The Cross before me

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18

The message of the cross is ubiquitous in the Bible. There is the cross upon which our LORD died, and most believers can correctly point to that event as their hope of salvation.  We know that we were sinners, and so we all came down that sawdust trail, and accepted the finished work of Jesus Christ as the payment for our sins. We were all once lost, but now we've been found, we were blind but now we see. 

Great. Then what? Our consciousness has been awakened to our sins. Were it not so, why then would we have come to Him for salvation? We may enjoy a honeymoon period where we feel so close to him, but that soon fades. What are we left with, saints? The zeal for the new man is gone. The reality of life sets in. Sure, we are now in Christ, and one day He will bring us to Heaven. But doesn't this seem a distant promise? How then shall we live now?

Saul of Tarsus was "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;". When it came to looking good, Saul had it made. But then sojourning down the road to Damascus, he encounters the LORD. His old life is shattered. He begins to preach the faith that he once tried to destroy. So far, so good. But he is far away from being the Apostle Paul. 

Off to the deserts of Arabia for 14 years, brother. Go make tents. How long until he begins to wonder if what happened was just an illusion? Listen to his testimony: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Saul cannot become Paul until he reckons with this very real struggle: Eschewing evil and embracing good is not easy. In fact, he writes, it is impossible. The accuser is right there. Maybe it was all fake, Saul. Go back to your old, comfortable life. You are still a card carrying Pharisee. Hiss. The revelation of the Cross awaits you, Saul. After much suffering you will be able to understand. 

After all that trial, Paul discloses God's objective: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 

This is God's economy, what He does, why He does what He does. He has set Eternity in our hearts. We are eternal creatures who walk in a temporal world. This world is where we live, but it is not, and cannot be our home. Until we apprehend this fact and let go of the illusion that we belong here, our life as believers will be one failure after another. Not because God doesn't see our trial, doesn't love us, does not care that we are failing, but because there is a way life in a temporal world works. This is what the Cross is teaching us:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

After much trial and testing of our faith, every saint is brought to the foot of the cross wherein we must acknowledge that we simply cannot live the life of a saint until we surrender all and leave it there. One Christian prophet suggested that it is like a battle. When we are fighting in our own strength, we are in the valley. The enemy is raining down arrows of accusation upon our heads as we go from one defeat to another. Until we see that there is a higher place from whence we can fight. He calls it the Galatians 2:20 plane, the place where we are not vulnerable to Satan's arrows, because try as he might, he simply cannot kill a man who knows he is already dead. 

No, the battle does not stop. Our outward circumstances are most often the same. But now that we see that the battle does not belong to us, we set the LORD ahead of us, and He does the fighting. Our bodies he may kill, God's truth abideth still, His Kingdom is forever. Amen.       

Somebody touched the LORD

 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. Mark 5:22-34

There is a contrast in the stories Mark is relating here. In the first scene, we meet a certain Jairus. He is described as one of the rulers of the synagogue, a man of status and likely also of wealth. But he had a problem that no amount of wealth or influence could solve. His only child, his little girl was at the point of death. Having heard of the power of Jesus to heal, Jairus humbles himself, and comes to the LORD, asking Him to heal her. This is no surprise. What parent wouldn't do the same thing? Jesus of course went with him, along with a great crowd. 

The second scene, which is really a story within a story, is quite different. In that crowd, there was a woman who had been sick for 12 issue with a blood discharge. As such, she would have been ceremonially unclean, and anyone who touched her would also have been made unclean for a day. So not only was she suffering from weakness likely resulting from her loss of blood, she also would have been a social outcast. Not quite a leper, but nearly as bad. Like Jairus, her situation was totally hopeless, but I want to tell you folks, THIS LADY HAD FAITH! She knew if she just touched the hem of His garment, she would be made whole. Unlike Jairus, she doesn't ASK Jesus to come touch her, she boldly reaches out to touch HIM. Far from making our LORD unclean, when she touched Him, SHE became clean, healed of her illness. Of course, Jesus is aware that somebody touched Him. The clueless disciples said, "Well, duh", there are so many in this crowd. But they were not the ones Jesus was referring to. No, He refers to the person who touched HIM BY FAITH. He tells her that it was indeed her faith that has made her well. 

