Butter On Our Shoes

"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." - Ephesians 5:18-21 ESV

The Greek word translated debauchery there is Asotia (Strong's G810) it is a negation of Sozo (G4982) a word for safety or salvation. Very simply put being drunk with wine does not save a person. It does the opposite. It puts them in danger. But just as a person drinks a glass of wine and then loosens up to have another and then another God want our life to be filled with the Spirit the same way. This drink is heady drink indeed. It intoxicates a person until they are drunk with thanksgiving and reverence.

"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." - Proverbs 20:1 KJV

Wine or strong drink is a dangerous substitute. It mocks a person in it's Godless release leaving a person empty. Spirit filling does the opposite. It leaves a person full. It makes them poetic and melodic. There is an interchange of creative expression and of awe.

"And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding," - Colossians 1:9 ESV

Filled with the Spirit and filled with truth.

Here Job recounts his glory days.

"Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me, when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil! When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square," - Job 29:2-7 ESV

God was bringing him to a deeper place. Job was to be a witness in the angelic contest but here we see a man who drank of God and churned the milky mixture straight from the source into butter in his thinking. His thinking would spill over into his walk like butter from the churn getting on our shoes.

We can be full of God today. We are placed in Christ at the moment of our salvation but have we opened the door for The Spirit to fill us? Are we drinking of the cup of salvation taking sip after sip until thanksgiving fills our hearts? We can. We can chew the cud of the Word of God. We can churn the butter until it gets all over our shoes and relinquish control of our lives to the Holy Spirit who thinks in love and honor towards people.

That is not dangerous it is glorious. That adds something eternal instead dissipating and dissolving. Those who are filled with the Spirit have their actions written in God's book instead of just photos with glasses lifted in smoky dark venues. It is not the raised glass that will get us through the dark times. It is the Word hidden in our heart and the butter on our shoes that directs our steps to God's safe pathway.

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