Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to the last week of this month, the month of August 2024. My prayer is that God will perfect all that concerns you in the month, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As we face this new week, I want to remind you that the will of God is for you to continually operate in life from the fullness of His Spirit that is living in you. In other words, He expects you to always speak and act from the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That way, whatever goes out of your life will be something that will please God and also edify those around you.
Now look at what Paul says to us about this:
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Eph 5:17-20NIV)
What is the first thing Paul says to us in this text? It is that we must not be foolish but understand the will of God for our lives. So, it is foolishness not to know the will of God for our lives. Yes, it is foolishness to be making excuses for not knowing what God wants for our lives. That is because we can know His will for our lives, if we want to know and also make effort to know. And if we don’t know His will for our lives and live accordingly, we are going to waste our lives.
Then, having told us how important it is for us to know the will of God for our lives, Paul goes on to tell us something about the will of God for us. And what is that? He says it is the will of God for us not to get drunk on wine but to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Why does he compare getting drunk on wine with being filled with the Spirit of God? It is because when people get drunk, they lose control of themselves to wine and start speaking and acting from its fullness in them. In like manner, when people are filled with the Spirit of God, they lose control of themselves to Him and start speaking and acting from His fullness in them. Which, then, do you want, to be controlled by wine or to be controlled by the Spirit of God?
Well, the will of God is that you allow His Spirit to take charge of you and control what you say and do. And how do you do that? It is by filling yourself with the word of God. That is because the word of God and the Spirit of God are one. And when you fill yourself with His word, you will naturally begin to act, speak and sing from the fullness of His word in you. It follows, then, that if you are not acting, speaking and singing from the fullness of the word of God, you are not full of His word – it is something else you are full of.
As I pointed out before, when people are full of wine, they speak and act from its fullness. But it is not only wine that people can be full of. People can also be full of bitterness, greed, anger, jealousy, pride or lust. In any case, whatever it is they are full of is what they will speak, sing and act from its fullness.
Now, of course, people may say that they are full of the Spirit of God. But what they say that they are full of is not what is important but what their lives are giving out. Do you know that by checking the status of some people on WhatsApp, Facebook or some other social media platforms, you can tell what they are full of? Yes, you can tell whether it is the word and love of God that they are full of or whether it is anger, depression, frustration, bitterness, lust, envy, murmuring or pride that they are full of. But as for you, what you must be full of is the word of God. And as you fill yourself with His word, you will find yourself naturally living a life that is worthy of God and blessing your world.
Have a lovely week.
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