Have you ever seen power unleashed? Kathy and I have. One year after we moved from our home in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, an F-4 tornado devastated our former neighborhood called “Pioneer Village.”
About one month after the tornado hit, we drove past the property we called home for almost 9 years. A few uprooted water maple trees. But the home was untouched. Other houses in the area were not as fortunate. The damage and devastation was unbelievable.
The unleashing of power.
What about water? In a sink, it can drip or “run” harmlessly. But what about a torrential downpour. Flash flooding. Have you ever seen the aftermath? The power of water unleashed.
Water is so powerful it can flow through a dam, spin turbine blades, which are connected to generators, and provide power for homes and businesses.
It is quite an amazing phenomenon to see what happens when power is unleashed.
So, what about spiritual power?
Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not begin to become drunk with wine, in which it is no control, but keep on being continuously filled with the SPIRIT.”
GOD truly desires to unleash the power of His SPIRIT in our lives. At the very moment of your conversion experience, GOD’s SPIRIT began to live within you. I Corinthians 3:16 declares, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are GOD’s temple and that GOD’s SPIRIT lives in you?” Because GOD’s SPIRIT lives in you, He now gives you access to His supernatural power.
Again, Ephesians 5:18 says, “…But keep on being continuously filled with the SPIRIT.”
The verb “filled” is present tense – right now – this very moment. It is also durative in nature. So, we are talking about a continuous action in the present tense. GOD’s desire for your life is for the unleashing of the power of His SPIRIT in your life on a continual basis. The power of GOD’s SPIRIT is unleased in our lives when we are “filled” with His SPIRIT.
The verb “filled” is passive voice. Properly interpreted, it means the Christian is the recipient of the action being produced by someone else. You cannot “fill yourself” with the SPIRIT. You cannot in your own power accomplish anything of spiritual or lasting value.
GOD does the filling. You are the recipient. When you surrender your life to GOD as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), you will experience the unleashing of the SPIRIT of GOD within you. It is a life-altering power. It is a supernatural power.
Jim Cymbala, in his book Fresh Power, wrote: “We cannot live off what GOD did in our lives last week, last month, or last year.” We need continual infillings of the SPIRIT to meet the strong, ungodly tendencies of the age. There must be deeper enduements of power to meet deeper challenges.
How are you and I filled with His SPIRIT? First, we must confess our sins and experience JESUS’ cleansing forgiveness. Second, we must “die to self,” that is,
surrender our lives to GOD to do His will. Third, we must pray and ask GOD to fill us. James 4:2 says, “You do not have because you do not ask.”
When the power of the HOLY SPIRIT is unleashed in your life, you experience spiritual victory and see you GOD accomplish amazing things in and through your life!
Pastor Mike