Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #176 The Spirit of Revival (2 - Continually Filled)

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#176 The Spirit of Revival (2 - Continually Filled) · The OneCry Podcast

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  The direct translation there is a keep on being filled, and in many ways,
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  I believe 100% it's what your story just said. It's a surrender.
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  It's a, I have the fullness of the Holy Spirit in me, but I think what Paul
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  is saying, does the Holy Spirit have you?
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Well, welcome to the One Cry podcast. I'm Billy Bob Eliff.
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  Billy Bob. That's what they say. I'm in Arkansas, and everybody,
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  we like to have two names.
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  So I'm William Robert, Billy Bob, and Jordan, what's your middle name? James. So you're JJ.
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  My dad wanted to name me Jesse James, but my mom had a problem with that.
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  I don't know why. I mean, it's such a cool name, but yeah, I'm JJ.
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  J.J. and Billy Bob. J.J. and Billy Bob.
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  So anyway, we are thrilled to be with you today.
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  And as you may or may not know, last week we started a new series on the Holy
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  Spirit, who he is, what he does.
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  Yeah. You know, I did a series one time preaching, and I called it The Nearest God.
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  And the reason I titled it that was that there's a difference in this that the
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  Holy Spirit is in us, can be in us.
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  I want to tell a little personal testimony, Jordan, because this is so important to me.
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  And then I want you to teach us a little bit and we'll talk about it.
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  So when I was, I grew up in a pastor's home and I came to know Christ early.
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  Yeah. But when I got into junior high school, I just started drifting,
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  and I tried to be popular and cool and started compromising and got into sin.
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  And then in high school particularly, and I was miserable because I was a believer,
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  and I knew I was a believer.
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  And then I started doing all this junk, and I thought, how could I be a believer and do this stuff?
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  So finally, I got sick of it. I was a junior in high school,
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  and I literally came back from church camp that summer. I thought,
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  I'm going to do better. Yeah.
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  So my thought of doing better was put Jesus up on a pedestal.
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  There was a book that had been written that was popular at that time called
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  In His Steps. And it was like, do what Jesus did.
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  I thought, okay, I'm going to put Jesus up on. I'll study what he did,
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  and then I'll try to do that.
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  So I started out on this, and I was a horrible failure. I couldn't do it.
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  I couldn't get rid of sin in my life. I couldn't.
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  I didn't realize. I understand why I couldn't. I had no success.
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  Yeah. And I just got more and more and more miserable.
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  And the Lord, I think, was just smiling in heaven.
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  And he kind of let me go on this Bill Elif self-help plan for a while until
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  I got really sick and tired of being sick and tired.
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  Yeah. And I will never forget. It was April 4th in my junior year in high school.
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  And I was sitting in a church service.
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  And I just said to the Lord, Lord, whatever you're going to do with my life,
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  you're going to have to do. I give up. I surrender.
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  And I just gave myself to the Lord. And it's almost as if.
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  I would hear the Lord almost say, Bill, that's just what I've been waiting for,
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  for you to surrender, for you to give up.
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  Well, I went home, and I had a bunch of sin in my life,
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  and I literally fell on my knees at my dad's knees and just began to confess
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  my sin and get honest and clear my conscience.
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  And my mom and dad were so gracious.
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  They had been praying for this, of course.
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  And my dad encouraged me to take a sheet of paper, really a notepad,
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  and make a sin list, which I did.
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  It was seven pages front and back. I just junk and just get all that junk out.
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  Just confess all that sin.
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  And then he taught me something that I know he had said before,
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  but I just didn't have ears to hear. He began to teach me about the filling of the Holy Spirit.
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  And I learned that the Spirit of God lived inside of me. I didn't know that.
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  I thought it was just me doing my best for Jesus.
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  And I can never be a good Christian. Right. I just can't.
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  So Christ, though, I realized had come to live inside of me.
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  And if I would depend upon him, he would live his life through me.
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  And that made all the difference. When I realized that, man, I was off to the races.
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  I just spiritually, my whole life did a 180.
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  It was almost as if I'd been saved again, although that's not what happened.
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  But I began to live in the reality of the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
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  And it just changes everything. So I know, Jordan, you know that and understand that and teach that.
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  So talk to us a little bit about that, because...
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  We want everybody to know the Spirit, just to know Him as you would know your dearest friend.
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  And what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit, and why should we pursue that? Yeah.
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  Well, Bill, I think your story shares so much of that, and it's true for every believer.
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  We need to come to that point of deep surrender, and in many ways,
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  that daily surrender to the role of the Holy Spirit.
