Obey and Ask: How to Be filled with the Spirit

If you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead, you are a child of God.  And as a child of God, only two things are necessary for you to be permeated by God's Spirit and power.

OBEY GOD.
According to the Apostle Peter, "God gives the Spirit to those who obey Him."  And according to the Apostle Paul, we are actually commanded to "be filled with the Spirit" instead of "being drunk with wine."  So the first thing to do is simply, completely, and unconditionally yield to the Spirit, giving Him complete and absolute control over you.  That's what it means to "be filled with the Spirit."  That is the command to obey.  Once you've obeyed, you only need to do one more thing.

ASK GOD.
The Lord Jesus said, "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."  So, if you are a child of God, and you've yielded to the Spirit, all you have to do is ask God to fill you with the Spirit, and He will do it.  Right now.

Obey God. (Yield to the Spirit.)
Ask God. (To fill you with the Spirit.)

That's all that's required to be filled with God's Spirit, if you are a child of God through faith in Jesus.

The Source of Power and Perfection

"Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness."
G.K. Chesterton


I'm sitting in the dark, wanting to die.  I tried to resist her, but continued to lose the battle of lust.  "I can't resist you," I whisper as she attempts to seduce me.  I escape her, but unwillingly.  I longed for defeat; I longed for her victory over my body.


I'm holding on the barely existing virginity, wanting to die.  No matter how hard I try, it is inevitable.  I will fall as my fathers fell.  I can't escape hell, or so it seems, until these words unlock my cell of sin:


"I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for my sins."


I feel peace cover me like a blanket.  I no longer want to die.


With my sins forgiven, I experience perfection.  My new life begins.  I no longer place my confidence in my good intentions, but in my salvation, in my Savior. 


In His Presence, I experience power.  Faith in Him is power.  Faith in myself is weakness, as G.K. Chesterton said above.  I know better than anyone my limitations.  But He is unlimited in knowledge and ability.  Completely trusting Him is power, perfection, and sanity. 

How to have AUTHORITY wherever you go

You want authority. 
You want powerful influence.
Freedom to speak and act.
Respect.

How can you have these wherever you go?

To have authority, you must be under authority.

 

 

But first we must answer three questions:

1. What is authority?

2. Where does it come from?

3. How do we use it?

 

AUTHORITY IS THE POWER TO COMMAND AND BE OBEYED.

Once a soldier (a "centurion" in this historical context) wanted the Lord Jesus to heal one of his beloved servants.  Here is what happened according to Matthew, one of Jesus' chosen ambassadors:



 

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.  “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

 

Notice what the centurion says.  He felt confident that Jesus had authority to heal diseases, and he believed authority meant the power or ability to command and be obeyed.  In other words, because Jesus had authority over diseases, he had the ability to command diseases in the same way that the centurion had the ability to command soldiers under his authority.  The centurion would say, "Go," and his soldiers would go; he would say "Come," and his soldiers would come; he would say, "Do this," and his servant would do it.  That's authority:  The ability to command and be obeyed.  The ability to have happen what you want to have happen.  But where does authority come from?  Jesus and Paul tell us.

 

AUTHORITY COMES FROM GOD.

This is what Jesus said after he rose from the dead: 

"All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth."

 

Paul, Jesus' ambassador to all who were not of Hebrew descent (Gentiles) said this:

"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God.  The authorities that exist have been appointed by God."

 

The centurion we've been focusing on said he was "a man under authority."  And he assumed Jesus was under the authority of God, and thus had the ability to command diseases to leave and they obey him. 

 

To have authority, you must be under authority.

God's authority.

Directly or Indirectly.

 

This means you are either in authority, from God, or under the authority of someone who has authority from God.

 

For example, I am a father, and fathers have God given authority from their God given identity, as Moses said,

 

"Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long on the earth."

 

Paul also says, "Children obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord."

 

As a father, I have the right to command my children and expect obedience from them.  I have authority over them because I am in authority.  They have authority when they act under my authority. 

