Pressed in the Spirit ~ by Robert Blackburn

“And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ,” Acts 18:5.

Pressed in the Spirit…. that is how it was written. All of the signs we are seeing around us today, point to a particular response.

It’s time, we stop shying away from talking about the spiritual realm. Over the years, we may have gotten way off base concerning these spiritual things. There was once a cry that went forth, even among those newly added to the Kingdom of God, “I want more,” to learn all that we could of Him. People came to us; they wanted more too.

There’s this old song of the church we used to sing, in some of our more dedicated days. It simply said, “It’s all over me, and it’s keeping me alive. It’s the Holy Ghost and fire, and it’s keeping me alive. Jesus, is keeping me alive.”

All of us, even we children, knew about that old prophet that said, “it’s like fire, shut up in my bones.” We couldn’t keep still. We felt we just had to tell somebody; what we had received, the love and forgiveness of Jesus; and how it felt.

In this context, Paul was pressed in the spirit, to minister and to testify to these people about Christ. To share all he knew to those who did not know the LORD. If you’ve been around long enough, you remember how we felt inside.

Another old song said, “I said I wasn’t gonna tell anybody, but I just couldn’t keep it to myself.” Keep what to myself? What the LORD has done for me. There begins a return to all of that; it’s being stirred up, by that which cannot be controlled.

Once more, if God has placed something within your spirit, it is going to start moving again. If we have on the inside, what we say we have there, it will spring to new life. We’re in a place that we have never been before.

The stakes are high. There is a last ditch stand, that is confronting us. We often hear those words that echo down through the corridors of time: “For such a time as this.” It is all going to come together. Did some dare think, that God could not raise up those He’s chosen and trained, to do the work in this hour?

The apostle was pressed in his spirit. Since not enough emphasis is being placed on real depth in spiritual things, we tend to forget. Our own spirit, is eternal. Everyone of us, has their own spirit; their own soul, that as we once said, will live forever; somewhere. It is the human spirit, that is in so much trouble today.

Our minds are being attacked and oppressed, on every hand. Without being spiritual as we were intended, many of us don’t seem to recognize things for what they are. We don’t know what we are doing, to our own soul.

Pressed. Urged. Driven. It does not matter if we have somehow gotten off the mark a bit. We will stir oursleves up. The state of this world, and the things happening around us, will cause us to seek the only thing that truly works.

Many of us will remember that there is but one answer to our dilemma; one way, to rise above it all. Any coping skill we might have developed of our own and received of other men, will be useless in the midst of real battle. It will only fail.

How else can we say it. Escaping into the realm of the Spirit, will be our only way of standing. simple prayer as many of us have been doing, will not tear down strongholds. It will not stop the forces of darkness that are trying to settle down upon us.

Remember another old chorus, “When the LORD gets ready, you gotta move.” A call has gone out. If you truly wish to follow the lead of the Spirit, you will not be able to resist. It doesn’t matter how you feel, if you’re bad sick, or what condition you might have gotten into.

You will be pressed once more, to give out, what was given to you. It’s time to move.