There is a growing and disturbing trend in the church. This trend is the onset of an apathetic generation. Furthermore, we have so programmed ourselves and marketed our ministry so much that we can draw people and do great things with out the Holy Spirit being in any of it. This is alarming. We need to return to a pursuit of a Spirit-filled life and a Spirit-filled church. Then we can see God accomplish his work in us and through us and stop relying on good marketing schemes.
The Spirit Filled Life (Acts 2:2-4; Eph 5:18)
Have you ever observed a Christian and was so amazed at how the Holy Spirit just seems to ooze out of every part of their being? I mean the kind of person that hears God clearly in their prayer life. They can leap over temptations in a single bound. And they are that person that always has the story of how they got on an airplane and sat next to someone, shared the gospel with them and had everyone on the plane on their knees in the aisle accepting Christ. And then you think, “I wish I experienced the fullness of God’s Spirit in my life like that.” Well you can. The Bible says that God wants for all believers to live Spirit-filled, Spirit controlled lives. It is a reality that is within reach for all of us.
The sad thing is, many Christians have a basic doctrine where they believe:
1. nobody’s perfect
2. God understands
But God never intended for us to live with a defeatist mentality like that.
Acts 2:2-4 (NLT) Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting. 3. Then, what looked like flames of tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
I want to show you how to be Spirit-filled. First, we need to understand an important truth.
I. ALL BELIEVERS RECEIVE THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AT CONVERSION
I Cor. 12:13 (NLT) Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ’s body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit.
Where’s the sound of wind from Heaven? Where is the visible manifestation of “cloven tongues?” If a believer always has to speak in tongues to be filled with the Spirit, then it will always be accompanied also by wind and lightning. Because, it was in this text. Getting the point? This interpretation is inconsistent.
This is the way it happened for the apostles and first disciples because Jesus was still with them. And the Spirit could not come until he left. But after Jesus ascended to heaven the Holy Spirit was for all believers (Acts 2:38).
Just as you become a child of God at salvation, you also receive the Holy Spirit into your heart at salvation
Gal. 4:6 KJV “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
So, If the Holy Spirit is not dwelling within you, you are not a Christian
Rom. 8:9 NLT But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all,)
Rom. 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (It does not say, “confess in tongues!”)
I am not to judge your experience. You can have a valid experience. But, we are never to let experience be our authority. The Word of God is our authority in all matters.
B. Being filled with the Holy Spirit – This is where you receive a fresh empowerment from the Holy Spirit in order to serve God, give a testimony or whatever else for the glory of God (Acts 4:8,31; 7:55; 13:9). This is a continual process of being filled. My former pastor told a story of how a man walked down an aisle in his church long ago and asked him to pray for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. An elderly lady being a bit too nosy said, “Don’t do it pastor he leaks!” And isn’t that true? We all leak and need to be filled over and over to be empowered for God’s work and to be empowered to live free from sins control.
II. HOW TO BE SPIRIT FILLED
1. PURSUE INTIMACY WITH CHRIST
§ Worship—bring pleasure to God with your whole life.
§ Discipleship—become like Christ
§ Fellowship—be in community with other Christians
§ Ministry—serve God with you Spiritual gifts, passions and abilities.
§ Evangelism—pass your faith on to others
What we should seek (and this applies to all Christians) is that God would pour His Spirit out upon us so completely that we are filled with joy, victorious over sin, and bold to witness. And the ways He brings us to that fullness are probably as varied as people are. And often it comes gradually through a steady diet of God’s word, prayer, fellowship, worship and service. However it comes, our first experience of the fullness of the Spirit is only the beginning of a life-long battle to stay filled with the Spirit.
And that brings us to Ephesians 5:18 where the present tense of the verb in Greek means just that: “Keep on being filled with the Spirit.” Let’s look at the context to see more specifically what this means.
Ephesians 5:15-18 (ESV) Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. 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 in your heart to the Lord, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
The contrast with drunkenness is the key here. What do people go to alcohol for? For a happy hour. We all want to be happy, but there is a problem: “The days are evil.” Notice the logic of verses 16-18:
The days are evil. Therefore don’t be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk … but be filled with the Spirit.
