36 NO BEGGING, PLEASE! You don't have to plead with God to get him to fill you with his Spirit. He
longs to do so. In much the same way, the pent-up love of God longs to release itself in you.
To fill you Are you ready to turn on the faucet? 37 HOW TO BE FILLED THIS VERY MOMENT. In Sight Bite 4 you read these powerful words: In Sight Bite 5 you learned what repentance means. First, it means turning from. For me that meant turning from a spirit of unforgiveness. That wasn't easy, but refusing to forgive others was making me sick. Consciously, deliberately and by name I forgave everyone who had ever hurt me. It also meant turning from a spirit of pride. I had bought into the notion I could never forgive myself for some of the things I had done. A. W. Tozer helped me with that pesky demon. Somewhere he said, Refusing to forgive yourself may sound humble, but it's actually inverted pride! I swallowed my pride and forgave myself. Second, repentance means turning to. Having
turned to Jesus for the forgiveness of sin, In the past that would have been frightening. But I was tired of giving the Christian life my best shot and coming up short. My prayer was simple and direct.
That was it. In the deepest most personal part of me I knew he had come in fullness. I invite you to do the same. Date____________ Time____________ Location_________ 38 CLEARING UP A MYSTERY. In pharmacy there are synergistic drugs.
There are also synergistic truths.
Why then, I asked myself, with this seven-fold synergistic ministry of the Holy Spirit available to me, was there a troubling lack of consistency in my walk in the Spirit? That
was a mystery to me I had been deadly serious, as I'm sure you are, about my decision to become a Spirit-filled Christian. As a result there were exhilarating victories. Now, however, I was no longer willing to live on an emotional roller coaster. The answer came when, intellectually at first and then viscerally, I discovered a simple truth. The
Spirit-filled life is not emotional. It is volitional (key word). There is an emotional component, of course. And that's grand! As a friend of mine said, "I don't want to go on feelings, but I sure do want to feel what's going on." Exactly! We all want and need emotional support for what we choose to do and be. The nature and degree of your personal response to intimacy with God will depend on
You won't package
intimacy the same way I do. How you demonstrate your acts of intimacy in the Spirit will be distinctly you. And that's ok! I'm going to guess you want what I want. A growing degree of consistency in your walk in the Spirit. Here's what I learned about that. The hard way! The Spirit-filled life is not emotional. It is volitional and intentional. It's a choice you make! 39 DIFFERENT WAYS THE SPIRIT COMES TO YOU. The Greek aorist tense (pronounced a/or/ist) denotes a sudden, definite act in the past and has no counterpart in English.
In a special way
Pentecost (Acts 2) was that crisis. Jesus was raised on the Day of First Fruits and ministered for 40 days following his resurrection. After he ascended into heaven his disciples returned to Jerusalem and spent the next ten days in the upper room. On the 50th day, the Holy Spirit descended upon them in a brand new historical event which had never happened before, and will never happen again. Pentecost! "And they were all filled (aorist tense) with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4). THE EVENT IS UNREPEATABLE. To tarry and pray for a repetition of Pentecost as an event is fruitless. Just as there wasone birth of Jesus, one death of Jesus, one resurrection of Jesus and one ascension of Jesus so, too, there was one giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. That part is unrepeatable. But, and this is wonderful, later on in the New Testament narrative a variety of Christian believers were also filled (aorist tense) with the Holy Spirit to empower them for the crises confronting them. 40 PETER. Peter was in the upper room on Pentecost and was filled (aorist tense) at Pentecost. Later, during the first persecution of the early Church, Peter was filled again
Peter had a crisis and he was filled (aorist tense) with the Holy Spirit for that crisis. OTHER BELIEVERS.When Christians were forbidden to preach or teach in the name of Jesus they rebelled. They prayed for power to face that crisis and,
Even though they knew that to do so would mean being put in jail! PAUL. Paul was filled (aorist tense) with the Holy Spirit at the time of his conversion (Acts 9:17).
SO WHAT? While it's pointless to pray for a repetition of the Pentecost event, it is important that you pray for a repetition of the Pentecost experience.
When you do, the good Lord who said:
provides exactly what you need exactly when you need it.
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