 

Authority comes from God.

You are either in authority right now, as you read my words, or you are under someone's authority as you read my words.  When you act under the authority over you, you have authority. 

 

If you are at work, and your manager or supervisor tells you to do something, you have authority to do it.  This means you do it in the name of your manager.  You can say, "My manager says to do this," to whom every you must interact with.  Your manager is your enforcer.  If you are resisted, he or she is the one being resisted, and he or she is the one to enforce his or her authority, given to you. 

 

Authority is the ability to command and be obeyed.

Authority comes from God.

You use authority by speaking and acting in the name of authority.

 



(Click HERE for part 2)

The Key to Your Power (In One Word)

"Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger..."
James, the Brother of Jesus


Your phone rings. You look at your caller ID.  It's your boss, who usually calls you on your day off to ask you to come in.  It's your decision.  He can't make you, but you usually yield to his manipulation.


The caller ID gives you the key to your power, expressed in one word:


PAUSE.


Because you see whose calling, you have that precious moment of decision, to answer or not answer.  To let the answering machine pick up the call, or you can pick up the phone.  It's up to you.


These moments, these pauses, are experienced throughout your day, if you allow them, if you choose them.  The pause is your choice, a God given ability.


How can you choose the pause when you feel rushed or pressured to act or speak?


When do you feel rushed or pressured?  What situations or persons rush you or pressure you?


You know them.  You can probably list them right now if you wanted to.


Now imagine the beginning of your day.  Is your boss, or whoever it is that pressures you, in your bedroom with a gun to your head?  Of course not.  Your day begins with you and your Lord, and He never pressures you. 


Prayer is the first act of pause for your day. 


At the beginning of your day, if you pray against all sources of pressure, against everything that rushes you to speak or act before considering the will of God, then you will deal with the spiritual enemies who seek to block your liberty.


Having prayed at the beginning of your day, you may practice pausing in little things throughout the day:
1. Pause and thank God before you eat your breakfast, before you take one sip of coffee or one bite of cereal.
2.  Pause before you leave the house, just a moment, as you make sure you lock the door, say a prayer of submission to the Spirit.
3.  Pause before you drive to your first destination of the day, just a moment, to think and pray, or adjust your music to a song that focuses you.


These small practices of pauses will put you in the mindset of pausing before you speak to difficult people, or before you face difficult situations.


Pausing is the key to your power, the power to choose, the power to decide.


If you choose to use this power, you will protect yourself from regret.
If you refuse to use this power, you will act without thought or prayer.

How To Discover and Use Your Supernatural Power Today (Part 1)

You have supernatural power if you believe in the Lord Jesus.  He said it.  "You will receive (supernatural/miraculous) power when the Spirit comes upon you."  Now the question is, how do you discover and use your supernatural power?  By learning from Moses, Gideon, and David.

MOSES' STAFF
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”  Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”  “A staff,” he replied.  The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”  Exodus 4:1-3

When God called Moses as the deliverer of Israel, Moses was a shepherd.  A shepherd uses a staff to lead his sheep and protect them from predators.  There is nothing supernatural about a staff.  Every shepherd had and used them.  It was no different for Moses.  When Moses wanted assurance of God's presence and power with him, what did God say?  God focused Moses on what he already had and what he already knew:  his shepherd's staff.  He focused Moses on an ability that Moses already had: the ability to simply throw his staff on the ground.  Moses knew his staff, and he knew how to throw it down.  That was it. That was all it took to see a miracle, the supernatural connected to the natural, the spiritual united the physical--a staff becoming a snake.

The question I ask you with God's Spirit is this:  What is that in YOUR hand?

What is your job right now, and what instrument do you use to do your job?

A pencil or pen?
A hammer or wrench?

Right now a keyboard is under my finger tips as I type words from the Spirit of God.  But I learned how to type in high school.  Typing is natural.  But the words from the Spirit that I type are supernatural.  What is in my hand is a keyboard. Typing is easy.  Using the keyboard is something I know how to do.