Where do you turn when the days are evil, when you are frightened or discouraged or depressed or anxious? Paul pleads with us: “Don’t turn to alcohol, turn to the Spirit. Anything of value that alcohol can bring you, God the Holy Spirit can bring more.”
There are people who can’t begin to whistle a happy tune or sing a song at work because they are so tense and anxious about life. But later in the evening at the bar with a few drinks under their belt they can put their arms around each other and sing and laugh. All of us long to be carefree, uninhibited, happy. And the mounting tragedy of our own day, as in Paul’s, is that increasing numbers of people (even Christians) believe that the only way they can find this child-like freedom is by drugging themselves with alcohol or narcotics. Such behavior dishonors God, and so Paul says: There is a better way to cope with the evil days — be filled with the Spirit, stay filled with the Spirit. And you will know unmatched joy that sings and makes melody to the Lord (Charles Stanley, The Wonder Spirit-filled Life).
2. FIND YOUR JOY IN THE LORD
Nehemiah 8:10 “the joy of the Lord is your trength”
John Piper says, The fundamental meaning of being filled with the Spirit is being filled with joy that comes from God. And Luke would agree with that, too, because he says in Acts 13:52, “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” To be sure, one of the marks of a person filled with the Spirit is that he is made strong to witness in the face of opposition (Acts 4:8, 31; 7:55; 13:9). But the reason for this is that. “When you are happy in God you are a strong and brave witness to His grace. So I repeat, whatever joy or peace you find in alcohol, the Spirit of God can give you more. Even the psalmist of the Old Testament had experienced this. He says in Psalms 4:7-8 (ESV) “7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
3. BELIEVE ALL OF GOD’S PROMISES
You see, God moves into our lives with fullness through faith. The pathway that the Spirit cuts through the jungle of our anxieties into the clearing of joy is the pathway of faith. Luke says of Stephen in Acts 6:5, that he was “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” and he says of Barnabas in Acts 11:24 that he was “a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith,” The two go together. If a person is filled with faith he will be filled with the Spirit, the Spirit of joy and peace.
The most important text in Paul’s writings to show this is Rom. 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Notice that it is in or by believing that we are filled with joy and peace. And it is by the Spirit that we abound in hope. When we put those two halves of the verse together what we see is that through our faith (our believing) the Spirit fills us with His hope and thus with His joy and peace. And, of course since hope is such an essential part of being filled with joy by the Spirit, what we have to believe is that God is, as Paul says, the “God of hope.” We have to rivet our faith on all that He has done and said to give us hope.
Nobody stays full of the Spirit all the time — no one is always totally joyful and submissive to God and empowered for service. But this should still be our aim, our goal, our great longing. “As a heart pants for the flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1,2). But in order to quench that thirst, Piper says, we must fight the fight of faith. We must preach to our souls a sermon of hope:
Psalm 42:5 NLT “Why am I discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!”
We must feast on the promises that God has made to us and feed our faith to the full. Then it may be said of us as it was of Stephen and Barnabas: “They were filled with faith and with the Holy Spirit.”
4. ACT ON GOD’S PROMISES
Acts 1:8 NLT “But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere.”
The Holy Spirit is your number one helper to assist you with the practical matters of living the Christian life.
Now listen, because of this event, the baptism of the Holy Spirit on all who believe in and confess Jesus Christ as Savior, you are empowered to fulfill the mission God has given you.
If God calls us to live purpose driven lives, then don’t you think he is a God of purpose? His purpose has always been to call the nations to know and glorify him. The events of Pentecost were a foreshadowing of the fact that his mission is for the whole world. And the whole world of Believers are to be involved in it!
2 Cor. 1:20 MSG “Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes, together, gloriously evident.”
The power of God is upon you. God has made you righteous, He has given you his authority—the same authority he gave Christ, He has promised we are no longer condemned by our sin but are now free in His Spirit. We are free to live the lives God intended us to live. The greatest life, the Spirit filled life!
The Holy Spirit is a wonderful communicator. But He does not speak just to pass along information. He speaks to get a response. He wants for us to hear and then obey.
The “Do you or don’t you” mentality works against the unity of the Body.