How many of us here could use a touch from Jesus? I think that would be all of us. But what do we do? Do we just passively pray, O LORD, please heal me, hoping that perhaps He will come to our place and make us whole? This woman did not do that. She went out and touched the LORD, and she went away healed. No passivity. BOLDNESS. Hutzpah. She knew what she wanted and was willing to go to any lengths to get it. 

Brothers and sisters, will we be so bold? What is our prayer life like? Do we just passively pray, like Jairus, hoping that someday He might hear us? Or will we be so desperate in our prayers that we will push through any unbelief or doubt, and make an effort to touch HIM? Jesus  makes it clear: Whoever believes, and does not doubt, receives the answer to their prayers. Let us then knock on that door, and knock again, and again, and again. When he opens the door, Jesus will hold open His arms, and give us the chance to touch Him. Don't wait till someday. Make today the day you touch the LORD. 

Born that man no more may die

 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:9-14

We have come to the beginning of another year. In December, I heard a sermon by brother Brett Sweet from GCF central. I thought it was so appropriate for the gospel, I thought I'd try to use his basic outline. So if you think it's good, thank him. If not, blame me! LOL. 

A stanza in that great Christmas Hymn, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" includes this statement: Jesus is "born to give them second birth". Indeed, Jesus told Nicodemus that if a man wants to see the Kingdom of God, he must needs be born again. But what does this mean? 

1. Jesus is born with a backstory. Unlike us, Jesus did not come into being. He is the great I AM, with no beginning and no end. Jesus was, in fact, the Creator of all that there is. We did not choose to be born. We do not choose to die, but Jesus Christ did both. According to the letter to the Phillipian church, Jesus made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. For man, there is a time to die, and a time to be born, per Solomon. Not for Jesus. He chose to be born in a manger, and he chose to die for our sins on a cross. 

2. Jesus was indeed born, and He was rejected. The world, the system founded by sinful men, of course hated him. You see, it's like that. Jesus is the Light of men, but the thing is, we tend to love our sin, and the Light of the World coming into our world is rather inconvenient. The apostle John writes:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

So the world rejected Him. That is not so surprising. But not only did the world reject Jesus, so did his own people. "He came unto His own, but His own received Him not". Why? Same reason as the world. The religious folks of His day tried hard to be holy, to be "good". But He called them "whitewashed tombs"! Ouch. My friends, it does not matter if you are sinning outside of the church, or are a self-righteous Pharisee within its walls. Jesus calls you out. Thus, the Gospel is bad news before it is good news. The Light must come and expose the true condition of your soul. But the good news is: To those who received Him, He gave the power to become His children!

3. This is accomplished by being "Born Again". I suppose Nicodemus' head must have been spinning when Jesus told him this was the only way. Nick could only think of the natural world. He did not choose to be born the first time, but here Jesus is telling him he CAN choose to be born the second time. His first birth was of water, but Jesus is inviting Nick to be born again, this time of the Spirit. You see, he was alive biologically due to his earthly parents, but he was not alive unto God. God is Spirit, and those who would worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. However, born into Adam, our spirits are dead unto God. We have no hope of fellowship with our Creator. However, Christ offers us a new birth, that of the Spirit, and upon receiving Him, we can now know God, and we have become His kids!

So here is the problem: We are separated from God on account of our sins. There is no way for us to be good on our own. God offers us Eternal Life through Jesus Christ. But many, far too many, stand aloof and refuse to come to Him. Why? Well, I suppose for each person, the story is different. Shame. Indifference. Suffering. But I suspect that what we all have had in common is Bad Theology. Simply put, we do not come to God because we do not believe He is good. Brent cited a children's book called the boxcar kids. 

Here is a story of four children who have been orphaned. They have a grandfather, but while their parents were still alive, he never came to visit, so they do not know him. What they know of him has come from their mom, who told them that Grandpa did not care about them, that his was an old miser who lived only for himself. So when the four kids are found on their own, their first inclination was to run away. The last person on earth they wanted to meet was grandpa. 

The truth was, however, that grandpa was a man who was indeed very rich in material things, but he was also a very kind man. Even though the kids were not looking for him, he was very much looking for them. He finally does find them living in an abandoned boxcar, where they have spent the summer living on the wages of the oldest brother. However, because he knows they are running from him, he does not immediately tell them who he is. Rather, he displays his kindness towards them. He invites them to come for dinner. He blesses them with presents. He begins to care for them. At the end of the story, the children do find out that he is their grandpa. They have been running from him thinking him to be one way, but in reality he was quite different. 

