Down in Your Gut (Radio / Podcast)

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(1 Peter 1:6-7)

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
(1 Peter 4:12-13)

Q: What's the difference between 1 Peter 4:12-13 and 1 Peter 1:6-7? Is he talking about the same thing in both or are they two different types of trials? Is one like the sufferings you endure because you're a Christian and the other is trials to see if you really love God?

A: Excellent question!

Basically both are speaking of enduring persecution, but 1 Peter 1:6-7 is also talking about how suffering reveals the bottom line nature of your faith, that even through it is like fire your faith remains when tested. For some people and in some situations it may not just be one area of suffering and grief, but it can be like when everything seems to stink. You just want to give up, but you can't. Something at the bottom of your gut won't let you go; you just know that you believe no matter what. You can't get rid of it. That is the Holy Spirit working. That is your faith that has been given to you. Nothing can take it away. It can be shaken and you can be depressed, but you cannot let God of go completely...He has you and you have Him.

So the trial is not really about seeing if you really love God but how God proves to you that you have a love for Him, and you feel His love for you despite the fiery trial, and you are somehow filled with joy (vs.8). It is like our sermons, “A Fresh Touch” and “No Matter How Bad”, from Romans 5:1-6…we go through a difficult time and we get a fresh understanding, a renewed feeling, a touch of the love of God and for God.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Poured Out (Radio / Podcast)

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
(Philippians 2:17 – ESV)

In chapter two of this epistle Paul exhorts the Philippians to pour themselves out to one another. You live out the faith, you pour out what God has poured in with humility and without complaint. He says Christ was poured out, Paul himself was being poured out, Timothy was being poured out, and Epaphroditus was nearly all poured out.

I want to relate being poured out specifically to prayer. You are pouring out yourself to something every day already, time, money, effort, thoughts, deeds, words, every minute of every day your life is being poured out. If you pour it out in prayer and service to God He will keep pouring His Spirit within you and upon your sacrifice of faith.

Being poured out is the path to joy. Paul was poured out as wine upon their sacrifice. The wine was to symbolize joy indicating that the sacrifice was done with a joyful heart and with the intent to bring joy to the Lord. Paul is saying, “Even if I have to die it is a small thing, a little sacrifice compared to the far greater sacrifice and service coming from your faith. I am going to die but it will make the sacrifice complete.” He rejoices that he was counted worthy to make a sacrifice and that they were also. His tireless effort helped lead to their true faith.

You can be poured out the wrong way. The world speaks of pouring yourself out as well, but it is in the sense of pouring your life into what you do. A recent country singer captures this idea in his song, “Live Like You Were Dying”. Now the song is a nice sounding sentiment, to pour it all out, to live with intention, but all he talks about is thrill seeking and actually selfish things for the most part. It is a humanistic motivational idea. The video looks like it is supposed to be all spiritual or whatever, but it isn’t giving glory to God, it isn’t what being poured out means in the biblical sense. When compared to what Christ would have us do, we see that the sentiment to live with passion and intention can be perverted into getting the most for us out of this life instead of giving to God's glory as much as we can in this life. Indeed we ought to live like we were dying, dying to self, that is.

Christians want to be poured on or poured in but they haven’t yet poured out. We should be poured out, but people don’t want to take the risk of being poured out. People only want to serve the way they want to serve; they want to choose their altar of service. They need to realize that if they cannot pour themselves out in prayer then how could they ever in practice.

God takes a person who is truly filled with the Spirit and uses tough situations to spill them over, so that His power and presence can flood onto others’ lives, and then He fills the vessel once again. He doesn’t fill us with His Sprit just so that we can feel full. If you try and hold it all in you will get nothing but a spiritual stomachache. No, it is not about the fullness in our bellies but the overflow of His life out from our bellies. Christ promised rivers of living water to come forth from our hearts (John 7:38), but how can we expect to see this power if we won’t allow ourselves to be poured out?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

A Fresh Touch

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
(Romans 5:1-5 – ESV)

