Refueling Your Life

Refueling Your Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzy4AMNIU20

We are now at the end of our welcome back series, “Reset Your Life.”

In our first message, “Resetting Your Life,” we looked at several steps the Bible talks about in how we go about the resetting process. But these steps were not just for those who needed to reset their lives to Jesus, but also to those who needed a reset in their relationship back with Jesus, in other words, getting back to that first love relationship.

And then last week we looked at “Reigniting Your Life,” and our need to give a booster shot to our faith, which comes through the filling, baptism, and refilling of the Holy Spirit.

But rather than looking at this as a booster shot, there’s another analogy that works better, and that is our need to turn on the ignition to our cars, which is the presence of the Holy Spirit within every believer in Jesus Christ.

Today as we end our series, I’d like to look at our need to keep ourselves refueled for the journey.

Using the analogy of a car, we could say that this reset may be looked at as either buying a new car, or getting our old car serviced. But the car doesn’t do us any good if it’s just sitting in our driveway. We have to drive it, which begins when we start the engine, that is, when the engine is ignited, which is our second step of getting our lives reignited through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so, keeping with this theme, once we start driving the car around town, if we don’t stop at the gas station and refill our gas tanks, we’ll soon find ourselves stopped and off on the side of the road.

This concept is no different with us because we often are running on empty in our spiritual lives, which also negatively affects our physical lives as well. And so, if we don’t get our spiritual tanks refueled then we’re going find ourselves both spiritually and physically on the side of the road.

So, how do we refill our spiritual lives. Well, this is what this last message in our Resetting Our Lives series is all about.

Now as we looked at the presence of the Holy Spirit as that reigniting spark, there are three basic disciplines that the Holy Spirit works through. We can think of these as a hammer, screwdriver, and wrench in a toolbox, or a spoon, fork, and knife in a silverware drawer. Now, the main three that are used by the Holy Spirit are the intake of God’s Word, the Bible, Prayer, and Worship.

Bible Intake

The intake of the Bible, or God’s Word, basically involves making God’s word a part of our daily lives.

“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV)

The fact it is God-breathed means God the Holy Spirit authored it. God’s word equips everyone with everything they need to live an effective life for God. Literally, the Bible is transformational and transformative. It is God’s answers and directions for life in a world filled with sin.

A standard statement of faith used by just about every Christian church is that the Bible is fully inspired by God and is without error in its original manuscript. It’s the infallible rule of Christian faith and practice. It is incapable of being wrong or mistaken.

The key is that it’s God’s word and not just another religious book. Therefore, it’s useful, that is, it’s practical, beneficial, and relevant.

Donald Whitney, in his book, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life” wrote, “No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s word. Nothing can substitute for it. There is simply no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of God’s word.”

Since the word of God seems to be the number one tool used by the Holy Spirit to bring about spiritual transformation, what can we do to further the process?

The answer is to approach the Bible from every angle using our physical senses, mind, and spirit.

Hearing God’s Word

Jesus doesn’t downplay the importance of listening to God’s word being preached or taught. In the early days that’s primarily the way learning occurred. Jesus tells us when we take time to hear God’s word being taught there’s a blessing attached.

“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” (Luke 11:28 NKJV)

In Romans 10:14 Paul said: “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”