This is week two of a series called Turn on the Power. The message today is titled Be Filled With Power. The series is about knowing the power of God and His divine ability in our daily lives.
In John 7:37-39 we see Jesus making a prophetic statement for our experience the other side of the cross where we now live! – NIV “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ 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.”
In the verse here Jesus qualifies the statement by saying that this Spirit would emanate from the centre of our being, our belly, our heart, our inner most self…..So His holy spirit was not to live in buildings, but to live in those who were and are His followers. Jesus was announcing in that scripture that which was fulfilled in the day of Pentecost.
A key question to ask now is how does a person experience this situation or the baptism of the Holy Spirit personally? It’s profound maybe but simple as it involves faith, just as in anything we receive from God. Did we receive the Holy Spirit the moment we believed? It's not about straining, attaining or travailing but receiving! There is no Holy Spirit part 1 and part 2! The Bible says we are born of the Spirit, belong to God and His Spirit now lives in us - we are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Some people unfortunately have received the baptism of salvation, but not yet experienced the baptism or the infilling of the spirit, so have not yet experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Gods plan was to reposition us in salvation and empower us. The filling of the Holy Spirit is relationally oriented, rather than us being in a special place, building or meeting. We can receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the infilling of the Spirit by other people praying for as Paul did in scripture, but also by simply coming to God and asking in prayer. Often we wait for something to ‘fall on us’ rather than experiencing something that God is now releasing from ‘within us’. This is not something outside of us but a releasing of that which is dwelling in our inner most parts (John 7 scripture again).
Often when people don't experience the power of God or the ability of God in their lives, it's because a section of their lives has not yet been submitted to God. We must come before God saying “Lord, I will not hold back an area of my life”. We need to be being regularly refilled or infilled with the Holy Spirit just as our cars require refuelling. In Ephesians 5:18 scripture tells us to be filled with the Spirit rather than wine that leads to debauchery. Paul is telling us not to be satisfied with broken things giving momentary pleasure but with the Holy Spirit. Other translations say “Be filled with the Holy Spirit”. This is the present continuous tense, ie an ongoing reality or experience in the life we live for God. This needs to be our daily prayer.
