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Being
filled with the Holy Spirit
Introduction
What
does “Being filled with the Holy Spirit” mean?
Can any believer be filled with the Holy Spirit or is this
reserved for Pastors and Church leaders.
Are we filled with the Holy Spirit in a one time event, or
are we filled with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.
Can a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ be a Christian, but
not be filled with the Holy Spirit?
What does being filled with the Spirit mean, and what
effect does it have on our lives?
These
are all good questions and the Church is divided over the answers
to them, so this teaching aims to explore what the Bible says
about being filled with the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God.
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Can
any believer be filled with the Holy Spirit?
Can
any believer be filled with the Holy Spirit?
Yes they can, in fact there are two important issues that
we should look at. Firstly,
the apostle Paul encourages us to be filled with the Holy Spirit,
and secondly God promised to pour out His Spirit on His people.
(a)
The Apostle Paul in
Ephesians Chapter 5 encourages us to be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
Ephesians 5:17-20
Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the
Lord is. (18)
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is excess, but be
filled with the Spirit, (19)
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
(20) always
giving thanks for all things to God the Father in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
In Verse 18 of Ephesians Chapter 5, the Apostle Paul instructs us
not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Spirit of God,
he goes on to spell out some of the manifestations of being filled
with the Spirit.
How will you know that you or someone else is filled with the Holy
Spirit? When you wake
up in to morning, or sometime during then day you find yourself
singing a song, psalm, or hymn in your heart to God?
This could be any day of the week, not just on Sunday; it
could be any time of the day not just between
9:30am
and
12:00pm
. God
does not restrict Himself to the hours of Sunday worship.
God is in the business of filling believers with His Spirit
24 hours a day.
I believe that one of the first signs (but not the only sign) of a
Spirit filled person, is a person who has an on going attitude of
thanks giving and worship towards God.
A person who directs theirs thoughts during their spare
time to God and the issues of His Kingdom, a person who is
prepared to be used and desires to be used by the Holy Spirit in
any situation.
(b)
Being filled with the
Holy Spirit is promised by God.
And it shall be afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all
flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old
men shall dream dreams; your young men shall see visions. And also
I will pour out My Spirit on the slaves and on the slave women in
those days.
Joel 2:28-29
And it shall be in the last days, says God, I will pour out of
My Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men
shall dream dreams. And in those days I will pour out My Spirit
upon My slaves and My slave women, and they shall prophesy.
Acts 2:17-18
God’s promise to pour out His Spirit on mankind is so important
that the Holy Spirit has designed the scriptures so that it is
recorded in both the New Testament and the Old Testament.
The prophesy in Joel 2:28-29 was given during the Old Testament
era, only those sanctified like the Levite priests, the Kings and
prophets of Israel could
be filled with the Spirit. This
blessing was not available to the ordinary everyday believer, but
only the chosen few. Joel’s
prophesy talks of a day when God would pour out His Spirit on all
believers, including the slaves and slave woman, or those that
society considers to be the lowest of the low.
Isaiah Chapter 44 gives us picture of how God will pour out His
Spirit on the human race.
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the
dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my
blessing on your descendants.
Isaiah 44:3 (NIV)
In this verse God promises to pour out His Spirit on our offspring
and His blessing on our descendants, how will He do this? Like
water being poured out on dry or thirsty land, the Holy Spirit
expands this illustration by telling us that God will pour out His
Spirit like a stream on the dry ground.
Perhaps this verse can be explained like this, before I was a
believer, my Spirit was dry and baron and thirsty for a Spiritual
experience, when I became a believer God watered my dry and baron
spirit. He watered it
like a flowing stream, so much so that my spirit could not soak it
all up, as He waters my spirit the seeds of His world began to
take root in my life and begin grow and change me.
In JOHN
6:35
Jesus said "I am the bread of life; he
who comes to Me shall not
hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."
D. L. Moody said “God commands us to be filled with the Spirit;
and if we aren't filled, it's because we're living beneath our
privileges?”
It is a privilege to be filled with God’s Spirit, as there is
nothing we can do to earn this; it is therefore a gift of God.
It comes as we submit and hand over our will to the will of
God, emptying ourselves of our desires so that we can fulfil His
desires. If we are not
being filled with the Spirit of God, then we are denying ourselves
the fullness of Gods blessing and promises.
Examples
Of Being Filled With The Spirit?
There are many examples in the Bible of people being filled with
the Spirit; in this section we will have a look at some of them.
Example
1
And
the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name
Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:
And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in
understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in
brass, And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of
timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
Exodus
31:1-5
In
Exodus 31:1-5 we find God talking to Moses, instructing him the He
has filled Bezaleel and Hur with the Spirit of God “I have
filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in
understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship”,
these men were filled with the Holy Spirit for a purpose.
In this passage of scripture we find an example of the God
filling individuals with His Spirit to impart spiritual gifts.
