Just realized that in the span of 1 week, I was led to share on living that spirit filled life in 7 separate occasions to 4 different people and to 3 different groups. (At last Friday YM GAP prayer meeting, than to my sec 4 youth small group on Sunday,today with my own small grp during bible study) & another 4 occasions with 4 others this week. So decided I should pen down all this thoughts properly & I gladly welcome any other insights to this as i'm still learning what it means to truly live that Empowered Spirit-Filled Life.
Ever since YM Camp 2011, I've been reflecting & wondering how do we actually truly live out that Empowered Spirit Filled Life each and everyday! What does it mean to really host the Holy Spirit? I really believe we can have such daily infilling of His Spirit and that's how we lead this life in Obedience to the Spirit's leading.
After experiencing first hand this renewed infilling & "baptism" of His Holy Spirit at the recent camp in such a deep and powerful way, plus encountering many more occasions there after, and seeing first hand what God can do when one allow His Holy Spirit to lead you. It daunt upon me that, imagine if everyone in church or someone who claims to be a "Christian" really truly live such a spirit-filled life where even in the daily mundane life in this world one can say in confidence that i'm able to overcome whatever trials that come my path as I have a great Spirit within me. Like said in the lyrics of the song ,You Are Here "Same power that conquered the grave lives in me, lives in me" .
Below is a summary of some of my reflections in recent months where God is teaching me. And right now I can say i'm truly convicted and compelled to share how we can live that Empowered Spirit-Filled life daily.
1) TOTAL SURRENDER & BROKENNESS
Psalm 51:17 (NIV)
"My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise."
Saying to God, "Lord I surrender my life, my thoughts, my actions totally to be in submission to you today"... " I want to be in a state of true brokenness, dying to my self-desires and putting you on the Throne of my life.
"True Brokenness" is the breaking of my self will, so that life and spirit if the Lord Jesus may be released through me. It is the Stripping of self-reliance and independence from God, it is the softening of the soil of my heart.- Nancy Leigh Demoss
2) HUNGER to TRULY SEEK HIM in FAITH
After your heart is in Full surrender to the Lord, just seek God by Faith!
We are to be truly consecrated and set apart for God!
Have that HUNGER for Him!
Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV) "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
After encountering & experiencing God! Allow His presence to just fill you! Just know that His in FULL SOVEREIGN control.
3) THE EMPOWERING PRESENCE
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Extracted from the SATISFIED booklet (Campus Crusade for Christ)
Do you desire more? Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37, 38).
What did Jesus mean? John, the biblical author, went on to explain,“By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:39).
Jesus promised that God’s Holy Spirit would satisfy the thirst, or deepest longings, of all who believe in Jesus Christ. However, many Christians do not understand the Holy Spirit or how to experience Him in their daily lives God has given us His Spirit so that we can experience intimacy with Him and enjoy all He has for us.
The Holy Spirit is the source of our deepest satisfaction.
The Holy Spirit is God’s permanent presence with us.
Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16, 17).
The Holy Spirit enables us to understand and experience all God has given us.“We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
The Holy Spirit enables us to experience many things:
• A genuine new spiritual life (John 3:1–8).
• The assurance of being a child of God (Romans 8:15, 16).
• The infinite love of God (Romans 5:5; Ephesians 3:18, 19)
By walking in the Spirit we increasingly experience intimacy with God and enjoy all He has for us.
Walking in the Spirit moment by moment is a lifestyle. It is learning to depend upon the Holy Spirit for His abundant resources as a way of life. As we walk in the Spirit, we have the ability tolive a life pleasing to God “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature…Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16, 25).
As we walk in the Spirit, we experience intimacy with God and all He has for us.“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23)
The Empowering Presence
We are filled with the Spirit by faith, enabling us to experience intimacy with God and enjoy all He has for us. The essence of the Christian life is what God does in and through us, not what we do for God. Christ’s life is reproduced in the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is to be directed and empowered by Him.
By faith, we experience God’s power through the Holy Spirit.“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:16, 17).
Three important questions to ask yourself:
1. Am I ready now to surrender control of my life to our Lord Jesus Christ? (Romans 12:1, 2)
2. Am I ready now to confess my sins? (1 John 1:9) Sin grieves God’s Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). But God in His love has forgiven all of your sins—past, present, and future—because Christ has died for you.
3. Do I sincerely desire to be directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit? (John 7:37–39)
By faith claim the fullness of the Spirit according to His command and promise:
God COMMANDS us to be filled with the Spirit. “…be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
God PROMISES He will always answer when we pray according to His will. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14, 15).
How to pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit…
We are filled with the Holy Spirit by faith alone. Sincere prayer is one way of expressing our faith. The following is a suggested prayer:
"Dear Father, I need You. I acknowledge that I have sinned against You by directing my own life. I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me. I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus. I now thank You for filling me with the Holy Spirit and directing my life." Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If so, you can pray right now and trust God to fill you with His Holy Spirit.
How to know that you are filled by the Holy Spirit
• Did you ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit?
• Do you know that you are now filled with the Holy Spirit?
• On what authority? (On the trustworthiness of God Himself and His Word: Hebrews 11:6; Romans 14:22, 23.)
As you continue to depend on God’s Spirit moment by moment you will experience and enjoy intimacy with God and all He has for you—a truly rich and satisfying life
"The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because he made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own." - C. S. Lewis