In this text we see that what happens in you is more important than what happens to you, that even when what happens to you seems bad God uses it for your spiritual good. Through Christ we have been justified by faith, forgiven by God, who has made a lasting peace with us and we can be at peace towards Him. Having been introduced to the grace of God we will stand forever righteous in His sight and can glory in the fact that we have a hope of eternal life in heaven with Him. We now have access to the grace of God and we know that the bad times produce good results, as we stay under God’s hand during the trial and testing it produces patience, which produces proven character, which produces hopeful confidence, which does not disappoint us because once again the Holy Spirit pours the love of God and love for God into our hearts afresh. We see the eternal hope of verse two made manifest as a timely hope in verse four.

This is that initial realization about us having been made at peace with God and having hope for eternity being brought into the temporal circumstances of today. This is the more than that the text speaks of. We know we are children of God in our heads but God brings it home to our hearts in the most trying of circumstances. This is how we once again know in our experience, and not just in our minds, that God is our Father, Jesus our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit our Comforter. This is made real again by a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the difference between staying locked into the tragedy and shining forth in triumph; it is that in the midst of tragedy triumph can come forth in our character.

When the text says we rejoice in trials it doesn’t mean we should say, “Hooray, look at my scars, yes, I am so glad to have this open wound!” No, it means we can still rejoice in God because we know something. We can still exult in God, despite the trials, because we know that whatever happens, we are the children of God, with ultimate hope. We may not understand all of what is going on or all the reasons for our trials, especially when they are “not our fault”, but we can still be “knowing something” about how God is going to mold us into the image of Christ through these situations. The text says “knowing that”; we know something about what is going on. God is redeeming our suffering to His glory, and giving us a fresh touch of hope through the power of the Holy Spirit which we feel in our hearts. This is not theory; this is experience, our justification made sure in our hearts. Can you feel it?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Let the Good Times Roll!

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
(Ephesians 5:18-21 – ESV)

Now this text doesn’t mean you can only be filled with the Spirit while you are inside of the church building or at some church function. We are to be filled in our everyday lives. This text is simply telling us that we need to be plugged into a local body of believers and doing the speaking, singing, sanctifying, and submitting in that context, and then we can expect to be filled with the Spirit in other situations we live in as well.

Is your time being given to being filled with the Spirit? That is the proper pursuit, whether it be in the context of church, home, work, recreation, service, friends, or whatever and whenever and wherever you may be, you can keep being filled with the Spirit. Diligently seeking, that is how to let the good times roll. Otherwise we are just drunk on the devil’s plan.

If you find yourself going after God’s plan, you will find things working out right more often than not, and even when things seemingly go wrong, you will have a different perspective about them, and you can be filled with the Spirit through them, and actually learn something so it wasn’t all a big waste. As good as things could be, that is how good they can be, even in bad situations because you are FILLED with the Spirit!

God wants you to be filled with the Spirit and live the Spirit filled life in any and all the endeavors of your daily existence. We are not talking about staying in a closet or being some kind of monk, we are talking about living your life to the glory of God. The way to be refreshed in life is to keep being filled with the Spirit. To not do that is to take God’s Word and commands and hold them in contempt, and God opposes the proud, remember?

Regardless of what is happening on earth, and in your life, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Information is increasing, technology is advancing, civility is declining, and persecution is coming, but God’s truth is as true as it ever was and will always be. Same old sin, the same old humanity, and the same old need for Jesus. But the word of the Lord remains forever. “And this word is the good news that was preached to you" (1 Peter 1:25). No matter what the change the power of God remains. Our constant hope is that God is God, and He demands that we pursue being filled with the Spirit.

Again, speaking, singing, sanctifying, and submitting in the context of community. This is being in God’s will and how we can be developing a Spirit filled life. That will bring the light of Christ to our situations no matter how they appear to the rest of the world. Believe me, in these coming dark days God will still be calling people into His marvelous light. The question is, will you be consumed with the darkness, or will you let your light shine? Are you going to be filled with fear, or filled with the Spirit? It is high time to let the good times roll!

