“In the middle of that word conversation are the words ‘converse’
and ‘concourse,’ ” explains Jordan. “When you’re conversant with something, you’re intimate in the way it works; you
know how it happens and how it’s accomplished.
“You can become conversant with a
book, or a subject, or with a computer, or whatever it is you want to be
conversant with. It means you have a thorough knowledge of it where you’re able
to live it and handle it and deal with it.
“It’s
more than just being able to talk about it; it’s that you get right into it,
and into its life, and let what’s at the basis of who you are and the way you
live be as ‘becometh the gospel of Christ.’
“Paul says, ‘Let your manner of
life, your lifestyle, who you are be becoming; let who you are down inside
adorn the doctrine.’ It’s Titus 2 terminology.
*****
“When
Paul advises to ‘be filled with the Spirit’ in Ephesians 5, he’s not talking
about getting more of the Spirit of God; it’s to be filled by His instrumentality.
“God
the Holy Spirit is going to be used by the Father in an objective, measurable
operation to put some things into you that ought to be there. It isn’t about
putting more of the Spirit of God in
you; it’s that some things are beginning to be produced in your life.
“It’s
something that can be measured by words on a page in the Bible and identified in your life in specific ways. To
be filled with anything is to be saturated by that thing to the point that it
completely dominates and controls your life.
*****
“In
Luke 5, when it says the Pharisees were ‘filled with fear,’ that means they were so astonished and afraid that fear just took control of them, and the
emotion of fear just completely consumed them to the place they were incapable
of doing anything.
“In
Luke 6:11, they were ‘filled with madness,’ meaning they were completely
controlled by their rage and it gripped them and carried them along and they
couldn’t get shed of it.
“John
16:6 says ‘sorrow hath filled your heart.’ The emotion just came in and grabbed
them and wrenched them to the place where they couldn’t get out from under the
control of it.
“We
could go on and on with passages like that. To ‘be filled with the Spirit’
simply means to be under the complete total dominion and domination of the
Holy Spirit.
“It
has to do with surrender. Boy, we
don’t like that word. It’s the total surrender of your life and thinking over to
the control of the Holy Spirit so that HE carries you along through life.
“Being 'filled with the Holy Spirit' means, ‘I can’t, I give up, I lose,’ and He wins. Paul
said, ‘I’m crucified.’ If your Christian life is going to be what God produces it won’t be anything of you.
“It
requires the DEATH of selfishness and of self-will in your life. It isn’t my
thinking, my way. It’s His way! We got this whole thing about ‘my way or the
highway,’ but it’s the opposite.
“Being
‘filled with the Spirit of God’ is equivalent to Paul advising, ‘Let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly.’ It’s the Holy Spirit working THROUGH the Word
of God to fill your life with the qualities of spiritual maturity. It’s taking
the Word of Christ and letting it INFUSE every part of your being, having all your thinking and actions controlled by the Word of God.
*****
“One
of my favorite verses is I Thessalonians 2:13. Paul says, ‘For this cause also thank
we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye
heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the
word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.’
“When
you by faith take the Word of God and step out upon what God says, God the Holy
Spirit takes His Word . . .
“As
you objectively take your thinking processes, your actions and your attitudes and bring them under the authority of the Word of God . . . As you
begin to think in your own heart and mind the way God says He thinks in His
Word, that is God the Holy Spirit
working in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.
“Rather
than asking God to move and do out there (in the physical realm), it’s His Word
that WORKS and He’s in us, living His
life out through our mortal bodies as we walk by faith in what He says in His
Word.
“If
something is effectual, that means it WORKS. It’s effective; it gets the job
done. It’s not a misfire. It works effectually IN you. That’s where God’s
working starts. It’s in you that believe! That’s the catalyst of it.
“Colossians
1:9 says, ‘For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to
pray for you, and to desire that ye might be FILLED with the knowledge of his
will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.’
“There’s
that word again! Let the Word of Christ DWELL in you! Let it come and fill up
your life and be at home in you and live there!"
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