12/26/17 SHAKEN STIRRED AND OVERFLOWING

12/26/17 SHAKEN STIRRED AND OVERFLOWING

Did you ever shake up a bottle of carbonated soft drink, as vigorously as you could, with your thumb tightly pressed over the mouth of the bottle? The pressure build up can be so great that you cannot suppress it. I have seen videos of people throwing a 2 litre bottle of soft drink into the air, allowing it to land on the hard pavement of a parking lot. The pressure can be so great that it blows the lid off of the bottle and then propels the bottle through the air like a rocket. THIS IS ACTUALLY DANGEROUS AND CAN CAUSE GREAT INJURY.

Sometimes we see a similar explosion in a person because they become emotionally stirred. It could be good or bad.

When it is a CARNAL, SINFUL EXPLOSION it is really bad and it does hurt other people. God deliver us from ever being the one who throws a CARNAL FIT and destroys other people because of our explosive selfishness.

But I started thinking about the buildup of inner excitement and energy that comes from SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS from God. GOD SHAKES US UP and some people get to the point that they cannot contain the blessing. They break forth into praise, laughter, crying, shouting, jumping or they are stunned and held captive in the grip of holy awe. WE NEED to be in a place where God will pour out such a blessing on each of us. I think of this when I hear the song, SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

This outpouring may come through private time of prayer, study, meditation, or it could come as we worship God while listening to music or testimony or prayer or preaching, or it could come in a public service as someone sings the praises of God or proclaims the unsearchable riches of Christ.

I have often had such a shaking up and sometimes it has come as I envisioned the work of God in the future.

How sad it is when the stirring, the shaking, the blessing comes in a tidal wave of excitement, enough to unleash a tsunami of love, joy, power, vision, into a group of people yet there are no folks who are spiritually prepared to receive the Divine outpouring.

Put yourself in a place to be overwhelmed by God, then allow God to overwhelm you. That moment of Divine manifestation should then result in self denying love and service to others. You know. Sort of like what happened in the days that followed the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church in the upper room.