Example
2
And
suddenly a sound came out of the heaven as borne along by the
rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they
were sitting. And tongues as of fire appeared to them, being
distributed; and it sat upon each of them. And they were all
filled of the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages,
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts
2:2-4
In
Acts 2:2-4 we read the account of the day of Pentecost, where
tongues of fire appeared above the heads of the disciples and they
began to speak in other tongues (languages).
This out pouring of the Holy Spirit (God’s Spirit) is
even more miraculous when we read on in Acts Chapter 2, we are
told that the eye witnesses to this event all heard what the
disciples were saying in their native tongue even thought they
were speaking in another tongue (i.e. there was two miracles not
one).
Example
3
But
the Lord said to him, Go! For this one is a chosen vessel to Me,
to bear My name before nations and kings and the sons of
Israel
. For I will show him what great things he
must suffer for My name's sake. And Ananias went and entered into
the house. And putting his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul,
the Lord, Jesus, who appeared to you in the way in which you came,
has sent me to you that you might see and be filled with the Holy
Spirit. And instantly scales as it were fell from his eyes, and he
instantly saw again. And rising up, he was baptized.
Acts
9:15-18
In
Acts 9:15-18 we read the account of how Saul (who became the
A\apostle Paul) has his eye sight restored and was filled with the
Holy Spirit. Saul saw
on a crusade to wipe out the newly born Church or Christians as
they were seen as heretics by the Jewish religion.
While travelling to Damascus Saul saw a bright light that
blinded him and caused him to fall from his horse, he heard a
voice of Jesus speaking to him.
Some days later the Holy Spirit sent a man named Ananias to
Saul to heal his sight and fill him with the Holy Spirit.
The
book of Acts is filled with examples of people being filled with
the Spirit, almost every occasion that someone is converted or
gets saved; the Bible records an associated filling of God’s
Spirit.
What
Does It Mean To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit?
So
far we have looked at who can be filled with the God’s Spirit or
the Holy Spirit, we have seen that God desires us to be filled
with His Spirit, and we have looked at a few examples of people
being filled with the Holy Spirit from the Bible.
What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit of God and
how do we do this, or can we do it at all?
Is being filled with the Holy Spirit something that God
does that we have no choose in?
One
of the best descriptions of how we are filled with God’s Spirit
that I have come across was written by Oswald Sanders, when he
said.
“Reduced
to its simplest terms, to be filled with the Spirit means that,
through voluntary surrender and in response to appropriating
faith, the human personality is filled, mastered, controlled by
the Holy Spirit.”
How
are we filled with the Holy Spirit?
1)
We must have faith, and
believe that God will and desires to fill us with His Spirit.
2)
We must voluntary
submit or surrender our will to the will of God the Father.
Being
filled with the Holy Spirit is not a one off event that happens
when a person becomes a Christian or a person gets saved, it is an
on going daily, hour, minute by minute experience, where God fills
us with His Holy Spirit. Where
God empowers us to live a daily lives for His Kingdom fulfilling
His will, and not the will of men.
Conditions
Of Being Filled With The Spirit
1)
We need to ask our
heavenly father to fill us.
If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask Him?
Luke
11:13
You
desire, and do not have. You murder, and are jealous, and cannot
obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not.
James
4:2
God
has entered into a partnership with the human race; the
partnership began in the Garden of Eden and has continued
throughout time. God
wants us to seek Him for His will in our lives, and the ASK Him to
give us His will.
You
might ask, why does God just not give it to us?
If it is His will for our lives and He knows best, then why
does God not do what His will is in our lives?
To
understand this we need to understand the nature of God.
God is love, agape love; we find this concept throughout
the New Testament. The apostle Paul gives us a definition of agape
in 1 Corinthians 13.
Love
is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love
is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a
record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with
the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience
never fail. Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they
are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but
they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass.
1
Corinthians 13:4-8
From
this definition of love we learn that love is patient, love is
kind, and love does not force its will onto another, which would
be a form of slavery. In
human history whenever one race or nation has subjugated another,
there has away been a rebellion against it.
Why? Because
people do not like the will of others to be forced onto us, even
if they are right. Human
beings need to work through an issue and then agree or ask for the
assistance of others.
Earlier
this year
America
and
Britain
invaded
Iraq
to remove their leader, a dictator who would
kill his own people to achieve his own goals.
Both the Americans and the British want to bring democracy
to
Iraq
, to set people of this country free from the
dictator who has ruled, persecuted, and kept his citizens in
poverty. When you look
at this on the surface, we all want this; none of us like to see
people of any nation being persecuted.
Yet as I write this some American soldiers are being killed
every day by
Iraq
group who oppose what the American and British
forced are trying to achieve.
What is wrong with them, do they not want to be set free,
are they ungrateful? No,
they did not choose democracy; it is being forced upon then by
someone who is dictating how they should live their lives.
