On the Wings of the Wind

Are You a Spirit-Filled Christian?

March 10, 2008 on 5:18 pm | In Thoughts and Meditations |

Have you ever been asked, “Are you a Spirit-filled Christian?”

I believe there is only one kind of Christian, and that is “Spirit-filled.” To give ourselves to Christ is to have the Spirit come and dwell within us. Imagine Christ knocking at the door of our heart - maybe picture him beating it down with a cross as a battering ram.

He wants to come in. We have the freedom of choice to open the door. Then one day we do open the door - we trust Christ and invite him into our lives. You can picture this as an invitation into our homes. Christ comes into the living room and sits on the sofa, but He wants to take a tour of our whole house.

Of course, we don’t want that. We want to keep Him in the living room, but Christ is not satisfied until we give Him a tour of our whole house. He wants to go into the dining room, the kitchen, the bedroom … even the bathroom. He wants to see all the secret hiding places in our house. He insisting on seeing everything, until we finally give up. The Spirit of Christ comes into every corner of our lives and dwells with us.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
… those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. - Romans 8:9, 16, NIV

The Spirit wants total control of us and keeps pressing for it. Life for us as Christians becomes a continuous process of letting the Spirit have more and more of us as we grow more Christ-like - the experience of becoming more holy and drawing closer to him.

If we give ourselves sincerely to Christ, the Spirit is there to give us life, hope, love, and in the end, death will be defeated. Each day we need to remind ourselves and others that our bodies are the holy temple of the Spirit of God.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? - 1 Corinthians 6:19, NIV

May you be filled with the Holy Spirit, Patricia Eytcheson Taylor