Fill me up with more of you

Lord I thirst for something real

Nothing else will do

Holy Spirit hear my prayer

Fill me up with more of you

A friend of mine wrote this song. I don’t remember all the words to it but I remember the hungry, holy pleading it brought to my soul when I heard it sung.

When we cry out to be filled and ask God for more of Him as we give more of ourselves. You know what happens? It’s like a vortex happens in the spirit. What I mean by this is as we ask for more, that same time God is asking for more of us.

So this morning as we look at John 7 will you join me in praying fill me up God!

John 7:37–38 NLT

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ ”

When we come to church why do we come here?

What do you expect to happen when you come here?

When was the last time you came to God’s house expecting something to happen?

When you expect something it means you look forward to it, you anticipate something, you look forward to the occurence.

There is nothing like the unexpected. When that which is not expected happens!

In early 2015, Casey J released an album entitled, "The Truth" which has 11 songs and 1 bonus song. .There is a song that stands out that many churches sing in a church service.

The lyrics are:

"If you provide the fire.

I'll provide the sacrifice.

If you pour out your spirit.

Then I will open up inside, Fill me up God, Fill me up God. Fill me up God. Fill me up God." Yes I am talking the song entitled, "Fill Me Up God." Thats what we want.... we want to ask God to fill us up. I don't know about you but I want more of God and less of me.

This song was originally written by a group called United Pursuit which came out of a week that was dedicated to 100 hours of prayer. It came from that secret place where songwriters cry out to God to fill them up.

The song’s chorus reads like this:

You provide the fire, and I’ll provide the sacrifice.

You provide the Spirit, and I will open up inside.

Fill me up, God. Fill me up.

These are the words that ring loud in my heart.

In reference to the song, it is “His Spirit that will open us up inside,” but I love what the first part of the song says, which is that when we “provide the sacrifice” He will “provide the fire.”

It is in that place of laying down our lives, in that place of total surrender, when we offer our whole selves as a burnt offering to His consuming fire that He will come. This unquenchable fire burns up all that does not belong inside and prepares His temple (us), so that more of His Spirit can come and “open us up” for yet even more!

Until Jesus comes back this is the process and pattern that has been laid out and modeled.

When we cry out to be filled and ask for more of Him, and as we give more of ourselves, it actually becomes as a “vortex” in the spirit.

What I mean by that is that as we ask for more, at the same time God is asking for more of us, and it becomes a back and forth cry where the response is the same as the initial call.

Not only that, but the responses are multiplied as they progress, creating a vacuum effect, so that the desires and the infilling only grow deeper and have greater impact. This is because as we taste and see that the Lord is good, the hunger that we develop only grows deeper and deeper and it begins to cry out to Deep!

To experience a deeper dimension of God’s presence, your soul must hunger and thirst for God in the same way a deer pants for the safety and the need of water.

Psalm 42:1-2 declares....“As the hart [male red deer] panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”

In the natural, the panting of the deer is an audible agonizing for the safety the waters provide when pursued by a predator. When the deer runs into the water, the predator can no longer detect its scent.

In addition to finding safety from its enemies, the deer finds relief from thirst in the waters. “Intimacy with God is found only in the realm of the spirit.”Spiritually, your process of discovering a deeper dimension of God’s presence involves longing, thirsting, and seeking.

David wrote...."O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary” (Psalm 63:1-2).

Intimacy with God is found only in the realm of the spirit.

There is a place of deep anointing, deep presence, and deep intimacy with God Almighty where “deep calleth unto deep” or spirit calls unto spirit.

It is a place that is so pure that every part of your being is consumed by the presence of Almighty God; a deep place where there is perfect communion between your spirit and every dimension of God’s presence.

This is why the Psalmist said in Psalm 42:7 says Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy *waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

Psalm 42:7 ESV

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.

Another translations says Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

* Water-Spouts - A water-spout is a large tube formed of clouds by means of the electric fluid, the base being uppermost, and the point let down perpendicularly form the clouds. It has a particular kind of circular motion at the point; and, being hollow within, attracts vast quantities of water, which it frequently pours down in torrents upon the earth.

As we know, we’ve already received everything that pertains to life and godliness

2 Peter 1:3 NLT

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

When we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior our spirit was changed and made new, totally perfected in Him when His Spirit became one with us; however, our souls are still “being” transformed into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18),

2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

and our bodies have not yet been transfigured. So it is in these places of our soul and body that we are crying out for the Perfect One to fill, heal, and restore. Jesus paid the price for our whole man to be saved, that sin would not separate any part of us from the Father. As we cry out for less of “us” and more of Him, we are asking that all that is not of Him be burned up and that the fullness of His promise, the fullness of His Son, would be manifest in and through us.

I hear the Lord asking us to fully give of ourselves, to fully consecrate ourselves to Him, for it is in that place of total surrender, when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, that He will come and fill us (body, soul, and spirit).

Will you rend yourself as a burnt offering? Will you place yourself on the altar, that He would be the fire?

The ancient Israelites modeled the purpose and sacrifice of burnt offerings in what was a prophetic picture for the church today. The burnt offering was the first and one of the most significant offerings.

I believe that it is a place of worship that the Lord is calling us to today, where we fully empty ourselves that we can be fully filled.

This is the picture that Mary showed us when she poured out all of her “worship,” her whole self, as a love offering before Him. This is true worship, and it is much more than just singing and dancing before the Lord.

