July 5 – What Are You Full Of?
Who do you belong to?
This is a question that God spoke to me a while back which stirred up a deep wrestling match in my soul. There are only two possible answers; either I belong to myself, or I belong to God. It is an “either or” question, there is no middle ground. Either I belong totally to God, without reservation, or I belong to myself.
The context of this question came as I was reading in Acts about Paul willingly going to Jerusalem, knowing that he would be arrested and imprisoned, and because of this willingness God caused him to stand before kings and nobles and preach the Gospel. (See Acts 21:4, 23:11, 25:23, 27:24)
It is easy to declare that I belong to God when things are going well. When I read in the Bible of how God delivered the Israelites with a mighty hand and gave them peace on every side, when I read of the heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11 and how God moved circumstances for them in miraculous ways, when I have a good job and my family is safe and well, when everyone speaks well of me. Those are the times when it is easy to say that I have laid my life down at the cross of Christ and surrendered everything to Him.
But it is not during these times that this question is truly answered. At the end of Hebrews 11, in verses 35 to 38, are other heroes. These heroes did not have a happily every after ending. These were martyred, imprisoned and tortured for their faith. It was in this context that God asked me the questions “Who do you belong to?” and “Do you desire so much more of Me and the advancement of My Kingdom that you would willingly lay down your freedom and your life for My sake?”
Pastor Jimmy told us today that every time God moves, opposition and persecution will rise up against that movement. We see this in Jesus’ life, in the apostles’ lives, and in our own lives. Paul even declares this in 1 Cor. 16:9 “because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.”
Therefore each one of us is called to examine very carefully our commitment to Christ before we ask for more of God and for His Kingdom to advance.
He has stated that He will strongly support those whose heart is completely His (2 Chron. 16:9), so my questions to you today are:
What, or who, are you full of? (We can only see what we are full of by what we are leaking out, Luke 6:45)
How much do you desire more of God, and how much do you desire to see His Kingdom advanced?
And finally:
Who do you belong to?
I believe as the Church begins to faithfully commit to living out the answer to these, we will see a move of God unlike any that has ever come before. Are you ready?
Chance Anderson
Thank you Mr. Anderson for your message and thoughts you bring up key questions that we should all ask ourselves of what are we full of and who do we belong to? I am full of the Holy Spirit and faith and I belong to God. I loved the services today and I think a lot of things can be learned from Stephen and the persecutions by Paul.
It is amazing how God works in people’s lives how he uses the most unlikely people all through the Bible to get his point across. Stephen who was a young man that probably did not have much more knowledge about Jesus than you and I do is used by God through the Holy Spirit to give the most amazing sermon in the Bible. Stephen gives us one of the best Old Testament commentaries, proving to the Sadducees and Saul that the religious leaders always have rejected the first then accepted them the second time, which was the same thing they were doing to Jesus. Stephen gives us more than four things that we would not know about the Old Testament. Can you image what Saul was thinking while he was getting proved wrong by young Christian.
Then Saul who was raised in the Hellenistic culture sent to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel. Gamaliel is the man that gives the speech to everyone to not worry about the Christian movement because if it is of God no one can stop it and if they are right then the movement will fade away (we could learn a lot from his speech to, I catch myself criticizing other religions and denominations rather than doing what God has planned for me). Gamaliel was one of the greatest teachers of Judaism. Saul is a Pharisee to the core! He is on the Sanhedrin and every Christian know him and fears him, but God uses him the most unlikely Christian to persecute the Church and make them move out of Jerusalem and Judea were they had became comfortable. Then when God got them moving into Samaria he converted Saul to Paul using Paul one of the most studied men in Judaism to shift his plan into gear and move it to the ends of the earth.
Stephen makes me feel confident as a Christian I like him am young in the word, only seven months. When God tells me to do something and I am scared I just image what Stephen went through. I know that even though I am not the most studied person in the Word that God has a plan for me and I should not question the guidance that God gives me. As long as I do what God wants and not what benefits my flesh I will be empowered by the Spirit.
My most uncomfortable place to witness is with my family, but I know that in time that God will use me to save them. What places are you most uncomfortable in? Where do you go to find strength? If God sent us a prophet would you understand the Word enough to know whether to reject him or accept him? I thank God for giving me the ambition to understand him through the Word, pray and Holy Spirit. I pray that God will give everyone the ambition to move forward in their spiritual life’s.
