The thought that launched this entire journey is that “everybody is under the influence of something.” Every day there are voices, pressures, desires, expectations, experiences, and influences competing to shape the way we think and live. Some are obvious, but others work so quietly that we don’t recognize their influence until something happens and our response reveals what’s been growing inside us.
Paul gives us a powerful picture in Ephesians 5. He says, “Don’t be drunk with wine?instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Why would Paul put those two things together? Because he’s talking about influence . When someone is under the influence of alcohol, what’s inside begins affecting what’s outside. It can change the way they walk, talk, think, respond, and make decisions.
Paul says there is another influence available to us, the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is more than having a spiritual experience. It’s allowing the Holy Spirit to increasingly influence how we think, speak, respond, forgive, endure, love, and live. That’s why Galatians 5 describes two very different outcomes. Paul talks about the works of the flesh and then contrasts them with the fruit of the Spirit. Two influences, two currents, two different outcomes.
Throughout this series we’ve asked the question, which current is influencing my life? Sometimes we discover the answer when life bumps into us and something spills out. Pressure reveals it. Waiting reveals it. Conflict reveals it. Disappointment reveals it. Relationships definitely reveal it! And when something comes out that doesn’t look much like Jesus, the answer isn’t condemnation or simply trying harder. It’s an invitation to recognize an area of our lives that needs to come more fully under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Christianity isn’t behavior modification. It’s transformation . God works in us until what He is doing inside us begins showing up through us. The goal isn’t simply to act more like Jesus.
It’s to become more like Jesus. And that happens as we continually yield our lives to the influence of His Spirit.
