When you fellowship with God and walk in obedience to Him, it will be evident to all!
Be kindly, affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.
(Rom. 12:10,11)
I want you to notice the expression in this verse that says, "fervent in spirit."

I looked up several translations, and one of them says, "Be glowing in spirit." The Weymouth translation says, "Have your spirits aglow." And the Moffatt's translation tells us to "maintain the glow." God wants his people to maintain the glow.

Paul is writing to the saints at Rome and all of those who are called to be saints wherever they may be. He is encouraging them to be doers of the Word of God - not out of duty but prompted by the Spirit. What did Paul mean when he said, "maintain the glow?" The Goodspeed translation says, "Be on fire with the Spirit."

When Paul wrote to the saints at Rome, he said, "Be fervent in spirit" or "Be on fire with the Spirit" (Rom. 12:11). And he told the Church at Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).

Then Paul told them in Ephesians 5:19 how to be filled with the Spirit; he told them how to maintain the glow. We understand that this experience must be recognizable or we wouldn't know whether or not someone is maintaining the glow.

Speaking In Psalms
Notice what the text said: "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms" (vv. 18-19). I'm not a singer, but I always speak in psalms. Sometimes I'll wake up in the night and get to praying and speaking in psalms for an hour or two.

Being filled with the Spirit and speaking to yourself is something that you do just for yourself and not to someone else. We are to speak to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Now it may be something that the Holy Ghost gives you or it may be a song that has already been given by the Spirit.

A psalm is a spiritual poem or an ode. It may rhyme or it may not rhyme, but there is an element of poetry about it. There are one 150 psalms in the Old Testament that have been given by the Spirit of God. Many of them were given to David by the gift of prophecy. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Maintain The Glow
If you'll read them carefully, you'll find out that many of them were given just for David's benefit; they applied to his circumstances. The psalms that David wrote were for his encouragement, and you'll find that psalms will have the same effect in your own life. The Holy Ghost will give you a psalm to encourage you and lift up your spirit so that you can maintain the glow.

Spiritual health is just as discernible as physical health. It's very easy to discern whether someone is feeling good physically or not. If someone is not up to par in his thinking, you can say something to him two or three times and he still doesn't understand what you are saying. It doesn't mean that he's hard of hearing; it just means that his mind is off somewhere else. He's not as sharp as he usually is.

Maintaining the glow includes more than just jumping up and down, smiling, and being happy. Now that's part of it, but there's a whole lot more to it. You may get blessed in church when everyone else gets blessed. But what about when you get home? What about maintaining the glow in your everyday life? Do you have the glow when you're at home?

You see, that's where the difference is. Paul was talking about maintaining the glow every day. And that's what he was endeavoring to get believers to do - to keep being filled.

Another mark of a Spirit-filled life is having a singing heart or a heart full of melody. If you're filled with the Spirit, you'll be singing! Nothing can stop a person from singing who's filled with the Spirit of God, because he has a song in his heart or a heart full of melody.

We used to sing a song years ago called "Count Your Blessings." I got hold of that song when I was going through a severe test as a teenager, and I did exactly what we were singing about. I looked the devil right in the face and started laughing. Now I didn't feel like laughing. I mean, I felt like doing everything else but laughing, but I did it anyway.

Until The Burden Lifts
Jesus said to the devil in the midst of His temptation, "It is written" (Matt. 4:4). And that's what I told the devil, "It is written." Then I said, "In case you can't read, Mr. Devil, I'll read it to you." I said, "Just go ahead, devil, put on all the pressure you can. Do everything you can, but the harder and the tougher it gets, the more I'm going to shout. The more I'm going to praise God!"

And I just kept praising Him until the burden lifted and the problem was gone.

Things changed almost immediately. But, you see, if I'd stayed on the negative side and continued whining, griping, and complaining, I never would have gotten out of the trial victoriously.

When you are filled with the Spirit, when you're motivated by the Holy Spirit, and when you are aglow with God, you can praise God and thank Him under all circumstances. No one likes to go through a test. But in every test and trial, you can thank God that it is another opportunity to believe Him. It is another opportunity to exercise and develop your faith.

It's not only important to maintain a Spirit-filled life, but it's also important to consecrate and dedicate your life to God in order to maintain the glow. Consecration and dedication should be a continuous thing. You don't just consecrate and dedicate once and for all.

You need to pray some prayers over and over again. Some prayers that I prayed years ago, I'm still praying today. These prayers are the prayers of consecration and dedication.

When you pray these prayers, you are telling the Lord that you'll go where He wants you to go and you'll do what He wants you to do. The reason for continually praying these prayers is that we don't always know what He wants us to do. But we must be willing to do whatever He wants us to do.

If you're going to maintain the glow and stay filled with the Spirit, learn the importance of speaking to yourself in psalms and spiritual songs and of consecrating and dedicating your life to the Lord. When you do, it will be easy to maintain the glow and live a Spirit-filled life.

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