Until reading Robert J. Morgan's passage on this verse, I had never noticed the two other times that being Spirit-filled is compared to being drunk. But there they are...in Luke 1:15 when John the Baptist is described, Scripture states, "He will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or beer. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb." And then in Acts 2, when we are told of the day of Pentecost, we are reminded that others thought the apostles were "full of new wine", but Peter countered their accusation saying, "These people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only nine in the morning. On the contrary, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel, 'And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Holy Spirit.'"
So what is the comparison between being drunk and being Spirit-filled? Could it be that they both change our attitudes from our "norm"? There is no doubt that people behave differently when they are under the influence of alcohol...do we also behave differently when we are Spirit-filled? Well, that's an emphatic, YES we do!
But as our verse of the week points out, being drunk on wine leads to reckless actions, or as other translations state, wild living, a ruined life, debauchery, a cheap life, a loss of control...you get the idea. That's the changes we see when we allow alcohol, or any other substance of abuse, to take control. It leads us down a path of recklessness and ruin. (I actually saw a bar in Logan, NM, that had the name painted on a sign over the door, "The Road to Ruin." Don't know how anyone was brave enough to enter that place, but I guess they did!)
In contrast, when we bend our knees in submission to God and ask for His Spirit to come into our life and take control, what changes do we experience? That's what we're going to talk about this week...we're not going to dwell on the negative control of earthly source, we're going to dwell on what it is that we receive when God's Spirit is our controlling force.
But just with what we've talked about today, why would anyone opt to try to fill themselves with something that at best brings a hangover, when we have the Spirit of the Living God to fill our hearts and our souls and bring us not only earthly joy, but eternal happiness?
So what is the comparison between being drunk and being Spirit-filled? Could it be that they both change our attitudes from our "norm"? There is no doubt that people behave differently when they are under the influence of alcohol...do we also behave differently when we are Spirit-filled? Well, that's an emphatic, YES we do!
But as our verse of the week points out, being drunk on wine leads to reckless actions, or as other translations state, wild living, a ruined life, debauchery, a cheap life, a loss of control...you get the idea. That's the changes we see when we allow alcohol, or any other substance of abuse, to take control. It leads us down a path of recklessness and ruin. (I actually saw a bar in Logan, NM, that had the name painted on a sign over the door, "The Road to Ruin." Don't know how anyone was brave enough to enter that place, but I guess they did!)
In contrast, when we bend our knees in submission to God and ask for His Spirit to come into our life and take control, what changes do we experience? That's what we're going to talk about this week...we're not going to dwell on the negative control of earthly source, we're going to dwell on what it is that we receive when God's Spirit is our controlling force.
But just with what we've talked about today, why would anyone opt to try to fill themselves with something that at best brings a hangover, when we have the Spirit of the Living God to fill our hearts and our souls and bring us not only earthly joy, but eternal happiness?
No comments:
Post a Comment