In their eyes what has change from the dictator that they
had, one forced them to do one thing and now they are being forced
to do another.
If
God was to force His will on us, it would only insight rebellion,
only through love can we seek God for His will, and come to
understand why His will and not our will is better for us.
When we understand this we will ask God to give us His
will, and He is only to happen to grant our request.
We will accept this as we have work through the issue and
have come to understand that God’s way is best.
To
be filled with the Holy Spirit we need to submit our will to the
will of our heavenly Father and ask Him to fill us with His Holy
Spirit each day, each hour, each minute of the day.
2)
We need to be actively
putting to death the flesh, or the old nature.
So
then, my friends, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as
our human nature wants us to. For if you live according to your
human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put
to death your sinful actions, you will live. Those who are led by
God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given
you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead,
the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we
cry out to God, "Father! my Father!" God's Spirit joins
himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children.
Romans
8:12-16 (Good News Bible)
Therefore,
brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to
the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die.
But if you through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, you
shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption by
which we cry, Abba, Father! The Spirit Himself bears witness with
our spirit that we are the children of God.
Romans
8:12-16 (Modern King James Bible)
Paul
writes in Romans chapter 8 that if we live according to our human
nature, the flesh, or our old nature (the nature we had before we
became a Christian), then we are going to die.
Is Paul speaking of physical death, no, he is speaking of
spiritual death (separation from God).
Paul tells us that it is our obligation not to live our
lives according to our human nature or our old nature; it is our
obligation to put to death the old nature and live according to
the Spirit of God, as Paul says “But if you through the Spirit
mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.”
Paul explains this concept again in his letter to the
Ephesians.
So
get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to (the
old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires). Your
hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on
the new self, which is created in God's likeness and reveals
itself in the true life that is upright and holy.
Ephesians
4:22-24 (Good News Bible)
Paul
in Romans Chapter 8, goes on to make the same point that I was
discussing in my dialog on ‘We need to ask our heavenly father
to fill us’, God will not force us to submit to His will or
force us to believe in Him. I
like the way the Good News Bible translates this so I have
included it above for you to read, “For the Spirit that God has
given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid;
instead, the Spirit makes you God's children”.
Jesus came and died on the cross to set us free, not to
free us from the bondage to sin and enslave us to God.
God wants you to choose the be a slave to His will, as Paul
often wrote of himself, to be a bond slave or servant, to
voluntarily chose to give your will and your desires over to the
will of the Father. God
does not want to force you to be filled with the Holy Spirit; He
wants you to choose and therefore ask to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. He wants you
to choose to allow the Holy Spirit to put to death your old
nature.
Paul
goes on to tell us that if we are filled with the Holy Spirit and
we allow Him to work in our lives putting to death the old nature,
then the Holy Spirit will make us children of God. Hallelujah.
In
Romans Chapter 6, Paul explains how important it is to put to
death our old nature and live according to the Spirit of God.
Therefore
do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it
in its lusts. Do not yield your members as instruments of
unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God, as one alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to
God.
Romans
6:12-13
Paul
spends the whole chapter explaining the concept of putting to
death the old nature and being renewed by the Holy Spirit, those
of you wanting to research this more, I encourage you to read
Romans Chapter 6.
3)
Present yourselves a
Holy and Living sacrifice.
I
beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is
your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove
by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.
Romans
12:1-2
The
apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 that we are to present
ourselves as living sacrifices before God.
This
means that we are to submit our will to the will of the Fathers,
so that we are continually being filled with the Holy Spirit, as
we have seen from our earlier discussion, when we are filled with
the Holy Spirit He deals will sin in our lives by putting to death
the old nature. This
process of being filled with the Holy Spirit and the putting to
death of the old nature or dealing with sin in our lives results
in the renewing of our minds.
When I was born my mind was of this world sinful and fallen
short of God’s glory, when I am filled with the Holy Spirit,
when I have submitted my will to the will of the Father, my mind
is being transformed from its sinful condition to be like the mind
of Christ or God, that is I stop thinking like a human and begin
to think like God, as my will is subjected to His will.
This
process makes us even more available for the Holy Spirit to
indwell, the more my mind takes on the characteristics of Gods
will or mind, the more the Holy Spirit indwells me and involves me
in the things of the kingdom.
The more the Holy Spirit indwells me and works through me
the closer I am drawn to the heart and mind of God.
In
Ephesians Chapter 5, Paul encourages us to put to death the old
nature, our nature of sin and rebellion against God, and present
ourselves as living sacrifices as Christ our head has presented
himself as an offering and sacrifice before God the Father.
Therefore
be followers of God, as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ
also has loved us, and has given Himself for us as an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
Ephesians
5:1-2
How
are we to do this? By
submitting ourselves, by giving over our will in love to God the
Father on a minute by minute basis.
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