A S PASTOR of Phoenix First Assembly of God, I spend much of my time trying to provide ways for people to pour; that is, ways for people to use what they have.
That’s why we have 180 outreach ministries. Even if they did nothing for the people we are trying to reach, pouring out is essential for our own sakes. We are only happy and we only grow when we are pouring into empty vessels.
The More You're Spilled, the More You're Filled
When you dam up streams of water, they become stagnant. Fish die in stagnant water. In that way, many churches have become dead seas rather than flowing rivers.
I have often heard people talking about how “Spiritfilled” a church or a person was. In our consumer-driven society I think we have twisted the meaning and purpose of being Spirit-filled.
Sometimes we describe Christian experiences like merit badges.
“Are you born again?”
“Have you been water baptized?”
“Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?”
These are not awards to be displayed like patches on your sleeve. They are parts of a dynamic and ongoing relationship with God.
“Oh, yes, I was filled with the Spirit back in 1972,” I’ve heard people say. Sometimes I want to ask if it had occurred to them that they might have leaked a little since then.
Peter and John were dragged before the counsel of the scribes and Pharisees (the Sanhedrin) to give an account of how they had healed the lame man who sat outside the gate of the temple.
And when they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them....
Acts 4:7-8
The literal rendering of the text is noted in the margin of many translations. In the New American Standard it reads: “having just been filled with the Holy Spirit.” Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and then he spoke out in boldness.
The same phrase is used again referring to Paul in Cyprus when he confronted Elymas the magician.
BUT Saul, who was also known as Paul, [having just been] filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him.
Acts 13:9
The text goes on to say that Paul proclaimed that Elymas would be blinded because of his opposition to the gospel. It happened as Paul declared, and as a result the proconsul believed.
When Peter and John returned from their confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees over the healing of the lame man, they reported to the rest the threats that had been issued; that is, that they should not preach anymore in the name of Jesus. All that were present lifted up their voices in prayer. As a result the place where they gathered was shaken, and they were “all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
Here were all these apostles and disciples being filled with the Holy Spirit again!
Some Pentecostals and evangelicals have differing ideas about the baptism of the Spirit as a second blessing. But regardless of your belief about theology and terminology, we all need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, continually, regularly, daily.
I pray for power every morning — even beg for God’s power. I believe God likes to hear me dependent on Him! I have little signs I post in my car and office that read: “Pray for power.” I had these little notes printed up for our church, too. Our people have them stuck up everywhere.
Paul exhorted the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). The use of the present tense form of the Greek verb plerousthe , “be filled,” signifies that being filled with the Spirit is a continuous and repetitive process. 1
The More You’re Spilled, the More You’re Filled
For the apostles, being filled with the Holy Spirit was not something that happened only once. It was an ongoing occurrence that always resulted in a demonstration of love and service to others.
No one has any need to be filled unless he or she intends to be poured. And the more you are poured, the more you are refilled.
The more appropriate question would be: Are you Spirit-spilled?
Getting blessed, being touched or even ‘Tailing under the power” is not the same as being Spirit-filled. The measure of our spirituality should be not how much we get but how much we give — how much of the Spirit and grace of God flows through us, not just to us.
I have heard people talk about how much they love a particular church because they really get blessed there. You need to get blessed in church, but it is more important that you become a blessing and become someone else’s miracle.
People argue about the biblical pattern of being filled with the Spirit and the corresponding theological implications. If the biblical pattern tells us anything, it is that being filled with God’s Spirit turns you into a lover and a giver (1 John 4:12-13).
Every year at Christmastime i ask our people to
go out and buy a present for a hurting, underprivileged child in our city. They can spend as much as they want, but it has to be worth five dollars or more. I also ask them to pray that God will lead them to the present He wants them to buy.
They bring their presents in and put them at the foot of our huge singing Christmas tree. Last year we brought in about eight thousand underprivileged kids to our church for a special Christmas program. At the end of the service, we led all the children into the auditorium.
The orchestra and the two hundred people standing on the forty-five-foot singing Christmas tree led the congre
gation in singing carols as the children came in to find two mountains of presents under the tree, one for the boys and one for the girls.
Every year when those children come down the aisle, the adults in our congregation weep and cry so much they can hardly sing.
Dear reader, please hear this: If it didn’t bless any of those kids, I would continue to give away presents for the sake of our congregation. Every person who puts a present under that tree has the opportunity to pour into an empty vessel. They have found that the joy of the Lord comes from pouring.
One of the little boys asked his bus pastor to pray with him that he would get an electric train for Christmas.
“Do you think God would give me an electric train?” he asked.
The bus pastor really didn’t know what to say as they prayed together. He was afraid that a disappointment could destroy the little boy’s faith. He knew that someone in the church might buy a train. But the presents were wrapped and given out randomly. Nobody knew who would get what package. But, as you can guess, someone in the church was led to buy a Lionel electric train set. And, out of all the other presents, that’s the one the little boy received.
