Overcoming Mental & Physical Destruction: Immunize Me

Welcome back to another Bible Study Blog!!

This week, M.I.T. Gerrylyn encouraged us to be more mindful of what we're filled with and how important it is for us to be filled with the right things in order to be in a position to be used optimally by God.

She mentioned how people are filled with so many different things and unfortunately, some of those (good) things are hidden from the world (often times as a result of some things being hidden from the person themselves).

Epidemic - a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

M.I.T. said we need an epidemic of God flowing through our lives. In keeping with that declaration, the definition has multiple points in it:

• widespread occurrence: 
• Acts 1:8 states, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'" NKJV
• Our godly reach should be limitless - unto the ends of the earth

• infectious disease:
• the widespread, godly reach should be infectious; if it isn't infectious, it is ineffective.
• when I see disease in this, I hear Pastor breaking it into two words - dis-ease. Godliness should bring some dis-ease or discomfort to a certain extent because it can help us make the choice between doing or not doing/thinking/saying something. 
• John 1:5 states, "And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not [a]comprehend [footnote: overcome] it."
• Your widespread occurrence of infectious dis-ease should bring discomfort to the darkness in the world and should be like a spreading wildfire that continues to catch on to whatever it comes in contact with.

• particular time:
• different times require different strategies
• similar to how antibiotics work, if you are prescribed the same antibiotic over and over, eventually it builds a resistance (or gets used to the environment) and no longer works.
• when doing outreach, it has to be received by the target audience with consideration for the time we're in. 

To pull it all together, we need an epidemic of God to flow through our lives that will reach who it needs to reach with a contagious effect at the right time.

"There is time for exposure" and there is a time for seclusion/being alone. Let's take a look at the Ultimate Example - Jesus.

Luke 5:12-16 NKJV

And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and [b]implored [footnote: begged] Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

13 Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.”

15 However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. 16 So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. [As a result of Jesus' influence and ability to reach so many people (He was an epidemic and created a dis-ease for the purpose of encouraging people to live righteous lives), He had to really understand and know when to be exposed/contagious, and when to be alone/quarantined.]

When we get away, that's our time to be immunized. In other words, when we take time to be alone with God, it's like we're going in to get our shots so that when we go back in the world, we have a form of protection from the things that can make us sick. Just like we have to stay up to date on our shots, we have to stay up to date on our spiritual shots and go to Him daily for our injection/daily bread.

Romans 1:20-32 NLT

 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

The point that M.I.T. was driving home with this scripture was that we have to be mindful of what we're filling our lives with. Verse 29 tells us that "their lives became full of every kind of wickedness." When something is full, there is no room for any additional things to fit in. The only way to allow ourselves to be filled with God's Spirit is to empty ourselves of the things that's taking His space. It may be worth going back to the Capacity Series (I've linked the first blog from that series) to take those steps of making room for God. He wants us filled with His Spirit so we can be of use.

Acts 2:1-4 NKJV

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all [a]with one accord in one place. [they were a part of the epidemic] 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them [it's worth noting, if we continue reading, these were not unknown tongues, these were the different languages of those who were in the crowd, but what made it glorious was that the tongues they spoke were not their native language and they would not have otherwise spoken in those tongues]. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

We need to be so filled that we speak whatever it is He requires that we speak even if we don't understand it and even if it isn't our normalcy. 

A plant dries out without water
A car stops if not filled with gas
A phone dies without a charge
A nice car cannot run with bad oil in it
We are not as useful as we should be without being filled with His Word/Spirit

How do we get filled? 
Empty ourselves of the things that are taking up space and ask to be filled.

Point of it All: Be an Epidemic, Get Immunized, & Be Filled.

Facebook Live: Sunday, June 30, 2019

Til next time,

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• August
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