Picture a huge rodeo arena. Thousands of people excitedly listen to the announcer as he says,

“AND NOW OUT OF CHUTE “7”

HERE COMES JOHN WAYNE

AND WILDFIRE”

Suddenly a chute door bursts open ...a bucking, stomping, whirling dervish grabs their attention. Dust billows up as the wild horse - with murderous intent, goes crazy. Suddenly his tail shows up where his head used to be. And then it is head, and hooves and tail and dust, dust, dust. The announcer boomed,

“MY! MY! MY! What a fight this is, folks! Who is going to win this war of the wills?”

Somewhere up in the grandstands was a hard-bitten old farmer who was heard to say, “THAT DON’T LOOK LIKE JOHN WAYNE TO ME!”

AND TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH -

IT WASN’T JOHN WAYNE!

I know you thought the announcer introduced John Wayne, but he didn’t. Think about it.

He said, “And now out of chute seven comes JOHN WAYNE AND WILDFIRE!

Truth ... to be truth ... must be the whole truth. That wasn’t just John Wayne out there. It was Wildfire, too. There were two bodies in the arena. There were two heads ... two wills ... two personalities. And each one was seeking to have his own way.

That’s a nice story, but what does it mean? John Wayne is a big man. He fills the saddle, and then some. But filling the saddle is not the same as controlling the horse.

People often claim to ‘be filled with the Holy Spirit’ as though that’s the ultimate victory. But do they really allow the Holy Spirit to ‘control their lives’.

Let’s call the saddle “THE SEAT OF AUTHORITY”. From that vantage point, ‘the will of another’ is trying to control the life of the horse. The Holy Spirit comes in to let Christ RULE in your mortal body. He is trying to set up the KINGDOM OF GOD in the earth, as it is in heaven. The king-dom simply refers to the dom-inion of the King. He wants kingdom principles to be the ruling aspects in your thoughts, your emotions, your will and your actions.

So let’s call the horse - THE FLESH ... the carnal nature ... the old man ... the natural life ... or any other term you like. But, by any name, the horse represents someone with a will of their own.

Oh, we don’t mind if the Holy Spirit comes in and fills us up with an ecstatic experience of love and peace. Sometimes people use that experience to boast that they are better than others, and even look down on those who have not had a similar experience.

John Wayne filled that saddle all right. He was in the seat of authority. But, believe me, he did not have the horse under control.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit comes in and is allowed a temporary place in the seat of authority ... to sit in the throne room of our life. But do we really let Him control our thinking? Does He have authority over all of our words and actions?

We sometimes choose to take the Holy Spirit where He does not want to go. We decide what we want to say to our enemies and opponents without asking His advice. And then we wonder why we get in trouble and why other people are not inclined to want this same experience.

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE

and

SPIRIT-CONTROLLED LIVING

ARE TWO

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS!

If you want to know if you are truly Spirit controlled, just think of it this way:

Do I live a ‘love-controlled’ life?

Do I live a ‘truth-controlled’ life?

Do I live a ‘faith-controlled’ life?

Do I live a ‘humility-controlled’ life?

The Spirit-Filled life is more than “EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES”, “ECSTATIC UTTERANCES” and manifestations of the gifts of the spirit.

A powerful spirit-filled life is much more than supernatural healings and miracles. A powerful spirit-filled life is also power to control our thoughts, attitudes, words and behavior.

We need to learn to BE STILL, and to BE CONTROLLED by the rider. The fruit of the spirit is TEMPERANCE or SELF-CONTROL. The rodeo scene was definitely not descriptive of self-control.

The Holy Spirit has come with something more than the gifts of the Spirit. He has come with wisdom that is from above. But, we often refuse to let Him teach us about the Wisdom that is first pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, and which is also without partiality or hypocrisy.

Some people thrive on manifestations of “fleshly spirituality” - rodeo excitement, if you please. Just let them out of the corral and away from disciplinary guidelines and they’ll be happy. But, sometimes, that’s just ‘Wildfire’.

Too often, Christians want to control the behavior of others without being under true submission to the principles of Christ.

That’s to be expected for awhile ... but if the Holy Spirit is really guiding us into all truth ... then He must be allowed to guide us into forgiveness, forbearance and into gently and meekly suffering for a long time with those who oppose us. That’s spirit-controlled living.