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  And you said it in Ephesians, I love depicts many of parts of your story,
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  but Ephesians has this seems as it's being written.
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  And now we read it, there's this thread of the Holy Spirit throughout it.
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  I mean, every chapter just seems to depict the role and the way the Holy Spirit moves in our life.
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  All the way from Ephesians chapter one, the author here, he wants each person
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  to know if you're a believer in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit.
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  He says in verse 13 of chapter one, and you also were included in Christ when
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  you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed.
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  When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.
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  The moment you believed, I mean, we have to start there.
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  We need to recognize that the moment Jordan Bowen, as like a six and a half
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  year old little boy, the moment I cried out to the Lord and received Christ
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  as my Lord and Savior, I was fully indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
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  There's no more of him to gain in that. He fully indwelled me.
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  That's freeing, right? I mean, we have the promised Holy Spirit who has sealed
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  us and marked us and now we're a child of God.
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  So the author, Paul here in Ephesians, he wants them to know the Ephesians,
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  this is who you are as a believer now, marked and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
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  But then he begins in chapter three, talking about what we do as believers.
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  And he begins to say, I remember when I was studying this, I was like,
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  okay, I have the Holy Spirit.
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  He's fully in me. But then in chapter four and in some in chapter three,
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  chapter four in verse 30, he says, hey, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of
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  God, whom you were sealed for.
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  So I have the Holy Spirit, but I can grieve him.
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  He also says that we can quench him.
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  1 Thessalonians 5. And then in chapter 5 of Ephesians, he very well put this wonderful phrase.
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  He says in verse 18, and do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
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  Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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  So I have the fullness of the Holy Spirit in me in the moment of salvation,
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  but now I'm learning I can grieve, I can quench, I can extinguish in some way
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  the fire of that in me, but I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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  The direct translation there is a keep on being filled.
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  And in many ways, I believe 100% it's what your story just said. It's a surrender.
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  It's a, I have the fullness of the Holy Spirit in me, but I think what Paul
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  is saying, does the Holy Spirit have you?
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  He even in Ephesians chapter three, he prays for the church there in Ephesus.
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  And as he's praying for them, he uses words such as, have the fullness of Christ dwell in you.
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  You have Christ. You've accepted Christ. But he's saying, does he have the permission
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  to remodel the dwelling place of your life?
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  Does he have every room? Does he have every closet?
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  Does he have permission to go in and clean house of your heart?
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  That's exactly what you did that day. You sat down with the Lord and you said,
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  Holy Spirit, here are the things in my life that are grieving and quenching you.
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  I confess these things. And I am now saying, you lead.
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  You take control. You know, Jordan, there was a, when I was younger and just
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  coming into this understanding, there was a little booklet that was maybe intervarsity
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  or somebody called My Heart Christ Home.
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  And the booklet said this guy, when he came to Christ, he said,
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  I just threw open the door of my life and Christ just came and inhabited every room.
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  But as time were on, he said, I got busy.
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  And he said, I remember one day when I was going out to entertain with my friends.
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  He said, the Lord said, well, I want to go with you.
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  And you said no. And so you closed off the social room, the recreation room.
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  And then he said, this fictional story, he said, I came running down the stairs
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  one day, hurrying to go to work.
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  And I looked over and there by the fireside, I saw a chair and saw the back of Jesus's head.
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  And Jesus said, I've been here every morning waiting for you.
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  And so he said, I want every room of my heart to be open to Christ.
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  And that's a beautiful, it's fictional picture. Right.
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  But that is, as you said, it's not how much of Christ do you have?
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  You have all you'll ever have. Right. How much of you does he have? Yeah.
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  Does he have every room? Are you letting him control?
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  Yeah. You know, I like the statement in there, don't get drunk with wine,
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  is intentional because-
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  When you're drunk with wine, you're controlled by the wine. You do what the wine tells you to do.
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  Don't do that because it leads to crazy stuff. Right. But be filled with the
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  Holy Spirit. Yeah. Be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
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  Right. And it's so powerful. There's a woman at our church that,
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  Miss Donna, who in many ways started the prayer room at our church where in
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  both services, people gathered to pray.
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  And there's this famous phrase of Miss Donna that if you know her,
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  you know she's going to say this.
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  But every Sunday morning, she prays in the first service. And after the first
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  service, she comes down into the sanctuary and she comes up to me and she'll
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  say, Jordan, how was the first service?
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  I know it was good. I was praying. We were praying.
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  And then she'll start tearing up. And every week she says, the Holy Spirit is all over me.
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  And I know what she's saying. She's saying, I just met with God.
