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If You Had a Holy Spirit Gauge, What Would It Read?

August 28, 2018

Mark 3:7-12

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8 When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 11 Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.

CONSIDER THIS

38. We’ve all heard it said. As the story goes, we only use about 10% of the capacity of our brain. On a similar note, what if we could flip a switch that told us the percentage to which the Holy Spirit was filling us at any given moment. What would my gauge read? And yours?

Doesn’t it make sense? If a person can be filled with the Holy Spirit, they can also be half full, or even running on empty.

We know Jesus gauge read 100% all the time. Scripture says the Spirit dwelled in him even beyond measure. This is why the crowds of people were irresistibly drawn to him as we see in today’s text. It’s also why, as the text reveals, the demonic spirits “fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.'”

I think this is the essence of what becoming a disciple of Jesus is all about. It’s learning from him what it means and what it takes to move the needle on our “Holy Spirit gauge.” Learning to walk in the humble way of the cross means learning to live in the powerful way of the Holy Spirit. But remember, this is not about a “formula” but a “fellowship.” It’s not the love of power but the power of love. It takes an ever deepening maturity characterized by an ever present humility to grasp this.

There is always more of the Holy Spirit. The issue is the level of our availability–that’s the percentage to which we will be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is what the “means of grace” are all about– deepening our fellowship with Jesus through the personal presence of the Holy Spirit.

What if we aren’t witnessing New Testament realities because we have anemic levels of the fullness of the Holy Spirit?

39. Even more interesting is the way Jesus gave the demons “strict orders not to tell anyone about him.” Jesus exercised authority over the principalities and powers of darkness.

What if one’s level of kingdom authority cannot exceed their level of Holy Spirit fullness? It would make sense of the seeming sway of the powers of darkness in our time. I don’t want to be over simplistic with these lines of thinking, yet I do want to explore the hypothesis.

THE PRAYER

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Help me grasp some sense of my fullness or lack thereof of the Spirit. And show me the path of humility that leads to this fullness of your presence in me. Melt me. Mold me. Fill me. Use me. For the glory of your name, Jesus. Amen.

THE QUESTION

Let’s do a simple scaling exercise. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being full, where do you sense your own level of fullness of the Holy Spirit? What might be a way to move the level upward?

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For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

Get my latest book, THE DOMINO EFFECT.
I write every day at THE SEEDBED DAILY TEXT.

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

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