Intoxicated

"And do not be drunk with wine...but be filled with the Spirit." Ephesians 5:18....."When a man becomes Spirit-filled, he literally becomes God-intoxicated." Jack Taylor

To say someone is intoxicated is not a praiseworthy statement in almost all places. We almost always will go directly to the picture of someone reeling about, fully under the influence of either alcohol or some other type of substance. We use terms like "drunk" or "loaded" to describe them. They are literally at the mercy, leading, and in the control of whatever they've been drinking or ingesting. I know. Before Christ, I spent a great amount of my time as an adult in just such a state. Alcohol had little place for me, but if you could smoke it, swallow it, or snort it, I was your guy. I knew full well what it was like to be intoxicated, fully under the influence of what I was using. 

When the disciples who were in the upper room at Pentecost had the Holy Spirit come upon them, they immediately went out to proclaim what the Spirit had done. So filled with His Life and Spirit were they that onlookers thought them to be drunk with wine. What they were was totally under the control and influence of His Holy Spirit. They were preaching, by the direction and power of His Holy Spirit, the crucified and risen Christ, and they were doing so in the power of His Holy Spirit. It was He who had fallen on them. It was He who had led them out into the city, and it was He who gave them the message that they now proclaimed. They were filled with His Spirit, fully led by His Spirit, and compelled by His Spirit. Pentecost and its fruits is to be the experience of a believer. However, is it the experience of you, of me? Of your church fellowship and of mine?

Theologian Jack Tayor writes, "The tragedy of the church is that there seems to be everything evident but POWER!" Think on this. Deeply. Do our lives bear witness to the power of His risen life? Does the life of the fellowship we are a part of? Does Holy Spirit power mark our ministry and the ministry we belong to? Has our life been radically transformed by His Life? Do we live a life that is clearly led not by our desires but by His? Is what we define as "worship" more man-centered or Christ-centered? We are called, as individuals and fellowships, to believe the impossible, to do the impossible, and all by the power of His Holy Spirit. Are we living out that call? Are we a God intoxicated, Christ intoxicated, Holy Spirit intoxicated people and church? Is everything evident in our gatherings but Holy Spirit power?

In John 20:22, we're told that Jesus breathed upon His disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." One thing I know for sure, Jesus Christ is still speaking, still breathing, and still giving His Holy Spirit to His church, and to you and to me. May I be, we be, His church be, those who are God-intoxicated in all of our ways and in all of our ministries for Him. May we walk, minister, and live in the fullness of His Spirit. 

Blessings,

Pastor O 

The Process

And He took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it....  Luke 22:19.....Being broken by God is our only hope. Shane Idleman

Life in Christ is a process. A process that He means to bring to completion, but that completion cannot come about without our submitting to it. Sadly, too few of us ever do.

Shane Idleman offers up a simple prayer that I want to expound on in this writing. He cries out to the Lord, "O God, take me, break me, make me." That's a process and it can only be realized by us when we yield ourselves up to Him. Are we willing to submit to the process? All of the process?

Are we willing to invite Him to literally "take us?" This means that we allow Him to take hold of us on every level of our being. There is nothing that is held back. Our past, present, and future. Our dreams, our hopes, our desires. All that we have and all that we are is given over to Him. Everything about us, families, marriages, livelihoods, ministries, is given into His hand to do with as He wills. This will involve a total trust in Him to place in His hands and heart all the things precious to us. Do we dare, this day, this year, to invite Him to fully take us?

The next step is frightening. We ask Him to "break us." Break us in every area of our lives that is walking against His Light, His will, and His purpose. Break us in every area of pride that exists in our hearts. Break us in our love of self that always dulls our love for Him. To break all the hardness of our hearts and all that this hardness does to cause pain to others and to ourselves. To break us of our determination to have our own way so that we may be fully yielded to His way. Again, do we dare, this day, this year, to ask Him to fully break us?

The last step is one that will never cease, even into eternity. It is the invitation that He will now "make us." Make us into all that was in His mind when He created us. Make us ever more deeply into His image, the image of Christ. We are His to do with as He pleases as He shapes us upon His potter's wheel. This too can be painful as His hands apply pressure in the shaping, but we trust that as He shapes, He does so with perfect love and we trust His heart in the shaping. We become and continue to become what He created us to be.

As I said, it's a process and He calls us to it. Will this coming year see us yielded to it, or kicking against it? We know of the miracle that Jesus did with the broken bread. This year, will He be able to do miracles with and through us in our brokenness in Him?

Blessings upon you in this New Year,
Pastor O