City Life Starter

Written by Aisha Darwesh

The Word

Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:18-20

Aisha’s Analysis

God’s love is eternal, and when we cultivate that love, working it into every aspect of our daily lives, that’s when Heaven meets earth and two worlds collide.  That’s when everything you do is permeated with a rich sense of purpose—whether you’re making lemonade for your family or doing your job with excellence out of love for our Heavenly Father, everything, just everything done in selfless, unconditional, agape love has eternal value.

But how can this be accomplished on a moment-by-moment basis?  It goes against the grain of the world’s way of thinking.  The carnal nature is only interested in doing that which will satisfy itself.  Living a life of love requires us to become transcendent above ourselves.  We’ve got to come up higher, but how?

The above scripture gives us a vital clue.  It says not to drink too much wine, but instead drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of Him!  When someone is drinking wine, the mindset behind it is to seek pleasure—to find an escape from an unsatisfying life.  It seems perfectly innocent on the surface, but the only problem is wine can’t satisfy you on the inside.  All it does is provide some temporary relief, then it makes you pay twice as much as it costs by leaving you hung over and even more empty.

That’s not the kind of wine God would have us drink.  He wants to fill us to overflowing and empower us to do the impossible.  He wants to come on the scene.  One of the ways we can usher in His Presence is by singing songs of worship straight from our hearts.  The Holy Spirit will guide our worship and take us straight into the heart of God.  This is how we can “drink God” and become filled to overflowing.

When we’re filled with God’s Spirit, all those other selfish desires are banished away.  He takes over and makes our lives a song to God.  As we delight in all the attributes of the Father, He puts His desires in our hearts and simultaneously works on our behalf to fulfill them (Psalm 37:4).  His Spirit goes ahead of us and shows us which direction to take.

When you’re drunk with wine, you stagger and stammer, but when you’re filled with God’s Spirit, you’re steady and coherent.  Everything becomes perfectly clear.  Even if you don’t know all the details, you’re not leaning on your own knowledge; you’re leaning on the only One who truly does know it all.   He was there from the very beginning:

1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

3 God spoke: “Light!” And light appeared.  God saw that light was good and separated light from dark

Genesis 1:1-3 (MSG)

When we listen to the voice of God’s Spirit in our lives, He speaks light into our situation.  The Light of Jesus Christ shines into our very souls and restores us from the inside out.  All the damage caused by living in darkness is brought to light and properly addressed by the blood of Jesus and power of God.

Our lives are shaped by our choices.  We have a choice, we can yield to the world’s way or yield to God every day of our lives in every situation.  We can choose to believe what we perceive or what the Word of God says. What will you choose? 

Application

People with a chemical dependency are always thinking about their next fix.  They’re desperate for it.  That’s how we should be about the Holy Spirit.  A dependency on anything other than God’s Spirit is our bondage, but a dependency on God means total freedom for us.  He’s the only One who’s truly worthy of our total trust and dependence.

Furthermore, God’s Spirit is the One who produces the fruit of love inside us.  A life totally yielded to the Spirit will cause us to override our carnal desires and do exactly as the Spirit wills, which is the ultimate form of satisfaction.  The Holy Spirit makes us holy and gives us the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God’s love for us really is (Ephesians 3:18).

There’s no hope for us in and of ourselves.  But when we give the Lord access to our hearts and give Him free rein in our lives, two worlds collide, and we will literally experience heaven on earth! Give God full access to your life today and never look back!

Prayer

Sweet Holy Spirit, I want to stay yielded to You every second. Show me Your ways and guide me into all Truth. Help me to remain in Christ and stay filled with You! In Jesus’ name, Amen.