In John 10:10, Jesus says He came to bring not just life but the abundant life. Yet most Christians are not living this kind of life. Why? Because they are attempting to find the abundant life through their own efforts. It is strange that while Christians know they can’t save themselves, but are saved entirely by His grace, and turn to Christ, but after they are saved they try to live the Christian life in the power of their flesh. Ask the average believer what it means to live the Christian life he would reply, “Accept Christ and then do the very best you can.” If this is true, God made a great mistake in sending the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul emphatically asserts in Colossians 2:6 that we have to live the Christian life the same way we began it – in totally dependence and surrender to Jesus – “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Paul severely chided the Galatians in Galatians 3:1-3, for beginning in the Spirit and reverting back to the flesh. “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, … Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
Thus, God commands every Christian to be filled and to stay filled with the Holy Spirit. “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18). In the context of this passage, Paul is writing to genuine Christians who were “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestined to be His sons, redeemed by His blood, sealed by the Holy Spirit, quickened alive from the dead (the new birth) saved by His grace, created a masterpiece in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 1:3-7, 13, 2:1, 8-10, 2:20.
To understand the infilling of the Holy Spirit, we need to ask and answer 7 crucial questions.
- WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
- WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HOLY SPIRIT AND JESUS?
- WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN THE INDWELLING, THE BAPTISM, AND THE INFILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?
- WHY DOES ONE WHO ALREADY HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT NEED TO BE FILLED WITH HIM?
- WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR ONE TO BE FILLED?
- WHY IS IT PRACTICALLY IMPERITATIVE THAT EVERY CHRISTIAN BE FILLED?
- WHAT RESULTS FROM THE INFILLING?
Closing Illustration.
During the depression, A guy by the name of Yates, owned a large ranch in West Texas which included the oil rights., He was so poor that he was getting ready to sell the ranch in order to pay his taxes. It was at that moment that some oil explorers came along and suggested that he drill for oil. At first he declined, saying there was no oil on his land. To which these entrepreneurs replied, “You can’t be sure, Mr. Yates. Why don’t you let us drill down and see, it won’t cost you a penny?” He agreed and when they had drilled 1l00 feet, they discovered one well that produced 125,000 gallons a day, and a second one that produced 80,000 per day, etc. Thus Mr. Yates, the pauper, became a billionaire. This story is the picture of many of God’s children. They mope around half dead when all the time they are sitting on billions of spiritual wealth. Paul emphatically begins the Ephesian Epistle with these words. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has already blessed us with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”