Marks of a Spirit-Filled Life

Since I last blogged it has been very busy at my house. We have had lots of hospitality going on. I guess that is one reason I haven't sat down and blogged too much. Kevin went out of town 4 days for a revival in Roxboro, NC. I always miss him when he is gone but I know that he is blessing others so that makes it a little easier to let him go. We have been super busy at church doing many things.

I have been learning more about David in my Bible study. One of the things that really strikes me is how he was anointed by Samuel approximately 22 years before he became the king of Israel. There is a great lesson about patience there. It is so easy to get ahead of God and say "Okay already, God! I am waiting for you to use me for that big assignment." Sometimes we are just not ready for that big assignment yet. Sometimes it takes time for us to be ready. Sometimes it takes trials for us to be ready. God often is using a "holding pattern" to align things for Him to use us the way he wants to. A lot of times I want to run ahead of Him and figure it all out myself. Are you this way?

David was anointed (through the prophet Samuel) by God and we are too (not by Samuel though)! We have the anointing of the Holy Spirit if we are Christians. In his book Flying Closer to the Flame, Chuck Swindoll lists some marks of a Spirit-filled life. Although no one is perfect, these are some great guidelines.

-We have an inner dynamic to handle life's pressures.

-We can be joyful...regardless.

-We have the capacity to grasp the deep things of God that He discloses to us in His Book.

-We have little difficulty maintaining a positive attitude of unselfishness, servant hood, and humility.

-We have a keen sense of intuition and discernment; we sense evil.

-We can love and be loved in return.

-We don't need to fear evil or demonic and satanic assault.

-We are enabled to stand alone in confidence.

-We experience inner assurance regarding decisions as well as right and wrong.

-We can actually live worry free.

-We are able to minister to others through our spiritual gift(s).

-We have an intimate, abiding "Abba relationship" with the living God.

It is really amazing to think that the SAME GOD that gave David the strength to do the many miraculous things that he did is the same God who lives in us! We can live this way! The power is there. We must tap into it. We must desire it.

You must first be a Christian, though. I think there are so many people who really want these things but they fail time and time again because they have never really tapped into the source of this Spirit. They don't really know the source. We must make sure we are "plugged into" The Source. Then we must do like David and jump into servant hood. He served for 22 years before he was "recognized" as king. Not many people want to serve anymore. Most people in the church just want to be served. Remember, in Matthew 22:23 Jesus said, "You have been faithful in a little, so I will put you over much."

Do we have the marks of a spirit-filled life? No one is perfect, not even David! That doesn't mean that we don't strive for God's best! It is what He desires and expects from us. The power to achieve this rests in the...Spirit, not in us.

Invisible Messages

We have been talking a lot around here about movies, books and other forms of media. There is so much media out there it is difficult to sort through it all. As my kids get older I realize that I do not have control over everything that comes before their eyes. Kevin and I have spent the last 18 years but especially the last few years helping our kids understand the concept of "world view." Everything comes from a world view. The person who writes a book, magazine article or movie script comes to the table with a set of values and beliefs. Sometimes people are very open and overt about their views but other times they are more surreptitious. Our family has lots of fun discussing what authors are trying to get us to think after reading or watching their "media." The overt messages are easy to pick out but sometimes there are "invisible" messages. Those are very dangerous because we can absorb those ideas without even knowing we are doing it.

We have at least two generations who have been absorbing all kinds of hidden messages and they do not even know what they believe because they have this "hodge podge" of world views floating around in their heads.

I will give you an example I have come across lately. We recently watched Cars 2 (my son loved the first Cars movie). There is a very strong message being sent to our children in that movie. I am not going to tell you what it is. Watch it and see if you can figure it out. Adults will probably catch it but our children will just absorb it IF we don't talk about it. We can't talk about it if we just put our kids in front of the screen and walk away...because we will not know!

There are many TV shows where living outside of God's plan for the family is completely acceptable and casual (I do not watch these shows but in my younger years I did watch some shows that promoted immorality by showing it unapologetically). In these shows no one ever says "Do this" but we can absorb the belief that this particular lifestyle is okay because we watch this show. It is "invisible" the way it just seeps into our value system.

Some people say "I can separate what I believe from what is happening on this show or in this movie/book." Usually after I have spent time with these types of people their "values" begin to seep through and it is obvious they cannot separate it. It is impossible, even for the most savvy thinker to not absorb a steady diet of certain belief sets.

I am still coughing up values I digested 20+ years ago reading and watching things that no Christian needs to watch or read. God's word has a way of bringing these beliefs out and shedding light on their foolish and sinful roots.

Sometimes we have these values and we do not even know where we got them but they are very contrary to the Bible. Sometimes they came from a movie or a teacher we had or a song we heard on the radio or a commercial we saw on TV.

Okay, so all this is kind of depressing! I guess the first thing we must do is understand what we are up against. Ephesians 6:12 says "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Satan loves to use invisible messages because they are so easy to miss and slide into our brain.

God and his word are much greater than anything Satan can do. His power is there for us IF we seek it out in His word.

The next thing we can do is ALWAYS have conversations with our kids and others and say.."Who wrote this?" "What do they believe?" "What do they want me to believe?" We have lots of discussions in our house about these invisible messages. There are messages in everything. We must make our children aware of these tactics and teach them to recognize them and discern what is contrary to God's word.

This idea may seem simple but I have seen lives destroyed by these invisible messages that can overtake the mind. There are many good "church going" people who are completely guided by these undercurrents because they live on a steady diet of "media" and are anemic when it comes to the wisdom of God's word.

Keep the conversations open in your home and if there are movies on your shelf that glorify evil, darkness, immorality, reward sinful behavior, or laugh at it. Toss them!

I have found that the more we know God's word the easier these messages are to notice and the easier they are to destroy and cast out of our minds. So...let's get busy studying God's word and arming ourselves against these invisible messages.