Walking In LoveSample

The Age of the Spirit

In the classic movie The African Queen, Humphrey Bogart plays a riverboat captain who rescues Katherine Hepburn, a missionary. On their long voyage down a river, they encounter various problems: a pipe is severed; there are severe rapids; a propeller breaks; and German soldiers fire at their boat. However, the worst problem occurs when the river turns into a muddy, marshy, grass-filled swamp. They become mired in the muck and have no power to move. They push and pull but get nowhere. They finally give up in exhaustion.

This scene is a parable of the Christian life. Too many Christians feel mired in the muck. They have no power to move. They push and pull, but finally, give up in exhaustion. This is the inevitable result whenever we depend on our power to please God and our power to change. We cannot do it, because the spiritual life is a supernatural life, and supernatural life requires supernatural power, the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Christian life should be lived in the power of the Spirit. Whenever we become Christians, God’s Spirit comes inside us. From that point on, he is our power source. Depend on his power. Ask the Spirit to fill you, control you, empower you, and transform you.

The spiritual life is life in, by, and from the Spirit.

At our conversion, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us. He fills us. Unfortunately, most of us leak. At times, we resist the Spirit, grieve the Spirit, and disobey the Spirit. At those times, we need God to fill us afresh with his Spirit. 

God fills us with his Spirit as we surrender to the Spirit’s control in our lives. He fills us with the Spirit as we depend upon the Spirit’s power in our lives. He fills us with the Spirit as we obey the Spirit’s leading in our lives.

This is the spiritual life in the age of the Spirit. God contrasts being filled with the Spirit to being filled with spirits or alcohol. Whereas too much alcohol will make you act unnaturally, the Spirit will make you act supernaturally.

Right now, if you find yourself frustrated with your Christian life—if you are struggling with some sin or addiction and you are losing that struggle, if you feel like a failure—then it is quite likely you have no power. It’s like you’re vacuuming your floor, but the vacuum picks nothing up because it is not plugged in. Plug the vacuum in.

Depend on God’s Spirit. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zech. 4:6).

O Lord, fill us afresh with Your Spirit.