Thursday, August 7, 2014

Will To Be Full

The Lord whispered,:

“I cannot pour my Spirit into a sieve, only into a bowl, a bowl willing to be filled and pour out onto others.” 

 
I remember how the prophet Zechariah had a vision and visitation by an angel (Zech. 4:1-6). The angel awakened him from sleep and asked, “What do you see?” Zechariah answered what he had seen in his dream, "I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, with seven channels to the lights. Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” Yet Zechariah had to ask the angel the meaning. 

Literally the message was a word from the Lord Almighty, saying that things are accomplished, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” or as the Message paraphrases, “You can't force these things. They only come about through my Spirit.” (v. 6) 

The key, as a follower of Christ, being filled with his Spirit is this:
 
What God has given you must be captured, as in a bowl, so that you can faithfully share, pour out God to others.
 
This is why God’s Spirit empowers your life, so you can be an influence upon those in the dark and with an unquenchable thirst when without God. Things of the Spirit of God are to be accomplished, and can only be accomplished by his power. You and I cannot be complacent to God’s presence, allowing all that He is to drip out and not be of use, thereby we are a mere sieve, screen not holding the Holy Spirit within your spirit, mind, actions, life … then in weakness doing things on your own. God has placed His Spirit in you, with the Word of the Gospel of Christ’s Salvation , and the mercy, grace, and love of sharing the salvation of Jesus; He who came to “Seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
 
That is what we do for the Almighty, and we can’t do it by our human strength.
 
But we are to be like an ark, a vessel, a bowl formed and filled by God Himself—therein is the strength, ability, knowledge, and all things good that are the power of God. Then, when you are like “a bowl willing to be filled and pour out onto others” the power of the Holy Spirit is the enabling to do so; that is when you and “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13, NKJV).
 
Owen <><