Tuesday, May 25, 2010

On Overflow

Our view of the Holy Spirit is too small. The Holy Spirit is the One who changes the church, but we have to remember that the Holy Spirit lives in us. It is individual people living Spirit-filled lives that will change the church.” By Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.

Looking over the quote for the day I think of the advertisement you hear regarding feeding kids in Africa or other areas. They are always talking about how just .50 cents a day will feed a child and care for them in tremendous ways. When you listen to them talk it doesn’t seem possible that my contribution of .50 cents a day can make that much of a difference. The difference comes when you put all those .50 cent contributions together and make them work together in an amazing fashion.

That’s the way it is with the Holy Spirit. We should never think of the Holy Spirit as being too small. It is that Spirit working inside of each individual Christian that when put together can really make a difference. My contribution is not too less, your contribution too great. They work together to make a difference.

Think about it. With the .50 cents we can put it in our pocket or take it out and make it work for us and others. The Holy Spirit is no different. We can lock It up in our hearts or take It out and make It work for God and His kingdom as well as for ourselves.

Reading through the New Testament it’s awesome when they talk about various people being filled with the Holy Spirit. In John it was even given the name, “The Helper.” We have that opportunity to be filled with the Holy Spirit and we should never doubt it. We need to learn to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit and not snuff it out with church politics or individual disobedience.

Jesus is temporarily gone from earth but He left something behind to help us through and nurture our walk towards God’s Kingdom. It’s not a plaque on the wall, a certificate in our baby book, it is real. How active it is in our lives is up to us. We are the ones who get to choose whether we are going to stuff Him in our hearts only to be let out at our convenience or open up to be filled.

What shows the most that something is filled is the overflow. Every sink comes with one; there are all sorts of provisions made for when something overflows. Our churches should have to do the same thing. There should be such an overflow of the Spirit that multiple provisions are needed to handle the tremendous overflow.

It starts with each individual person. We get to choose whether we are going to stuff It in our hearts, hide it behind our attitudes, actions, or behaviors or put It on overflow working daily for an awesome and wonderful Kingdom. We get to choose. Am I wearing out that phrase? I hope not because it’s true, we are the ones who get to choose how full we want to be. Empty or overflow, which is it going to be?

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

7 comments:

Miriam Pauline said...

Well said Karen! Keeps me thinking about what I am doing with my overflow. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Wow--wouldn't that be a glorious day--when the churches had TOO MANY volunteers and needed a place to use them??? Great vision!

Nic said...

I love your post, Karen. Of course, I always enjoy your posts. LOL! I wish that everyone would choose to overflow. ;-)

Debbie Petras said...

Wonderful post on this quote Karen!

I for one want to have the Holy Spirit spilling out and overflowing.

Blessings,
Debbie

Tami said...

I agree we need to make a choice, but I often wonder how much is our own will and how much is God choosing to draw us to Him--"for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13).

LittleWomen21 said...

I really like what you said here: "Jesus is temporarily gone from earth but He left something behind to help us through and nurture our walk towards God’s Kingdom. It’s not a plaque on the wall, a certificate in our baby book, it is real."

Very nicely said!

Missie said...

Love Francis Chan!