Spirit of the Living God / Daniel Iverson
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.
As I was recording the words to this song, the individual words began to stand out to me. I sensed the Lord Jesus telling me that he wanted me to examine the meaning behind each of these words, so that I know, when I am singing them, what I am actually saying to God. I knew, too, that the Lord would want me to look into his word, so I read in Acts 27:1-26:
Paul Sails for Rome
1 When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. 2 We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.
3 The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. 4 From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. 7 We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. 8 We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.
9 Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Fast. So Paul warned them, 10 “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” 11 But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. 12 Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.
The Storm
13 When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. 14 Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the “northeaster,” swept down from the island. 15 The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. 17 When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. 18 We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19 On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
21 After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. 23 Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”
My Understanding: I believe the Lord would have me look at the meaning of six words from this song – fall, fresh, melt, mold, fill and use - in combination with this passage of scripture, in order to receive from the Lord, the message that I believe he has for me.
Fall – “to come down freely from a higher to a lower position; to come from an upright position; and lowering of something” (Encarta). From a spiritual viewpoint, this is referring to the uprightness and holiness of God freely coming down from heaven and resting upon man. This is accomplished only through Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection in which he conquered death, hell, Satan and sin - not only being victorious over the penalty of sin over our lives, but the control of sin over our lives on a daily basis. And, we can receive this freely through faith - repentance and obedience to Jesus Christ.
Fresh – “new or clean and showing no signs of previous use; not changed, diminished or spoiled by the passage of time; wholesome; pure; excitingly different; alert; a breeze or a wind blowing quite strongly; bright; and healthy, etc.” - Encarta. Wow! So, to ask the Spirit of the living God to fall fresh on us means to have his uprightness and holiness coming down and resting upon us in a manner in which the Spirit of God then brings into our lives something that is not changed, diminished or spoiled by the passage of time (the gospel message; our salvation; His Spirit), that is pure and is excitingly different, and is like a breeze or a wind blowing strongly into our lives with the power of God behind it. This is speaking of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving us from sin and in sending his Holy Spirit to indwell our lives, to teach us, convict of sin, counsel us, encourage us, strengthen us, give us hope for eternity, lead us and guide us into all truth, and empower us from on high to be his witnesses and to share the gospel message so that others can be saved.
Melt – “to disappear gradually and inconspicuously; to change a substance from a solid to a liquid state by heating it, or be changed in this way; become merged; be moved emotionally” (Encarta). This is another “Wow!” I had never thought of what this meant before. So, to ask God to melt us means to ask him to make us (our flesh; our sinfulness and selfishness) disappear gradually over time. There is the initial time of repentance and turning from sin in which we make that conscious decision to reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive unto God, yet this salvation is a work in progress until Jesus returns, which is why Jesus commanded that if we want to be his followers that we must take up our cross daily and to follow him. This definition also states that this is about a change from a solid to a liquid, or like changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly. It means that if we are asking Jesus to melt us, we are asking him to change us from whom we were to someone else. Then, the definition says that “melt” means to be merged. When we ask Jesus to melt us, we are asking the Spirit of God to merge us with him so that we become more and more like Jesus.
Mold – “to shape or form something in a mold; to shape or give form to something; to guide or influence the growth or development of somebody or something” (Encarta). The Bible teaches us that Jesus is our potter and we are his clay in his hands, and just as a potter takes a lump of clay and molds it into a beautiful work of art, so our potter does the same with us. This involves putting us under “the heat” (pressure; throwing; carving; etc.) to make the clay supple and able to be molded, which I believe the Lord is using this situation with my back and leg as an illustration of the necessity of heat and pain sometimes to motivate us toward complete obedience and surrender to where we are moldable. So, if we are praying for the Spirit of the living God to mold us, we are asking God to shape us via heat, pressure and pain in order to make us into the people of God he wants us to be.
This is where this passage of scripture fits in, I believe. This is a story about a physical storm, yet I believe God wants to use it here to show how he will often have to bring storms into our lives in order to melt us, mold us, fill us and then use us for his glory. The winds against us are life’s circumstances, which sometimes can be difficult. They are our trials and tribulations, deadlines, difficult relationships, health issues, job loss, etc. Sometimes these winds can be very strong against us and it may seem like we are making such slow progress, and often these winds are sent to us by God because he wants to point us in another direction, perhaps, because we are not going the right way or we are trying to do it in our own flesh. When we choose to go against God or to go it alone and in our own strength, much time can be lost, i.e. time that we could have been serving the Lord. And, going forward can be dangerous, because we are not going with God but against him.
