can NEVER be as it was for Saul because the Spirit of the Lord does not reside temporarily UPON us but dwells WITHIN every believer (Roman’s 8:9-11):

“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. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

(See also 2 Tim.1:14, 1 Corinthians 3:16 and James 4:5)

My focus today is however on our understanding that the presence of the Holy Spirit either within or upon us will make us new ~ it will change us. If our understanding is correct, why are so many believers living what seem to be unchanged lives?

The Spirit cannot help but manifest the character of God. The fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is that character but I don’t have to tell you that those traits (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance), which are not incrementally added to a believers life but present all at once in the Spirit are often not ALL apparent in those who have received the Lord.

We block, we quench (1 Thess.5:19), we hinder and grieve (Ephesians 4:30) the Spirit through our own choices and attitudes and as result do not bear witness to the change Christ makes in a life.

Are such people not really Christians?

Didn’t Paul regularly deal with believers who didn’t act like it (for an example read 1 Corinthians or Galatians) and yet he called them brethren – brothers and sisters in the faith and he challenged them to change.

In light of all this I want to challenge you today as I am challenged: if you want to move your little part of the world closer to Christ – if you want to be more like Jesus then learn to cooperate with the Spirit within you; your yielding will usher in a change that will be unmistakable.

May 30, 2019

Transformed? The agents of Transformation

As I see it, the two most important agents at work to transform the minds and lives of the followers of Christ to become more like Him are also two of the most neglected and or abused subjects in a great many churches today – the blood of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Both the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are actively involved in the transformation process from the very beginning of a persons Christian walk – without them no one could ever know, walk with or grow to become more like Jesus Christ.

The last time we spoke on this subject I mentioned that once a person receives spiritual life through Jesus Christ, he or she cannot help but give some immediate evidence of the fact. The reason for my assertion stems from my opening remark – the two agents of transformation are actively at work from the beginning to give us a “right mind” (Mark 5:15) about our sin and need of forgiveness and about God’s grace to sinners made possible by the suffering, death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

In the more or less traditional (some might call them “old school” ) churches, where hymns are still sung one song asks the question:

“Are you washed in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”

Likewise, in the New Testament Jesus declared to a group of people who had been following Him (John 6:53-56):

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”

In our day, people understand the words of the hymn about as well as those listening to the words of Jesus as He addressed them about His body and blood. We are not talking about taking a bath in Jesus’ blood any more than Jesus meant for people to literally eat Him. In actuality, Jesus was promising life to whomever would personally appropriate His shed blood by faith to their lives as an atonement for their sin. Jesus’ blood changes our standing with God, by that blood we have life (John 6:54), a standing before the Father (Ephesians 2:13), holiness, access to and fellowship with God (Heb 10:19, Romans 5:8-10) and redemption (1 Peter 1:17-21). The blood of Jesus cleanses our consciences (Heb 10:22) from evil – from outward sinful actions and inner tendencies to sin. By His blood our souls are purified and forgiven; without it there can be no “remission of sins” (see Heb. 9:22). The Bible declares in (Heb 9: (13)-14):

“…how much more (than the blood of bulls and goats) shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

When applied to our lives, Jesus’ blood gives us a standing before Almighty God but it is the Holy Spirit who drew us to Jesus (see John 6:44) through conviction of sin (John 16:8) and by grace (Ephesians 2:8) and abides in us from the moment we first believed (see Romans 8:9): “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;” – that Spirit of God applies the blood of Jesus to our lives cleansing us and transforming us from the inside out.

You may recall that Jesus said:

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (John 15:4–8, NKJV)

From the inside out the Spirit manifests Himself; His presence changes us and reveals Christ in us (when we get out of the way) so that He who gave us life may be glorified in us as others “see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16) and produce fruit through us (John 15:5,8).

The Holy Spirit gives us life (John 6:63) when we believe in Jesus; He opens the word of God to our understanding and leads us in the process of the transformation of our minds (Romans 12:2, Titus 3:5), His presence and our submission to Him enables us to demonstrate the character of Christ through our lives (Gal 5:16-25):

“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. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 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.”

The Spirit of God gives us direction, illuminates the Word, speaks to our hearts, convicts us when were wrong, encourages us when we’re weak, seals us to the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30) but can also be grieved and quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19) in our lives by constant disobedience and disregard.

These two agents or transformation work in us till our dying day to transform (conform) us to be have the mind and attitude of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:5-11, Romans 8:29) and fitting us for the kingdom of heaven. Thus, I conclude that though no believer will ever be perfect in this life and will still occasionally sin and have need of repentance, each one will nevertheless bear some witness or evidence through their lives that they have been and continue to be with Jesus.

March 3, 2019March 4, 2019

Overflow

Someone once said,

“When your bucket gets bumped, what’s in you will spill out of you.”

That’s a good reminder for those of us who like to react before we think but it’s actually more of a litmus test than anything else. The point isn’t to try harder to do better if, when your bucket (your life) gets bumped you recognize that what consistently spills out of you (out of your mouth and from your heart) in those moments is harmful, hurtful and or negative; the point is to realize that based on those consistent reactions your heart might not contain the right thing.

The Lord Jesus declares to us from His word that “from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45) and it is with that understanding that I say that the bumping of our bucket is a test and of we find it to contain the wrong thing when what’s in it comes splashing out in those moments – the Lord stands by ready to fill us with something better – and to fill us beyond our capacity to contain it all.

In John 7:37-39 Jesus said,

“ “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

With those words, Jesus declared that “living water” would flow from those who believe in Him. His plan however, isn’t simply and solely to allow challenging people and situations into your life so that this living water might spill over into those moments; no, what He really desires is that what He has placed into your life will constantly and consistently overflow from your heart, mouth and life and to that end, He NEVER stops filling your heart with His precious “living water.”

Of course that water serves a duel purpose, while it is meant to sustain you in your spiritual life it is also meant to flow from you to cause spiritual life to (in a sense) be birthed, nourished and encouraged in the lives of others.

If you’ll allow the illustration, the Lord’s plan in all of this kind of looks like a champagne fountain (only instead of glasses will continue to use buckets for containers):

One bucket is filled by the source and as it spills over, it’s contents spill into others, filling them to overflowing until all the buckets around the first are filled but the source and supply of the “living water” does not stop when every available container is filled – it keeps on coming.

Of course, the “living water” that the Lord Jesus was referring to in the temple that day was the Holy Spirit – He is the endless supply from God who gives and sustains life in all who trust in Jesus Christ. He is the one who gifts us to teach, encourage, uplift and comfort others and in that sense He spills over from us to them.

“Now,” as the Apostle Paul has said, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound (overflow) in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13, NKJV)

Others are desperate for relief, let His “living water” flow…