I was shopping for a toy for my grandsons when I saw the picture on a box that looked like it might have a neat toy inside. I wasn’t really sure what it was, but I bought it. Later, when my son brought the boys, he opened the box and put everything together. It proved to be quite interesting, and the boys really liked it. There was three feet or so of rubber fencing that, when put together, housed a small robotic bug. When you turned the switch on the bug, it would run around in the fence and turn in a different direction each time it hit the fence or the turn stile in the middle of the area. It would continue running around from place to place until you picked it up and turned it off. That little bug was very busy but was going nowhere.
Honestly,
sometimes I can relate to that bug. There are times I feel like I am running
around here and there but when I think I am making progress, suddenly I hit a
block that causes me to turn in a different direction. I’m working hard but
never seem to accomplish anything. I have a lot of great ideas that go undone
because I keep running out of time or energy or inspiration. When that happens,
I get tired, weary, exhausted, discouraged and ready to turn myself off and
come to a complete stop. I get tired inside and out. Does that sound familiar?
Galatians
6:9 says “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall
reap, if we faint not.” But how can we keep from being weary? How can we “faint
not” when life is charging forward and we are desperately trying to hold on for
the ride?
When that discouraged, “ready to quit” feeling comes, we
need to be infused with the Holy Spirit. If we don’t take some time for an
infusion, we will collapse. It’s not that the Holy Spirit withdraws from us or
His strength gets weak like the power of a battery. It simply means we have
been too busy to tap into His supply that is always within our reach. Jesus
said the Holy Spirit was a river of living water within us. You can’t get any
closer than that.
If I am very thirsty and a glass of water is sitting right
next to me, all I have to do to quench my thirst is reach over, pick up the
glass and drink the contents. If I don’t make the effort, I can sit there until
I dehydrate while the help I need is right beside me.
John 7:37-39 tells us, “On the last day, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If
anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as
the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing
in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified.”
At this point He
was speaking of what was to come. But Jesus has been glorified, and the Holy
Spirit is available now to all who will receive Him. Jesus has offered to us
the power of God in our lives by His Spirit. He doesn’t just give us a little
sip. He gives us rivers of living water. Notice this river is in us, but it also flows
out of us. It is not just for us, but for every person we come in contact with.
Our bodies may get tired and need a rest, and that’s
understandable. Our mind and emotions may be weary, too, but if we stay tapped
in to the Spirit of God within us, we can be at full power spiritually on a
consistent basis. The Spirit of God within us can even renew our minds and
emotions. He can get us back on the right track so we can get off the track of confusion
and futility. He can give us wisdom, power, insight and strength, but we have
to allow our spirits to be infused by Him, only Him. He will renew, restore,
heal, and lead us in the right direction if we will follow Him.
To ‘infuse’ means “to steep or soak
in a liquid for the purpose of extracting its properties or attributes and
qualities.” When we live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit; when we have the
Holy Spirit within us, we are daily soaking up His attributes. Galatians 5:25
says, “If
we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” If we are constantly
infused by the Spirit, we are living in Him. Then we can walk out His
attributes in our lives.
Isaiah 40:28-31 says, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God,
the Lord, the
Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding
is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He
increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men
shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
When we wait on the Lord, we linger in His presence and soak
up all He is into our spirits. As born-again believers, we have the Spirit of
“the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth” within us. He never grows
weary or faints. He can tell us not to be weary or faint because He gives us
His strength to press on, not limp on, but press on into the kingdom of God.
The Apostle Paul said, “Not that I have already attained, or am
already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which
Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to
have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I
press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus.” (Philippians
3:12-14)
We can continue to walk in the
Spirit accomplishing everything God has planned for us to accomplish. We can
continue on until we reach the end of this life and enter life eternal. Or we
can disregard the power we have at our disposal and try to hobble through this
life barely holding on. How foolish to be hungry and thirsty when we could
partake of the great banquet that is spread out for us.
The Holy Spirit will be with us to
renew our strength and power. He is with us to help us run and not be weary,
walk and not faint or even become tired. To those who have no might, He will
increase their strength as they soak in His power.
Ephesians 5:18 tells us to be filled
with the Spirit. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit that would live in us
to remind us of Jesus’ words, to empower us to do the work Jesus commissioned
all His people to do, and to have His insight and strength.
We don’t have to stumble through
life or be pushed through life by the chaos around us. We can walk every day
with purpose and power. We can live in a way that will bring God glory.
Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Do you have the
rivers of living water flowing through you? Are you living in the Holy Spirit,
daily immersed in His power and might? Are you walking according to the
leadership of the Spirit in your life every day? If not, there is good news.
You can.
On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out
on Jesus’ followers, Peter stood before the people gathered there and with the
power of the Spirit, he preached a message that brought 3000 people into the
kingdom of God. Before He received the Holy Spirit, he could not have
accomplished that, because it was the Spirit within him and flowing out of him
Who worked in the hearts of that great crowd.
Quoting from the prophet Joel, Peter said, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That
I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My
menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And
they shall prophesy. (Acts 2:17-18)
To prophesy
means to speak under divine inspiration. That is exactly what Peter was doing
when he preached that sermon. We can do that too when we receive the same
baptism of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus’ resurrection, He told the disciples to
go to Jerusalem and await the coming of the Holy Spirit. He knew they couldn’t
operate without Him. So they waited for ten days. After the Holy Spirit was
poured out, they began a ministry in His power that “turned the world upside
down”.
Without
the power of the Holy Spirit, we are working on low power. Is that why we see
so few results for our labor? We can work alongside God in His power if we will
seek Him and allow Him to work through us. We can be infused with the Holy
Spirit and do the works of Jesus. Will we?
Ephesians
5:15-18 tells us, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as
wise, Redeeming the time, because the
days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of
the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with
the Spirit.”
