Experiencing the Outpouring of the Spirit and Being Stirred in our Spirit

In relation to the revival and restoration aspired for by all believers and unbelievers alike, there are many aspects and prayers all throughout the Minor Prophets.

One of the most famous yet misinterpreted one is Joel 2:28-29, where God promises to pour out His Spirit upon all His people and revive them. Every day we need the outpouring of the all-inclusive, consummated, compound, life-giving Spirit as the processed and consummated Triune God.

The way to receive the outpouring of the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21).

Also, another way to be in the revival is to be stirred up in our spirit by God and to respond by exercising our spirit to go and build up God’s house (Haggai 1:14).

Lord, stir us up in our spirit! We come up to the mountain, we bring up the wood, and we want to build up the house of God!

Experiencing the Outpouring of the Spirit

God promised in Joel 2:28-29 that in the last days He will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and the young people will prophesy, the old ones will have dreams, and the young men will see visions!

How can we receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

We are definitely in the last days, and we need this. On the day of Pentecost the Triune God has already been poured out as the consummated Spirit upon the disciples, and so today the Spirit is upon the Body!

The way to experience the Spirit’s outpouring daily and even moment by moment is by calling on the name of the Lord! The Lord is so rich to all those who call upon His name – no matter what race or color we are (Rom. 10:12-13).

When we say, Lord Jesus! we enthrone Him in our being, and this brings in the pouring out of the compound, life-giving, all-inclusive, consummated Spirit to be our all for our Christian life and work!

O Lord Jesus! Ooooo Loooooord Jeeeesuuuuus! Keep us calling on Your name to enjoy all Your riches! Lord, we want the Holy Spirit to be outpoured – we just Call!

Being Stirred Up in Our Spirit by God

God desires to rebuild His house and have a home on earth among man and in man, and for the recovery of the building of God’s house we need to be stirred up by the Lord in our spirit.

In Haggai 1:14 we see that Jehovah stirred up the spirit of the governor and the high priest, and then the spirit of all the people, and they came and did the work in the house of Jehovah (Ezra 1:5). Here we see two spirits: the divine Spirit and the stirred-up human spirit of God’s people.

We need to take heed to our spirit (Mal. 2:13) and set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6) every day.

On God’s side, the divine Spirit has been consummated and poured out (see Acts 2:17-21, Joel 2:28-32), but on our side we need to exercise our spirit to respond to such a Spirit by being stirred up!

We may think that when we became a Christian we were stirred up in our spirit, but now we are “cooled down” a little – but this is NOT true! Our human spirit mingled with the divine Spirit is always stirred up – we just need to touch our spirit and mind our spirit!

How Can We Stir Up Our Spirit?

How can we respond to God’s Spirit stirring up our spirit? How can we be burning in spirit? How can we fan into flame our mingled spirit, which is the gift of God (2 Tim. 1:6-7)?

Many times this happens spontaneously and without our effort. Especially when we are in a place where we as Christians shouldn’t be, or when we are in a conversation with someone who asks us about the Lord, there’s a stirring within us!

When we read the Bible, the spirit is stirred up yet calm within us – the Spirit operates in our spirit to stir us up.

Once the Divine Spirit came into our human spirit, He will never leave – He is always with us!

You can even say that the Spirit is a bit of “a troublemaker” in us, because He bothers us so many times when we say things, do things, are in certain places, or even when there’s nothing wrong outwardly. The Spirit within always stirs up our spirit!

There are at least four ways that the Bible encourages us to take in order to willingly cooperate with the inward stirring of the Spirit:

1. We need to set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6). Don’t let your mind wander around, and don’t allow your mind to be “multi-tasking” when you have a time with the Lord. Learn to SET your mind, fix your mind, focus your mind, on the spirit by minding the things of the Spirit! Set your mind on the mingled spirit by calling on the Lord, praying over His word, listening to the Lord’s speaking within, and many other ways!
2. We need to exercise our spirit daily (Jude 19-21). If we don’t exercise our spirit, there’s a great chance we would become a factor of division in the church life. Jude tells us of some believers who didn’t exercise their spirit but were rather dominated and governed by their soul, and they behaved as if they had no spirit! Let us take care of our spirit and use our spirit! We don’t want to lose the sense of our spirit and become like the animals, having no spirit! Rather, we want to be those praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves in the love of God, and awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ!
3. We need to fan into flame the gift of God (2 Tim. 1:6-7). God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardice – He gave us a spirit of power and of love and of sobermindedness! This means that the Spirit mingled with our spirit wants to spread into our will (power), our emotion (love), and our mind (sobermindedness). Our God-given spirit is the gift of God, and this spirit is “a reinforced spirit” – the Triune God is in our spirit, the Lord is with our spirit! We can boldly declare, I am Strong! I am Loving! I am Clear!
4. We need to take care of the feeling in our spirit. In 2 Cor. 2:13 Paul said he had no rest in his spirit, in Rom. 8:16 we see that there’s a witnessing of the Divine Spirit with our spirit that we are children of God, and in Acts 17:16 Paul’s spirit was provoked when he saw all the idols in Athens. Our mingled spirit has a lot of feelings and many times the Spirit with our spirit causes us to feel dissatisfaction, unrest, bothering, and even death. We need to take heed to the feeling in our spirit and follow our spirit by turning to the Lord and fellowshipping with Him in such moments. Listen to your spirit, and you will get life and peace!

Lord, we choose to set our mind on our spirit! May our wandering mind leave all thoughts behind and be set on the spirit that we may enjoy life and peace! Lord, make us those who exercise their spirit and take heed to their spirit daily! May we fan into flame the gift of God that we may enter into a new revival! Lord, we love our spirit!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from brother Ed Marks’ speaking in this message and portions in life-study of Malachi (message 4), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 12 (entitled, The Revival Revealed in the Minor Prophets).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Now He must have our cooperation. / We must set our mind upon the Son. / We must turn away from all that leads astray, / Till our mind is set on Him each day.
  # Set your mind on the things that are above, / Not on the things that are on earth. / For you have died and your life— / Is hid with Christ in God.
  # For which cause, I remind you / To fan into flame the gift of God / Which is in you
• Picture source: Joel 2:28-29 (created by a friend on facebook for this blog)