Worship, Worship the Lord

Praise Him the one that we adore

Hosanna, to the Lord of Lords

He’s the great I am.

Worship is a lifestyle of surrender to Him that is seen in everything we do, say, think, and purpose, so that He can be enthroned on and inhabit our praises and so He can come and rest in us and be manifest through us.

It’s a time for true worshippers to arise, those who worship Him in spirit and in truth, offering their very selves as the burnt offering.

It’s time that we begin to pour our whole selves out as love offerings, giving ourselves in true worship – as living sacrifices, allowing every work that we have built that is not of Him to be tested through the fire (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).

The corresponding words of the song “Fill Me Up” are these:

Love of God overflow.

Permeate all my soul.

What an awesome true picture. The result of His filling is that the love of God will overflow, even that it would permeate all the soul, thereby transforming us into His very image.

So, let us cry out – Lord, fill me up!

1. Fill us with who You are.

2. Fill us with the knowledge of You

3. Fill us with Your desires

4. Fill us with a hunger for more of You

5. Fill us to overflowing

When Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

Jesus’ words, “Come unto me, and drink,” is for those who's souls are parched and are thirsty. Thirst means to have a compassionate craving for something that we have not got at the moment.

Thirst is a blessed thing; because that pain and longing which you feel you ought to feel it; it is a right and natural craving, which has its right and natural satisfaction: don't make the mistake as to what it is that your soul thirsts for, and where it is that it can be satisfied.

Jesus used the term living water in 4:10 to indicate eternal life.

But here He uses the term to refer to the Holy Spirit. The two go together: Wherever the Holy Spirit is accepted, He brings eternal life and an experience that is subsequent to conversion and sanctification. The Baptism in the Holy Ghost and tongue-speaking is the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Ghost.

Jesus teaches more about the Holy Spirit in John Chapters 14–16.

However when we come to Acts Chapter 2 we read where the Holy Ghost empowered Jesus’ followers on the Day of Pentecost 50 days after the Resurrection and the Holy Ghost has since been filling all who not only believe in Jesus as Savior but .......who want God to Fill them with the Power of the Holy Ghost.

This part is important because it was on the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. To the one who believes in Me, it is just as the Scripture has said: 'Streams of living water will flow from within him.'" He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

The Feast of Tabernacles was a seven-day event with a Sabbath day added as the eighth day, During this feast the Israelites dwelt in little temporary booths or huts made from tree limbs. There is an entire volume in the Talmud or Sacred Writing of the Jews directing how these booths were to be erected.

The purpose was to remind Israel of God’s provision in bringing them out of Egypt into the Promise Land. Which typifies Deliverance.

Friends God has delivered us We are Saved, Sanctified, filled with His spirit and consecrated in his presence.

Take a moment to look at the part that speaks about pouring of the waster.

The pouring of the water signified the prayer for abundant rain which was necessary for the growth of their crops.

Our text this morning opens on the seventh day. It is the last and greatest day of the Feast. Everything came to a great climax of joy on this day.

Then a silence follows. But One voice rises in the crowd and says “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.”

Jesus is not interrupting the ceremony. He is interpreting it. The celebration has come to a climax. It is a celebration of God’s goodness. It is a prayer for God’s provision.

Can you imagine the impact of Jesus’ invitation in that setting. He is not sitting in a teaching position but standing to proclaim an invitation. His voice is not soft and mellow but full of emotion and intensity. Who would dare to speak up like that at such a holy moment?

The Lord of Glory speaks up because it all points to him. It is all fulfilled in him.

No wonder the people respond as they do in

John 7:40–41 NLT

When the crowds heard him say this, some of them declared, “Surely this man is the Prophet we’ve been expecting.” Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others said, “But he can’t be! Will the Messiah come from Galilee?

They understood the claim he was making by that invitation. Only the Prophet, only the Christ the Anointed One could make such a claim.

….It was in this context that Jesus stood and cried out;

If anyone is thirsty let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Our deepest and most fundamental need is a relationship with God.

Again the Psalmist declared in Psalms 63:1 O God, you are my God; early will I seek you: my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.

There is an inherent connection between our souls and God.....just like fish need water to survive, just like our bodies need oxygen and blood to survive; our spirits need God to survive.

So Fill Me Up God!

If you provide the fire............ I'll provide the sacrifice........If you pour out your spirit .......then I will open up inside, fill me up God, fill me up God, fill me up God!

My Question to you today is.......... Are You Pleasing God?

Because if your satisfied with God you will please God.

John 7:38 NLT

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ ”

So those who are satisfied by Jesus will themselves become channels of spiritual refreshment for others.

The figure of rivers here in Chapter 7:38 contrasts with “a fountain” in John 4:14, illustrating the difference between one’s new birth and one’s experience of the overflowing fullness of the Spirit-filled life.

I'm here to tell you today that God is a KEEPER!

I know that life at times can be hard but you and I have been given power from the Holy Ghost to walk through any fire that life may bring because God is a Keeper!

Conclusion:

Are you dry spiritually?

Are you saying, "There's gotta be something more."

Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit.

He will give you a river that will never dry.

Won’t you ask God to fill you?

He will give you power, strength, and a prayer language to talk to him.

Lord, if you provide the fire. We will provide the sacrifice. If you pour the spirit. We will open up inside. Fill us up God.

Help Me Holy Ghost!

Even So Come Lord Jesus!