My friends, so it is with our own journey. We are all spiritual orphans. Though our Father is rich in compassion and mercy towards us, we have been living out of our own resources. Why? We believe, falsely, that God does not see us. He does not care. We certainly have heard about Him, but we have believed a false report. Therefore, instead of running to God, we have run away to false gods. Some of us have turned to relationships, some to success in a career. Others have not found fulfillment in life, and have been broken on the ravages of addition to drugs or alcohol. But what we all have in common is that NONE of these things give any real satisfaction. We have drunk of their water, and have found them ultimately unsatisfying. 

I invite each and every person here to reconsider. According to the Bible, here is the truth: In Isaiah 30:18, He tells us that longs to be gracious to us, and to show us compassion. When God introduces Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6 - "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin". 

So my friends, I do not know where you are on the path of life. I certainly hope that some of you have come to know God, to walk with Him, and have found Him to be good. Many of you, however, are very much on the outside looking in. Like the children in the story, you find yourselves alone, struggling, trying your best to negotiate some sort of peace. May I ask you, though - Have you really found it? Thanks to this mission, you are at least out of the cold of Winter and I trust you have eaten a hearty meal tonight. Though your bodies are warm and well fed, what of your souls? Are you satisfied with the walk you find yourselves on? Jesus offered the woman at the well Living Water. She tasted it and found that He was everything she needed and more. 

Some here may be looking back at a train wreck when they consider what their lives have been about. I know I sure do. It is only so easy to think that life has been wasted, and that we are beyond redemption. What we know of God prevents us from even considering an invitation to a new life. But this is a tragic lie. 

There was a man who lived a very upright life outwardly. He went to church. He paid his tithes. He made sure that he followed the law religiously. But on his way to Damascus to persecute the saints, Saul of Tarsus met the living Jesus Christ. And nothing was ever the same. He writes to the church in Phillipi - "My brothers, I don't get it yet, but this is what I will do: I will forget the past, and reach out for the future, towards the goal of obtaining high call of God in Jesus Christ". He went from the religious Saul of Tarsus to Paul, an apostle of the the Lord Jesus Christ. In comparison to knowing Christ, all his former life Paul considered a pile of garbage. And he would never go back. 

I invite those of you who have received this word to pray with me:

Lord Jesus, 

I am not happy with the life I have been living. Because I did not believe that you are good, I have run away from you. Like the woman at the well, I have found that all the world has to offer cannot satisfy my soul. I am ready to come to you, because I have heard that you are, in truth, good. I open my heart to you. I ask you to come in and give me a new life. Amen. 

advent

 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light

they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:

and the government shall be upon his shoulder:

and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,

The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,

upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,

to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice

from henceforth even for ever.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Isaiah 9_2-7

Well, we have reached yet another Advent season. Will we have some snow on Christmas? I don't recall that many white Christmases since we moved here in 2021. Anyway, I sure hope we do get some. And then let it be gone until next Christmas! It probably doesn't work that way, though. 

What is advent really about? Is it not the story of Light breaking into the darkness? Of Jesus John writes:

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

The advent story is, of course, a part of the overall story of the Bible. It is a tragic story we know all too well. The first day, God says, "Let there be Light" and there was light. On the seventh day, God saw all that He had made, and said it was "very good". The garden in which our parents Adam and Eve were placed was a utopia that was perfect in every way. In the midst of the garden stood the Tree of Life, from which we were free to eat and live forever. However, perhaps long before Adam and Eve were formed, but after God had said, "Let there be Light", a darkness formed in Heaven. Some angel named Lucifer decided he would be God, and was cast out of heaven to the earth. There he sees the innocent couple in the garden and begins to challenge them. "Did God really say?", and invites them to forsake the tree of life and eat of the knowledge of good and evil. They did so, and the darkness was poured out on the earth. At least for a time, the people did indeed walk in darkness. All hope seemed lost. Has not Lucifer won again? 

Surprise, devil! God is not finished with man yet. The LORD prophesied that a Descendant of Eve would one day overcome the power of the evil one. Light indeed has come, and we have beheld His glory, "full of grace AND truth". Darkness, when exposed to light, ALWAYS runs away. The same Light that created the world in the first place is now shining again, illuminating the world, exposing our corruption. In Jesus was Life, and that Life was the Light of men. 

