SCHOOL OF DIORTHORSIS
20TH SEPTEMBER, 2022
Minister: Pastor Olusola Ogidan
Text: Ephesians 5:18-20
We don’t know as much as we ought to know. However, we don’t make the most of the things we already know. It is more important to do as much we know than to just pile up knowledge for nothing. For instance, we know we should pray but do we really pray?
We have a mandate to keep on being filled with the Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not supposed to be a one-off event. There is a need to always remain filled with the Holy Spirit.
When we are continuously filled with the Holy Spirit, we are activated to walk incessantly in the supernatural. If we are going to walk in signs and wonders as God has designed us, we must leave no gap in our being filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Church is supposed to be a supernatural place doing things that are beyond men. To do this, we have to never stop being filled with the Spirit. On our own, we are frail and weak and we can do nothing. We cannot do anything outside the Spirit; even Jesus could not perform any miracle until He returned from Jordan in the power of the Spirit.
If we live our lives in the flesh, if we live our lives based on our senses, if we are governed by our soul, we will only produce soulish results. It is better to talk in the Spirit for ten minutes than to talk for two hours in the flesh. Our being led by the Spirit is dictated by how much we are filled by the Spirit.
Acts 4:29-31
Having been filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, the disciples were again filled in Chapter 4 when they prayed for more miracles among them. To get more done for God, all we need to do is to continually be filled with the Spirit. Peter, Stephen, Paul and other disciples did things beyond their human capacities because they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
There has been manifestation of gifts in the lives of great men of God and we seem to have accepted that only ministry gifts should perform signs and wonders. However, everyone is expected to walk in God’s glory and express that glory even if the intensity and the level of manifestation are not the same like those of the five-fold ministers. Every Christian’s life is supposed to be characterized by signs. This is part of the glory that Jesus has given to the Church.
If we only see signs and wonders among the ministry gifts, it means we are not walking in alignment with scriptures. We should not get filled and go to sleep thereby wasting God’s investments upon us.
We are often not filled with the Holy Spirit because we are distracted by the legitimate affairs of this world. If a believer can prophesy at any point in time, he can always prophesy as far as he remains at the same level of being filled with the Holy Spirit. We can have the Pentecost experience over and over again. The way to consistently walk in signs is to always be filled with the Spirit.
Galatians 3:1-3; Ephesians 1:11-13
If we descend into fleshly works after walking in the Spirit, we will not be at the best God has designed for us. The Holy Spirit was given to us by faith and we need to maintain our faith walk to remain filled.
You can never be acceptable to God because of anything you have done or anything you will do apart from faith. Faith in Jesus is the basis on which God accepts us as His. As such, we have to stay in faith to maintain our walk with God.
Even if the New Testament seems to say the same thing as the Old Testament, we cannot win any case before God without coming in the name of Jesus. Being oblivious of this, many people have wasted the grace of God upon them. We must not allow the devil to cut us off through condemnation.
Romans 8:31-34; 1 John 2:1
We have to be careful not to judge God’s elect. Jesus, who has the right to judge us, is actually interceding for us all the time. We cannot intercede for people and condemn them at the same time.
If we sin, we should ask for forgiveness and return to God instead of allowing the devil to shut us out. Always learn to rise; don’t let the devil keep you down. By all means, we must maintain a faith-based relationship with God. Our faith in Christ is what earns us salvation; our faith in Christ is what earns us the Holy Spirit. When we draw back to the flesh from faith, we waste our productive times.
Isaiah 12:3; Luke 22:45
We need to always maintain a joyful disposition in order to walk in the Spirit all the time. We must not allow prevailing circumstances to steal our joy. Sorrow makes us dull and prevents us from engaging with the things of the Spirit.
Proverbs 31:4-7, Ephesians 5:18
Joy is power. Don’t allow yourself to be weighed down by sorrow. Next time you are down, rise up and pray and declare the praises of the Lord and things will change for you (Acts 16:20-26). No matter the challenges you may be going through, count it all joy. The fire of affliction is only refining you.
Luke 2:36-38
Fasting and prayer bring angelic activities around you that make things align for you according to God’s will. We must be a people given to prayer and fasting. Being spiritual is not for lazy people.
Fasting and prayer help you to walk in faith. When you pray and fast, you can operate in faith that can cast out certain devils. One of the reasons why our life’s battery is flat is because we don’t pray and fast.
Whatever happens, we must do everything to remain filled with the Holy Spirit. That is the way we can be at the cutting edge of what God is doing at every point in time.