Excerpt from ‘Ablaze for God’
(Used by permission of the author and the
Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, IN)

How to be Filled With the Spirit

Dr. Billy Graham in The Holy Spirit has a chapter entitled “How To Be Filled With the Spirit.” In it he says, “It is interesting that the Bible nowhere gives us a neat, concise formula for being filled with the Spirit.” He suggests that perhaps it was because the believers in the early church did not need to be told how. “They knew that the Spirit-filled life was the normal Christian life.”1

Dr. W. Graham Scroggie, esteemed Baptist pastor and expositor from Edinburgh, cautioned seekers regarding the nature of the experience. Basing his observations on many years on the convention circuit and his own experience, he warned that “’to be filled with the Spirit’ is not necessarily a drastic experience … a strange and strongly emotional experience. Emotions may be deeply manifest, and may not be. This may depend partly upon the temperament of the person. The genuineness is not based on the external, but on what God does deep within our nature. It is not necessarily accompanied by ecstatic joy.”

Dr. Scroggie added, “In my own experience it was ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory.’ The joy became a pain, and as I walked up and down the streets of East London in those days … I had to ask Him to modify it, for it seemed as though my soul would rend my body.”2 He refers to this joy as an accompaniment rather than as an evidence. It is not something that “dehumanizes.” We do not become superior people; we become full of the Spirit, not domineering or superior to others. We are still our own selves with our own personalities, but they are now purified, beautified, and empowered.

Simple Steps to be Filled with the Spirit

Steps to be filled with the Spirit have been described in many ways, but essentially they emphasize the same things. For example, The Salvation Army in its brochure, It Can Happen, lists seven points: Aspire, Acknowledge, Abandon, Abdicate, Ask, Appropriate, Act.

Total surrender means that we confirm Christ as Lord over every part of our being. Dr Harold Lindsell teaches, “Before anyone can be filled with the Holy Spirit, he or she must voluntarily come under the lordship of Jesus Christ in the sense of being a slave. This choice will not be forced on anyone, but it is the … condition set down for those who wish to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

He adds that we cannot claim God’s promise for the enablement to live our life on the highest plane unless we make Jesus Christ Lord in this way. “The norm for Christian life is to have Christ sitting on the throne of our hearts. Paradoxically, when Christ is truly Lord, this is when the believer reaches the highest point of self-fulfillment.”3


Billy Graham writes, “It is amazing how many Christians never really face this issue of Christ’s lordship.”4 He states, I am convinced that to be filled with the Spirit is not an option, but a necessity. It is indispensable for the abundant life and for fruitful service… It is intended for all, needed by all, and available to all. That is why the Scripture commands all of us, ‘Be filled with the Spirit.’”5 He suggests that steps to being filled with the Spirit are understanding, submission, and walking by faith.

Dr. R.A. Torrey, after speaking of the new birth, lists these steps to the Spirit’s fullness: obedience (which he defines as “the unconditional surrender of the will to God”); thirsting; asking; faith.6

Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, places primary emphasis upon faith, but in his more nearly complete explanation he mentions these points: Desire, Surrender Confess, Present, and Pray (or Ask) as the heart preparation for faith.7

Charles Cowman, found of OMS International, outlined these steps to the fullness of the Spirit: Reckon yourself dead to sin, yield yourself, believe the promise, and obey.

Note the basic similarity in what these spiritual leaders say. Let us summarize and restate it in the following simple steps. Let the Holy Spirit guide and enable you to take these steps if you have not done so hitherto.

1. Be sure everything is clear between you and God. Have you become a child of God through the new birth? God does not fill unsaved people with His Spirit. Neither does He fill those who are living in known, willful disobedience to Him. Graham emphasizes, “We must deal completely with sin in our lives if we are to know the infilling of the Holy Spirit.”8 Anything about which the Spirit has convicted you, anything which has separated you from God’s best or veiled His face from you must be abandoned. You must walk in the light if you would be filled with the Spirit (1 John 1: 7).

