The first Passover was successful in delivering Israel from Egypt, but except for the giving of the Law, little else was accomplished during the next forty years. Israel wandered around in circles while God kept prodding them (Joshua 5:6). He had brought them out of bondage for a purpose, but they did not find that purpose. How tragic it was for a large nation to wander around for so many years in such a small geographic area! It is difficult to understand how that could happen to a people; yet we ourselves repeat this wandering in our spiritual lives many times. Occasionally we even wander physically. Although we may not wander for forty years, we do go in circles spiritually when we are not focused on God’s complete purpose for our lives. Our physical circumstances are frustrating if the complete focus and purpose of our life is not real to us.
These days which we are in now can be likened to the Feast of Passover that is mentioned in Joshua 5:10. After Israel observed the Feast on the plains of Jericho, their lives took on a specific meaning and direction. It was then that the battle cry arose, “On to Jericho!” This should prompt us to examine our hearts and ask why we are walking in this end-time army of the Lord. Are we, too, just wandering in the wilderness, or are we really marching toward “Jericho” as conquerors?
The wilderness, whatever it is to us individually, is a vacuum. As we come out of each level of bondage, we must be careful to move into the next level of victory, or we will end up in the very dangerous position of being in a spiritual vacuum. We do not want to be like that generation of Israelites who wandered in the wilderness until they all died. There is something greater ahead for us to accomplish; and we must face this question: Will we accomplish it, or will we fill up a cemetery somewhere? Deuteronomy 6:23 says that God brought the children of Israel out so that He could bring them in. Our deliverance has a purpose too. We need the anticipation that God is bringing us into the fulfillment of all that He has promised us. If we do not have this anticipation, we are in a very sad state. Some people live in a state of total anticipation, while others just exist. Are you anticipating, or are you merely existing? There is a great difference.
Jesus likened the generation of His day to a man who was demon-possessed. The demon was cast out of him, but finding no rest, he brought back seven more demons stronger than himself. Since the man had not been filled with anything in the interim, the demons reentered him and his last position was worse than the beginning (Matthew 12:43–45).
We learn from this parable that we must avoid being a vacuum. It is essential that we be filled at all times. Passover is the time of coming out which precedes the conquest of our inheritance. We do not come out of bondage to die in the wilderness and have our bones bleach in the sun. We come out with a specific goal: to follow the direction of the Lord.
Let me give you a practical application of this principle of being filled. In personal ministry after demonic oppression is broken or problems are discerned, the elders and pastors should give the one receiving ministry something positive which he can move into immediately. Personal ministry should never create a void in a person’s life. If you see personal ministry done that way, you are very justified in challenging it.
The old phrase, “All nature abhors a vacuum” is really true. If you clear a little patch of ground for a garden, and do not plant it immediately, the weeds will grow back. Nature abhorred the vacuum you created and filled it immediately.
This principle of nature also prevails in other realms. Getting rid of the undesirable will not be effective unless we fill the void with something positive. For example, people try all kinds of ways to quit smoking cigarettes, including hypnotherapy. In one particular test, fifty people were conditioned through hypnosis to reject cigarette smoking.
However, of those fifty, some turned to hard drinking, some to drugs, and some to sexual promiscuity—right after they had been delivered from cigarette smoking. Only a few were able to stop smoking and return to a normal, natural life. Even though all fifty smokers were delivered, the majority found nothing positive to fill the vacuum that they were suddenly left with, so many actually ended up worse than when they started.
We never want to create a vacuum in ourselves or in anyone else. So how do we fill it? We appropriate the fullness of Christ. Jesus died to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21). This creates a type of vacuum in us. When we accept Him as our Savior, we are cleansed; but then we need to take a further step and be filled with His righteousness. We do not want to be an empty vessel. We never want to have only the negative viewpoint, that we are getting rid of the old nature—that is only half the picture. We must have the positive viewpoint also, that we are embracing His nature.
God promised the Israelites that He would give them the land of Canaan, but the outlook was not positive in the beginning. When twelve men were sent up to spy out the land, they saw thirty-one nations of people living there who were mightier than Israel (Joshua 1:3–4; 2:1; 12:24). Yet God assured Israel that He would give them the land little by little as they pushed in and fought for it. If God had evacuated the Canaanites before the Israelites arrived, the wild beasts would have moved in and multiplied in the land (Exodus 23:29). God knew that just as a vacant house is in danger of being vandalized, so also a dangerous vacuum would exist in the land of Canaan if no people inhabited it. The vineyards would die, and the land would be wasted.
