How Are We Filled with the Spirit? Part Two
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. (Ephesians 4:1 NASB)
The Spirit’s filling is like walking. When we are little children, every tiny step is a conscious effort and a magnificent achievement. Soon, we learn to link two or three steps together before we fall. And then before you know it, by the time we’ve reached four or five, we’re walking and not even thinking about it. Walking has simply become a part of life.
Over time, as we experience His filling, it becomes a constant part of our consciousness and our life. But we begin deliberately, slowly, and carefully. As the sun tips its hat in the early morning, we say to the Lord: “Lord, this is Your day. As these hours unfold, I want to walk with You, allowing Your Spirit full control. Since I belong to You and no day is a waste, help me live it under Your empowering authority.”
Now, please be careful. I know as I write this that I have engineer-types reading my words. And engineer-types love techniques. They love a step-by-step, logical process. They love details.
But the walk of faith by the Spirit’s filling isn’t mechanical. Instead, it’s as if we’re saying:
I am in the process, Lord, of fulfilling Your will. I want to glorify Your name. I belong to You. I pledge my allegiance to You today. Enable me in my walk to have the discernment to walk in obedience and not in disobedience, to sense wrong when I encounter it and to stay away from it. Keep me strong when temptations come. Guard my tongue from saying the wrong thing or saying too much or speaking too quickly. Enable me to restrain profanity and resist outbursts of anger. Lord, help me in my walk. Fill me with Your Spirit. Take my eyes, take my tongue, take my emotions, take my will, and use me, Lord, because I want to be under Your control on a continuing basis.
This is called the Christian walk.
Taken from Flying Closer to the Flame by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1993 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Deepen your intimacy with the living God by reading Embraced by the Spirit, an updated release of Flying Closer to the Flame.
