Filled and Flooded with God...

by Elizabeth Stewart

When we become born again, when we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and the Lord of our life, His Holy Spirit then dwells within our spirit. We had to make a choice, a decision, for this to happen.  Jesus Christ died for the whole world, but only those who accept and receive what He did for them personally are born again.  God wants voluntary lovers in His family. He doesn't force us to accept His offer of salvation. He extends the invitation and it's up to us to receive or deny it. (See John 1:12) We do not earn or deserve His great love or lavish grace and mercy. We simply believe and make the choice to open the door and receive it.

Similarly, when we are born again and God's Holy Spirit comes to dwell within our spirit, there can remain many unsurrendered areas in our soul-in our mind, will and emotions. Just as God doesn't force us to receive Him as Savior and Lord, He doesn't force us to let His Holy Spirit into the unsurrendered areas of our inner life. He will woo us and love us and draw us near. He will show us through our experiences that His ways are right and that His love is faithful and that we can trust Him. He will use His Word, and other means He deems necessary, to give us revelation and show us areas where we have yet to surrender to Him. Then, when we yield and open the door,  His wonderful loving, healing, delivering, bondage breaking Holy Spirit comes flooding in. Again, we simply choose to open the door to the rooms of our innermost being and welcome and receive His presence within.

After a season of struggle and weariness, I am learning to begin my morning quiet time by sitting in God's presence and inviting His Holy Spirit to fill and flood me. 

I want the Holy Spirit to fill and flood...

-my weary places

-my controlling, "I've got to try to fix this", places

-my broken, hurting, wounded places

-my angry, resentful, unforgiving places

-my lonely places

-my stubborn, willful, "I'll do it my way", places

-my "I'm overwhelmed with the needs around me" places

-my "seeking comfort from the things of this world" places

As I daily invite the Holy Spirit into every area of my innermost being, I don't sense condemnation or shame. I sense overwhelming love and grace. After His resurrection and ascension back to heaven, Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to be our constant companion, teacher, helper, defense, comforter and healer. I am experiencing a new measure of joy, peace and hope as I am learning not to rush my Bible reading and prayer time, but to first take a few moments to sit and soak in God's presence, receive His love, and allow His Holy Spirit to fill and flood all of me. Perhaps, it took a time of struggle, a time of weariness, for me to accept and acknowledge that I simply can't make it without Him, but with Him, with His strength infusing me, I can do all things.

"The grace to grasp grace, is grace." - Brennan Manning, Abba's Child

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