Thank you
Chris Johnson
Stephens committment is amazing, but when you are full of the Holy Spirit, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Lord I pray that I might not shrink back from trusting in your grace at all times no matter the circumstances. Lord you are worthy of all praise, honor and glory. Amen
Wonderful blog and subsequent comments! Let us never forget that Stephen, though young in the faith and inexperienced, did not rely on his natural abilities to speak in the temple, but relied on the empowerment that was referred to in Acts 1:8 “And you shall receive power (dunamis) when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” For us, its not about ability to reason, speak or persuade, it is about our willingness to be led and controlled by the Spirit himself. May we simple “leak out what we are full of.”
Grace and Peace,
Pastor J
Pastor Jimmy did a great job Sunday! Thanks for coming and blessing our congregation, if I wasn’t taking a few days off with my family I would have loved to hear it in person! I think this is a lesson I learn daily. What I am full of leaks out. That’s not always very pretty. It leaks out on those around me for good and for bad. I pray that I am walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and not in the flesh. Holy Spirit fill me with your power and your words so that I may leak you!
God Bless,
Daniel S.
Chris,
I have been wanting to reply back to your message and a few questions that you wrote in your reply, and have just been able to now.
First of all you can just call me Chance. I don’t fly through the air or stop bullets in mid air, so Mr. Anderson doesn’t really fit.
You talked about wanting to be grounded enough in the word to know true teaching from false teaching. That is a great desire to have. All too often believers know what they believe, but not why they believe it or where it is found in the word. I am proud to hear that you desire to know God more and to know His word more.
There are many things for you to learn. I do not mean that to be derogatory to you at all. That statement is just as true for me as it is for you. The great thing about God is that there is always more to knowing Him. The adventure in serving Him and living for Him is endless. In fact we will spend eternity getting to know God more and will never exhaust all of who He is. That gets me excited, knowing that there will never be a limit to my relationship with God.
Some great things that you can do to grow is spend time daily in the word. Read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it. When you spend time in the word God will show you what He wants you to know from it. The Bible says that we can not understand the things of God, that is why He has given us the Holy Spirit. Just imagine how cool that is, when you read the Bible you actually have the Author of the word right there with you to explain it and guide you into all truth.
Another great thing to do is spend time in prayer to God. Sometimes people make this very complicated, but it is actually very simple. Jesus’ death has granted you unlimited, instant access to the Father. Prayer is simply coming to your Father in heaven and talking to Him. Telling Him how your day was, telling Him your hopes, dreams, wants, and needs. And telling Him how great He has been to you (this gets easier and easier the longer you walk with Him).
One other thing I would encourage you to do is to pray for God to bring a spiritual father or fathers into your life. You mentioned that you have been a believer 7 months, that is AWESOME!!! I love hearing about people coming into relationship with Jesus. When you became a believer you entered into God’s family. You have many, many brothers and sisters now that you didn’t have before. Something else that God will provide is men around you who are older than you and ahead of you in their walk with God. Ask God to show you who He has provided to be a spiritual father and mentor to you. I have grown a lot in prayer and reading the Bible, but having men around me who I can go and talk to you and be real with has definitely supercharged my walk with God.
As far as your other questions about witnessing and finding strength, if you just keep seeking God with everything you have in you, those things will take care of themselves. Like Pastor J said in his comments above, our walk with God, our witness to the world, etc is not dependent on our efforts. It is dependent on us just seeking God above all else in life and letting Him work and flow through us.
I hope that maybe something I have written will speak to you and to the questions you have. I am excited to think of the adventure that God is preparing for you to walk in!! He calls every believer to a level of relationship with Him and greatness through Him that is beyond anything we can ever imagine or even begin to dream of. Have a great week and God bless!!
In Christ,
Chance
I have to say that I have enjoyed this study very much and I have also enjoyed reading every single blog. it is amazing that we can all stay connected through not only technology, but by the Spirit of God. Pastor Dan..I just want to say that I love the way you admit your imperfections. I too can admit that when Pastor Jimmy asked what we are full of. I was unable to say that it was completely and wholeheartedly the Holy Spirit. I know that I am also full of not so pretty things at times. I also pray that we can all be full of the power of the Holy Spirit, and I ask God to strengthen us in our time of weakness and vulnerability to unholy things.
Leslie
Thank you Chance for your insight and experience with God that you have generously taken the time to share with me. Your statements ring every so true in my walk with God and I find nothing derogatory about them. Keep doing what you’re doing you’re a blessing to us all.