This week Pastor Matthew continued on with our ‘Wait on God’ series with ‘Be Filled’.
The message centered on Luke 3:16 and the baptism we receive of the Holy Spirit and fire. Like the burning bush, our lives should be consumed with the fire of God: fully alive, but not burnt up. Living in these strange times we need this fire like never before.
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we have:
The presence of God.
The purity of God.
The passion of God, and
The power and provision of God.
The Holy Spirit searches us, consumes us and refines us. His presence in our lives should radically and constantly be changing everything about us. His very presence should be setting us aflame from within as an all-consuming fire. If you are filled with His spirit, His presence should be the number one defining thing about you.
This refining process means that the purity of God should be our reality. We need to be open to and listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We need to be careful not to limit what the Spirit of God wants to do in us, and we need to flee from loving the world or the things of the world.
Our God is a zealous God, and when He fills us, His zeal comes with it. Romans 11: 12 says “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord”. Our zeal should be for the things that God is zealous for; for the world to know Him and for His church to walk in His fullness.
As we give ourselves to the service of this hurting world, the provision of the Holy Spirit will be there too. This is what happened in Acts, and what God is calling us into presently.
We need to ask for the Holy Spirit, constantly. We need to fan into flame the gift of God, feeding and nurturing our hunger for Him.
