In one sermon, D.L. Moody held up a glass and asked, “How can I get the air out of this glass?”

One man shouted, “Suck it out with a pump!”

Moody replied, “That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass.”

After numerous other suggestions Moody smiled, took out a pitcher of water, and filled the glass.

“There,” he said, “all the air is now removed.”

He used this simple demonstration to explain that living a victorious life is not accomplished by “sucking out a sin here and there,” but by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Later, he said, “I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled.”

Let’s begin emptying ourselves today.

We need to be filled with God’s Spirit so that we can be empowered to do great things!

I pray that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19

–by George Whitten