Fill Me, Lord!

I’ve been asking God to fill me with the Holy Spirit, and do you know what I’ve heard from God? “You’ve got to be emptied first.” Mt 12:34 says, “…out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” So, what’s overflowing out of your mouth? Is it encouragement, blessings, love, joy? Or is it anger, bitterness, judgment, critical words and complaining? How do we get emptied of all of the junk inside of us? It’s called “repentance”. Now I know that people don’t want to think about repentance because it sounds old fashioned and we think there’s got to be some other way to empty ourselves, right? But when we repent, or turn away from our sin and turn toward God, we are asking God to take out all of the junk (sin) and clean us up. But we need to look at the reason we keep sinning. I’m convinced that we continue in sin because we never really deal with it. We just know it’s wrong and we ask God to forgive us and then we go on our merry way, feeling a little better for having expressed it to God. But the sin returns because we haven’t dealt with the underlying issue. We need to take time to reflect on the sin and really be convicted about it. If we’re not truly convicted and sorrowful for what we’ve been doing, we’re just going to continue to do it over and over again. Take the time to find verses in the bible that deal with that sin and meditate on them. See how God feels about that sin in particular. And ask the Holy Spirit to convict you.

In Nehemiah chapter 9:1-3, the children of Israel were assembled together and were fasting. Fasting is a great example to follow because God will give you more clarity and insight as you seek Him, whether it’s regarding repentance or some other answer you’re looking for from Him. Then the Israelites separated themselves from all of the foreigners. Now this was actually a time for the people of God to come together, out from the worldly influences, as an assembly and listen to the word of God and reflect on how their lives lined up with God’s word. Do you have a church that you attend regularly to hear the word of God and see how your life lines up? And how is your life lining up with the plumb line of God’s Word? When you find a place that your life is not lining up with the word, take time to stop, confess it to God and repent. Ask God to show you the root of the sin and ask Him to give you a plan of action that will keep you from continuing to engage in that sin. And then apply it to your life. If you fall short of this last step, you won’t change, and that’s what repentance is all about – changing, renewing your mind and turning away from the sin. There’s also something about confessing your sin to someone else. (James 5:16) If you have a secret sin, when you tell someone about it, it removes the power and the hold it has over your life. Entrust yourself to a godly person and confess to them. Find someone you can trust and who won’t judge you because they know they could fall just as easily.

In Nehemiah 9:3, the people stood in place and read the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for 3 hours. Yes, you heard me right, 3 hours! Sometimes we have a hard time reading the word for 30 minutes, much less standing for 3 hours! Then for another 3 hours, “they confessed and worshiped the Lord”. Now I believe part of this time of worship and confession was on their faces because in Ne 9:5 the men said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God forever and ever!” So don’t feel foolish about bowing down to God. It shows your humbleness toward God and your reverence to Him. And when you are finished repenting, worship the Lord and bless God forever and ever! He is worthy of your praise! Then the Holy Spirit will have plenty of room to come in and fill you up to overflowing so that you can lead a Spirit-filled life!

*All Scripture references are from the New International Version.
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