When I was a kid, my mother drove a big Chrysler. She would run that car as dry as she could, and then buy $2 worth of gas. Then she would run it down and put another $2 worth of gas in it.

My dad used to ask her, "Why don't you just run off the top of the tank and not the bottom?" It's not good for a car to let the gas tank get too low. When the tank gets low, all that junk in the bottom of the tank plugs the carburetor and can mess up the engine.

This is the same thing that happens to Christians. They run on fumes for a week, not taking the time to seek God in the Word or prayer. They take in all the junk from the world, and their lives are a mess.

Then they roll into church Sunday morning, plop into a seat, and say, "Two dollars' worth, please!" If Christians would stay full, the world wouldn't be affecting them—they would be affecting the world!

People sometimes ask me to pray they would get a new job. They work with unbelievers who don't live right or talk right, and by the end of the day they are drained. We shouldn't let these things affect us.

We should be so full of God and be such a strong influence at our work places that the unbelievers would say about us, "I don't know what it is about that person, but every time he comes in the room, I can't talk, act, or even think the way I usually do."

If we would keep our spiritual tanks full, we could influence the world instead of allowing the world to influence us. But the Church has been running on fumes. We need to get full of the Holy Spirit and stay full.

We cannot get the job done when we are consumed with so many needs ourselves. We cannot be strong witnesses when our tanks are empty.

The Fire Within
We want to see miracles, but revival has to start in us. God has to revive the Church before He sends revival to the world.

I'm convinced through studying the Book of Acts that the first thing God wants to do is get us so filled with the Holy Spirit that we are filled to overflowing.

Even after three and a half years with His disciples, teaching and training them personally, Jesus wouldn't turn them loose to reach the world until they were endued with power or fire from on high.

They had to be full before they could reach the world. Jesus put three and a half years' worth of fuel in them, but for that fuel to do its job, it had to come in contact with fire.

Source: Blood, Fire and Vapor of Smoke by Mark Brazee
Excerpt permission granted by Mark Brazee Ministries