Faith Walk / William Carroll
We will be talking about the word of God and how he moved in my life as I stood on his word. His signs and wonders that I have seen during the last forty years praying for my needs and the needs of others. I hope to encourage a new generation of believers to pray the word of God and to believe that He will move on their behalf. God answers prayers!
Faith Walk / William Carroll
Ep 59 Living out of the overflow of the Spirit
Have you been trying to pour out spiritual blessings from an empty cup?
William Carroll tackles a profound spiritual principle that's often overlooked in modern Christianity – the overflow principle. Through vivid imagery of cups, pitchers, and waterfalls, he illustrates how our ministry efforts should never come from our limited personal resources but from the abundant overflow of God's Spirit continuously filling us.
Drawing from powerful examples in the book of Acts, Carroll reminds us that the early church experienced multiple infillings of the Holy Spirit, resulting in bold proclamation, supernatural healings, and exponential growth. These weren't historical anomalies but templates for how the church should function today. When believers gathered after facing persecution, they didn't strategize marketing plans – they prayed for more of God's Spirit and power, resulting in a building-shaking encounter that transformed their ministry.
Carroll challenges the dangerous theological position that has crept into many churches: "We don't need the Holy Spirit anymore because we've got the Bible." This mindset has left countless believers with correct doctrine but powerless lives. As he pointedly observes, "That Bible can sit on your table all day long and not do nothing." The written Word was never meant to replace the living Spirit but to work in perfect harmony with Him.
Whether you're feeling spiritually depleted, confused about the Holy Spirit's role today, or simply hungry for more of God's presence, this episode offers practical insights for moving from emptiness to overflow. Take the first step toward reclaiming the dynamic, supernatural Christianity that Jesus promised – where rivers of living water flow from your innermost being, refreshing both you and everyone you encounter.
Ready to move from cup to pitcher to waterfall? Listen now, and prepare for your glass to overflow.
Well, good morning and welcome to Faith Walk. I'm William Carroll, I'm your host. Let's just go to the Lord in prayer today and start it off. And Lord, open our eyes to see what you see. Lord, open our ears to hear as you hear. Lord, open our heart to feel what you feel. And Lord, open our mouth to speak as you speak. Help us, lord, in our faith walk to become one with you, one with the spirit that we may know you, that we may know your small voice and Father, that we may follow your leading and your guidance. In Jesus's name, amen. My goal on faith walk is to help you in your faith walk and sometimes I do share how God used me in my faith walk.
Speaker 1:But we have been talking lately about the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the power, the dunamis, the dynamite, miracle working power that was poured out upon the church. And you know, one of my questions was you know, are you walking in that power today? And my, you know, are you walking in that power today? And my question today is are you walking in that power? Well, we need to be walking in that power. Was that power given just to the apostles? You know, was the whole hundred. You know, the 120 was in the upper room and it fell upon each of them and they spoke with tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. And then they begin going with power. They've been going out and they've been having all things as one and God added to the church daily. And we, you remember, we talked about, after, uh, peter and John healed the lame man, how that the chief priest threatened them and told them don't be preaching in the name of Jesus. And they were bold in their testimony that it was. It was in the name of Jesus and faith in the name of Jesus that had healed the lame. Well, uh, they went back and they told their company what had happened. And their company started praying Lord, lord, that your that word, that you pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, that your word may go into all the world and that, by signs and wonders following that, you may do with our hands, that others may know that you are God. And the place was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:Now I want you to know that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time thing. It's a one-time. They call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's a one-time thing. The infilling, the first time, is a one-time thing, but you can be filled with the Spirit. It's kind of like a glass of water. You take a glass of water, you set it on this table right here. If I have this glass and I'm setting it right here, and I got this glass and I'm setting this glass right here, and this glass is half full, well, if it sits on that table and the spirit, you know, one of the way we describe the spirit is the feeling. You know it's an inward rushing mighty stream. You know it's a.
Speaker 1:So if this glass is half full and you're not filled anymore, what happens to the glass? Well, over time it just dissipates, right, all right. So if you're in ministry and your glass is half full, or even if it's full and you're ministering, what's happening? You're pouring out, you're pouring out, you're pouring out into others' lives, what happens to your glass? It gets empty. See, your ministry should always be an overflow, an overflow of the Spirit in you, not half glass, not full glass, but your ministry to others. And I'm not just talking about pastors here, I'm talking about everyday born again, spirit-filled, born again, believing people of god. All right. So my ministry, whether I teach, whether I teach sunday school, whether it should not be out of the glass, it should not be out of the feeling of the holy spirit, it should be out of the whole the overflow of the holy spirit.
