A Great Light In The Midst of Darkness - Part 5

Filling of the Holy Spirit. Do we mean that we're filled just like water in a pot or oil in these vessels? Of course not. We've seen the meaning. That's why we spoke on the fullness of the Spirit. It means coming under the sovereignty of the Lord. Then it means coming under a new authority. Then it means growing into maturity. Wonderful. And then notice this. When they were filled, now notice this, they were set on one side to be used for selling. Now I want to say this with weight. I want to say this before God and I want you to take this. If the Lord doesn't come, there'll only be three kinds of churches. There will be the apostate church that will be used by the devil. There will be the revived church that's filled with the Spirit. And then there will be the removed church. It's revival or removal. And you'll see that quickly. And immediately one of those vessels was filled. It was set aside to be used. And that means when a Christian is filled with the Spirit, he'll be set aside to be used. The same with his home and the same with the local church. We have seen this all over England. And you're going to see this all over Ulster. Revived or removed. Now I must be careful because there are young people here. But quite frankly, a Spirit-filled person in a dead church would be agony. And that's the challenge. Well, let's see what happens. The vessels are in. The boys are there in the room. She says, we're going to close the door. This is going to be a sanctuary. So the door is shut. The outside will never see this. It's a sanctuary. And then she said, bring me a vessel. And probably the vessel was bigger than the pot of oil. And she breaks the top. And they're watching. And she pours into the vase. And it's filled to the top. Set it aside, laddie. He says, any oil still in the pot? It's full. It's wonderful. Oh dear. The eyes would come out on the cheek. Bring me another vessel. And she pours in. It's full. Any left? Filled to the top. Put it on one side. Bring me another vessel. What, that big one? Yes. And she pours in. Filled to the top. Wonderful. Any left in the pot, mother? Full to the top. And they're all filled. Set aside for God. Beloved. That's what he wants to do. He wants to fill us all. Cleansed. And then fill. And then she goes to the prophet. She says, I've done what you've told me to do. He says, right. Go sell the oil. Yes. Trading always speaks of activity. And generally speaking, if you look at it, it speaks of preaching the gospel in scripture. Secondly, pay the debt. And if you look at that carefully, it has to do with prayer and prevailing prayer, bringing down the strongholds of Satan. And then live and your children on the rest. As simple as that. You know, she went back to that room and then the boys went out selling the oil. And that's what we must do. The moment God has met us and filled us with the Holy Spirit and we're a consecrated people, then he expects us to go out and preach the gospel. Are we willing? Then secondly, we need someone to deal with the power of the enemy. And how are we going to do that? By prevailing prayer. That's how we bring down the strongholds of Satan. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. And we need people who can really cry to God. The brother isn't here tonight, but this morning in our worship meeting, I heard a brother that had been fired up through this ministry and he gave us a lovely word on the person of Christ. It wasn't a lecture. It was a word in the Spirit and we all rejoiced. Beloved, can you see what our meetings would be if every brother and every sister were filled with the Holy Spirit? Think of the glory of the worship. And then more, think of the power in prayer, that creditor, the power of Satan that's attacking our young people would be totally defeated. And then live thou on and thy children on the rest. What does this mean? First of all, it means living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit. And the Spirit of God will do one thing and that is to make the Lord Jesus absolutely real to you. Now I'm going to close. This is what I visualize. I visualize a group of people, perhaps 25 strong. They hear this simple message and they take it to heart and they challenge one another and say, look, isn't it time we got on the altar and we became a living sacrifice? All these silly excursions that we have in the flesh and in the world, they're all wrong. Let's lay ourselves on the altar and become a living sacrifice, good. And then they look at their own homes and their husband and wife, and I know this is happening. Look, dear, ever since we've been married, we've never had a family altar. In fact, it's the telly that controls us. Let's discipline that knot and let's grow up around the Word of God. We'll read the Bible together and we'll pray together so that in our home, the Lord is worshipped. Wonderful, that's a Spirit-filled home. Then we look at our local church and we say this, we are very Laodicean. Quite frankly, there's nothing theologically wrong in Laodicea and there's nothing wrong theologically in our local church, but oh, it's so dead. It's neither hot nor cold. Isn't it time we got together and we said just like Samuel said, we have sinned. May I say this quickly? The hardest thing to break up is indifference and materialism, and we're right in it. You see, and this is a problem. Laodicea was spiritually dead, but they didn't know it. They were blind to it, and we can be like that. Now, let's ask ourselves a question. When did you last weep in a morning meeting? When did you last weep?