“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.”
The Witness Within #4
God will let you have whatever desires you want to give yourself, whether it produces life or death. But he will also give you the power to change your desires if you are open to it.
In the fire chapters of Romans, the Apostle Paul makes the case for the need for a righteousness apart from the Law. He exposes the wickedness of man and then presents the good news that we can be saved from our own sin and darkness. He says that the solution to our sinfulness is God's grace, which is a power within us that is from the Holy Spirit.
The most amazing aspect of our salvation to me is not that God can forgive us, but that he can do such a work in us that we become an acceptable vessel to house his Holy Presence.
One of the most incredible promises of the New Covenant is that God puts his spirit in us. Christians get hung up on doctrine, but the simple fact is you become the house of God when you believe in Christ.
From then on, there is a power in you that can not only meet every need but also change your core desires. If you will give yourself over to his spirit within you, you will see the opposite of the suppressors of the truth that Paul exposes in Romans. You become a person that is shaped and molded by God into the image of Christ.
To yield to the spirit of God within you is to be filled with the spirit. It's not a one-time event that comes with the single gift of tongues; it is a remaking of the kind of being that you are that now has a power within that is capable of making you just like Jesus.
But you have to give yourself over to it. We're used to giving ourselves over to worry, carnal thinking, and our own feelings. But we can also give ourselves over to God's creative power within, day by day, moment by moment.
In the Book of Acts, we see the phrase "filled with the spirit" many times. It's usually referring to a time that the spirit of God led the Apostles to answer someone in a certain way or preach a specific message. The gift of tongues does manifest in some instances when someone becomes "filled" with the spirit, but most times, it's a solution for glorifying God at that moment.
I highly recommend praying with your spirit in an unknown tongue often but don't make being filled with the spirit about that one gift. Also, allow the spirit to influence or fill you to be kind, loving, forgiving, wise, patient, and powerful for ministry purposes.
I want a practical life with the Holy Spirit that I can use daily. I'm not interested in perfecting how to say the right words around a specific doctrine if it doesn't make a difference in my life. Christians love to argue over doctrine, and we're quick to disqualify others if they aren't saying things the way we understand them. That's not living very filled with the spirit if you ask me. It sounds a bit legalistic if you ask me. But I digress.
The point is this, God lives in you and desires to shape your desires. The next time you want something or need, remember that you are God's child and clothe yourself with his spirit and let him empower you at the moment so that he gets all the glory.
As always, there's much more in the message on this topic. I hope you have time to watch it, and I hope it encourages you. Leave a comment on the video and share it with a friend. Thanks so much for your support!