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

God Knows My Heart

submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ
(Ephesians 5:21 – ESV)

Some people might think that in talking so much about being filled with the Spirit that I am touting an overly personal, mystical, and esoteric Christianity, but no, I am preaching about Biblical Christianity, and it is those who want to live outside the experience of church life that are actually having their own brand of experimental Christianity, and they count their personal experience as somehow equal to God’s design. It seems more holy to them, and so they think they are being godly, but they are becoming their own God. Their will is to do sanctification their own way, but we don’t have the right or the true freedom to do that, because it isn’t God’s will. It may look shiny but it is actually selfish.

Think about it, and how many people who think they are saved are counting on some experience or something they think is deep inside them that is good, and they talk about God when you are near, or they send you religious emails and all that, or they will come to church once in a blue moon and they will relate to you of some experience they have had, but they haven’t had the born again experience! It’s obvious.

Now I am not saying all religious emails are bad, but more often than not they are just promoting the American civil religion, the pick yourself up by the bootstraps, rugged individualism ideal that has nothing to do with the Spirit of God exalting Jesus Christ in your life. Again, I am not against people talking to me about things that inspire them, but this doesn’t justify them from their sin in God’s sight! You don’t need to prove to me how holy you are.

How many times have you heard, “well, God knows my heart”? This happens so very often with people who want to justify themselves from the fact that they are blatantly ignoring the teachings of the Bible. Now if someone is actively longing and looking for committed fellowship and discipleship, well their intentions are indeed known to God, and He will help them, and I am not criticizing them at all. However, most are not trying and wanting that, they are trying and wanting to get out of having to be a vital part of a local church. They say, well God knows my heart, and I say yes, He absolutely does, they are right about that. The problem is that while God knows your heart, YOU don’t know your heart, and let me prove it to you. You say God knows your heart, and God says the Bible is how you know what He is thinking about your heart.

Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

His Word reveals the condition of your heart, and this passage in Ephesians tells you what God says being filled with the Spirit looks like. So no matter what you think your heart looks like, God says that if you aren’t speaking, singing, sanctifying, and submitting to others in a community of believers, then you are not filled with the Spirit. Yes God knows your heart, and He uses His Word to reveal to you the condition of it.

Proverbs 28:26 (KJV) – He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Proverbs 21:2 – Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.

Perhaps it is time to pray Psalm 19:12-14 / Psalm 139:23-24, and then ask God to show you from His Word about that “heart surgery” you need.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Filling or Faking

always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
(Ephesians 5:20 – NET)

We can see from this text (Ephesians 5:15-21) that being filled with the Spirit is God’s will, very easy to see, right? Well, let’s think about that because you cannot tell me you are filled with the Spirit if you don’t go to church. This passage makes it obvious that you are not. If you are not plugged in, you are losing power.

A person who wants to believe that they can stay away from church and grow might say, “Well I am living better than I ever have, I sin less, I am a better Christian”. No, you only think you are, this text teaches that you are foolish, you are using selfish measures, you are not living out your holiness in the midst of all us sandpaper people, you’re cheating, and your growth is just your head swelling ‘cause you don’t cuss no more.

You are cheating on us too, because you aren’t giving your gifts back to God’s people, the very gifts God has given you for others. It’s not only what you aren’t doing, but what you are doing. You might not be sinning by commission, but by omission, and really it’s both. You may not be cursing as much by staying home, but you are cursing God’s design for the sanctification of your life. You may not be getting drunk with alcohol, but you aren’t drinking deep at the fountain of God’s Spirit, you are wallowing in the shallow waters of kiddy-pool Christianity. Life in the Spirit is cultivated in the context of a local church community.

You need to follow God’s design because if not you will fall further away from the faith, guaranteed. You need to examine yourself in the light of this text, and in the light of His Word, not just the bits you enjoy. You see it is especially dangerous when your measure is your personal ideas about holiness, because especially if your personal, biblically under-examined experience convinces you that all is well, that is what truth becomes to you regardless of what judgment the Word of God says to that experience. You need to look at the light of this text.