2. Acknowledge your need and God’s provision. Be honest with God. Confess your defeats and the areas in your life where you recognize spiritual need. Don’t be in such a hurry that you make a simple blanket confession, a mere general admission of need. “Lord, whatever my need may be, meet it,” or “Lord, You know how weak I am.” Take time to search your heart before the Lord and name your needs before Him. It may be helpful to make a list of things the Spirit brings to your attention and then to commit them one by one to the Lord. Ask Him to remind you of failures you have forgotten.

There is great blessing in emptying your heart of failures, defeats, prejudices, attitudes, and actions. Name them one by one and put them beneath Christ’s covering, cleansing blood. The Holy Spirit will probably bring to your attention things you did not know were there.

Then rejoice in the full provision Christ made for you on the cross. Rejoice in the provision of the Holy Spirit who is already resident in your heart and who longs to fill every aspect of your being with His cleansing presence and His empowering for
life and service. Rejoice that God’s promise is available to you. “The promise is for you,” said Peter (Acts 2:39)

3. Hunger and thirst for the Sprit’s fullness. God is always moved by spiritual hunger and thirst and repeatedly promises to meet the needs of our soul. Jesus assures us, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matt. 5:6). He stood in the temple and called, “’If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit” (John 7:37-39). Water is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters,” God calls through Isaiah (55:1). “I will pour water on the thirsty land…I will pour out my spirit” (Isaiah. 44:3). “Land” is not found in the Hebrew. It is a promise to the “thirsty,” and the Spirit satisfies our thirst.

As long as the fullness of the Spirit is not your whole-souled desire, you will probably not be filled. As long as you treat the experience as something desirable, but are willing to continue as you are without it, you will not receive the fullness. Torrey said, “No man ever got this blessing who felt that he could get along without it.”

We read of the people of Judah that, “They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them” (2 Chronicles 15:15). The literal Hebrew is “They sought God with their whole desire.” God said through Jeremiah, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Probably not desiring the Holy Spirit with all the heart and not making a total surrender of the self are the major reasons for failure to enter upon the experience.

4. Surrender totally to Christ’s lordship. Make a total consecration of all you are, all you have, and all your future. Present yourself in the totality of your being – body, soul, and spirit. Offer up yourself as a living sacrifice to be wholly God’s. This may well involve a dying to your own self-will in one or several areas. You must die to your carnal selfness, to all that is of “the world”. You can now say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

“Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body…offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:11-13). Provisionally we were crucified with Christ at His cross. We now affirm it by an act of the will in self-surrender. This is the emptying of self which must precede the infilling of the Spirit. Make a total surrender of your will in advance for whatever God reveals to you in your tomorrows. Be willing to abandon your own plans, ambitions, and will if God ever reveals anything to you as contrary to His will. Henceforth you are not your own.

Think of your life as a checkbook. Absolute surrender is to fill all the blank checks by signing in advance your own name, making them out to the Holy Spirit, and permitting Him to fill the blanks as He sees best throughout your tomorrows. You have already said your eternal yes to His will as He makes it known to you. You are His. He is Lord and you lovingly and gladly obey day by day.


5. Ask in prayer. Christ’s promise could not be more clear: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to you children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). When our hearts are prepared by taking the previous four steps, we are ready to call out to God from the depths of our being for the fulfillment of His promise.

Asking and appropriating need not require a prolonged period of prayer, for God is always ready to fulfill His promise. Yet the biographies of many Christians describe how they hungered and thirsted and prayed for some hours or even days before their hearts seemed ready to take the last step of appropriating faith. Perhaps God uses such a period of asking and reaching out to Him to enable us to deepen our thirst for Him or to enable us to realize new depths of spiritual need within our nature. From God’s standpoint there need be no waiting. Yet He can greatly bless to our spiritual good a time of waiting before Him. During such a period the Spirit searches our hearts. Jesus tells us in such a case to stop our prayer and first make things right with the other person (Matthew 5:23-24).

God’s promise of reward for our waiting in His presence in prayer is certain. Isaiah assures us: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31). The Hebrew word for hope in this verse means “to wait with confident expectation and trust.”