Brothers and sisters, let us always keep this in mind: The present darkness we experience, even at this festive season of Advent, is not forever. Paul writes to the Corinthian Church:

The Scriptures say, “God commanded light to shine in the dark.” Now God is shining in our hearts to let you know that his glory is seen in Jesus Christ.

7We are like clay jars in which this treasure is stored. The real power comes from God and not from us. 8We often suffer, but we are never crushed. Even when we don't know what to do, we never give up. 9In times of trouble, God is with us, and when we are knocked down, we get up again. 1

Our witness is the Light that is in us. We do not interpret our current unpleasant situation as a discouragement. Rather, we can see that Light is indeed breaking out. No one will need to be confused: When we praise God out of the midst of the darkness of this world, they will know for sure that this power is of God, not of us. By revelation, we know that:

We (need) never give up. Our bodies are gradually dying, but we ourselves are being made stronger each day. 17These little troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles seem like nothing. 18Things that are seen don't last forever, but things that are not seen are eternal. This is why we keep our minds on the things that cannot be seen.

Holiness

 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Heb 12:14

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. I Peter 1:15-16

I suppose there would be no easier way for a pastor to offend his congregation than to preach on holiness. The standard is undisputed: As God is holy, so must we be. We know this, and I think it causes great fear, as we just don't feel very holy. As our preacher shared today, this conundrum is usually dealt with in one of two ways. We either are so overwhelmed by our besetting sins that we simply give up. If not, we try our best not to sin, but the more we try, the more sins pop up. It's like playing Whack-a-Mole. A real walk of victory over sins seems unattainable and etherial. Maybe once we walk on the golden streets of Heaven can we be free of sin, but not here on earth. But is this what the Bible teaches?

No, the passages above are calling for holiness. As nothing in our personal experience may suggest that we can indeed walk blameless here on earth, I believe our first response to a call for holiness is fear: We just don't think it is possible, that somehow God has laid a burden on us that we simply cannot bear. Thus, we interpret the above passages with unenlightened hearts, and draw the conclusion that God is not really requiring a holy walk from us. Somehow we must come up with an interpretation that flies in the face of His clear commands. " Be as holy as you can be", give it the college try. You won't get there, but strive for holiness anyway. 

Saints, no such interpretation is possible. But the Bible does not leave us to our own resources here. No, the very holiness God requires of us is already ours. We may not see this naturally but He bids us to be "transformed by the renewing of our mind". Indeed, by setting our minds on heavenly things, practical holiness is possible. We must not try to be as holy as possible. We must not bow down to besetting sins that seem to overwhelm us. The key is believing what the Word says, and trusting God to impute His very character into us. We cease striving and acknowledge He is God, Psalm 46:10. But what does it mean to believe?

I once heard a story about an acrobat named the Great Blondin. Ever the promoter, he cast a cable across the mouth of the Niagara River, in front of the famous falls. He called a crowd together and asked them if they thought he could cross the river while blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow. "Yes, yes, we believe you can do this", they roared. Ok, then he says, "who is going to get in"? Therein, my friends is true faith. We TRUST the God who said He can preserve us blameless before Him in love. We don't know how. By faith, we commit that holy life to the One who, in us, is perfectly holy, and powerful. Holiness can be found IN us, but never OF us. 

We can have no relationship with a holy God if we ourselves are not holy. Not only is holiness possible, it is also essential. Just as we trusted Christ for justification, we must also trust Him for sanctification. He invites us to turn to Him and be saved. 

"Lord Jesus, I want to be found in you, having not a righteousness that is of the flesh, for indeed all that I can do in regard to a holy life is completely worthless. Rather, may I stand holy before you on the basis of my complete trust in your work on the Holy Cross. I go forth knowing that the accuser of the brethren will be challenging me. May thy Spirit that is in me rebuke him. Just as I trust you to be my salvation from the penalty of my sins, I am trusting you to be my salvation from the presence of sins in my mortal body. I know that you are able to keep me from falling, and to present me blameless before the Father. Thank you Lord Jesus. You are my life. I love you."

Who is a martyr?

 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8

And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. Acts 22:20

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. John 12:32

Earlier this month we were met with the news that our brother Charlie Kirk had been shot. We were stunned. Why would someone so hate him as to take away his life? So we began to call him a martyr, and correctly so. But just what is a martyr? What does the Bible say about this?

