You know, sometimes I cross wires with some faith preachers. Especially when it comes to the subject of "desire". You see, there is an idea of faith that presents it as something void of feeling, just a matter-of-fact, non-emotional, it-is-done kind of approach. That is good, sometimes, but sometimes it really backfires. Your faith and desires must agree and both must agree with the Word. If all of that is not true, like electric wiring, you are going to have a short-circuit. Perhaps the most damaging area where this short-circuit happens is in the realm of the Holy Ghost. Some faith people will say "The Bible says I have, so therefore I have". Sounds good? Oh, but wait! The Amplified version of Ephesians 5:19 says we are "ever be ye being filled". That is ongoing. If your faith says "I have" and you put a period at the end of that statement, you have missed God's will by a country mile. Of course, the crowd around you will be huge, seeing as how this is the thought life of so many. Walking in the Spirit, drinking of the Spirit, being anointed by the Spirit, being baptized with the Spirit, living in the Spirit are all ongoing activities. You can't look at them and say "Done". You can only say "It is being done" In other words, you can't have the Spirit but you can be having the Spirit. The cost of having this ongoing business with the Spirit is "thirst" (hunger, desire, want, crave).
The same error occurs among denominational folks who say things like, "My faith is in the Bible. I don't need signs, wonders, or activities of the Spirit." Or, "my faith is in the gospel". That all sounds good, but the Bible they says our faith rests upon say our faith should stand, or rest, upon the "demonstrations of the Spirit and the power of God". Our faith must settle the issue, and it will, but only if it agrees with the Word. You can't have faith in the Word and pay no attention to what the Word says have faith in. You can't have merely a factual relationship by "faith" with God or your wife, husband or anyone else. You can believe and claim the promise of having one but you can't so easily call it "done". You either have one or you don't. You can't just "know about" someone in order to have a relationship. You have to know them. You can't just believe you have a relationship because you read, or know some facts about someone. That is called obsession, fixation and is delusional. The touch of God is real, the voice of God is real, the presence of God is real, the power of God is real. Being filled, baptized with, anointed with, walking in and with, living in the Spirit is experiential as well as factual. Both are required.
Part of this problem comes because in the Greek, and in other languages, there are words for factual knowledge such as derived from education and there are other words for experiential knowledge, knowledge derived from experience. The Bible uses this latter word a great deal. You can be one of those who are ever learning but never coming to the experiential knowledge of what you are learning. This is how the devil has stopped, or quenched the flow of the Spirit. He has allowed factual knowledge to supersede and dismiss experiential knowledge.
All of this is why our approach to the Spirit is presented to us as the drinking of water. You can never rely on the drink you had twenty years ago. You must drink more often than that to stay alive. The Bible says we were made, created, to "drink" of the Spirit. Just like water, you can't get along without it. This is why the Holy Ghost is presented to us as a "river". Try drinking a whole river in one drink. Won't happen! This river is bigger than your containment ability. This is why, when you do drink, He oozes out like "rivers of living water". You overflowed. And, in closing my brethren "I LOVE THE OVERFLOW" Okay, so you had a drink twenty years ago. Stir yourself up, go to the River and have another sip. The more you drink, the more you can drink. The more you drink, the greater the overflow. And, in closing, my brethern, "I LOVE THE OVERFLOW'.
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