I have to say that I am sorry for my absence of late. I went back to work after the first of the year. It is okay, I work in an office upstairs and away from everyone else. We wear masks and follow protocol to keep safe. They are very aware of my health issues. I only see them when I go down to use the facilities or if they come up to pass on some work. I have also added a workout to my regimen as well as some Groundwire chatline help to keep connected.
Anyway, I was explaining to a coworker, in my own
special way, about the progression of old age and thinking. I explained it by
comparing an air-filled balloon. Then, I got to thinking, it is more like
helium and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit being the big H. My granddaughter, Angel, used to love my stories or
analogies of how things work. I would explain bacteria in her teeth as little
bugs that try to take over her mouth and brushing is like sending an army to
battle with them. 😊 So,
let me share this with you too.
I imagine that when we are born, we are simply a shell
of a person with little concept of God, Jesus or salvation. In terms of a
balloon, we are flat and motionless sitting on the floor doing nothing. As we grow
and depending on what we learn or know about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we
begin to gain substance. Slowly, our little balloon starts to fill with air in direct
proportion with our faith. Essentially, what we absorb or take in, fills us up.
As our faith grows and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, our balloon expands.
During our lifetime, it may ebb and flow getting less than and more than based
on what we take in.
For example, if I were a church going person who talks
to Him all the time and stays connected, it is as if I am connected to a Helium
machine. I get bigger, sore higher and am filled with the Spirit most of the
time. I am off the ground and filled with love for others. I have it made.
Eph 3:19: “And to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
If I have faith in God but I get distracted by worldly
things and wander off from time to time, forgetting to stay connected, my
balloon begins to leak the big H (Helium, or in this case, The Holy Spirit). While
others are in tune with their Spirit and recognize the direct correlation between
the health of our Spirit and our connection to God. Some of us notice this
right away and run back for a refill.
1 Thes 5:19: “Do not quench the Spirit.”
Some of us take a while before we make the connection
at all. We become distant and disconnected. We start deflating and sinking. We
are not filled with the Spirit anymore. The lack of Spirit causes us to lose
perspective and become more worldly and dark. We no longer do what we long to
do and we do what we do not want to do. Our world gets turned upside down and
we never quite make the connection between the light and dark. Between our
filling up and our letting go. We bounce around in the world lower and lower or
just not really getting where we need to be because we feel empty. We are lost
between our sense of peace and our worldly turmoil.
Eph 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic
powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places.”
In fact, I will go so far as to say that this is what
we humans are normally like without our faith. Without the filling of the Holy
Spirit, we slowly lose Our Spirit and begin to sink into darkness again. Like
that balloon that slowly leaks the Helium out until it is no longer in air but
skips along the carpet and finally comes to rest on the floor, empty of all
that lifted it up. As if it never floated above you at all.
1 John 2:16: “For all that is in the world—the desires
of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from
the Father but is from the world.”
Faith, and ultimately the Holy Spirit is our life’s
blood. It acts like Helium does to an empty balloon. And just like Helium and a
balloon, if you just fill it once and leave it to its own devices, what does it
do?
You can’t have a revival or an awakening and then
leave that person to their own devices. You need to be continuously filled with
knowledge and the Spirit. You need to be filled with the Truth and stay
connected with Christ so that you learn to recognize the factors in the world
that cause you to deflate or lose faith and perspective. You have to keep your
lifeline filled.
I watch and listen to people who leave program thinking
they can let go of that lifeline and be on their own. I plead with them to stay
connected to their faith and to continue to be filled so they don’t become a
part of the world around them. And, sadly, I have watched them fall because
they forget the face of their Father and were led astray. It breaks my heart.
They should know from experience that we cannot do it without Him.
Look, I am not saying that you HAVE to read the bible
every single day or you are doomed. Having conversations with God about your
day, praying to Him and keeping Him in your daily life is healthy too. I don’t
always read the bible or do bible study. But I am always talking to Him either
in my head or out loud if no one is around. It is very important that you know
the bible and what it says to expect in the end so that you are fooled. He is
quite frank about that. But it also has amazing common-sense insight into how
we should be with each other.
For your own good, you must get to a point where you see
the spiritual battle going on around you and you recognize the affects of the
world on you when you are not filled with the Spirit. You MUST for your own
good.
John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart
from me you can do nothing.”
There are so many ways to stay connected and learn,
even if you can’t go to church.
· Youversion bible app has the bible and bible study plans, videos and podcasts.
· The internet. You can watch anything at any time just by looking for it on the internet.
· Your own bible.
· Online church. I like this because we really do benefit by listening to someone else talk about God
· Christian friends: Networking with people who want to partner with you to learn and grow together can be fun. You can learn together and hold each other accountable.
Heb 4:16: “Let us then with confidence draw near to
the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time
of need.”
Listen, don’t be deflated. Look at all the different
ways the enemy would like to take you out of your faith and put you back into
the world so that you have no Spiritual impact on the world around you.
Isa 55:11: “So shall my word be that goes out from my
mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I
purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
