The Silent Danger of an Empty Christian Life- How to Stay Filled With Christ (DCLC1984)

I found a gathering of Christians in Glendale, California. I think it was Saturday night, and it was one of these charismatic groups. This lady was leading the singing; if you can tell me her name, I can tell you the song she wrote. She wrote a song entitled I’ll Never Be Lonely Again.” Do you know the song? I’ll Never Be Lonely. I’ll never, never again. No, never again. Don’t you know that song? Don’t you? Do you know that song? I’ll never be lonely again. Well, every Saturday night, her choir would sing that, and I’d sit back there, and from the time they started singing to the time they ended, I sat in the back row and was bawling. That’s all I could do. That’s all I did.

I don’t even know why I told you that, but brother, sister, if there is anything in this world that can make that inward spot be anything but empty, stay with it. No matter how small a thing it is. There is no necessity for you to go on being wounded forever. There is still a living God, and there still are decent Christians, and you’re going to have to believe that, or you’re never going to get anywhere. Now, I dare say that half the people in this room are dealing with more or less an empty house, and it’s still in order, and that’s dangerous. You’re dealing with an empty house, and it’s still dangerous. It’s dangerous to have a well-ordered home. Don’t do that.

Dear Christian, fill that house up again. Fill it up. Whatever it takes, fill it up. I loved the little part Jeanne Guyon had in her book when she said, “You don’t have to be able to read in order to know the Lord as deeply as anyone.” You can memorize Psalm 23…oh, it’s the Lord’s prayer…Our Father, which is in heaven…and she said, “Just feed on that.” You don’t need a great deal to fill the inward place. It’s not difficult. The inward parts of us are not complex, and unlike our souls and bodies, can subsist on very simple foods.

Your head needs a variety of things constantly. Constantly, your spirit can get by on Psalm 23, for you cannot imagine how long…on a song, on anything that has like spirit to it. You need not leave the house in order and empty. Forget the order, peanut. Fill the thing up. Fill it up with something of your Lord. Fill up the empty place with your Lord. Instead of the demon going out and wandering all over the world, why don’t you go out and wander all over the world and find that which fills up your inward house? You go wander, and when you see him wandering, you say, “I’m out-wandering you. I’ll find more than you will find.” And I’ll get back there and fill that thing up before you can get in there again.

Let me tell you something so simple. You know, we Christians are fascinating. I can’t help but watch, especially preachers. Pray. We’ve had some fellowship; we’re about to leave. “Oh brother, let us have a word of prayer before we go,” and just like that, he drops his head and says, “Oh, our Father in heaven, we thank You.” And you know, I guess he thinks we’re impressed with how quickly he can pray. I watch Christians sometimes in prayer meetings, and they rush into prayer. I step back and look at that, and I think I see an awful lot of running around up here and a lot of speed, almost speeding up this up here in order to get through the prayer. We talk faster in talking to God than we do to anybody else. Well, God’s not up here. God’s not up here. You’re in the wrong place. God’s down here.

Why won’t you just get alone? Just get alone. Don’t pray. Don’t ask for anything. When you come into the Lord’s presence, there’s a good chance you’re going to feel a sense of guilt…I haven’t prayed for so long, and I sinned today, boy. I sinned big today. It’s almost like an internal chamber surrounded by a little bubble of guilt you have to get through. Do you understand what I’m saying? You just have to wait till you get past it. You stand there and say, “Okay, that’s part of the fall. I’m waiting for you to go away. You do your little thing, and I’m waiting for you,” and then just pass through the guilt. You could also say, “Lord, by Your blood I’m coming,” and that little guilt place will open up and let you through.

Well, anyway, just get really quiet before the Lord and leave Uncle Henry and Aunt Nelly and your broken-down car and your flat checkbook and that strange feeling you’re getting over here on the right side, and you just know that you know what it is, some awful thing. You lay that aside, and you lay all your worries aside, and you drop your worries, and you drop your thinking, and you wait till your mind slows down, and you just sit there as best you can before your Lord. Just wait till all these outward things cool down a little bit.

“And then what do I do, Gene? Tell me some more. What’s the big secret? Something in the Bible I haven’t seen. Oh, tell me about prayer now.” Okay, here it comes. You ready? Take one word. One word. One… and that word is Lord. You sit there very quietly, prop your feet up on your ottoman, lean back in your comfortable chair, and wait till everything gets real quiet inside you and up here, and just say, “Lord.” And don’t say Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.” And don’t say, “Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord or Lord, Lord, Lord.”

You know, we were in Formosa once, and I passed by a shrine, and there was this priest there in front of his little shrine, and he had two sticks, and he was beating them. And that is the Shinto tradition of making a clattering sound to get the attention of its god. You don’t need to get His attention. I will tell you your Lord’s vulnerable spot. You want to hear your Lord’s vulnerable spot? I’ll tell you where he’s vulnerable 24 hours a day, no matter how dead your spirit is. Just say, “Lord.” And there will be the slightest sense of something. And when that sense has come and glowed…now we’re talking about something almost imperceptible…and has begun to dissipate and has dissipated, say it again, and wait.

In a minute, while nobody’s looking, say it with all the love you’re capable of uttering that word. Love Him. Love Him with that one word. “I want a Cadillac.” That’s not love. That’s gold digging. My point. No. Not “Now I got Him, I can feel the Lord again. See my list.” No. Just go in there, you poor fallen creature, and love your Lord. Well, then what do I do? Nothing. Just love Him some more. That’s all. “Gene, that doesn’t work for me.” Do it anyway. “It just doesn’t work. I’m not the type… I can’t just…” Do it anyway.

Those of you who say, “I don’t know where my spirit is,” you sit down. You get alone with the Lord away from everybody. Just get calm. Some of you have got a brain that has never seen below 97 miles an hour, and a tongue that’s never seen below 120. We have a saying in East Texas: he never had a thought he didn’t speak. Just let the tongue be quiet. Let the mind slow down. Whether you’re one of these fast people or a slow person, let it get slower and wait and just begin to speak His name. And as you can, just love Him with His name, and that is your spirit. If you’re looking for your spirit, that is your spirit. How will I know? You don’t have to know. That is your spirit. What’s left when your mind is slowed down, and you’re sitting there with nothing else around you, and you are loving your Lord, and there is a sense…that’s your spirit.

You need never have an empty, well-ordered home. I believe every brother and sister in this room, maybe with a few exceptions, best within your strength, you have a well-ordered home. For many of you, it’s empty. All you need is an ottoman, a big, comfortable chair, a light switch that’ll go off for about three or four minutes to calm down, and the Name above every name. That’s all you need. I don’t see how the Lord could have made His relationship much simpler than that. You can begin there. You can end there. “Gene, what’s your secret?” An ottoman. Big stuff. Well, a big, comfortable chair. I don’t have an ottoman; I actually put my feet up in the window. Some quiet… day or night. A mind that slows down, and the Name that is above every name. May God keep me from a well-ordered house because I can’t handle a well-ordered house. Something’s going to come in. Something awful is going to come into a well-ordered house. And really, you should consider moving heaven and earth if that’s all you got right now, because you can’t keep it that way forever.