What For?
In a devotional guide that the late great preacher, pastor, Spiritual mentor and leader, Dr. Adrian Rogers, wrote, he delves into the subject of being Spirit-filled. He says, “So many Christians want to be Spirit-filled, but have they ever asked why God should fill them with His Spirit? I want you to imagine a man pushing a car into a service station. It has no battery in it. The car has four flat tires, a hole in the gas tank, and half the wires are disconnected. The attendant comes out, looks at this rattle trap, and says, ‘May I help you?’ The man says, ‘Yeah, fill ‘er up.’ What do you think that attendant would say? ‘What for?’ would be appropriate. I think God sometimes says, ‘What for?’ to us.”
Wow! What a poignant illustration and soul searching question Doctor Rogers poses. Realizing that to fill the car with gas would be a total waste of resources, the attendant in Dr. Rogers’s illustration asks a perfectly logical and legitimate question, “What for?” I wonder, when we come before God and ask Him to fill us with His Spirit, does He ever look at us and ask, “What for?”
I am fifty-seven years old and have been in the ministry for around thirty-seven years. In all this time, I have never witnessed the lack of personal accountability in Christian circles that I am witnessing today. We want the filling and anointing of the Holy Spirit on our lives, but fail to keep our lives in a state of Spiritual repair that warrants it. Just as a car requires preventative and restorative maintenance, so does our Spiritual life. We seem to have forgotten that every decision and every action we take affects our Spiritual life. And we fail to realize that when we come before God in a broken down, hole-in-the-tank-rattle-trap of a Spiritual life, and ask Him to fill it with His Spirit, that it is perfectly legitimate and logical for Him to ask us, “What for?” We cannot forever ignore our Spiritual maintenance requirements and expect God to continue filling us with His Spirit and anointing.
What are those requirements? Well, for starters, how about things like reading the Bible and applying its truths to our lives, loving our neighbor as ourselves, living a life that refuses to compromise to the value system of the world, attending church regularly, and being a Christian role model by living up to the commitments we made to God and others?
The older I get the more I understand what James was talking about when he said in James 5:12(KJV) “ … but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.”
In my lifetime I have witnessed a monumental seismic shift in the way people flesh out this teaching. It used to be that a man’s word and a handshake were all that was necessary to seal a deal. And regardless of what happened, no matter how great the hardship or burden it caused, the parties involved fulfilled the terms of their deal just as they said they would. They were honorable people. They were worthy of the trust the other party had placed in them. They earned it by keeping their word and living up to their commitments. When an honorable man asked a favor of a neighbor, his honor was in such impeccable shape that the neighbor never said, “What for?” but rather, he did everything within his power to fulfill the request. But as I have already stated, a seismic shift has occurred. Today, we have perfected the art of compromise, technicalities, legal jargon, and mumbo-jumbo, to the point where we have to mortgage our firstborn child just to be able to borrow enough money to purchase a soft drink! All too often, there is nothing honorable or sacred about a person’s word anymore. One of the greatest needs we have in Christianity today is for God’s people, you and me, to once again become people of honor who will live up to and fulfill our obligations.
We have come a long way from the day when men and women of honor sealed their deals with their word and a handshake. Sadly, this prevailing mindset has not only infected our society, it has affected the lives, character, and honor of Christian men and women. Sadly, we have come to a point where, even with Spiritual matters, our yea no longer means yea and our nay no longer means nay.
When we make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, we take on the name of “Christian.” With that name comes a standard level of expected conduct that we are required to adhere to in order to keep our Spiritual lives in condition to warrant the filling of the Holy Spirit that we must have on a daily basis to live our lives. In short, if we are going to “name the Name” we must not “shame the Name.” If we refuse to meet these basic requirements, then we should not be surprised when we ask God for His filling and presence in our lives and He looks at us and asks, “What for?” You see, God does not waste His resources!
On the corporate church level, churches strive to be Spirit-filled. But again, the question is, are we as churches doing the things God requires of us to be Spirit-filled? I am afraid that all too often, our churches have turned into “Bless me clubs” consisting of “My four and no more!” We have ceased to be “Soul-winning Stations” positioned at the gates of hell snatching hell-bound sinners out of torment, and we have ceased to be “Hospitals for Wounded Saints” nurturing our wounded warriors back to Spiritual health. Churches today are filled with members who feel no compulsion or unction to attend church on a regular basis, or to pray, or to witness to the unsaved, or to be an encouragement to someone, or to tithe, or to give top priority to the commitments they made to serve in the local church. Everything is seemingly optional and governed by situational ethics. And then these same church members have the audacity to get upset when they ask God to fill their church with His presence and He looks at them and asks, “What for?”
Many of us are like an elderly man I heard about years ago. It seems as though he attended a particular church that had a prayer meeting every Wednesday night where the people actually prayed aloud. A young boy began to take notice of how this elderly gentleman always started his prayer. He would start by saying, “Lord, I come before You tonight empty – asking you to fill me afresh and anew with Your Spirit.” After five of six Wednesday nights of hearing this, one Wednesday night the young lad spoke up and said, “Don’t do it Lord! He leaks!!!” Now, perhaps this young man was on to something. It we are continually leaking, just maybe instead of asking God to waste His resources by filling vessels that leak like a sieve, we may just need to invest some time into repairing the leaks! Perhaps instead of crying, “fill us” we should be crying, “fix us!” That might prevent God from asking us, “What for?” It’s just a thought!
I have spoken about our personal and church lives; dare I mention our family life? God gave us an outline for the family, and by and large, we have totally disregarded it. Divorce is at 50%, even among professing Christian couples. Couples are “hooking-up” and “shacking-up.” Children are abused and neglected. Parents are disrespected. Discipline is a joke. The tail is wagging the dog. Is it any wonder when we ask God to anoint our families with His Spirit He asks, “What for?”
And don’t even get me started on our nation! America is a nation that was founded on Christian/Judeo values. “In God We Trust” is our National Motto. Yet, we have outlawed praying in Jesus’ name in public. We have legalized murdering unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs. We have embraced homosexuality while developing a disregard for the institution of traditional marriage. America is rife with single parents and fatherless children, embraces paganism, cults, and sexual perversion, and views Christianity with disdain. Then, as my momma used to say, “We have enough brass on our faces” to sing God Bless America! And I’m thinking God just may be asking, “What for?”
And yes, I know I have been on my soapbox today – blame Adrian Rogers – but I’ve spoken the truth – and it’s time we start hearing the truth!
Let me close this Nugget today with a hypothetical question. Just suppose you asked God to anoint and fill you personally with His Spirit, or your church, or your family, or this nation, and He asked you, “What for?” How would you answer?
Brother Aaron