6. Appropriate by simple trust. How blessed that the infilling of the Spirit is by faith! It is by faith – so it is for whoever will. It is by faith – so it can be yours this moment. You don’t have to wait to become more worthy. You don’t have to prove yourself through self-discipline or through prolonged prayer and fasting. It is not by works; it is the gift of God. It is by grace through faith that we are filled with the Spirit.

When Peter described how the Spirit filled the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius and compared it to how the 120 were filled at Pentecost, he explained that God gave the Holy Spirit to Gentiles just as He had to those in the upper Room on Pentecost. “He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). God always purifies and empowers when He fills with His Spirit, and the appropriating means which god has ordained is faith.

Dr. A.J. Gordon writes, “It seems clear from the Scriptures that it is still the duty and privilege of believers to receive the Holy Spirit by a conscious, definite act of appropriating faith, just as they received Jesus Christ…It is as sinners that we accept Christ for our justification, but it is as sons that we accept the Spirit for our sanctification.”

Nothing could be more simple, yet nothing is more demanding. When electric lines are installed and connected with the electric power supply, even a child can turn on lights by touching a switch. Even so, when we have prepared our hearts by making everything clear between God and us, acknowledged our need and God’s provision, hungered and thirsted for the Spirit’s fullness, surrendered totally to Christ’s lordship, and asked in prayer, all we need to do is to touch God in faith. It is not a question of the power of our faith; it is the greatness of God’s available provision that counts.

Believe how intensely Christ longs to fill you with His Spirit. He wants you to be all He created you to be. Believe what joy it will bring to the heart of Jesus when He sees you filled with His presence and power. Believe in God’s wonderful plan for you! How He desires to use your leadership and your life in ways beyond your own plans and thoughts! The full record you will not know until eternity, but God will encourage you at times with bits of news of how He has made you a blessing.

Believe and keep humble, giving God all the glory, and Christ will use you more and more as he leads you in His triumphal procession (2 Corinthians 2:14). “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day” (Proverbs 4:18).

REMEMBER THESE SPIRITUAL REALITIES:

1. The infilling of the spirit is instantaneous. Faith is not a gradual process nor is the
infilling of the Spirit a gradual process. Faith instantly receives in your innermost being the fullness of the presence and power of the Spirit. Rejoice! When your prepared heart believes, that moment you are filled with the spirit.

2. The infilling of the Spirit is not a matter of feeling. It is a spiritual reality through faith. Your trust is not in your feelings, but in God and His promise. Many have testified to an overwhelming awareness of God’s presence, love, or power. God may or may not choose to bless you that way. He knows what is best for your future walk of faith. But power is present whether you feel it or not. It will be manifest as you serve and obey God.

3. Continued infillings of the Spirit are available to you. Chapter 11 pointed out that the bible records repeated infillings of the Spirit. I also mentioned that Zechariah presents a picture of God’s flaming servants being kept aflame by the constant inflow of the Spirit. That is why Zechariah 4:6 can be a continuing experience in the service of the Lord: “’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty”.

4. Rejoice in God’s fullness and continue to pray and obey. You have been filled with the Spirit. Now let God use you. He did not fill you to make life easy for you, but to empower you for holy living and effective service. As long as you keep the channel clear between God and you, His power continues to flow into you. You cannot retain the fullness of the spirit without prayer and obedience.

Sometimes you may realize that you have grieved the Spirit, and sense a loss of the abundance of His presence and power. You may be aware of a depletion of the Spirit’s working because of your busy ministry, or for the other reasons listed in chapter 13. Seek God’s forgiveness and ask Him for the renewal of His power upon you. Prayer and obedience will again bring the renewal you desire.

Many occasions will rise in your leadership when you will need a special manifestation of God’s presence, a renewed empowering, a fresh anointing. Praise God! He is waiting to meet all your needs. He knows your ministry and the situations you face
far better than you do. All of His resources are available to you. Pray and obey. Go through life praying and obeying. God will not fail you.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20). And to Him be glory through your life and ministry as you live and walk in the fullness of His Spirit’s presence and power.

