Now that we’ve cleaned out the garbage from our “temple”, we need to replace it with someone. That someone is the Holy Spirit. When we fill those “rooms” with the Holy Spirit, with God’s Word, his truths, his power and things that are honoring to him, it helps us to keep our temple clean.” (Matthew 12:43-45).
Just like us, Jesus was tempted by things of the flesh, the world, and the devil during his fast. Jesus went into the wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit. Unlike us, he was perfect and was able to completely resist the devil. As a result, he came out of his fast filled with the POWER of the Holy Spirit, ready to begin his formal ministry. Jesus modeled what it looked to deny his flesh, so we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, would do the same.
When we fast, in a sense, we are creating a God-sized reservoir inside of us where we are emptying us of our flesh and filling us with him. We remove the static in our life that prevents us from hearing God (things that distract us, drive us, and derail us) so that we have a clearer connection. While we choose to fast from all sorts of things: Netflix, social media, negativity, etc., fasting in the Bible is always from food, either complete or partial abstaining from food (see Daniel 10:3). Food is one of our most basic needs. It is definitely a driving force in our lives and often an area we overindulge. I understand some of us may not be able to fast from food for various health reasons. If you cannot, your fast will be just as significant. But if you can, it is a powerful, humbling, challenging, and beautiful way to experience God. As we remove those things that we turn to for comfort, security, and strength, we turn to the Holy Spirit who is our ultimate provider, our ultimate comforter, our ultimate source, and allow him to be our focus.
Last week, we bravely took inventory of our lives and did some serious purging of the things that hindered us from having a clear connection with the Holy Spirit. Let’s return to the analogy of “our body is the temple of God”. When Nehemiah removed Tobiah from the room he occupied in the temple, he then threw away all the furniture of the room, cleansed it, and then re-filled the room with what it was intended to house all along (see Nehemiah 13). Likewise, we have evicted those things from us that were never meant to take residence there, by breaking agreement with sin and unforgiveness. We renounced their power over our lives. We have cleansed the rooms by repenting (turning away from) and asking God to forgive us. Now it is time to fill those rooms with a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. How do we do this? First, we ask the Holy Spirit for a fresh filling. Second, we fill the space once occupied by sin with things of God. Fill your time and attention with the Word of God. Read scriptures that strengthen, encourage you and fortify you. Spend time daily with God in worship and prayer. Pray for strength and ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Invite safe, Godly community to help you be accountable. If you need additional resources like counseling or inner healing and deliverance, seek those out as well. Your freedom in Christ and living a life filled with the Holy Spirit is what we were created and designed for.
Listening Prayer:
Ask the Holy Spirit what he wants you to add in during the fast to fill the rooms of your “temple of the Holy Spirit”. Ask the Holy Spirit how he wants to partner with you to invite intimacy, peace, wisdom, holiness, and direction from him in your life.
Write down what you hear and schedule time in your day to act on it.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, thank you for helping me and for giving me courage to clean out my “temple of the Holy Spirit”. I want to be clean and steward my body, soul, and spirit in a way that honors you. I ask, Holy Spirit for a fresh filling. I invite you to occupy every area of my life. Come and take residence in every room of your temple in me. Be the ruling and reigning Spirit in my life. I submit my soul and my spirit to you. Lead me, direct me, and guide me. Help me to live in a way that invites communion with you.
Resource: Bible Verses on Being Filled with the Holy Spirit
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
“But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:17-20)
“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:8-11)
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:15-21)
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Galatians 5:61-17)
Worship Song:
“Rest on Us” by Maverick City and Upper Room
“Surrounded by Holy” by Bethel Music and Zahriya Zachary
“Fill the Room (feat. Chandler Moore)” by Maverick City