Be Filled!

Christians have a tendency to talk about all the evils and wrongs a person should not be doing.  We preach and teach about morality a good bit, and how a person should live their life.  This is a good thing, but by itself is absolutely worthless.  Being rid of evil, pride and worldly desire does us no good if we fail to realize one very important thing.  What do we replace it with?  People will always have desires, so what should a disciple of Christ desire?  People will always be proud of something, so what should a Christian be proud of?  People will always be doing something with the time they're given, so what should we be doing?

We must be filled.  We must be filled with heaven.  We must be filled with love for God.  We must be filled with pride in the kingdom of God.  We must be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Consider the meaning of this passage: When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.  Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.'  When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.  Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there.  And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. (Luke 11:24-26)  If this man had filled his house (his being) with the Holy Spirit, then the evil spirits would not have been able to return.  The basic point is that there is no such thing as an empty house.  We can sweep the house clean - we can get rid of all the evil in our life - but if we don't replace it with something else, all of that evil will come right back.

Now one thing that really bugs me is when someone talks about the Holy Spirit or some other heavenly thing in a way that doesn't connect to reality.  In other words, is very mystical and unpractical in speaking about heaven.  I said that a person must replace the evil in their life with the Holy Spirit.  The obvious question that follows is: How exactly does a person do that?  It starts by trusting God, which means that a person prays for God to do it to them.  Reading the Bible is the another necessary action for knowing God, and thus becoming holy.  We know that reading God's word is how we can have spiritual life because Jesus tells us: Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' " (Matthew 4:4)  I've pointed out these two things, Bible reading and prayer, before as the essential things a Christian must be doing.  Now I wish to point out one more thing: serving.  Serving Jesus by strengthening and expanding the kingdom of God.  This involves many different actions; there are many ways to strengthen and expand the kingdom, and not every person is meant to do the same thing.  But everyone is certainly called to serve the Lord in whatever way they can.  This is what we are commanded to do (Mat 28:19), and this is also important for gaining spiritual life.  We know this because, once again, Jesus tells us so: "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work..." (John 4:34)  We too will eat food from God if we do the will of God.  Our own service to the Lord will sustain us and make us able to continue.  This is why some are obsessed with their own service in the kingdom of God, and its absolutely a good thing, provided that we are earnestly doing it for God.

My whole point is this: Rather than focusing so much on what we should not be doing, we should focus more on what we should be doing.  When we are praying and reading our Bibles, and meditating on God, sinful thoughts do not enter the mind.  When we are spending our time doing whatever we can to further the kingdom of God, we are not spending our time doing something sinful.  When we desire the kingdom of God, and God's glory throughout the earth, we lose desire of earthly things.  The best defense against Satan is a rapacious offense.