Make this beloved hymn of the church your prayer. It has been sung in prayer to the Lord for a century. May it express your heart cry today:

Fill Me Now

Hover o’er me, Holy Spirit,
Bathe my trembling heart and brow;
Fill me with Thy hallowed presence,
Come, O come and fill me now.

Chorus:
Fill me now, fill me now,
Jesus, come and fill me now;
Fill me with Thy hallowed presence,
Come, O come and fill me now.

Thou canst fill me, gracious Spirit,
Though I cannot tell Thee how;
But I need thee, greatly need Thee,
Come, O come and fill me now.

I am weakness, full of weakness,
At Thy sacred feet I bow;
Blest, divine, eternal Spirit,
Fill with power, and fill me now.

Cleanse and comfort, bless and save me,
Bathe, O bathe my heart and brow;
Thou art comforting and saving,
Thou art sweetly filling now.
- Elwood H. Stokes

1Graham, Holy Spirit, 160
2Scroggie, Filled With the Spirit, 16-18
3Lindsell, Holy Spirit, 116
4Graham, Holy Spirit, 166
5Ibid., 159
6Torrey, Holy Spirit, 154, passim
7Bright, Handbook, 100-101
8Graham, Holy Spirit, 164

Ablaze for God - Day 50 Devotional

“Testimonies of the Infilling”
Submitted by Mark O. Wilson
Key text: Acts 4:31-35

Over the centuries many people have experienced the infilling of God’s Holy Spirit. It is not a matter of denomination or church affiliation. It is not about being “Pentecostal”, speaking in unknown tongues, or some other ecstatic experience. (Though many Pentecostal brothers and sisters are definitely filled with the Holy Spirit, the evidence is in the fruit – Galatians 5:22-23 rather than the utterance.)

Consider these testimonies of spiritual infilling, when people surrendered fully to God. What a difference!

“The big word to me was CLEANSING, which opened the door of glory, hope and joy to me. Not a coming to be cleansed in the fountain only, but a remaining in the fountain, so that it may and can go on cleansing.” - Frances Ridley Havergal (hymn writer of such beloved songs as “Take My Life and Let it Be” and “Like a River Glorious.”

“A tide of joy swept into my soul, and I cried out, ‘O Bless the Lord! Praise the Lord! He does come and fill my soul!” - Dr. A. M. Hills (author of Holiness and Power.)

“I was happy, but not ecstatic. My soul was hushed into silence.” - Dr. Asbury Lowrey (Methodist pastor and Bible scholar. Author of Possibilities of Grace)

“Lord, bend me.” --Evan Roberts (The prayer God used in 1904 to ignite one of the greatest revival movements in history)

“It was borne upon me that I had to claim the gift from God on the authority of Jesus Christ. . . this I did in dogged committal. I had no vision of heaven or angels. . . but like a flash, something happened inside me. The days that followed have truly been heaven on earth. Glory to God!” - Oswald Chambers (Author, My Utmost for His Highest).

As a young evangelist, Billy Graham took a long walk in the woods and settled his commitment to Christ once and for all. Today, he points to that experience as the turning point in his life and ministry.

“No words can express the wonderful love that was spread abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love. . . These waves kept coming over me, and over me and over me, one after another, until I remember crying out, ‘I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.’ I said, ‘Lord, I cannot bear any more’, yet I had no fear of death.” -- Charles G. Finney (Great 19th Century Evangelist)


“And as my faithful testimony. . . be it known to all that ever knew me, that when the unspeakable riches of God’s love visited me. . . I was immediately endued with a power that gave me a dominion over them (i.e. worldly conversations and habits.)
• William Penn (Famous Quaker, Founder of Pennsylvania)

John Bunyan (author of devotional classic, Pilgrim’s Progress) testified to entering into his “Beulah Land Experience.” Though not without trials, from then on, he was overwhelmed with the sense of God’s grace and power. (Ablaze for God, p. 300)

“On December 6, 1991, in an empty church sanctuary, my soul was flooded over with the presence of God. It was like I was swimming in an ocean of God’s love. All my burdens fell away. At once, I could see others through the eyes of Jesus. That day changed everything for me. My ministry today is a direct result of that experience” -- Mark O. Wilson (Senior Pastor, Hayward Wesleyan Church)