The Greek word for martyr simply means "Witness". Only a few times in the Bible is it translated "Martyr", in the sense of one who willingly gives up his life for the sake of Christ. Certainly though Stephen was one of the first such men to die for Christ, all the apostles except John also did so. And through out two millennia, countless others have also been called to follow in their footsteps. And they, for sure, were effective witnesses. Tertullian, writing  about 197 AD, said that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church". And he was correct, for the more the Romans persecuted the church, the faster it grew. By the time of Constantine, some 10 percent of the denizens of the Roman Empire were believers, such was the stunning growth of the church in some 300 years. So many have indeed died, and continue to die, for the sake of Christ. But are they meant to be exceptional? 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die". Indeed, Jesus tells us that "if any man would come after Him, he must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me". So brothers and sisters, we are ALL called to die, to give up the right to ourselves, and exalt Him. We will not, however, all end our life on earth as Martyrs, be we are ALL called to be witnesses. But just what does this mean?

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthian church, writes that as they take communion, they are proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes. The key to this is the denial of self. This does NOT mean making our best effort to be as good of a Christian as we can be. No, as Paul writes in Romans seven, even he found that the very things he would do, he could not do, and the things he would not do, he very much did. In the end he asks, "Who shall save me from this body of death? But thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Just as Christ gave himself up and was willing to say, "Not my will but thine", and overcame death, and was raised up triumphantly to a new life", so with His disciples. The key to being a witness is simply to trust the presence of Christ in us that whenever we are put to the test, His life is what the world sees, not our natural selves. This is self denial, refusing to trust our natural ways, but drawing on His life in us. As Peter writes to us, "His Devine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our (intimate) knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness". We have no goodness of our own, but "Christ in us is the hope of glory". 

We will not all take a bullet for Christ like our brother Kirk, but I imagine that he walked in such a way that dying like this would only have been a mere extension of the way he lived. That is, Charley lived as a martyr long before he died as a martyr. He listened to others. He did not mock or belittle anyone who had another opinion. He honored them, building a bridge of trust. He knew that it was not about him, but about the Person of Christ who lived in him. And at a young age, the Lord, in his sovereignty, called Charley home. So though we may not necessarily give up our physical lives for the Lord, we can all live as martyrs, our denial of our right to ourselves being a witness to the world that we are strangers just passing through, citizens of another Kingdom that has not yet fully manifested, but is surely coming. When the world curses us, Christ in us returns a blessing. When the world hates us, Christ in us loves them back. So great is His love in us, that we give up ourselves for others, as that is what Christ, in us, is doing. 

So let us turn our hearts to see Him. As Paul writes, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from glory to glory". The more we behold Him, the more His life is preeminent in our walk, and the more the world sees Him in us. All glory to the Lamb of God!

Be ye filled

 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Eph 5:19-20

What is this, to be "filled with the Spirit"? In one sense, EVERY believer, from their spiritual birth, is filled with the Holy Spirit. Through the ministry of the Spirit, we hear the voice of our LORD. When our faith is challenged, by the power of the indwelling Spirit, we can defeat our enemy. When we walk in the Spirit, the fruit of our lives is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, Galatians 5:22. The very character of our Lord Jesus is found in us by this indwelling Spirit. But is this what Paul means when he invites us to be "filled with the Spirit"? 

Now on the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place, and the power of the Holy Spirit was upon them. They began to speak in human languages that they had not learned. So great was this power, that observers thought them to be drunk. Peter, who some 50 days earlier had denied he even knew Jesus, now stands up and gives the church's very first sermon, and 3000 souls were saved. By the power of the Spirit, all sorts of miracles followed the apostles around. Of this power, Paul writes that He gives to each as He chooses. So perhaps this is not it either, as Paul could hardly command the saints do something that is beyond their control. Writes Isaiah:

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,

to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,

the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

that they might be called trees of righteousness,

the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified

Here it is, saints: I believe that being filled with the Spirit is choosing to praise when nothing is going right, and by doing so, actively asking the LORD to fight this battle for you. We "enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His Courts with praise" Psalm 100:4. The enemy cannot comprehend this. He is always thrown into confusion when God's saints praise Him, even though it appears they have no hope. Being filled with the Spirit is simply entering into the praise of the one who has saved us even though the storm is raging outside. May we so be found before Him!