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  And I am filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm filled with him. And you see it.
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  It's almost like she's glowing.
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  You know when someone is filled with the Holy Spirit and when they're not.
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  And we know when we're filled with him and when we're not. You know when somebody's
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  drunk with wine. You know.
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  I mean, they exhibit all the characteristics. And then it says in Galatians
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  5, 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
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  meekness, kindness, all the character of Christ.
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  So those things are exhibited in us when we're full of the Spirit.
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  Yeah. And so I think what you displayed in your story, we do every day.
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  It's, okay, Lord, you have permission to remodel my life. What do you want to do?
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  You take charge. You lead. And I love, I remember Kyle teaching on this one
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  time and, and he said, I just, in his prayer life, Kyle says.
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  Lord, I ask for a fresh filling, a deep filling, a keep on being filled.
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  And I've just found myself praying that every day. I just say,
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  Lord, I ask for a deep filling of you, Holy Spirit.
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  You know, I've often described this in a sentence. Yeah.
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  That the filling of the Holy Spirit is the conscious, continual control by the
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  Holy Spirit who lives within us.
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  So it's yielding control to the Holy Spirit who lives within us. So it's conscious.
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  Yeah. Yeah. I have to realize, hey, I've been in control.
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  I've been in charge. I've kind of pushed him off the throne.
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  He hasn't left, but I've pushed him off the throne and I'm in charge.
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  So it's a conscious step.
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  It's a continual step because every time we do that, we need to be,
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  oh, Lord, look what I've done. Forgive me. Cleanse me.
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  Take control once again. I gladly yield control. And it's the control.
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  I think that's a good word. It's a willingness to let him be in charge, to let him lead.
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  Proverbs says, don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him.
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  Bring him into the equation. Let him be in charge. Let him be in control.
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  And he'll direct your paths.
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  He'll lead you in all the right paths for his namesake.
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  You've got to let him lead. That's so powerful, Bill. And I think for me,
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  for you, for all the listeners, this is so freeing.
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  Yeah. Because we realize now, oh, it's not us, it's him. Yeah.
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  And I need to surrender and allow him to do it. And I want to say this because
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  this took me years to understand, okay?
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  This doesn't have to be accompanied by God.
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  Bells and whistles and stars and even emotions. Yeah.
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  Yeah. I can't tell you how many thousands of times I've said,
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  Father, I just, I gladly yield control to you.
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  Take charge of me. Fill me with your Holy Spirit.
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  Yes. And then when I was younger, I was thinking, oh, do I feel anything? Is it?
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  Well, no, you just get up and believe in faith that he's doing what you ask
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  him to do. He asked you to do it.
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  And it's something he told us, be filled. That's a command to us,
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  something we allow to be done to us.
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  I want to be filled by your spirit.
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  And then we trust that God is going to do what he promised to do. Yeah.
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  And we get up and move and begin to operate and minister in that filling.
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  Yeah. That's so powerful. Beautiful. Well, this is good.
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  This is helpful. and I hope it's helpful to those of you who are listening.
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  Because really this is a key to continuous revival is to be filled with him
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  and to recognize that I consciously and continually need to make this choice,
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  to yield control to the spirit of God who lives inside of me. Amen.
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  And I want us to pray for this and for our listeners.
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  And so why don't we do that right
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  now? And we're going to ask you to join with us in a moment of prayer.
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  All right, would you do that? Let's just pray together.
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  And as you get in a posture of prayer, I wonder if you would just acknowledge,
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  if you're a Christian, just acknowledge the Holy Spirit's presence in you.
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  Just thank him for residing, for indwelling you. Would you do that in a moment of prayer?
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  If you have ignored him or grieved him, would you acknowledge that and just
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  ask for his forgiveness and cleansing?
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  And if you're genuinely willing to do so, would you ask the Lord to fill you, to take control?
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  Would you yield to his remodeling of your life?
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  And Father, I pray that what you're teaching us here would not be just a momentary experience,
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  but would become the habitual,
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  continual experience of our life, that we would be men and women who move in
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  the filling of the Holy Spirit.
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  Or do we think of that passage in Acts where it says that the disciples were
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  continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit?
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  So we pray for that, that more and more, this would become the way of our life,
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  just the way we live our lives, that we men and women filled with the Holy Spirit.
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  And use us, Father, for your glory. And we pray that in your precious name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
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  Well, Jordan, good day. Thanks for joining me, and thank you,
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  listeners, for joining us.
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  And we pray that you'll have a Spirit-filled day today and let Him flow through
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  you like He promised, like rivers of living water.
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  Music.