Listen to me carefully; even if you seem to be doing worse when you consistently come to church, the biblical truth is that you are still being sanctified by it. It is just like having those rough patches in your marriage; it is all part of God using it to sanctify you and your spouse. Marriage will give you the butt whipping you need!

If you are not married this doesn’t exclude you, I was just using marriage as an illustration, and it still applies to singles, young people, widows and widowers, and everyone else. Eventually your Christianity has to work itself out in a certain place at a certain time. Regardless of where you end up, you will experience tension and have problems. The truth is that this imperfection may be precisely what you need in order to deepen in the knowledge of God.

You need to be filled with the Spirit, and it is done in the context of church and living a godly life in its community! Stop being a fake, and start getting filled; let the good times roll!

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Filled Up or Falling Down?

addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart
(Ephesians 5:19 – ESV)

It’s all too easy to fall into the same old traps. That is why in Ephesians 5 Paul says we need to be careful with our time, and wise about our walk (vs.15), rescuing our time from being wasted on evil things (vs.16). Don’t let the devil steal your day. We must stop being foolish and learn to be understanding God’s will (vs.17), and not allowing excesses and lesser things be our source of joy, but endeavoring instead to be filled with the Spirit (vs.18). If you are not doing this, then this is why you are having trouble.

Now going forward we see from Ephesians 5:19-21 what are certain results of being filled with the Spirit. We cannot ignore what the Bible says we need to be doing in this text and still think we are trying to consciously and diligently seek God. Speaking, singing, sanctifying, and submitting in the context of community; this is being in God’s will and how we can be developing a Spirit filled life.

Lots of people know that being filled with the Spirit is the key to the Christian life, but there are marks to identify what being filled actually results in. Too many think it just means being overly emotional and they act as if being filled with the Spirit means they lose self control, but the fruit of the Spirit IS self control (Galatians 5:23). Now it can be exciting, but there are markers of the Spirit filled life, and this text points them out. Too many are all barks and no marks when it comes to being filled with the Spirit.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Keep it Full

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit
(Ephesians 5:18 – ESV)

We all want to have a good time, but over the course of time, what we like changes. What tickles a toddler’s fancy is different from what an adolescent finds enjoyable, and young adults and maturing adults often want to do very different things with their time. The truth is that our tastes change, but we all want to have a good time.

The truth for Christians is that our idea of a good time is transformed as we grow closer to God. God uses the Bible to redefine what a good time really is, and gives us pictures of what that looks like. It is not just about fun, but about faith, the word “good” meaning not just enjoyable but honoring to God, goodness and joy in God, redefined to be closer to His ideals as we grow in His grace. It can happen; we can have a good time doing good things. Even in bad times, we can let the good times roll.

We learned in the previous verses that we should examine our stewardship of time (vs.15), exercise our discretionary time (vs.16), and elevate our spiritual time (vs.17). Today’s text is about glorifying God with our time by being filled with the Spirit, that is what it takes to let the good times roll no matter our current situation. The Greek in vs.18 literally reads as a command, “be being filled with the Spirit”. This is God’s will for our lives, to keep pursuing godliness, to keep being filled.

The context of being filled with the Spirit is living that out in loving relationships. It is speaking to one another, singing to each other and in our hearts (vs.19), sanctifying our relationships with prayer and thanks to God for each other (vs.20), the NET translates verse 20 this way, “always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, and submitting to one another in our God given roles (vs.21ff). Again, speaking, singing, sanctifying, and submitting. This is giving the praise to God.

Now this is not so much a list of how to be filled as it is a picture of what it looks like when you are filled. That being said, it is obvious that doing these things is being in God’s will and developing a Spirit filled life, and a key in staying full. The things in this text are showing you where you can start. Do this and be full, says Paul. This text tells us, literally, to “keep being filled”, and so we ought to keep doing all of these things. In contrast, as Paul points out, drunkenness is no good. In the filling of the Spirit is where our sin meets its match.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

How to Have a Good Time

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit
(Ephesians 5:18 – ESV)

The verses surrounding our text speak of what being filled with the Spirit looks like. Being filled with the Spirit means doing His will, and part of how that is lived out is explained in the chapter. Be sure to notice that marriage time IS spiritual time!

