Vaporize Me

Have you ever taken a shower and the last person left the shower head set on “vaporize”? 

Like the water pressure is high enough to take off not only the dirt, but your top layer of skin as well? (And possibly any tattoos, moles, or birthmarks…) That’s not a good setting for me. I like my skin to stay on my body. 

Sometimes I need that setting, like when I’ve been working all day outside and am covered in dirt and dust- that setting seems to be the only thing that gets everything off. You hardly have to scrub at all with that setting. You just have to kind of turn around and let the water do its work. 

But getting surprised by that setting isn’t pleasant. 

When I’ve just woken up, or just worked out, and am ready to shower, I don’t want to get barraged with a full body fire hose experience. I just want to be clean and feel fresh. That fire hose pressure makes me tense up, put up my hands in defense mode, and try to turn it off as quickly as I can. (And it possibly damages my skin with the roughness of it.) 

If we’re not careful, we can come across as a fire hose to people when we harp on what we think is sin in their lives. There are things we get a bee in our bonnet about, and because God has convicted US of these things, we think we now have the right to fire hose everyone ELSE on this issue. We hose them down and then walk away, thinking we’ve really done something for God. 

The problem is, we’re not the Holy Spirit.

When we’re trying to vaporize everyone else with the truth all the time, it’s highly unlikely we’re listening to the Holy Spirit. You can’t approach every person the same way. I would venture to say most people don’t respond well to being surprised by a spiritual fire hose. 

You know, a shower head has different settings for a reason. 

Ask people to share their testimony of how they came to Christ, and you will get different stories every time, because Jesus’ love is personal and individual, not cookie cutter. My testimony certainly isn’t one where I was vaporized to Christ, but I know others who were. 

I can remember my mom giving me baths when I was a kid. She would sometimes talk about things that I had done that day and lovingly rebuke me and encourage me toward righteousness while also gently cleaning the dirt and grime off of me. I can promise you that was far more effective than if she had fire hosed me off in the back yard in plain view of all the neighbors. 

See, God is the one who knows how high to turn up the pressure in anyone’s spiritual shower. Sometimes He will use you as a fire hose in someone’s life. But not always. And you can be assured that if he does use you in that way, it had nothing to do with you, but everything with the Holy Spirit prepping that person to receive the message. 

Don’t let your passion for truth or your personal conviction blind you to the fact that you might be surprising people with a spiritual fire hose, and damaging them in the process. Speak truth to all men, absolutely, but seek God in how to best approach them. 

2 Timothy 2:24-26
(24) And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
(25) In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
(26) And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Jude 20-23
(20) But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
(21) Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
(22) And of some have compassion, making a difference:
(23) And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Ephesians 4:11-16
(11) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
(12) For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
(13) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
(14) That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
(15) But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
(16) From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.