THE SPIRIT WEEK 2:

BE FUELED

Last week we talked about the idea of being filled, and the important aspects that being filled with the Holy Spirit brings to our lives. He brings guidance and comfort, develops character, and helps us in our battle with temptation and sin. He gives us boldness to witness, to minister, and to fulfill God’s purposes for our lives. It is exciting to know that we have that promise from God and that he doesn’t leave us here to our own devices and our own strength to be able to follow him. But there is another aspect of being filled that we must consider.

Most (if not all) of us have some type of mobile device that we carry with us all the time. A phone or a tablet is in most of our hands at some point throughout the day. Many of us probably also have charging block or power bank that we keep with us to recharge our devices should they run low. These power banks are valuable tools for that very reason, and most of them come new out of the box with a certain amount of charging capability already in them. However, if you charge your phone with that bank, eventually that power will be used up. And at that point, your power bank basically becomes a paper weight unless it can be recharged from an electrical source. 

Here at Lifehouse, we often hear the phrase “what fills spills” and it is used in this context: what is in you is what will come out of you. And that is true! We receive the Spirit of Christ when we first accept his forgiveness and ask him to be at the center of our lives. We may even have received that infilling of the Holy Spirit like we see in Acts chapters 1 and 2. But life has a way of bumping into us, both in good and not-so-good ways. It is in those moments that the phrase “what fills spills” can take on the meaning that as we share, serve, and give (or as life throws us a curve), what is in us spills out and we can become depleted. Then we can find ourselves running on empty, doing things in our own strength, and feeling alone and lost on life’s journey. That is why, just like the power block that has been drained, we must have our lives recharged with the Holy Spirit on an ongoing basis. 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit must become a daily practice in the life of any Jesus-follower. As I said, life has a way of taking or knocking the power out of us in good and bad ways. We need to be consistently and constantly being refilled by God’s Spirit so that it can fuel us (and be fueling every aspect of life). As we become immersed in the Spirit, we find unexplainable power to minister and witness, even when things seem hard or difficult. He gives us spiritual gifts—tools that we can use to be more effective in serving him. And he strengthens us even when we feel tired or run down by life.

Imagine if every Jesus-follower was empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. There would be no show, just ordinary, inadequate believers full of God’s Spirit, living a life only God could empower us to live. Through that power, we could rewrite the history of our homes, our neighborhoods, and our nation. We could speak life into death, hope into despair, bring healing to the hurting, and defend the defenseless. God doesn’t give us his power so that we can hide it, or to live weak, powerless lives. He pours his presence into our lives so that we can pour it through our lives to others.