And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18. Anyone who has been born again as a repentant believer knows the sensation of being washed clean at the time of conversion, when your heart was transformed and you felt light and free. I have thought about this change at the new birth; we get a new heart! The Lord said through the prophet Ezekiel "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ez. 36:26. That spiritual heart transplant is a New Covenant reality for the repentant believer! I wonder if we ever have a second or a third heart transplant, since my heart needs continual renewal. Put it this way, if my heart was a kidney, it would be on regular dialysis. I don't see multiple heart transplants discussed in the Word of God, but there is a real need for regular heart checkups, heart medication, and even operations that unclog the spiritual arteries of my heart.
It has been said that Eph. 5:18 could read “be being filled with the Spirit,” as a present continuous act. How does that actually look? Let's go back to the heart and its arteries. The heart has to work harder and loses effectiveness as the arteries get clogged. The more junk that plugs our arteries, the more the heart has to work and the more susceptible our body is to heart failure. Spiritually speaking, the more junk plugging our spiritual hearts, the more the Spirit has to work to try to revive us and convict us and draw us to the Father. Junk-filled arteries allow hearts to be drawn away from the center of God's will.
To complete the analogy, consider the present state of your spiritual heart. Are the arteries clogged with false gods, leaving only a pinpoint hole through which the Spirit can flow? Since we are told to “be being filled with the Spirit,” we need wide-open heart valves to receive all of the Spirit's power, love, and soundness of mind in this battle we call life. We clog our spiritual arteries if our hearts have unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, deceit, sexual immorality, slothfulness, time-wasting, wanton noise without opportunity for silent reflection before God, the love of money...the list could go on and on.
God tells us “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15. Brothers and sisters, I urge you to take regular times of quietness, open the Word of God before you, and ask the Spirit of God to do a complete checkup on your spiritual heart. We need a greater anointing of the Spirit of God within our fellowship, and it starts by unclogging our hearts to allow for us to “Be filled with the Spirit”!
It has been said that Eph. 5:18 could read “be being filled with the Spirit,” as a present continuous act. How does that actually look? Let's go back to the heart and its arteries. The heart has to work harder and loses effectiveness as the arteries get clogged. The more junk that plugs our arteries, the more the heart has to work and the more susceptible our body is to heart failure. Spiritually speaking, the more junk plugging our spiritual hearts, the more the Spirit has to work to try to revive us and convict us and draw us to the Father. Junk-filled arteries allow hearts to be drawn away from the center of God's will.
To complete the analogy, consider the present state of your spiritual heart. Are the arteries clogged with false gods, leaving only a pinpoint hole through which the Spirit can flow? Since we are told to “be being filled with the Spirit,” we need wide-open heart valves to receive all of the Spirit's power, love, and soundness of mind in this battle we call life. We clog our spiritual arteries if our hearts have unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, deceit, sexual immorality, slothfulness, time-wasting, wanton noise without opportunity for silent reflection before God, the love of money...the list could go on and on.
God tells us “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15. Brothers and sisters, I urge you to take regular times of quietness, open the Word of God before you, and ask the Spirit of God to do a complete checkup on your spiritual heart. We need a greater anointing of the Spirit of God within our fellowship, and it starts by unclogging our hearts to allow for us to “Be filled with the Spirit”!
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