Wait for him, Empty Me, Fill Us

I find it helpful to write things down that I am hearing from God – I will often put them in places where I can’t miss them.  I want what God is saying to be written on my heart, in my mind, and influence my actions – this is how I ‘feed’ on God’s word – I want to live “…by every word that comes from the mouth of God”.  At present above my desk, and hanging up in the Kairos Room where we pray daily are the following words:

Wait for Him  Empty Me  Fill Us

 So often we don’t wait for God. If he doesn’t come with his power when we want we go and work in our own power. And then we wonder why things are hard work or we get exhausted or nothing
happens. If we wait we will be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). Without waiting we are like engines that aren’t being lubricated – eventually they seize up. When we wait we find out who God is; the one who sends the Spirit to empower us.

D.L. Moody used to say “Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray for him to empty us.” So often we pray to be filled when we are full of other things – often full of ourselves and our own needs. I find that emptying myself before God means I discover once more the truth of Jesus’s words “For apart from me you can do nothing.” I am brought to humility and God can do something with a person who is humble before him.

Fill US – not fill ME. That’s the problem. We so often think that it’s all about my little world and God helping me to live well within it. The power that compels us to witness to the good news of Jesus comes from the Spirit who indwells us. To pray ‘fill us’ is to welcome a filling of the Spirit that means we get dunamis (power) and exousia (authority) – we get to be witnesses because we get filled.

As we wait we find out who He is
As we are emptied we find out who we are
As we are filled we are commissioned and sent

By Mark