Yes, this verse is telling us, “Don’t get drunk”, but we should consider the fuller context. Paul is using drinking to excess as a tool to show things that are unwise (vs.15), selfish uses of time (vs.16), foolish, and out of God’s will (vs.17). This applies to anything we are addicted to or anything that is a waste of godly time. Get excited about godly things that will fill you with true joy, not excessive exuberance brought about by a false hope you’re using to cope. You have got to change what you think is a good time. Paul is saying that if we want a Spirit filled revival in our lives, we need to wake up (vs.14).

No one drinks like that to bless people; you don’t get drunk in order to submit to God or others. It is about the self, the opposite of the Spirit. It may be the means you use to cope right now, but now is the time to learn God’s way. The problem isn’t simply that you can’t do it right now; I believe you when you think you can’t. However, it starts by developing a lifestyle of obedience; you must learn to be filled with the Spirit. Little obedience leads to big obedience; a lifestyle of obedience begins small.

Are we drunk on defeat because we are waiting for God to instantly cause us to be obedient? That isn’t walking in the Spirit; it is walking in a stupor.

When you are filled with something it is what you are full of, nothing else gets in at all, you are filled full. The process of filling is doing God’s will in certain moments, it is all you think about, and in those moments you are filled. If that doesn’t make sense, then how about this: consciously seek to obey God. Is that plain enough?

The context of being filled with the Spirit is living that out in loving relationships. It is speaking to one another, singing to each other and in our hearts (vs.19), sanctifying our relationships with prayer and thanks to God for each other (vs.20), and submitting to one another in our God given roles (vs.21). Again, speaking, singing, sanctifying, and submitting. This is giving the praise to God.

Are people who are getting drunk or wasting their time on ungodly things doing this? Of course not, and no wonder they aren’t filled with the Spirit, as much as they may say they want to be. We need to heed all of this, it isn’t just the speaking and the singing, but the sanctifying and the submitting too, it all counts toward the goal of living Spirit filled. Sometimes we have the excitement of being together, but we still aren’t together, know what I mean? Instead of speaking, sanctifying, and submitting we go for slander, spoiling and subversion. Instead of the sweet songs from God we hear the sounds of Satan in our hearts, and we even “get in the groove” with it and think everything is fine. Oh, by the way, don’t tell me you are filled with the Spirit if you don’t go to church. This passage makes it obvious that you are not.

In the morning you give your will to God. You say that you want to be willing? Well then give God your will and don’t follow your flesh. Take up your cross and cause your flesh to be dead every day, learn to obey. You are teaching yourself to obey or not; all those little things you think don’t matter really do. Instead of grieving the Spirit we ought to be about cultivating the Spirit, and obedience is where it’s at, my friend.

It isn’t about conquering the world or even conquering your world it is about Jesus conquering you, letting his mission become your mission. What is your mission? What is the best use of your time? It is time to get wise, and be wise about choices, and you do that by asking God (James 1:5).

So how much time are you giving to God? Let me tell you something, you should be giving God all your time. However, that doesn’t mean what you might think. You see, this is not simply about time management; it is about Jesus and you. If we got saved and that was it, we would instantly go to heaven. But we remain for a purpose, to glorify God. This is just like the fact that Christ could have died right after the Incarnation, but He fulfilled all righteousness by living a sinless life in our place. It is not just His death but His life that counts. Be filled with the Spirit so that it is not just in your death, but in your life that Christ counts. You have got to learn how to have a good time, full of the right kind of Spirit.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Value the Vision

So these came to Philip… and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."
(John 12:21 – ESV)

People often believe that God is able to help them, but they don’t believe He is willing to, at least not in their particular circumstance. They want to blame some curse or something else, but fail to see the plan of God. The truth is that they want to be helped in the way they want to be helped, and if they aren’t helped in that way, they don’t actually want to be helped, and they will grumble about not being helped.