That young man will never forget that, in the midst of eight thousand dirty, rambunctious little kids, he was so special to God that his prayer was heard and answered. But it was no less of a blessing for that family who had the privilege of seeing a miracle happen as they poured into an empty vessel.
The Kingdom Invisible Appears
Temperatures well over 100 degrees in Phoenix are not as uncomfortable as 90-degree weather in other places. The reason is the low humidity in Arizona. There is very
The More You’re Spilled, the More You’re Filled little moisture in the air.
Even in areas with low humidity, however, there is always some water in the air all around us. We breathe it, and sometimes we can feel it on a muggy day.
The dew point is the temperature at which that moisture in the air begins to form into water droplets. When that happens at high altitudes, the droplets fall as rain. The coolness of the evening causes dew drops to form on the ground.
It is at the dew point that the invisible reality of airborne water becomes visible.
God is like the moisture in the air: He’s everywhere. Theologians use the word omnipresent , which means present at all places at the same time. The power, glory and love of God are all around us, but His kingdom is invisible to our eyes.
When the nature and character of God are displayed through His servants, the kingdom becomes a little more visible. When miracles occur, we begin to realize how close God really is. This was true with the feeding of the five thousand, the water turned to wine at Cana, the great catch of fish from the other side of the boat and so on.
When we give in faith and pour into others, the invisible kingdom of God manifests itself. When the widow began to pour into the empty vessels, the kingdom invisible became the kingdom visible.
One of the kids at the Christmas party looked up and saw that huge singing Christmas tree, the lights, the presents. He turned to his bus pastor and said, “Is this heaven?”
In a way, yes, it was, not the place we go to spend eternal life, but a visible manifestation of the kingdom of God.
What made it happen? People gave.
It seemed like heaven for the little boy, but it seemed that way even more so for the members of our church,
because by pouring into those empty vessels they felt the nearness of the presence of God.
God gives life and breath to all mankind, He gives grace and mercy irrespective of our unworthiness, and He gave His only Son for us because He so loved the world. God is a giver! There is a beautiful song that goes: “Out of His infinite mercy in Jesus, He giveth and giveth and giveth again.” 2
When you look at the giving-ness of God, you peer right into His very heart and nature. It is the very essence of who He is. We are not offered forgiveness because we deserve it, nor do we live and breathe because we are worthy of it or go to heaven because we have earned it. God is love, and love gives freely.
There are two ways you can live: either as a giver, who is becoming more and more like God, or as a taker, preoccupied with self. The Bible says that no man can see God and live (Ex. 33:20). When you see the giving-ness in the heart of God, you will begin to die to your selfishness, your grasping and your acquisitive nature. That, however, is when you really begin to live.
A man cried out of the crowd, asking Jesus to settle an issue between his brother and him. Apparently, one of the brothers was hoarding the family inheritance.
And He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
16 And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a certain rich man was very productive.
The More You're Spilled, the More You're Filled
17 “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’
18 “And he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 “ ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” ’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’
21 “So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12:15-21
The rich man was not a fool because he was rich. God loves prosperous and successful people. But it had never occurred to this rich man that his prosperity was a gift from God for the purpose of pouring abundantly into others. One man in our church, whose business has been very productive, buys 250 brand-new bicycles each year at Christmas for the needy kids. But this rich man Jesus spoke of hoarded it all for himself.
One of the greatest hindrances to real joy is that we let our perceptions and behavior be determined by those who want to sell us something. American commercials tell us constantly that value, self-worth and happiness come from what we can obtain. In other words, our lives consist of our possessions.
Wrong!
Our culture and the media driving it teach us what is contrary to the kingdom of God — that joy comes from abundant possessions rather than abundant giving.
This even finds its way into our churches. We are instructed to give so that we can get more. The operant words there are so that. The misguided force behind this
teaching is that life comes from abundant possessiveness.
To be a cheerful giver means that I’m not giving to get more, all along thinking that life is in the return. A cheerful giver pours because he believes that life is in the pouring.
Those who feign cheerfulness but in reality only rejoice in the thought of their “hundred-fold return” will eventually hoard their blessings.
That kind of giving is like playing the stock market. You invest to get a greater return, to reinvest for even greater returns and so on until you take the cash and run. The point all along was to hoard.
The MIRACLE OF MULTIPLICATION continued as long as the widow continued to pour. The miracle of abundant life continues in our hearts as long as we continue to be “Spirit-spilled.” If you stop giving, you will certainly dry up as a Christian, and your vessel will be empty. Always keep yourself in a position in which you are able to give.
The widow at Zarephath must have surely hesitated to give her last meal to Elijah. But having given it in faith, there was a miracle in her house. The oil and flour were not exhausted (1 Kin. 17:16).
Taking the time, effort and expense to pour into empty vessels is not a drain. Rather it is invigorating. I always receive back more than I give. That’s why after so many years I’m not feeling burned out.
So what are you looking for? Are you looking for what you can get out of life, or are you looking for what you can pour out in life? Are you going to be a giver or a taker? Make a decision right now: I am going to pour into empty vessels and be a Spirit-spilled Christian.
ELEVEN