Spirit-filled Manhood

If You Get the Men You Win the War. If You Lose the Men You Lose the War.

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We are all familiar with the power of a grand finale. At the end of a concert, the band saves the best for last. When watching a firework display on a holiday, you need to make sure to stick around for the end. The final words of the Old Testament are these:

Malachi 4:4-6: “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. ‘Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.’”

God is here summarizing the Old Testament and getting the last word. The principle is key – don’t fret about all the shenanigans on the planet as one day God will get the last word. God reminds us that Moses brought us the Law to reveal God’s holiness, our sinfulness, and our need for a Savior to meet the demands of the Law for us. God also reminds us that the prophets, like Elijah, remind us of God’s Law and call us to turn from and trust in our Savior.

The next major event in human history from this moment was the coming of John the Baptizer. He would be anointed and filled with the same Holy Spirit as Elijah from His mother’s tummy and would come to do heart surgery on men (2 Kings 2:9-10; Luke 1:15-17; Matthew 11:13-14; John 1:21).

God is saying that there are two kinds of people – those who are cursed and those who are blessed.

How do we know that a people group is cursed? The fathers do not have a heart for their children and, as a result, the children do not have a heart for their fathers. Practically, this looks like men who love sex but not God, marriage, or children. So, they worship sex as their god, use and abuse women, and murder their children. If their children live, they live without their father involved or invested in their life. This is what Jesus told some men in John 8:44: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning…”  The old adage is true – like father like son and the devil’s boys look like their dad. Make no mistake, many, if not most, of our social problems would be solved by dads living, loving, and leading with the Father heart of God.

How do we know that a people group is blessed? The fathers have met God the Father, received a new heart that is the Father heart of God, and love their children like their Father loves them. This is the miracle that God does in the hearts of men. As men learn to become sons of the Father, they learn to father others starting with their own children.

If you get the men, you win the war. If you lose the men, you lose the war. 

God ends the Old Testament with men, because change starts with men. God starts with men’s hearts because the ‘want to’ precedes the ‘how to’. Only when a man ‘wants to’ can that man apply the principles of ‘how to’ live, love, and lead like his Father.

The next stage of human history is now set. God does not inspire the writing of another book of the Bible and for 400 years, people wait for the Father to send the Son. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and revelation of the Father heart of God. Jesus turns our hearts toward the Father and gives men new hearts to love the Father and live in love like the Father. When this happens, the Kingdom of God begins to overtake the death of this world starting with blessing at home, flowing out to the church, and from there out to transform the culture that is cursed.

The Boy Who Is Lord: Be filled with the Spirit

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Luke 1:76–80

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. 

There’s only one commandment in the New Testament that tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” John the Baptizer is the embodiment of that. He wasn’t controlled by substances; he was controlled by the Spirit.

When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit regenerates you. You’re born again, and He takes up residence in you and gives you a new heart, a new mind, a new nature, new desires, and a new life. The Bible calls that being baptized or sealed in the Spirit (Acts 1:5; Ephesians 1:13).

Every true Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit in this sense. As we see with Zechariah, Elizabeth, John, and other people in the Bible, however, there can be multiple, unique fillings of the Holy Spirit that occur throughout the course of life. These fillings are empowering experiences for the believer to experience more of God’s power at work in and through them in love, power, service, healing, deliverance, and victory.

Through faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will take up residence in you so that you can live a life under the control and power of the Holy Spirit, as John did and as Jesus did during His life on earth.

Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to the wind (John 3:8). Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is always flowing. To be filled with the Holy Spirit simply means that we live our lives like a ship with a sail. When our sail is up, we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, direct our life, and lead us where He wants us to go, to become who He wants us to be, and to do what He wants us to do. Our sail comes down through unrepentant sin, unbelief, clinging to lies rather than truth, foolish doctrine, and bad life decisions, all of which “quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Put your sail up. Repent, believe, read your Bible, pray, submit, and be in community with God’s people. In this way, God will fill you, lead you, guide you, and empower you. He is willing, and if we will avail ourselves to His presence and power, He will fill us.

Without the Holy Spirit, Christianity becomes nothing but a list of dos and don’ts. You either live a decent life and become proud as a result, or you fail to measure up and fall into despair. Neither result leads to the kind of humble joy that comes from the Holy Spirit.