Throwing down a staff was easy for Moses.  He'd been using his shepherd's staff for 40 years.  In the same way, whatever your job is right now, as you read, and whatever instrument you use to do your job, the job you know how to do, that is the very instrument of supernatural power that God has given you. 

Learn from Moses to use what is in your hand right now. And learn from Gideon to use the strength that you have.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2.

The Difference Between Will Power and Self Control

"Be self controlled, be watchful."  1 Peter 5:8

"The fruit of the Spirit...is self-control" Galatians 5:22-23 

 

What's the difference between doing things "in your own strength," or by mere will power, and having self-control as a result of following the Spirit?

 

Imagine this.

 

Benson is a single virgin man.   Mandy, whose been flirting with him for a week, comes to his desk in a bright red very low cut shirt, with a note tucked between her voluptuous breasts.  "Hey," she breathes, leaning on his desk.  Mandy takes the note from between her breasts and leaves it on Benson's desk. The peach perfume on the note fills Bensons nostrils.  He knows he has a choice:  Choose or refuse to read the note.  It's obvious what's going to be in it anyway.  But against his conscience, he opens the aromatic note and reads these words, "I'm tired of waiting and giving you signals. I wants us to go to Hotel 6 after work and have quick, meaningless sex."  Feeling sweat on his chest, Benson  tells himself over and over again, "I will not go to the hotel with Mandy."

 

Imagine Benson again, same motivation, same temptation.  But with this addition.  With his sexual arousal, and Mandy's alluring desirableness, Benson experiences a third desire: The Holy Spirit in Benson desiring a deep connection with him.  The Spirit's desire for Benson feels like a cup of creamy steamy hot chocolate on the coldest day in winter, and at the same time like an ice cold lemonade on the hottest day of summer.  The choice is between a deep lasting meaningful satisfaction, and the passing pleasure of his favorite once a year State Fair cotton candy that  is sexy Mandy.  So instead of telling himself NOT to lust after Mandy, he chooses to focus on fulfilling the Spirit's desires in him, and refuses to focus on fulfilling either his or Mandy's desires.

Click HERE for Part 2.

 



Christians, Satan, and Demons

Do Christians have authority over Satan and demons? 
Authority to cast them out or "bind them?"
Authority over them AT ALL?

To answer these questions, we must answer two questions:

1. Who has and is the source of all authority?
2. Does he share this authority with anybody?

The scriptures answer both of these questions, as it is written:

1. Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth."  Matthew 28:18 NLT
2. Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.   Romans 13:1

The Lord Jesus has, and is the source of, ALL AUTHORITY.
The Lord shares His authority, establishing those who are in authority on earth.

Now does this authority apply to Christians over Satan and demons?

Take two more truths into consideration, and let the scriptures answer this question:

• The throne of God
• The right hand of God

In scripture, the throne of God and the right hand of God are expressions of God's sovereign authority.  Jesus is seated (on a throne) at the right hand of God! 

But who is seated with the Lord Jesus, at the right and of God? 

And what realms are under the authority of The Lord, and those seated with Him?

 

It is written:

 

• That power is the same as the mighty strength  he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,  far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,  which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.  Ephesians 1:19-23 (Emphasis mine)
• And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  Ephesians 2:6-7

Christians are one with Christ, and seated with Christ at the right hand of God!

 

The throne of God and right hand of God are expressions of the Lord's authority.

 

The Lord has ALL AUTHORITY in heaven and on earth, and over every name and power category!

 

Because Christians are one with Christ, they are one with Him in His authority.

 

In other words, Christ shares His authority with the body, and this authority is over our enemy, the "principalities, dominions, powers, and rulers" mentioned in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, in relation to Christ and to Christians!



What does all of this mean in application?