So, Jesus gives us warnings. Those warnings can be found in scripture – warnings against idolatry, idleness, spiritual and physical adultery, and stubborn wills that resist God, etc. There are also warnings concerning false christs, wolves in sheep’s clothing, a great deception, the tools of Satan that he uses against us, and warnings to not be deceived but to keep our eyes open and to be alert and to pray, so that we can hear his voice speaking to us and we can see with our own eyes the reality of what we are being warned against in our homes, families, churches, communities, nations and world, so that we can repent, so that we will not believe the lies and fall into the trap of the devil, and so we can live lives that are truly obedient to Jesus Christ in all things. Jesus warns us that if we keep going against him and we keep following our own selfish wills, that disaster awaits us, because the Bible teaches us that the Lord disciplines and corrects those that he loves. So, instead of following after the worldly advice of men, we need to be listening to the Holy Spirit within us, and we need to heed his wise and godly counsel in our lives, and turn and go another direction before it is too late, and that gentle wind turns into hurricane force winds in our lives, and we will no longer be able to fight against God but he will have his way.
When we choose to keep following the paths in our lives that we know are against God and are against his will, and he finally has to bring those hurricane force winds into our lives in order to bring us into submission to his will, we will probably experience a battering from the storm on our lives that may take its toll on us in various ways, and may even lead to great sorrow or even despair to where we might even want to give up all hope of being “saved.” Yet, we can’t go back and undo what we did, no matter how much we would wish at this point that we could. Nonetheless, Jesus, if we come to him in humility and repentance, promises his forgiveness and his restoration. So, he tells us to keep up our courage. We may suffer loss of loved ones, respect, house, job, etc., but not all is lost. The things of this world are destined to perish, but Jesus promises us a hope that will never change, diminish or spoil by the passage of time, if we will but put our faith and trust in his promises and we will choose to go with him instead of against him.
Fill – “to make a container full, or become full; to become present and very noticeable throughout something; and to plug a hole, crack, or cavity in something” (Encarta). We cannot be filled with the presence of Almighty God in our lives if our lives are filled up with the flesh, worldliness, worldly pleasures and appetites, etc. We often fill our lives with these wrong things, because we are looking to fill our own holes and empty places in our lives, “like the woman at the well who was seeking for things that could not satisfy. And, then she heard the Savior speaking, ‘Draw from the well that never shall run dry.’” And, Jesus is saying the same thing to us today. If we are going the wrong direction by filling our lives with useless things that are destined to perish with time, instead of filling our lives with what will never change, diminish or spoil with the passage of time (our salvation and kingdom things), and if we are going against the winds of God in our lives - winds that are there to show us when we are not going the right direction - then we cannot expect the Spirit of the living God to fill us with his presence. So, we must allow God’s grace in our lives to work in us in helping us to rid ourselves of the junk we fill our lives with and, instead, we need to fill our lives with the things of God and of His righteousness.
Use – “to put something into action or service for some purpose” (Encarta). My husband recently was taught by the Lord concerning his need to have a purpose from God, then a plan from God, and then he could prove the existence and presence of God in his life by how he conducted himself and in how he lived his life on a daily basis. If we don’t know our purpose, then we are just going blindly forward with no sense of direction, which can be nearly as bad as going against the winds of God in our lives, because God has given each one of us a purpose that he wants to fulfill in our lives, if we will let him. To put this purpose into action, we need to have a divinely inspired plan. So, we need to seek God’s face concerning our purpose and then ask him to show us his plan for how to fulfill that purpose in our lives, and then we have to follow the plan, or we will just be floundering with no real clear path to follow. Once we have discovered our life purpose and we have inquired of God concerning his plan, and we have begun to put that plan of action into our lives on a daily basis, then we are ready for God to use us for his glory in the lives of other people.
The most important purpose God has for every one of us is that we be saved. When the Spirit of God then has come to rest upon us in all his freshness in purifying our hearts, and then he begins to melt us (to have our former lives disappear) and to change us from who we were before into someone else, and then he begins to shape us into who he wants us to be, and he gives us the grace and strength and willpower to rid our lives of all the junk that is in there through our own efforts of trying to fill the empty spaces of our lives, then he can fill us with his presence and with spiritual things which will bring us complete satisfaction, joy and everlasting peace with God. When he has shown us our life purpose and the plan for accomplishing it, and we have begun to put that plan of action into place through obedience, then he can use us to accomplish his will and purpose in having the kind of impact on the lives of others that he had planned and purposed for us even before our lives began. So, the question here is, “Will we allow the Holy Spirit of God to change us and to make us who he wants us to be so we can be moldable clay in his hands fit for the Master’s use?” I pray that would be so in my life, and I pray it would be so in your lives, as well. Thank you, Jesus, great things YOU have done!
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