Spillover

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again radio friends, how in the world are you? Doing Alright today? I trust so, bless your heart. Hope everything’s going okay at your house? I’m fine, thanks. Nice of you to ask. Glad to be back with you-oh you make things worthwhile because you’re there and that means that we can talk together about the things of eternity.

You and I were talking the last time we got together about what I called the Divine spillover, “That you may be filled”, said Paul in Colossians 1:9, “with the knowledge of His will”, and so that got me thinking about the fact that this whole matter being filled is a Divine spillover, it’s not ministering out of the scrapings, it’s not trying to dredge up something that you can give on demand to a needy world, but you keep spilling over, that’s what the Lord Jesus meant when He said, “Out of His innermost Being”, as the Scripture hath said, “shall flow rivers of living water”, and the Lord Jesus said that to the lady who was, incidentally I guess no lady, was at the well of Sychar, Jacob’s ancient well. He said, “Whoso drink of this water”, that’s the water in Jacob’s well, “shall thirst again, but whosoever drink of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting life”.

Oh, that fullness that spills over the blessing and power of God. And then in John 7, “At the last day of the feast the Lord Jesus stood and cried saying, ‘If any man thirst let them come in to Me and drink. He that believeth on Me as the Scripture hath said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water’”.

What did He mean by all of that? Well, you know, don’t you? The Lord Jesus Christ, when He fills your life with his blessed Holy Spirit, makes you a resource person. Living water, a spring of water, we’re talking about a spring that just doesn’t need to be pumped, the pump doesn’t need to be primed, the water just keeps on flowing, and keeps on flowing, and keeps on flowing. Artesian wells, where the supply’s limitless and the pressure’s always there, it overflows. That’s what Jesus was talking about. It seems to me, beloved, that that’s the secretive of normal Christianity. There is a spontaneous overflow of the Presence and blessing of power and peace and joy of God that just, it spontaneously spills out of the life. That’s the difference between eager proselytizer’s who are trying to convert people and real believers who are just sharing their Lord.
When persecution arose in the early Church, the book of Acts says then, “They that which were scattered abroad upon the stoning of Stephen went everywhere preaching the Gospel”, and the verb that’s used there is our word gossiping, just talking about it. Wherever they went they, they, they talked about it.

There you have the principle. Normal Christianity is a sharing, a spilling over- it’s an artesian well kind of a thing. Do you experience that? Well the secret is the Holy Spirit, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost”.

See, when you receive Christ as Savior, the blessed Holy Spirit comes in to dwell. It is up to you and to me however, to open every room in our heart house by faith, see, that’s reason he uses the expression there, in believing, that’s another way of saying that the commitment of faith in exercising the total commitment of faith, that’s what that means. And so the Spirit of God takes hold of your life and of mine when, by faith, we let Him in, in total commitment, we let Him in to every room in our heart house.

Now, that is a doctrine beloved, that crosses denominational lines: we have differences, perhaps in different denominations, about the way we view the doctrine of the precious Holy Spirit, but basically I have given you the heart and the backbone these last couple of seconds of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. He comes in to dwell when you’re saved.
It is your job and mine, by faith, to open every room in our heart house that He might fill us with Himself and when He does, oh hallelujah, when He does fill every room in the heart house, then beloved, you just spill over the blessing of God. You share because you’re full of Him, when you jostled, what spills out is the blessing of God.

Everybody that I know who is an evangelical agrees with that basic construct of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Now, you may differ in the manifestations of the Spirit or the gifts of the Spirit or whatever, and I won’t get into any arguments with any of us about that. Don’t write me and try to straighten me out because I’m not going to get into arguments about it. I know that the Spirit of God does make a difference and that He does spill out of the life that’s full of Him, and then when He does, however He may manifest Himself, I personally believe that the days of miracles are not passed, and I personally believe that the gifts of the Spirit are for all of the believers. But that doesn’t matter, whenever the Spirit of God manifests Himself beloved, you can know that something Divine is happening. Filled with Him.

Oh, I want that for myself and I want it for all of you, beloved. See, Christianity is not a point of view, it has to be a continuing miracle. Unless God the Spirit, unless the Spirit of God is working in my life, I turn out to be a fraud and a disappointment. What a dismal business it is to try to operate in the realm of religion without the dynamic of the Holy Spirit. You end up being an eager manipulator of circumstances and people.