As conquerors possessing our spiritual inheritance, we must push in and do our part. Like the Israelites who possessed Canaan, we also must make a positive appropriation for every step of victory in our lives. We are the ones who must start moving forward. A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, and that first step is always the most difficult one. Too often when little problems upset us, it is because we are stumbling along as empty vessels. The first step in filling a vacuum is to turn our focus to the Lord and say, “Fill me, Lord.”
How do you grow in your walk with God? Be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:19b. This verse should really challenge you. There can be no substitute for His fullness in your life. There is a loneliness, a difficulty to relate and to overcome, that comes from living in a vacuum. Certainly we do not want that in our lives. The Lord wants a Church without spot or wrinkle, one that is holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27). Open your heart to His fullness. Believe for all the vacuums in your life to be filled.
Even people who are doing the will of God can have a certain lack in their lives. To keep from being overtaken by a fatigue that comes against their spirit, they do many things to fill up the vacuum. Ephesians 5:18–20 tells the best way to be filled. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.
When you do the will of God and have a ministry that you are walking in, you will not automatically feel humanly gratified and fulfilled on the human level. Can you expect human gratification from doing something spiritual? If you have a creative ability to paint a picture that sells for thousands of dollars, you have a reward, a sense of satisfaction in that. But humanly speaking there is little sense of satisfaction in the work of the cross being done in you. There is no lasting satisfaction in even preaching a good sermon. If you feel good when you have preached a good sermon, there may be still too much of you in it. Human satisfaction does not come from just performing the will of God. Even when you have done the will of the Lord, you must find something to replenish your spirit after having ministered out. After telling the disciples all that they would do, Jesus gave them this one key: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” John 15:11. He was explaining to them, “Even when you have done all that I have spoken, the joy that fills your life must be spiritual, rather than just a natural, human emotion, or satisfaction.”
There may not be much fun in your life, humanly speaking. You could probably think of many things that are more fun than walking in the discipleship that God has set before you. After laboring long hours, you must have something in your spirit to fill that vacuum. Because you give out when you do the will of God, you must appropriate His joy to refill you. You must follow this one guideline in order to avoid a vacuum: Do not look for your fulfillment on a human plane if you desire to perfectly do the will of God. Let human fulfillment be incidental. If God gives it, fine; if He does not, that is fine too.
Ephesians 5:18 says, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Paul is talking about two options: Being filled with wine, or being filled with the Spirit. People who take liberty even with drinking wine will use it to fill a vacuum. Because they do not feel humanly fulfilled, they will use wine to distract themselves from the pressures of their lives.
As one whom God has chosen to do His will in this end time, what will you get out of this? Is it fun to be in warfare? Is it fun to battle and try to break through the spiritual pressure and warfare that comes against you? Is that your complete fulfillment? No. There is an emptiness that comes from faithful dedication, and you can fill that emptiness with the Spirit. You will never find any substitute for being constantly filled with the Spirit and with the joy of the Lord. Seek for those things! They will not automatically happen; you must appropriate them. You will be only as joyful as you dare to believe God to be. You will have only as much kick out of life as you believe for God to put into your spirit.
This is a time of spiritual battle. It is also a time of much labor. It is also a time when God is working a deep preparation of heart. Yet in the midst of all of this, you should be the happiest person on earth because you are daring to reach up and take your joy from God. Draw that joy from the Lord. If you do not, you may start looking for a substitute, whether it is wine or some other distraction. When the pressure is on, it is not much fun to do the will of the Lord; yet we are driven by a dedication to do it. But while we are doing the will of the Lord, we had better appropriate His joy to sustain us.
The sustaining joy of the Lord was manifested in the Feast of Tabernacles which was held during the restoration in the days of Nehemiah. When the Word was read and the people realized how far they had missed it, they started to weep and mourn. They were deeply grieved; but in their particular state, the sorrow of repentance was not enough. They were told, “Go eat the fat and drink the sweet. Be joyful in the Lord, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:9–10). The joy of the Lord is your strength, not the joys of living.
