Message from the Cave

Eph.5:18,19 -And don’t get drunk with wine, which is rebellion; instead be filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And your hearts will overflow with a joyful song to the Lord Jehovah. Keep speaking to each other with words of Scripture, singing the Psalms with praises and spontaneous songs given by the Spirit! The Lord is challenging us to leave our havens of safety and start a good street fight. Paul talked about this fight in Ephesians 6, he called it spiritual warfare. I realized something when chewing on “be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power” when it struck me. A few verses earlier Paul was getting us ready for the fight. He said we must be filled with the Spirit and not drunk with alcohol. This brings us an interesting parallel. How many time have we heard that people get drunk and then go start a fight? Maybe there is something for us here. May our spiritual intoxication actually empowers us for the fight. Spurgeon had some things to say about intoxication.“Strong drink is taken to exhilarate. And for a while it has that effect. How some men are carried away when intoxicated! How lifted up they are! What a great man the least becomes! What a Divine the man who never looked into his Bible! What a philosopher the boor that does not know his letters! What a lord of creation the loon who has not two shirts! What a hero, every way, the coward who is afraid of his shadow! He is exhilarated when he has taken wine.”Spurgeon describes the trickery of booze. We see ourselves in a charade, we are not really the champion, poet, or singer we think we are. Actually drunkenness is just fueling a lie. On the other hand being filled with the Spirit of God has the opposite effect. We see the truth that Christ is on us, He is in us, and He is with us. We see ourselves as more than conquerors and we are. We see ourselves as His ambassadors and we are. We see ourselves as the only answer to this generation and we are. We have the wisdom of where to start the fight, we have the courage to initiate in the fight, and we have the endurance to complete the fight. The only way we can be defeated is if we don’t engage. We are in a war – the lines have been drawn. I was inspired today thinking about the famous Mike Tyson statement – Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. I got punched recently and I am looking for a fight.