Tag Archives: Michael Joe Harvell

Blogroll, Discipleship, Enlightenment, God

Pay Attention Or You Might Miss Something!

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit…” -Ephesians 5:18

Would you agree this is a command?

I asked this question on Social Media, because I wanted to see if the responses were what I thought they might be and they did not disappoint. We folks that like to call ourselves good Christians are quick to jump on the first part of the verse: “And be not drunk with wine”, which I agree is a command and one that I follow.

We tend to miss that second part of the verse which is also a command: “Be filled with the Spirit!” Kinda crazy how many of us tend to miss the obvious?

There are all kinds of sins, but for our conversation today, I want to challenge you to think about sin in two categories: Sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of comission is when we do something we are not supposed to do and sins of omission is when we fail to do something we are supposed to do.

Often, church folks like to focus on a certain list of commission sins, while neglecting some commission and a lot of omission sins, all of which can be doing some real damage to the spiritual body.

If we have the strength, power and resolve to obey the first command, then what about the second command? Is one command more important than the other? Does one matter less?

I would like to suggest that if we get the second command right to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then we are empowered to find success in all kinds of commands and victory in both the sins of commission and sins of omission.

The Holy Spirit is God! What this verse is saying is: Be filled with God! To be filled with God, we have to be empty ourself of self and this is perhaps why we have such a big battle. Our ego gets in the way and encourages to Edge God Out.

What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? I don’t think it means that we are always on a spiritual high, completely perfect with no challenges or struggles. I think it means working to have my spiritual, mental and physical self yielded to my Creator, so that He might flow to and through me. God flowing to and through me empowers me to live the life of blessing I was created for.

So back to the original question: Would you agree this is a command???

Blogroll, Discipleship, Enlightenment, grace, Growing

When Life Squeezes!

Back when I was working with youth, one of the illustrations I loved to share with them was to take three tubes of tooth paste and challenge three of the teens to have a little race with the tubes of tooth paste, all they had to do was very carefully follow the directions as I gave them and the first one finished with all the tasks would be the winner. Task number one was to sqeeze as much of the tooth paste out of the tube as fast as possible. They immediatly went crazy, squeezing, grabbing, pushing, pulling, rolling, whatever they could come up with to try to gett every bit of the paste out of the tube.

Now for the second part of the challenge and the one that finishes first, will be considered the Grand Champion. Then I would instruct them to put all of the tooth paste back into the tube and immediatly they look at me as if I have lost my mind. Of course I have not lost my mind, I know they cannot put it back easily and that is the point.

I go onto explain that life has a tendency to apply pressure and it will untimately squeeze out of us, whatever we have inside of us and no matter how bad we may want to, it is almost impossible to get it put back inside, out of site and out of mind.

Luke 6:45 teaches us that: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”

This is why protecting our heart from evil influence is so important. Life will squeeze you and whatever you have in you is going to come out, so it is best to make sure that we have the right stuff inside of us.

The Bottom Line: When we get our heart right, then we get our life right. A great way to start is by spending time with the Master, learning to think His thoughts and be empowered by His Spirit.

Ask yourself this question and ask God to help you to be honest with yourself and Him abouth the answere: “What’s in your heart???” 🙏🏻

Control, Creativity, Enlightenment, God, grace, Growing

Stop Striving!

I got up this moring just like I always do and went outside, sat down and began to sip my cup of coffee. I opened up my Bible and began to read and the first two words grabbbed me and stopped me in my tracks: “STOP STRIVING!”

It was one of those gut punches that you’re not expecting. I thought to myself: “I didn’t know I was???” I thought I had got off that train a long time ago. The reality for most of us, is that even when we are striving not to strive, we are still striving.

God was reminding me with His simple and beautiful word that I was created for so much more than striving. Striving is my living way below my created level of blessing and growth, while trying to live some imaginary place, I was never created for.

The Scripture comes from Psalms 46:10 and says: “Stop striving and know that I am God; I will be exaltede among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth.”

What is the point of my striving? It changes nothing. I can strive or not strive and it does not change the reality that God is God and I’m not Him. My striving is really an indication that I don’t know Him as well as I may like to think I do???

God is going to be exalted, lifted up, given the attention He deserves and nothing is ever going to change that. God does not need me. He does not need me to do anything for Him. God just simply wants me to enjoy my relationship with Him and all that He brings to this amazing gift called life.

C’mon be honest! What good has all your striving, worrying, planning gotten you? Just stop it all and start enjoying life, it really is that simple. This life is God’s gift to you and what you do with it is your gift to God. Just live it, enjoy it, grow in it and God automatically gets the glory!