The first step of the hunter's strategy is to strengthen yourself in the Lord. What do we mean by strengthen ourselves in the Lord? Unless we are strengthened for our engagement with the dropout, we will end up spiritually exhausted and cease our pursuit of restoration for them.
This step consists of three distinct facets of your spiritual walk:
1. Be filled with the Spirit
2. Prayer
3. Praise
This week we will examine 1: Be filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18-21 offers a very simple and direct picture of what a Spirit-filled believer looks like:
Verse 19: A Spirit-filled believer continually speaks words that are wholesome, true, pure, that will edify and minister grace to the hearer (Eph. 4:29).
Verse 19: A Spirit-filled believer continually has a song in his heart toward God.
Verse 20: A Spirit-filled believer continually thanks God in good and bad circumstances and has a grateful attitude.
Verse 20: A Spirit-filled believer is continually submissive to one another in the Body of Christ as well to those outside.
These four behaviors are a thermometer or measure of how filled with the Spirit we really are at any point in time.
Action Step:
Just ask the Lord to show you how full (or empty) you are now. He will reveal to you exactly where you stand in each of these areas on a scale of 0 (empty) to 10 (full). If you are like most believers the answer you receive may not be the answer you wanted to hear. That's okay because there is a remedy—if you want it. For more depth on this, read chapter 8 of my book, Hunters of the Harvest. 
Louis Posthauer is the executive director of Hunters of the Harvest Ministry. He has been actively involved in the local church for 37-plus years and currently serves as a lay leader and teacher at Living Word Church of the Nazarene in Houston. For more information: huntersoftheharvest.org.
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