We should have a sense of satisfaction that we are blazing a trail into a new age. In some ways we are like the men who founded this country. At Valley Forge and various other times during the American Revolution, the British themselves recorded that they had never seen such bravery and courage in the face of intense suffering as that shown by the American soldiers. We cannot imagine their hardships. Was that fun? No. They were driven by a dedication. In their dedication to the cause of freedom, they left a great deal undone. They forsook homes, families, and personal lives. On the human level, there was no fulfillment in their battles. A weariness would have overtaken them and a vacuum would have filled them if they had not reached up and somehow drawn on the hope set before them. Hebrews 12:2 says of Christ that He endured the cross, despising the shame, for the joy that was set before Him. In His focus, He had to leapfrog over the present shame which was almost unendurable for anyone to bear. Christ had to go through that, but as He went through it, He reached out and borrowed joy from the future.
We reach in the Spirit for the joy of the Lord to be our focus. We do not want to sit in a vacuum. We want dedication and we want to move ahead, but we will have to be sustained by something along with these things; we will need a joy from the presence of the Lord. Once we break into that joy, we will find out how real and sustaining it is.
You may have been feeling lately, “Well, I’ve been in there plugging away, but there is a weariness on my spirit. I know that I am in the will of God, but it is sometimes difficult for me.” Whoever said that when you serve the Lord, you will smile all the time? Draw your joy from the Lord. Draw what God has for you. Keep your focus on what you are here for. Maintain your dedication. Things will not become any easier, but you can have His joy to strengthen you if you will appropriate it. Many promises in the Scriptures which point to this time in which we are living describe the joy that is available to us, the everlasting joy that will be upon our heads (Isaiah 35:10; 55:12; 65:14). We must have His joy because we are battling against principalities and powers to possess spiritual heights.
You will be persecuted for His name’s sake (John 15:20–21). Do you think it is fun to be persecuted? Do you anticipate it? Do you anticipate having the enemy come against you? Do you anticipate spiritual warfare and battle? No, of course not. Do you anticipate doing everything that God puts before you? Yet I would not consider doing anything else. Dedication drives me to do the will of the Lord. But I know also that as a person I must be sustained by something; I cannot afford a vacuum in my life. Therefore I appropriate the joy of the Lord.
It is difficult to find people who have that dedication. How do you motivate people to do the will of God? They do His will because they love Him enough to do it; they love Him enough to be dedicated. Is it true that only the people who have enough fortitude and can get enough reward out of it will make it? No. Even the weakest can fulfill the will of God if he keeps drawing the strength of the Lord and the joy of the Lord to sustain him (II Corinthians 12:9; 13:4).
This principle of keeping the vacuum filled has not had enough emphasis; people must understand it before they can move into the Kingdom-level dedication.
When you start to do the will of God, a weariness comes over you. Yet the Scripture says, “Be not weary in well doing, for in due season you will reap if you faint not” (Galatians 6:9). That is a good Scripture, but it is like saying, “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26). Just how will you keep the sun from going down when you are really angry? And how will you keep from getting weary when you have labored so long? “Be not weary in well doing”—this does not happen because you can sustain yourself; it happens because you reach into His strength. You keep yourself in a state of pleroma, the Greek word used for “fullness” in Ephesians 3:19: “Be filled with all the pleroma, with all the fullness of God.”
Being filled with all the fullness does not mean that you are a well-organized, well-oriented person, capable of handling every situation in the Kingdom of God. It means that you have drawn His fullness; you are keeping yourself filled with that which you are appropriating from God. That involves a focus in your own life. You must know where you are going and what you are called to do.
Would you like to know what happens when someone in a ministry fails to put this principle in operation? A man can work and work, pushing himself in every way he knows how; but if he does not draw anything for himself, he will begin to lean on something else, often to his own destruction. This has been the destruction of great evangelistic and healing ministries in the past. Paul admonished, “Don’t do it! Do not turn to wine (today we could also say, “drugs”), wherein is dissipation and excess, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Keep drawing the fullness of the Lord. That is all you need.
There is a joy! There is a fullness! Turning to some other source is self-defeating; it will not help you. We should see to it that those who are giving themselves to the Kingdom are ministered to in ways which will help them appropriate the blessings of the Lord to sustain them. The fullness of the Spirit will displace the emptiness that naturally occurs when we are doing the will of the Lord. You are going to be sustained by what you appropriate from the Lord to do His will. His disciples may need to “come apart and rest awhile” lest you seem to fall apart (Mark 6:30–32). His disciples do not need a vacation from God. They only need to draw His joy and His rest (Matthew 11:28–30).