“The altar sanctifies the gift.” - Phoebe Palmer (19th Century Holiness Evangelist)

Ablaze for God - Day 49 Devotional

“Who God Longs to Fill”
Submitted by Loretta Sunderland
Key text: Acts 15:9

Who does God long to fill? ALL! At the moment of salvation, (that precious free gift of grace) the moment we respond to God’s prevenient grace (the grace that goes before) and His unconditional love for us, we are indwelt by the Spirit (Rom 8:9) Although we receive all of the Spirit at the moment of salvation, He does not do all of His ministry within us at the same time. Our faith is alive, active, and dynamic, which involves a beautiful relationship with the Triune God.

On one still Oklahoma night, my family and I sat around the table singing and visiting together, when my younger sister, with tears in her eyes, said she wanted Jesus, she wanted to get rid of all that held her back, but she doesn’t believe that He could ever possibly want her. Not after everything she has done in her life. BUT……………. God longs to fill us with His Spirit, He takes great delight in us, and he loves to be in relationship with us. Let’s pray together; not only for my sister, but for all the brothers and sisters who are lost and seeking. For Jesus has said, I have come to seek and save that which is lost (Luke 19:10). We are made His child and His ambassador by the Father’s grace, Christ’s washing, and the Spirit’s quickening. All be to the glory of God.

Ablaze for God - Day 48 Devotional

The Spiritual Realities of the Infilling”
Submitted by Tim Young
Key text: Zechariah 4:6

Before I was saved, I would have things going on in my life that to me were unexplainable. I might be thinking about someone and then mysteriously run into that person, or I might call someone, only to have them say, “I was just going to call you.” We used to call those moments; déjà vu, circumstance or coincidences.

Now that I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I know that it is more than just a chance happening, but actually what we like to call a ‘God Moment’, or a Divine appointment. I believe that God through the Holy Spirit gives us promptings; to put people on our hearts. Then it’s our job to make sure we follow up on the appointments. For some it kind of freaks them out to be led by something that they can’t see.

I have had people say to me that after they have accepted the Lord in their heart they are hearing Him, and wondering why now. My only explanation to them is that they are finally listening! I have times now where I’m thinking of someone and I’ll run into them at the store. They will either have a burden or they will say, “I can’t believe I ran into you, I was going to call you when I get home.” Or, I’ll call someone and they’ll say, “I was looking up your number to call you, or I knew you’d call.” I don’t now about you, but that’s not me, that’s a higher power, prompting me to call one of His children—Divine appointment! Before, I might have just blown it off as a coincidence.

As followers of Jesus it is our job to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 1:22 says, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” (NASB) Make sure it is of God, by praying for what the Holy Spirit has called you to do. Then act according to God’s will for people He puts in your path; be ready and willing for a ‘God Moment’!

Ablaze for God - Day 47 Devotional

“The Marks of the Spirit-filled Person”
Submitted by Heath Davis
Key text: Galatians 5:22,23

When the kingdom of God comes Jesus will not be recognized by a crown or robes. He’s never been into that kind of garb. The Scripture teach He will be known by His scars. We will identify the King of Kings by nail-scarred marks on his hands and feet.

In the same way the Holy Spirit today is recognized by specific marks. The two most significant marks of God’s Spirit in a person’s life is purity and power.

As God’s Spirit fills our lives there is a instantaneous and ongoing desire to serve God with a pure heart. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit’s work is that there is an increased sensitivity in our lives to those things that dishonor the heart of God. We recognize all too quickly what the disciples experienced. . .“The Spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” The habits of our bodies (course talk, loose lips, wandering minds, rolling eyes, stingy hands, lazy feet, etc.) quickly are confronted by the Spirit inside us. I’ve noticed that when the Spirit is at work in a person’s life, a crisis occurs within the self. The Spirit is screaming “purify, purify” and the body is screaming “I am a creature of habit…I hate change.” So, the Spirit’s quest to purify leads in this internal crusade towards holiness.

