Ephesians 5:18
"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."
What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? I feel, for the most part, this concept has been massively misunderstood. Most would hopefully answer that it means that God fills you with His very Spirit to give you power to be witnesses according to Jesus' words in Acts chapter 1. This is the basic understanding. Most of the time, you see evidence from people that the climax of this experience is speaking in tongues. This is sad due to the fact that tongues is only a fringe benefit to the actual purpose of the filling. The primary purpose to be filled is other people.
When you get saved the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside you. This happens before the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Let me just say that you don't have to be filled/baptized to be saved and once you are saved the Holy Spirit lives in you but He is in you for you(2 Cor. 1:22, Eph. 1:13). You are filled for others(Acts 1:8).
Let's look at this more closely by asking a few questions.
1. When the Holy Spirit does come to live in you, at conversion, where does He live? In your body, soul, or spirit? Obviously He lives in your spirit(Eph. 1:13, Rom. 8:16, Phil. 2:13).
2. How much of the Holy Spirit comes and lives in you, part or all? All.(John 14:16-20; Luke 17:21-kingdom means Kings domain.)
3. If all of the Holy Spirit comes and lives within your spirit, then when you are filled with the Spirit where does He fill? Good question.
Here is a few Passages to consider:
Philippians 2:12-13
"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."
His Spirit is inside you, your spirit-the inner man, to work and change the way you think(your will or "want to") and the way you think leads to the way you act. When you are filled with the Spirit of God it is the overflow of what is already contained within you...ALL OF GOD...THE KINGDOM OF GOD!
Ephesians 3:19
"...that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Filled to the measure means "completely!" That is awesome to think that He wants to completely fill our lives with Himself. Bill Johnson, Pastor of Bethel Church in Redding California, has said that the Holy Spirit is imprisoned in unbelieving Christians. The whole purpose of the Spirit of God in and filling our lives is that we let God out. I know this is a crazy concept but it is totally Scriptural. Freely received-freely give is talking about giving away God which is life-giving, love-giving, light-giving which all beat the works of the devil, death, hate, and darkness. Let's face it, when you pray with someone to be saved(Greek-SOZO: salvation, healing, deliverance) or filled with the Spirit, what are you giving them? God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Eternal Life, etc. Jesus said that eternal life was knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ He has sent. The verse right before Eph. 3:19 says that Paul prays we "know this love that surpasses knowledge." How do you know something that you can't know? It is by experience. Eternal life knowing God by experiencing Him. How do we, and everyone around us experience God? We must let Him out. How do we let Him out?
Psalm 24:7
"Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in."
When our attention is on Him, He comes in. This is also what I have covered before about worshiping in spirit and in truth. It means to live out in truth(the seen realm) what is in the spirit(unseen realm). Letting Him out! The natural picture of this is when a seed is planted into the ground. The seed remains unseen(spirit) until it sprouts and we know the "truth" that it is there and what kind of seed is revealed. Jesus was the revelation(I am the way, TRUTH, and life) in the seen realm, truth, of the the Father, or unseen realm, which is Spirit. Jesus said that He is the image of the invisible God. If the Holy Spirit is in you and you allow Him to live through you then you are the image of the invisible God. Paul said that he is now dead and that Christ lives through him (Galatians 2:20)
When it says in Ephesians for us to be filled with the Spirit it means continually filled. The way this looks is that we have a constant stream of the Holy Spirit flowing from within us and touching every area of our lives. That is the fullness of God filling us. I heard a pastor say once that when you throw a water hose into a mud puddle the only way to keep the mud out of the hose is to leave the water on, flowing out of the hose. So many Christians think that holiness(to be separate) means that we must stay away from people that don't think or act like them because they can "infect" or "corrupt" them. The truth is that we are to be different and "infect" the world around us. This is why Jesus compared the Kingdom to yeast and said it is to work through the whole batch of dough. Accountability to each other has become reduced to trying to keep each other from "sinning" when it should be to encourage each other to "leak" the Kingdom! Let's face it...Light beats dark, Life beats death, God never loses!
You are the gate, you are the door, and to be filled with the Spirit means that ALL of Him inside you(your spirit) moves out to your soul(a.k.a: your mind, will or want to, and heart or emotions) which is the definition of repentance: to change the way you think. Then the Spirit will be able to move into your body or, in other words, you will start acting like Him...Jesus. That is why Jesus is our example. He had His head lifted up, He only did what He SAW the Father doing.
In EVERY situation, if you will keep your attention on the Father, the Spirit of God will fill your life. If your attention is on something else...you will be filled with something else. When your attention is on yourself then you get full of yourself. When your attention is on the problem then you get full of problems. When your attention is on what the devil is doing in the world then you get full of what the devil is doing. Get the idea? It isn't worth it to have our eyes on ANYTHING but the Heavenly Father!
The better evidence of someone being genuinely filled with the Spirit, in my opinion, would be unconditional love, joy(which is our strength), the Shalom peace of God, patience, kindness(of God which leads to repentance), goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control being perfected in their life. Tongues is extremely important but we are to receive power to be witnesses for Jesus when we are filled with the Spirit and the list above is what that looks like!
Therefore, I plead with you, LET HIM OUT!
Just a thought...or two.
Justin
