This past Sunday as I was making ready for church I found a Jimmy Swaggart program. So I decided to watch and listen as it had been a while since I have had opportunity to view the evangelist. After the program there was another that was more of a music ministry also associated with Swaggart. Normally I do not listen to musical ministries because most of them fall far short of ministry and give no glory to God. Well, this particular program was a bit different.

As I was continuing in preparing for the day I let the program stay on. While I was upstairs I could hear what was going on even while could not see who was on the television. The people seemed to keep singing the old hymn Just a Closer Walk With Thee however this was not the normal singing of the classic musical prayer. There seemed to be an unusual anointing associated not so much with the words but rather with those that were singing it. As such I stopped what I was doing to see what was going on. I still don’t know who the songsters were. Nevertheless who they were is truly irrelevant. The people were praying with all their being to the almighty God in song.

As I listened and joined in the prayer I did all I could to maintain a sophisticated decorum even though I was in the house by myself. However the songsters refused to let up on the singing. There was just an anointing in the room where they were that would not let them leave the song alone. The more they prayed in song the more stirred up I became. The sophisticated decorum had to take a back seat to the moving of the Spirit. The anointing was such that I began to pray in the Spirit even while the continuing refrain stirred up that which rests in me. I could not help but give God His due because my absolute desire is to walk closer and closer with God.

I was quickly reminded of the old prophet Jeremiah. At one point it seemed that he was so discouraged that he would refrain from preaching the Word of God. However despite the circumstances and what Jeremiah might have been feeling there was no way he could keep the word of God to himself. There was no way that the Spirit could be contained in his body. In fact Jeremiah declared that the Word of God was much like fire shut up in his bones. And when there is fire in one’s bones it stands to reason that the possibility of one sitting still and not responding to God becomes moot at best.

It is for this reason that I have some trepidation toward those professing Christianity yet there is no life to support the very words spewing from their mouths. Such things are a reminder of the woman in Acts chapter 16 wherein she was saying all the right words yet her heart was far from what she was saying. The thing inside her was one of witchcraft yet the thing inside Paul and his company was the Holy Spirit. And because Paul relied on that godliness inside him he was able to defeat the evil thing outside him. You see, unless it is inside you it cannot come out of you.

At the risk of sounding vulgar it is certain that all eat and drink at some time or another. The body will use what it needs for energy and dispel what is sees as waste. The fact of the matter is that nothing can be dispelled from the body unless it was first put in the body. What goes in the body must and by necessity come out in one form or the other.

Now, the above analogy is not intended to be disparaging to the Holy Spirit. It is simply to show that if a thing is in you it must come out. As such, if you are a Christian and the only thing that comes out of you is mess that is offensive to the Godhead then there is a very good chance that you are not a Christian. Christianity means talking and walking after the manner prescribed by God. This is why I was not able to contain my worship and prayer Sunday. The Holy Spirit rests inside me and as such my life, my actions and all that I seek to do must by extension be a result of what is in me.

Hence, the life of a Christian is not one of a dignified position of false holiness rather it is a lifestyle that causes the God of all to be magnified. Paul said it best in Philippians 1:20 with the words:
“According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.”

So then, if it’s in you it must come out of you!