Into this idea of wanting to see God help us walks Jesus. The passage from John 12:20-36 is very instructive in many things. Jesus teaches us that to die to self and to serve Him will bring honor from God the Father to that person who does so, and spiritual light will be the result. Walking in this light will increase our fruitfulness, our faithfulness, and our fulfillment in God and His plan.

We say we see this, and that we believe it, but then we ask, “Why is it so hard?”

This is not just about Jesus and the plan of salvation, but the plan for our personal deliverance from those sins that we cannot see our way out of. God uses the Bible and your individual experience to craft a personal attack plan for rooting out the sin in your life. Oh, it is the same methods and instruments as He uses for everyone else, but it is indeed a unique plan suited for you. The Holy Spirit is truly guiding the child of God to walk in faith, in the Spirit, to continue down Believer’s Boulevard, turning onto Repentance Road, finding Submission Street.

If you are willing to submit to God’s plan He is willing to help you see it more clearly, as far as the goodness of it goes, and to see how it shapes you, and to have a vision for knowing that He and His plan are righteous and to pursue His righteousness despite circumstances. This all takes spiritual vision, and our focus must be honed, and this happens through submission leading to obedience from the heart of the person who sees the value in it. You have to submit yourself to the vision, the plan of God for your life.

The truth is we don’t submit fully and so we see the obstacles to faith not the object of it.

This lack of true submission can be in particular circumstances that challenge our vision for faith, where we see Jesus as our all in all in general terms, but something else looms larger in the moment. We stop walking and the Light grows dim, we can’t see where we are going, and we fail to move from fear.

This lack of true submission also manifests itself in the larger arena, with people who struggle with an overall level of submission. For them their spiritual vision is mostly an idea, Jesus really isn’t in focus day by day, and He is just turned to when everything else is closing in on them. Many people want just enough God to get out of trouble, but only so as to try it their way once again. The problem with this is that if you get out of trouble, but you don’t get into truth, you will get back into trouble again. Your way won’t work, and you have to see that submission to God is the way into true fulfillment for you.

This is not about everyone else’s idea of God’s plan for you, but God’s own plan just for you. Be honest friend, you know some of it right now, you know how you have to start, and you just won’t do it, because you don’t believe it is actually right. You say it, but you don’t feel it, and so you don’t live it. The walk of faith is fraught with steps of submission, and your strength is in yourself, not in God, and you realize you cannot do it. You fail to submit once again, and you are on your knees, crying, or on your back, dying, or even on your feet, trying, but God just doesn’t seem to be helping you.

However, this plan, as you walk it out and value it, you will see the steps and learn to love the new you, instead of wanting to keep just enough of the old you to feel comfortable.

In either case, whether in momentary lapse of vision, or lack of any real focus within an individual’s life, the diagnosis is the same.

This is the true problem; people don’t believe God will do right by them, as far as their measures are concerned. They feel and live as if their ultimate good must also include their temporal satisfaction. They may indeed let God define a good ending but they define a good life.

You must follow Christ to the Cross by faith. There is no side road to salvation, or deliverance. If you want the power of God, if you want to learn to value the vision, to see how good God really is, you must go down Repentance Road, and make sure you stop at Submission Street. If you don’t, believe me, you will have made a wrong turn.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Poured Out

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
(Philippians 2:17 – ESV)

In chapter two of this epistle Paul exhorts the Philippians to pour themselves out to one another. You live out the faith, you pour out what God has poured in with humility and without complaint. He says Christ was poured out, Paul himself was being poured out, Timothy was being poured out, and Epaphroditus was nearly all poured out.

I want to relate being poured out specifically to prayer. You are pouring out yourself to something every day already, time, money, effort, thoughts, deeds, words, every minute of every day your life is being poured out. If you pour it out in prayer and service to God He will keep pouring His Spirit within you and upon your sacrifice of faith.