John was filled with the Holy Spirit; that’s how he did it. There is no secret. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). God’s power enables us to be who we cannot be and do what we cannot do because it’s God power, not ours. The Christian life is a supernatural life of God at work in us and through us.

Is your sail up or down? Do you have a relationship of trust and love with the Holy Spirit? If not, ask for prayer from other Christians. If so, thank the Holy Spirit for His specific work and guidance in your life.

The Boy Who Is Lord: John The Great Part 1

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Luke 7:28

“I [Jesus] tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John”

If we took a poll to name the greatest person history has ever known, it’s highly unlikely that John the Baptizer would even crack the top ten or top thousand. Jesus is in a category of His own: God incarnate. But the Bible is clear that John is preeminent among the rest of us who are not members of the Trinity.

First of all, we read in Luke 1:15, that John “will be great before the Lord.” Jesus makes it even clearer a few chapters later saying, “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John” (Luke 7:28).

This is an incredible statement, especially when you consider the fact that John spent the majority of his life living in obscurity. He began his public ministry in his late twenties or early thirties, and although he drew a lot of attention, it only lasted a few months before Jesus showed up. John was thrown in prison shortly thereafter, where he was beheaded as a young man.

What was so great about this bug-eating, honey-chugging, gospel-preaching, sinner-baptizing eccentric? From Zechariah’s prophesy and elsewhere in the Gospels, we can glean at least seven aspects of John’s greatness and true greatness in the sight of God. 

John came from Spirit-filled parents
Both John’s mother, Elizabeth, and his father, Zechariah, were filled with the Holy Spirit. In Luke 1:41 we read, “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” and then prophesies over Mary. In Luke 1:67, “Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied” over his son at birth. Luke tells us on numerous occasions that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit throughout his Gospel. Simply put, being Spirit-filled means to be like Jesus by God’s power.

John was filled with the Holy Spirit
John himself was also filled with the Holy Spirit. Before John’s birth, the angel Gabriel said, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). The Bible also says, “The hand of the Lord was with him” (Luke 1:66). That’s another way of saying that the Holy Spirit was present with him, through him, and in him through the course of his life.

John did not become the greatest man who ever lived through morality and good behavior, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we look at the life of John, the point is not to merely do what John did, but to be transformed through, filled with, and empowered by the same Holy Spirit who made John great and gave him great ministry. The Spirit will make you moral, but that’s a by-product and not the main thing. His goal is not to just make you better, but to make you new.

How is your personal relationship with the Holy Spirit? How can your personal relationship with the Holy Spirit improve?

Are you a harsh husband?

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Colossians 3:18 commands husbands to be loving, not harsh, with their wives.

Think of your relationship like a bank account: every word of love and encouragement is a deposit. Every shout, harsh word or criticism is a withdrawal.

Some husbands run out of credit and don’t even realize it. So watch my video to find out 10 ways husbands can be harsh to their wives – and how to avoid those traps.

Got a question you’d like me to answer? Send it to [email protected] today!

The Spirit-Filled Life of Jesus Christ (Day 4): Trials and Temptations

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“…Be filled with the Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18 Jesus grew from infancy to adulthood, lived among a family, worked a job, ate meals, increased His knowledge through learning, told jokes, attended funerals, had male and female friends, celebrated holidays, went to parties, loved His mom, felt the pain of betrayal and lies told about Him, and … Read more

What do you do when you’re struggling to pray with your family?

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We all go through seasons when it’s hard to pray with our spouse or kids. Maybe you’re stressed, or hurt, or just really busy.

But the times when you’re stuck and don’t want to pray are actually the times when you need to pray the most!

So watch above as Grace and I share some simple steps you can take to get back to praying with your loved ones – and discover why it’s so important that you do!

Colossians #10 – Enjoy Your Family

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What does God expect of Christian parents and their children? In this incredibly practical sermon, we explore in great detail what it means for children to obey their parents, and parents to lovingly lead their children toward God’s best for them. This sermon will help you consider how you were raised, and help you correct errors in how you may be raising your children. And, it will give hope to imperfect parents as even Jesus was raised by imperfect parents but turned out just fine.