God accomplishes His purposes in the believer’s life by two instruments: The Word and the Spirit. “All Word and no Spirit, you dry up. All Spirit and no Word, you blow up. Combine the Word and the Spirit, you will grow up.” The basis of mentoring is the “Internalization of the Word,” but the Word without the Holy Spirit will not work the miracle of God’s grace in the human heart. We see this very clearly in the experience of the new birth. Jesus commands that we must be born of the Water and the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). Water speaks of the Word of God (Eph. 5:26) and the Spirit means the Holy Spirit. It is when the Word of God and the Spirit of God come together in the heart by faith that the miracle of a new life begins.
But the new birth is but the beginning of the work of the Holy Spirit in human experience. When one repents and turns to Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit enters immediately and permanently into that person (1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 8:9b). We call this His indwelling. Simultaneously, the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the body of Christ once and for all (1 Cor. 12:13). This is the real baptism of the Holy Spirit. All these divine acts occur at the moment one truly trusts Jesus as Lord and Savior. However, these events do not conclude the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Beyond these, God categorically commands through the apostle Paul that every believer be continually filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). The question naturally arises, why do we need to be filled (controlled) by the Holy Spirit if we already have His indwelling and His baptism. Simply for this reason: You can have the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit may not have you, or to express it another way, the Holy Spirit may be present in you, but He demands to be President in you, that is, to fill or control your life. Let me bring all this truth together under three simple points:
- The Reasons to be Filled. There are two main reasons:
- God commands it. “Be filled (literally “be being filled”) with the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 5:18b). Please notice four facts about this command:
- First of all, this command is in the imperative mood. This means it is not optional. To be filled is to obey God and reap His blessings; to fail to be filled is to disobey God and miss His blessings.
- Second, this command is plural in number. This means that this command is given to every believer, not just spiritual giants, super saints, pastors, elders or deacons.
- Third, this command is in the passive voice, which means we cannot fill ourselves but filling comes from an outside source. Our responsibility is to put ourselves in a position where the Spirit of God can control us.
- Fourth, this command is in the present tense. Unlike the new birth and baptism of the Holy Spirit, which happens only once in a believer’s life, the filling of the Holy Spirit is a repeated event. In essence, the text commands, “Be ye being filled with the Holy Spirit.” Both Adrian Rogers and James Merritt, noted pastors and preachers, have said, “It is a far greater sin for a child of God not to be filled with the Holy Spirit than for a person to get drunk on alcoholic beverages.”
- The demands of the Christian life require it. The demands of the Christian life cannot be met by our natural will power, but only by the supernatural power of God released in our lives. Who within his own power can “love his enemies?” (Matt. 5:44). Who in his own power can “rejoice ever more?” (1 Thess. 5:16). Who in his own power can fulfill the righteous requirements of the law? (Rom. 8:2-4).
- The Requirements to be Filled. A great theologian has said, “The good things of the Kingdom of God do not belong to the well meaning but to the desperate.” Candidates for the infilling must “mean business” with the Lord. The casual Christian and the average Sunday morning attendee do not qualify.
- First, you must have been born of the Holy Spirit before you can be filled.
- Second, you must desire with all your heart to be filled. Only those who “hunger and thirst…will be filled.” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matt.5:6).
- Third, you must believe that God will fill you, not just can fill you.
- Fourth, you must denounce all known sin in your life. You must do more than confess sin (admit it); you must abandon it. “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy (Prov. 29:13).
- Fifth, you must dethrone self and enthrone Christ as Lord of all. This would mean that you would release your control over your life and turn it over to the living Christ.
- Sixth, you must by faith ask the Holy Spirit to fill you. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Lk. 11:13).
- Seventh, you must accept the fact that He has filled you and live with total dependence on Him saying, “Lord God, I yield control of my life to you today. Just show me what to do.” This would mean that you are walking in the spirit … “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16).
In a word, you must surrender your life to Jesus Christ as your Lord. Please notice that I did not say “commit” your life, but to surrender it. When you commit, you determine the things you will commit; when you surrender, the Lord determines the things you will surrender. Commitment would be like taking a plain sheet of paper and writing on that paper the things you would commit to the Lord and then signing your name at the bottom. Surrender would mean something entirely different. You would not write anything on the blank sheet of paper, but you would sign your name at the bottom and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to fill in the top. Be sure not to confuse surrender with the “time honored” re-dedications which take place in many churches with no continuing results. Rededications are the very opposite of surrender, as is commitment, and will never result in the filling of the Holy Spirit.
- The Results of Being Filled:
- The person who is filled will overflow with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).
- The person who is filled will have an intimate (“Abba Father”) relationship with His Father in heaven. “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Rom. 8:15).
- The person who is filled will be a bold witness to the ends of the earth. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:18).
- The person who is filled with the Holy Spirit will have victory over indwelling sin. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13).
- The person who is filled with the Holy Spirit will be enabled to exercise his gifts in the power of God “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).
- The person who is filled with the Holy Spirit will be powerful in prayer. “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
- The person who is filled with the Holy Spirit will have deep understanding of the Bible. “ But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God”(1 Cor. 2:9-10).
- The person who is filled with the Holy Spirit will worship in Spirit and in truth. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24)
- The person who is filled with the Holy Spirit will carry out his duties in his home. (21) “submitting to one another in the fear of God.’ (25) “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” (6:1) “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 5:21; 5:25; 6:1).
In a word, the Spirit-filled person will live the normal Christian life, the one God ordained for him at the time of his new birth (Ephesians 1:3).
D.L. Moody preached without the infilling for years, but one day was filled while walking the streets of New York City; then he made this statement, “You can see without eyes, hear without ears, chew without a mouth, and breath without lungs sooner than you could live the Christian life without the infilling of the Holy Spirit.”
Personally, I was a defeated preacher and pastor until the Holy Spirit revealed to me, on the streets of Greensboro, North Carolina, that He was my “Paracletos,” (John 14:16) the one who was coming beside me, to give me the power, motivation, perseverance, all I needed to both live for Him and serve Him with great joy. Hallelujah – that was the beginning of a new day in my life, without which I believe I would have despaired long before now.