1. We have the authority to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus against the works of the devil.
2. We have the authority to cast out demons in the Lord Jesus' name when demons oppress or possess people.
3. We have the authority to render Satan and demons silent, inactive, and absent (to "bind" them) in the same way Jesus and the apostles did.  To undo what the devil does, in the name of Jesus, and the power of His Spirit in us.

We have all of this in our union with Christ, being seated with Him at the right hand of God, having "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms."

Some fear presumption against Satan and demons. They don't believe we do actually have authority over the enemy, and that the best we can do is ignore him, in hopes that he will ignore us.

But the word of God makes it very clear that we are at war, and our enemy is actively seeking to tempt us, oppose us, and devour us.  We are to actively resist Satan in submission to God.  We are also to actively expose and destroy his works, as it is written,

"Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them."  Ephesians 5:11

By the name of Jesus and His Spirit in us, we do as Jesus did:
"The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work."  1 John 3:8b

If you are in sin, then it is presumption to assume authority over the enemy.  But if your sins are forgiven and forgotten through Jesus' salvation, you can successfully resist Satan, and undo what the devil does.  After all, we are the children of light, light in this dark world.  Light, by definition, undoes darkness.  So it is with us, in the name of Jesus. 

How We RESIST SATAN (PART 2)

Our enemies are spiritual. demons. satan. Thoughts and insinuations and implications and assumptions whose origins are satan and demons. You feel it. Thoughts that put you in a bad mood for no real reason. Like a grudge before the day begins. It’s in the air. War. Meaningless internal and external atmospheric conflict. Someone picks a fight with you at work. Why? You were minding your own business. It feels like you’re being targeted. Sought out for an argument. Like a verbal fight is inevitable. The devil. Resist. Focus. Truth will dispel the cloud over your head. You’ll feel it evaporate. The evaporation is satan fleeing. God promises this if you resist.

How We RESIST SATAN (PART 1)

God commands strength. He is our source. God commands us to use His strength to immovably stand against satan. He supplies us with His own armor—offensive and defensive weapons and protection. Truth overcomes lies. The righteousness of our faith in Christ defeats satan’s accusations. The good news of our peace with God destroys all emotions of opposition. Our invincibility is our faith: we listen only to God; we ignore satan’s deceptions and temptations. Our hope in Christ’s return is victory over hopelessness and distraction. We speak only the truth, according to the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How to BE SPIRITUALLY POWERFUL AND INVINCIBLE (PART 3)

Faith is our shield, blocking us from the words of Satan. From ALL of the words of Satan. We become powerful and invincible when we absolutely refuse to listen to Satan! We block our minds from every deception. With Satan and demons and deception we are unconditionally intolerant, stubborn, bull headed, and unresponsive! We are rude to Satan! Giving him no respect, no time, no attention, no audience! When we close ourselves off to him to this extent, we become untouchable! Quenching ALL of the fiery darts of the wicked one. All of his deceptions, temptations and accusations, confusions and distractions. We hear truth alone. We speak truth alone. We act upon truth alone. Through Christ we are powerful and invincible! (READ PART 4!)

How to BE SPIRITUALLY POWERFUL AND INVINCIBLE (PART 2)

God commands us to take His armor, His complete armor. We are to do this because the devil schemes against us. But we can be invincibly immovable and moving against our enemy. By God’s Truth, we can resist and defeat the father of lies. By Christ’s Righteousness which comes from our faith in Christ, we can resist the slanderer-tempter-accuser. By the Spirit of Peace we defeat the devil’s disorder and confusion. By the hope of Christ’s salvation, we defeat the hopelessness of Satan. Now we come to the essential thing that makes us powerful and invincible!

How to BE SPIRITUALLY POWERFUL AND INVINCIBLE (PART 1)

To be powerful is to be immovable and moving. To be invincible is to be unstoppable. God shows us to the way to be like Him. This is what He says, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” He commands invincible strength. This means it’s God’s will, and that we can do it. By “we” I mean us who trust in God alone. Those whose faith is in Christ alone possess invincible power from God.