This past Sunday in church my husband gave an illustration to enhance one of the points in his message. The story was about a woman who finally got electricity running to her house after many years of living without it. When the electric company came to read her meter, they found that almost no electricity had been used. Thinking that something might be wrong with the wiring, the gentleman knocked on the door and asked the woman if her electricity was working properly. She told him it was working just fine. In fact, she told him that she used it every day. As soon as the sun would go down, she would flip her switch on until she had lit all of her candles and then turn it right back off. This woman was tapped into the power, but she was not using it.
That story immediately sent my mind to thinking. For many years I have struggled with a battle with in me...my self vs. The Holy Spirit. I don't think that I am alone in this battle. I think that most active Christians struggle the same way and might not even know it. It has only been recently that I have realized that I have a problem with it myself. You see. I have been saved since I was a child. I have been active in my church, gone soul winning for years, taught Sunday school classes, led ladies meetings etc. You name a ministry and I bet I have been involved in it at one time or another. Yet here I am at the age of 35, and as I look back I can hardly remember a time that I was doing any of those ministries under the power of the Holy Spirit. Now don't get me wrong, I was always doing it to please the Lord. I have always loved Him and wanted to serve Him. My motives were never to get glory for myself and bring attention to me, but looking back now I do realize that there was not much involvement or power from the Holy Spirit. I was like the lady in the story. I was turning the power on just long enough to light my own candle.
Can you imagine trying to clean your house by candle light? You could do an okay job, but you would have to work much harder than you would if you could have electricity to see by. It would take much more time and energy to clean it by candle light and in the end it probably wouldn't look as nice as you thought it did. Once the electricity gets flipped on, you would look around and see all the things that you never realized were left undone when you were working by candle light.
This is where I feel I am in my life right now. I have been consciously trying to work and serve with the Holy Spirit's power in my life now. The light switch has been turned on and now I realize that all those things that I thought I had accomplished by candle light don't look so good. I have a long list of accomplishments and by the grace of God even some results, but how much more could there have been if I were Spirit controlled.
That is my aim now. I never want to turn that light switch off again. It is so easy to do things in my own power. Got has given me a few talents and if I am not careful those talents will push the need for the Holy Spirit to the side without me even realizing it. It is easy to need the Holy Spirit when you are not good at something or uncomfortable, but we need to determine to yield to His power when it comes to our strengths as well.
What about you? Have you been using your "electricity" or is your meter reading low as well? Lets determine that this winter season our "electricity" bill will be through the roof! (I never thought I would say that sentence!) :)
Blessed by His grace,
Rachel
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