Share the post "Affirmation of God: Christ and His Spirit fill me so that there is only room for Him."
Is it enough to just stop a bad habit? Can you just clean house and be done with it forever? What happens in that void when you decide to free yourself of that character defect?
Today’s affirmation is from Matthew 12: 43-45: 43“When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” (NIV)
The man of wisdom God placed into my life when I needed it most was Bud Butler. Bud mentioned this verse very early in my introduction to recovery. In a nutshell, be sure and fill yourself with Christ and His Spirit so that there is no room for anything else. You can’t just stop your addictions or your character defects without intentionally replacing them with God.
These demons we fight as Christ described here in Matthew are relentless. They may leave but if you do not fill that void with the Holy Spirit then these very demons will come back and find your soul a fertile playground. You cleaned up a bit and reorganized the furniture but the room is still empty. These evil spirits will return and invite their friends to come in and make your life even worse than it was before. Something is guaranteed to fill that void as it will not remain empty.
Jesus says it is not enough to just rid yourself of this evil but to replace it and be filled with the Him and the Holy Spirit. John Baker in Celebrate Recovery says as we become entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character in step 6 we should fill the space by doing positive things that will build us instead of tearing us down.
Have you ever seen where people have tried to get better only to find that they became worse? Has it ever happened to you?
What better defender do we have than Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to fill our souls? I pray we all ask Him to fill us and that we continually fill ourselves with His will His good. As He fills us may we bear good fruit! Matthew 12:33 says “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. (NIV)
Do you have a personal testimony as to how Jesus has filled your old voids and produced an everlasting and good fruit? What is your story? What will we be recognized by? Are we filled with the Holy Spirit and the will of God or are we filled with other things?
I love you Jesus and ask for the filling of Your Holy Spirit. I am with You and only want to do the will of the Father in Heaven. Please fill us Father God.
Tom Raines
Christian Affirmations 4 Life
I am filled with the Holy Spirit but i sure spend an awful lot of time trying to cram other things into my rooms.
Amen brother!
Tom, what good words of wisdom. I’m sure I’ve heard these verses before, but I don’t remember them. Now I hope they will be “stuck” in my mind and heart. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Thank you for taking the time to give us these affirmations. (I “found” you through Robin.)
Thanks Meg! I am so thankful you have stopped by again and any friend of Robin is a friend of mine. What a treasure she is…I had never even been to a blog until I went to hers and she was my inspiration to begin this journey…I appreciate you travelling it with me. May God Bless us and fill us today!
This is something I missed twice. Two different times of letting go and walking away from my addiction with so much effort and energy on getting sober I neglected this crucial step.
God was always a key part in my life but this is something different isn’t it? Now my love for Him, my devotion to His call, my focus in life is completely blanketed in Jesus …
love to you and yours today my friend…
Robin… you are sooo right with your quote “but this is something different isn’t it?” It is something different. Can’t explain it but it is! So thankful He has come in and I really let him in. For me I think before it was window dressing (or some of your cute curtains) but this time I really needed Him desperately inside…may that was it…Thanks Robin!