So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.
Ephesians 5:15-18Ephesians 5:15-18
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
15 Act like people with good sense and not like fools. 16 . These are evil times, so make every minute count. 17 Don't be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don't destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life.
WP-Bible plugin
There are many Christians who are content to simply get excited about God on the weekend, but the rest of the week act as if Christ did not even exist. They live a life of spiritual detachment, believing all the right things but lacking any spiritual will-power to obey. This is not the way God intended it!
God intended us to live in the power of his spirit continually. This passage from Ephesians tells us to be continually filled by the spirit. It is a command. “Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you…” may not make that clear, but in the Greek the word-forms we find are powerful and clear. More literally, we are commanded, “Do not keep on getting drunk with wine…instead, keep on being filled by the spirit.”
The phrases “be drunk” and “be filled” are both present tense commands in the Greek. Now, present tense in Greek means that the action should be described as habitual or progressive (ongoing). What is clear is that this is not intended as a one-time event, or even a limited encounter. We are to be regularly and repeatedly filled with God’s spirit.
In addition, the command is in a voice which tells us that we are to submit to the action. We are to allow the spirit to fill us. That is why the NLT says, “Let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.” We are not supposed to work up some emotional event that is “being filled with the spirit”. No, we are told that the spirit is going to attempt to fill and control us, and we should be ready.
Why would we want or need to be filled continually, on an ongoing basis? Why is it so important to treat our time as if it were God’s; to hand over our priority-setting? There are three reasons that I want to look at: comprehension, opportunity and maturity.
Ephesians 3:16-21Ephesians 3:16-21
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
16 God is wonderful and glorious. I pray that his Spirit will make you become strong followers
17 and that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. Stand firm and be deeply rooted in his love.
18 . I pray that you and all of God's people will understand what is called wide or long or high or deep. h what is called wide or long or high or deep: This may refer to the heavenly Jerusalem or to God's love or wisdom or to the meaning of the cross.
19 I want you to know all about Christ's love, although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is.
20-21 I pray that Christ Jesus and the church will forever bring praise to God. His power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine. Amen.
WP-Bible plugin tells us about comprehension and being strengthened by God. Verses 18-20 remind us …may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is… Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. So we know that God has placed his spirit within us to continually help us know Him.
That means when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are able to better understand God’s love. We are able to better grasp his character. We can see how he is merciful, just and still forgiving. We can see how he shows compassion to those we overlook. All these things are made available to our minds when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5:16Ephesians 5:16
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
16 . These are evil times, so make every minute count.
WP-Bible plugin tells us to, make the most of every opportunity. If we refuse to be filled by the spirit, allowing our priorities to dictate our schedule and our involvement, then we will not act on the opportunities God places before us. We might not even see them. Please God, help us to see these opportunities. Help us to submit to your will, being filled by the Holy Spirit so that our eyes might be open and our hearts ready to serve!
Finally, Galatians 5:22-23Galatians 5:22-23
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
22 God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful,
23 gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways.
WP-Bible plugin tells us about the maturity that comes when we are controlled by the Holy Spirit: But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is full circle, from us seeing these things in God’s character, growing through the opportunities God gives us, to living in maturity through God’s spirit.
prayer
Jesus, help me to submit my time and schedule to your will. It is so easy to get swept up in the day’s details and end up at the end of the day wondering what happened. Whether it is on the golf course, lounging on the couch, at work at the coffee-counter or on the playground at church, help us to be ready to serve, filled with your spirit.
Help us to see how important it is. We can see lives changed and experience spiritual growth in our own lives more than ever before. We can see you do something in our community that is nothing but miraculous. Lord, help us to believe your word, what you say you are willing to do if we would trust you. Help me to comprehend the great love that moved you to die for me.
Send me – habitually, repeatedly, every day.
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