Poured Out
Todd Blansit
May 1, 2022
John 7.37-39
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
The real purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to empower us to do miracles. The Holy Spirit did that on several occasions in the Old Testament for several different people. The real purpose of the Holy Spirit is to open us up to the full nature of God.
John 14.15-21
15“If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Jesus is speaking to his disciples. In verses 15-24 he says three times in slightly different words, If you love me, you will obey what I command.
He would dwell in them.
It has been said that the Christian life is not hard, it’s impossible. For many, defeat and discouragement characterize their Christian life. It is true that the Christian life is impossible to live out of your own strength, but God does not want defeat and discouragement to characterize the believer’s life. Because of that, God has provided His Spirit. He has commanded believers to live the Christian life by being filled with the Spirit.
But, as the story progresses, God seeks to bridge the gap between humanity and Himself by increasingly drawing closer and closer to His people. He did this initially by having His people set up a temporary shelter called a tabernacle and later by dwelling among them in a permanent temple.
1 Cor 6.19-20
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Ephesians 1.13-14
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
But, while the Spirit fully indwells a follower of Jesus, as was mentioned above, believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. Here’s the distinction between these two verses: when believers are filled with the Spirit, they don’t get more of the Spirit, the Spirit gets more of them.
An image that is probably not accidental is found in Acts 2:2 when the Holy Spirit first came upon the followers of Jesus. It says, “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting” (ESV).
When a person is filled with the Spirit, they are allowing His presence to fill their entire life every “room” in their life, every closet and every junk drawer.
People were never meant to live segmented lives where they give God one part and not another. To be filled with His presence means that you allow Him to fill every part of you. It’s only in giving Him access to every part that you experience the presence of His transforming grace, even in those areas that you have walled off and hidden.
The fullness of the Spirit takes a level of surrender that will cause you to experience his Prescence like never before.
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