When impurities and immorality prevail in spirit-filled people’s lives...where is the HOLY Spirit? Is He in control ... or have we almost bucked Him out of the saddle?

FROM THIS DAY .....

Get hungry for truth that is going to help you live out a practical Christianity. Ask God for the “fruit” of self-control.

The Word and the Spirit of God are one. Ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to be obedient to the principles of the Word.

Let’s go back to our story about Wildfire. It’s rodeo time again. We are all at the same arena, same kind of crowd with THE SAME ANNOUNCER. And he says the same thing as before.

AND NOW OUT OF CHUTE 7, HERE COMES JOHN WAYNE AND WILDFIRE!

Boom! The chute flies open. Everybody knows what to expect. They have seen this scene before. And true to form, Wildfire comes out bucking, turning, twisting and acting like a devil.

Suddenly, seven little kids run out in the arena. The murderous-looking Wildfire sees them and charges in their direction. They all fall to the ground as he passes close by them. He quickly turns and comes back in their direction. They are directly in front of this wild beast. The crowd becomes ominously silent. They can do nothing. They know they are about to witness the worst massacre in rodeo history. Some of them close their eyes. A few ladies are whimpering and crying.

With one last leap in the air, Wildfire lunges. Those murderous hooves are about to destroy innocent, little lives.

When the angry beast is but a foot away from his target ... JOHN WAYNE GIVES A MIGHTY PULL ON THE REINS. The horse’s head snaps up and his body becomes rigid as he comes to a complete halt.

John Wayne relaxed his grip on the reins, the head came down ... and then, ever-so-gently, Wildfire began to tip-toe across their bodies ... not touching a hair of their delicate, little heads. The crowd was breathless with total amazement.

When the horse had cleared the last body, John Wayne once again pulled on the reins and brought the horse into a standing position. Wildfire’s head came up in a proud gesture as John Wayne took a deep bow.

Whoopee! You should have heard the thunderous applause. People rose to their feet in a standing ovation of this spectacular feat!

John Wayne was not only filling the seat of authority, but he had demonstrated total mastery over this brute beast. He had shown that great arena of witnesses the power of his dominion and control. He had proved his mastery over what had once been an uncontrollable animal.

WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE?

During the year, the Master’s will had prevailed over the will of the horse. He had taught the horse to trust and love him. The outcome of that training was perfect obedience.

A dumb animal has to learn what is being communicated to him by various signals until there is no confusion as to what the master wants and expects.

During the year, John Wayne taught his horse to turn right, go left, go forward and even back up. He made it go around barrels without touching them. He taught it to jump walls, ditches and fences. He taught it to run for all it was worth around the race track. He taught it to stay in one lane only. Day in and day out, that horse was in training.

John Wayne owned other horses. Some of them had jumped the corral fence and were enjoying the freedom of being unfettered and undisciplined. They are unprofitable horses. They have never learned the discipline of his voice and his ways. They could still be used in a rodeo, but they will never know the life of being favored and loved by the one to whom they have shown great obedience.

ARE YOU

SPIRIT FILLED

OR SPIRIT CONTROLLED?

The One that sits in the seat of authority in your life is HOLY AND PURE. But are you letting purity control your thoughts and impulses?

He is Love. Does Love and kindness govern your behavior?

He is Truth. Are you letting Honesty guide your words and actions?

He is Humility. Is pride the controlling element of your life?

He is Faith. Does He give you the doubts and insecurity that plague your life?

Do you live a life of confidence?

WHAT ARE OUR PRIORITIES?

If Jesus had lived only for this life, He wouldn’t have let the people walk all over Him. He said, “If you want to be My Disciples, My ‘DISCIPLINED ONES OR MY SELF-CONTROLLED ONES’ take up your cross daily and follow Me.”

Submit yourself to the will of a HOLY Father who expects pure thoughts to guide our way. Submit to the PRINCE OF PEACE who expects us to live PEACEABLY with all men, and also tells us to SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT.

Submit to the One who is light and truth ... the One who desires TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS ... the One who expects us to be honest with ourselves and with Him, so that we can control ourselves and be honest with others as well.

Submit to a God of love, forgiveness... thus allowing our ‘wild nature’ of resentment and revenge to be crucified with Christ.

If we meditate in His word and have a working relationship with His Spirit, He will impart to us His own disciplined nature.

He will produce in us

THINK ABOUT IT!