Filling up on Salt Water

The other day I listened to a Campus Crusade for Christ podcast by Rick James on The Holy Spirit: The Source of What's Missing. I'd like share my cliff notes.

At one point Rick says that he thinks the majority of Christians today try to fill up on the salt water of life. The opposite of living water is salt water. Living water is stuff that you can drink and live. Salt water looks just like regular water but if you drink it, the more you drink, the thirstier you get. What an excellent metaphor for sin. The apostle John in Revelation 21 talks about the new heaven and the new earth and how the sea was no more. There would be no more ocean- no more salt water. That's a lot of salt water.

So why are we as Christians not filled with the Holy Spirit most of the time? He suggests that we as believers drink as much "salt water" as non-believers. We all have a salt or thirst mechanism. What do we use to meet those thirsts? When you feel anxious do you call upon the Lord and ask Him to fill you or do you fill up on coffee or video games or business or texting? When you feel lonely do you turn to the Lord and say, "Lord meet my needs! help me!" or do you turn on the TV or go shopping or try to please people? What do you do to meet those thirsts? When you feel dissatisfied do you sleep? Do you eat?

He says that in our lives we are drinking salt water (sin) in ways that are socially acceptable. We drink gallons of it. We aren't drinking FRESH living water throughout our day. We use TV and food and our phones to get through our day. We rely on those things. We aren't relying on the Lord and the Holy Spirits' leading.

So what can we do to be more influenced by the Holy Spirit throughout our day?

There is no magic pill.

God only influences us to the degree that we say, "Go ahead God." God can't influence an area of our life that we refuse to turn over to him.

1. Reliance - Choosing to rely on the Lord instead of salt water.

For example, cigarette smokers light up whenever they feel the need for a hit. As christians, we should be lighting up several packs of the Lord per day. All throughout our day.

2. Confession - keeping a close account of sin

When we don't confess our sin, they begin to accumulate and we start to think that God doesn't like us or we try to stop doing it with our own power.

3. Yieldedness to God.

How can you be more influenced by God? Give God more areas of your life. In cop or detective TV shows, when the cops show up to the door- what are they trying to hide? If Jesus showed up at your house, what would you be running to try to flush down the toilet? What are you holding onto? Relationships, future, career? The extent to which you control them, you limit the Spirit's influence.

4. Praise and Thanksgiving

This is an atmosphere in your heart. Each day you have to just give God thanks and praise till you actually mean it in your heart so that you carry this attitude throughout the day. You cultivate it all day long.

5. Service.

As you start to meet other people's needs, you realize that you are being empowered by God to meet needs you didn't know you could.

6. Reading God's Word and prayer.

Each day.

7. Humbling one's self in a variety of forms and looking for opportunities to humble one's self in faith.

I think that he brings up a good point. We won't be filled with the Spirit if we don't allow it. And I won't be filled up on the Spirit throughout my day when I constantly turn to other things to try and fill me. I've been doing this A LOT lately and I feel incredibly drained, tired, frustrated, annoyed and uninspired. Watching TV shows, movies, listening to music and eating half baked brownies and Diet Dr. Pepper can only go so far to "fill" me up. At the end of the day, they fail. They always do. But God doesn't. And I know that. It's a matter of discipline to find a balance to be filled with the Spirit instead of splenda and Starbucks and Sonny's BBQ. All those things are well and FANTASTIC but not if I'm trying to find my fulfillment in them.