Speaker 1:You know, I had a. I had a I guess you could call it a vision one time. It wasn't really a vision, I was just praying and I was seeking God and I was talking about the Holy Spirit and thinking about the Holy Spirit and you know, I said, lord, I always want my ministry, whatever I do, wherever I go, whether it's at work, I want my, my ministry to be an overflow of your spirit out of my glass. And I had a picture then after a while I had, you know, I had that picture overflow. You know you want the overflow so that I'm always full but I have enough to give others to help fill their glass up right. And then I was praying at another time in my life and I was praying about that and I was thanking god for the overflow in my life and I had a, a picture in my spirit of a picture, okay, a picture of water, and that picture of water was pouring into my glass, was pouring into my glass and the overflow to others was out of my cup, but it was coming from a pitcher. Ah, and I said, ah, lord, you know, let me be a pitcher that fills others, that their overflow may be, you know, their ministry may be out of their overflow.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, it went on a few years and again I was thinking about the same thing. I was thinking about the Holy Spirit and the overflow of the Holy Spirit and how, lord, I need more of you. I need more of you that I might do more for you, that I might be more like you, more you know that I may decrease and you may increase it, as John the Baptist had said. And I had a vision in my spirit. Ok, it's not like I went in a trance, so don't get all goofy on me, but I had a vision of a river, like a, a waterfall, and a waterfall flowing into a river. And I thought, lord, that's what I want to be. I need the overflowing power of your Holy Spirit in my life, like a waterfall that I might feed into other people. You know, because a pitcher's good, a cup that's running over is good, but you got to have something pouring into that cup. You see, I kept thinking at first. You know my overflow out of my cup. Well, something had to be what was pouring in. You know, when the room was shaken the second time the Holy Spirit, you know. It came upon them and it filled them. It said it filled them. And they've been going out and preaching the word and signs and wonders and miracles following them. Well, that's a picture of the new church.
Speaker 1:That's what the prophet Joel had said that in the last days, that the spirit, spirit of God, would be poured out upon his handmaids and his men and his handmaids, his sons and daughters, and that they would prophesy and they would speak with new tongues, and that they would do miracles. And listen, we're in the last days. I want to be doing the work of God. The church, the church as a whole, has lost power because we have negated the power of the Holy Spirit. Actually, listen, listen, I believe this is what we've done.
Speaker 1:We said we don't need the Holy Spirit, we don't need him anymore, there's no need for him because we've got the Bible. Well, listen, that Bible can sit on your table all day long and not do nothing. That Bible can be in your hands and you can take it with you and it not reach out and touch somebody. That Bible is not taking place of the Holy Spirit. It should never take the place of the Holy Spirit in our life. We need the Holy Spirit to be our teacher, our lead and our guide, and this is what the new church was finding out, because many times if you just if you got a good Bible app, if you don't have one, get e-sword it's a free Bible app. You get some free Bibles on there. You get some free things. There's some things you can pay for. It's the best Bible app I said. You can do searches on it. You can put in Holy Spirit, check the New Testament, and it's going to come up with every scripture that has the Holy Spirit in it or the Holy Ghost in it, and you can do Bible searches on like the axe.
Speaker 1:How many times the Holy Spirit, what the apostles filled the men and women of God shook the room and they began to either speak in tongues or they began to heal, reach out their hands to heal, because God was with them.
Speaker 1:See, god wants to prove to everybody in this world that he is God and he's still on the throne and he does what he says he's going to do. Well, my time up is about up and I didn't really get to my scripture today because I wanted to talk about Paul, I mean about Peter and the word coming to the Gentiles. And we'll get to that next time. But listen, if you don't know Jesus, every time the word is preached there's a line drawn in the sand and there should be an opportunity for somebody to cross over, to somebody to receive it, for somebody to do something with the word they heard. You know you may be saved. You may not, if you're not saved, call upon the name of jesus. Believe it in my heart. If you are saved, you may need the outpouring of the holy spirit. You need to be in the overflow. God bless you. Till next time.