Being poured out is the path to joy. Paul was poured out as wine upon their sacrifice. The wine was to symbolize joy indicating that the sacrifice was done with a joyful heart and with the intent to bring joy to the Lord. Paul is saying, “Even if I have to die it is a small thing, a little sacrifice compared to the far greater sacrifice and service coming from your faith. I am going to die but it will make the sacrifice complete.” He rejoices that he was counted worthy to make a sacrifice and that they were also. His tireless effort helped lead to their true faith.

You can be poured out the wrong way. The world speaks of pouring yourself out as well, but it is in the sense of pouring your life into what you do. A recent country singer captures this idea in his song, “Live Like You Were Dying”. Now the song is a nice sounding sentiment, to pour it all out, to live with intention, but all he talks about is thrill seeking and actually selfish things for the most part. It is a humanistic motivational idea. The video looks like it is supposed to be all spiritual or whatever, but it isn’t giving glory to God, it isn’t what being poured out means in the biblical sense. When compared to what Christ would have us do, we see that the sentiment to live with passion and intention can be perverted into getting the most for us out of this life instead of giving to God's glory as much as we can in this life. Indeed we ought to live like we were dying, dying to self, that is.

Christians want to be poured on or poured in but they haven’t yet poured out. We should be poured out, but people don’t want to take the risk of being poured out. People only want to serve the way they want to serve; they want to choose their altar of service. They need to realize that if they cannot pour themselves out in prayer then how could they ever in practice.

God takes a person who is truly filled with the Spirit and uses tough situations to spill them over, so that His power and presence can flood onto others’ lives, and then He fills the vessel once again. He doesn’t fill us with His Sprit just so that we can feel full. If you try and hold it all in you will get nothing but a spiritual stomachache. No, it is not about the fullness in our bellies but the overflow of His life out from our bellies. Christ promised rivers of living water to come forth from our hearts (John 7:38), but how can we expect to see this power if we won’t allow ourselves to be poured out?

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Where the Wind Blows

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
(John 3:8 – ESV)

The word used for wind and the word used for Spirit is the same in this verse. Truly, the Spirit blows where He wants to, He is sovereign over who is born again. Remember this fact: the Spirit blows where He will, not where we will. No one knows where the wind blows, yet we can know in a sense, because where the true gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, there the breath of God will surely be felt among those whose dry bones now live. We are born again by the Word of God (James 1:18 / 1 Peter 1:23-25), which is empowered by the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:13), so where there is true gospel preaching, the wind of the Spirit is sure to blow.

Now true gospel preaching will make much of the fact that we can bring nothing to the table to bargain with God. No matter how good we have been, no matter how much sacrifice we have made, no matter how little we have injured others, and no matter how we think we have served God, we have nothing with which to enable us in any way to advance our case. We must have the righteousness of Jesus Christ accredited to our account or we will never be forgiven, never be reconciled to God, never be redeemed, and never enter heaven. The only thing that can count for salvation is the righteousness of God Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21 / Titus 3:5), that is the only thing He requires, and we must have it or we have nothing.

We might think we have something to say, but we mustn’t speak of our own merit when approaching the bar of God. Even those gracious acts of God wherein He has allowed us to pursue some measure of righteous action in no way constitute saving power. Anything He gives us as an instrument is still only something to use for His righteous glory, and it is not His righteous glory itself, which we must have or we will not have what we need the most. Save your sanctimony or you won’t be saved. The wind blows on those who know they have no breath, and that they must have the breath of God Himself in order to truly live.

The gospel has been largely lost today, and we need men and women who have a passion for the gospel, people who feel the power of the Word of God in their own souls. Believers who believe that the gospel is what we need today, and every day, and people who will stop looking for answers everywhere but where the One True answer is. Most Christians would say they know the gospel but we need people who have a real grasp of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We need people who are possessed by the gospel, who are controlled by its grip. We need people who know that God is sovereign in salvation, people who have been knocked down from their pedestal and onto their blinded faces by the glory of God like Paul on the road to Damascus. We need people who realize that the only reason they have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ is because they have felt the icy chill of the windy Spirit on their dead bones. We need people who have felt the power, who have heard where the wind blows, who know that salvation is all of God or it is none of God.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©