No, today take a moment, even now. Some of you are driving the car, you can’t stop or shut your eyes but you can pray with your eyes wide open, I’ve done it many a time, and some of you are busy with housework and some of you are already on the job and some of you are just waking up and some of you, because the broadcast is heard at night, are just about the fall asleep. Wherever at you are and whatever you’re doing, take a moment now and say ‘Blessed Spirit of God, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I open my life to Thee. Fill every part of all of my life and then spill out of it in blessing and in power to other people.’ Do it, will you?

Well, we’re talking with the Divine spill over, and so I quoted Romans 15:13, “The God of peace fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost”. He’s the God of hope and you can abound in hope.

Then in Ephesians 3:19 Paul is praying for the people at Ephesus and he says, “That you might be filled, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God”, and then he goes on to say, “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us”. Filled with all the fullness of God so you go beyond what you think you can do.

All of us I suppose unconsciously set limits in our thinking as to what we can accomplish or should try to accomplish. Many a time you’ve said as you looked at a challenge, “Oh, I can’t do that. I just haven’t time, I haven’t strength, I haven’t ability”, or all of the above, you know. We set limits. This is part of human nature. Jesus looked at the crowd, He said we ought to feed them. Philip looked at the difficulty and he said we’d have to go into debt for 200 days wages in order to give each of them a little hors d’oeuvres- just make them mad. Said can’t be done.

Reminds me of Gordon Smith’s story of building a house trailer in the old days in Vietnam, with a native carpenter who only knew enough English to shake his head and say, “It can’t be done”. Gordon Smith only knew enough Vietnamese to say, “Do it this way”. He said, “We built that house trailer with him saying, ‘It can’t be done’, and me saying, ‘Do it this way’, and we got the job done.

Well, often times you know, you and I say, “Can’t be done”, but God Almighty wants to whisper to your heart, “Hey, do it this way’. They said that the disciples had fished all night and caught nothing, and now they were back to shore and they were tired. The Lord Jesus finished one of His short sermons and then He said, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets”. Peter said, hey we fished all night we’re professional fisherman, the fish aren’t running. We fished all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless he said wearily, “At Thy word, I will let down the net”, singular. Jesus said, “nets”. Because He knew the fish were there.

Well, you know what happened. They had this miraculous catch of fish and it was just so much that the net broke and so on, and so on. “Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”. I’m attacking in my own life the matter of self set limiting factors that keep God from working. You want to think about that in your own heart and in your own life and mind and relationships? What are the areas where you know you have said, “It’ll never happen, it can’t be done”.

Look again at Ephesians 3:20, “He’s able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”. See, ask is verbalizing it, think is even imagining it. Anything you can even imagine, let alone verbalizing it. God can go beyond that and Paul piles one modifier on top of another. You have the word above, that’s that concept of more. Then abundantly, that’s lots more. Then, exceedingly abundantly that’s a whole lot more! How God loves to surprise you, how He loves to work.

Oh, look, will you beloved, at the self applied barriers in your life where you have said it’ll never happen, and then bring that to God and remind Him, that through the blessed Spirit of God, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. A life that’s full of God has no limits so far as productiveness is concerned because God has no limits. The only horizon you have is eternity, when God is filling and using your life.

Now, you’ll be able to see illustrations of that everywhere you look. God takes people with human limitations and uses them beautifully and greatly and surprisingly and abundantly for His glory. Let Him do it with you, beloved. I’m talking to somebody, whoever you may be, right now who has said, sadly, “Well it’s all over for me. No good to try anymore, it’s all over”. Either age has come to slow you down, or some human failure has closed the doors in your face, and you say to yourself sadly, “I’ve blown it. It’s all over. No more chance for me”. Hey, look up brother. God is the God of Jonah, of the second chance. God is the God who wants to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can imagine or ask Him for. He wants to do that. He says He’s able to do it, but the measure is according to the power that worketh in us. You have to open your life to Him before He can put on the abundantly concept in your experience. Do it, will you, beloved?

The Divine spill over filled with all the fullness of God, so that He can go beyond what you could even imagine. Oh, I want that for you and I certainly want it for Bob Cook, and it’s ours for the taking. We operate by faith, “He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”. Let the blessed Spirit of God fill you today to the spillover point. Will you do it?

Dear Father today, fill all of us so full of Thy Presence that we spill over the grace of God, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!