In order to win this battle we need power over the sinful habits at work in the members of our body (Romans 7:21).

How convenient! The second mark of the Holy Spirit is power. The Scripture says that the Spirit “helps us in our weakness”. We want to become holy, but cannot go it alone. As we admit our need for God’s help, the Spirit comes with divine assistance.

First, He intercedes on our behalf (Romans 8:27).
Second, He reminds us Whose we are (8:16).
Third, He embeds in thick skulls the truth that we no longer are defined by condemnation (8:1), but by conquest (8:37)!

His marks in our life are simple to detect. Purity and Power. And, they compliment one another us they lead us towards the image of Christ.

Are His marks recognizable in your life today?

Ablaze for God - Day 46 Devotional

“Infilling Begins with Complete Surrender”
Submitted by Judy Gorud
Key text: Romans 12:1,2

Infilling begins with complete surrender.

Surrender from a worldly perspective denotes defeat after a lost battle. In God’s kingdom however, it is the basis for a life of joy, peace and victory.

So what do we surrender? Our selfishness, passivity, ambitions, plans, grudges, critical attitudes, and an unloving spirit. God may show you others!

When the above attitudes and mind-sets fill our hearts and minds, there is no room for the infilling of the Spirit. When you put water in a container that has a rock in it – that container is not yet “full” of water – and cannot be “full of water” until the rock is removed!

To surrender all we must ask the Holy Spirit to shine the probing light into our hearts to reveal what is there, ask God’s forgiveness and cleansing – then we are ready for that baptism of the Holy Spirit who brings purity, power and love to work in and through us for God’s glory and the benefit of His Church.

However, once we have reached this place we must realize our enemy, Satan, will do all he can to bring back thoughts of these weaknesses. We must fight constantly – what Paul calls the “good fight of faith.” And as we are faced with new situations and assignments from the Lord we must have His cleansing and fresh infillings to meet the need.

Pray: Father in heaven, as the Lord Jesus told His followers to wait in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit, so we too need to have that infilling so we can effectively do Your work. So this day I confess my sins and ask for the Holy Spirit to cleanse me and fill me with His love and power just now. In Jesus’ Name. AMEN

Ablaze for God - Day 45 Devotional

“The Hand We’ve Been Dealt”
Submitted by Heath Davis
Key text: 2 Peter 1:3,4

Why are we forever dissatisfied with the hand we’ve been dealt?

Imagine for a moment a guy in a poker game holding a Royal Flush in his hand. He’s positioned to win. Yet, not recognizing the great cards he’s holding, decides to fold. We might question this man’s sanity or question if he even understands how the game is played, but we would never question the hand he was dealt. We’d correctly assume that he was granted a perfect hand. We’d argue that the man had in his grasp all he needed to win the game, to achieve success. Yet, unless he chooses to play out that hand, what he has been dealt is of little consequence.

In the same way, the Scriptures are clear that through the Holy Spirit God has dealt us one great hand. Our desire to sometimes fold the hand God has dealt us because we are dissatisfied with Him exposes how often we misconstrue the game we are called to play. . .and misunderstand the God we are called to serve.

Let’s take a peek at just a few of the cards we hold and see the precious hand we’ve been dealt. If you have received the Holy Spirit:

· You have been chosen by God (Ephesians 1:3-8)
· You have been sealed by His Spirit marking your permanence in his kingdom (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
· You are part of the body of Christ (1Corinthians 12:27)
· You are free from the power of sin (Romans 6:18)
· You are a child of the King (Romans 8:15-17)
· You have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16)
· You have been given gifts (I Corinthians 12:4-7)
· You are heir to a Kingdom (Hebrews 12:28)

God has placed all His chips on the table through the loving sacrifice of His only begotten Son. Quite a gamble indeed. Now, because of Jesus’ sacrifice we hold a Royal Flush. How we play the game and what we do with the hand we’re dealt. . .well, let’s just say, we hold the cards.

You have two options today. You can fold. . .or you can put all the chips on the table and play out the victorious hand you’ve been dealt.