THE FILLING OF
THE SPIRIT
The
filling of the Spirit is that work of the Holy Spirit whereby He so controls
the Christian that proper Christian experience results. From the divine side, the Holy Spirit
totally produces in the Christian the fruit of the Spirit. The human responsibility in the filling
of the Spirit is to believe. When
the Christian believes, the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in the
Christian. NOTE: The Christian life is supernatural and
impossible to live in oneÕs own strength.
Thus, God has provided a supernatural power in the filling of the Spirit
to live a Christian life.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FILLING
Filling means control. Scripture speaks of being filled with anger
or fury (Luke 4:28), fear or awe (Luke 5:26), madness
(Luke 6:11) and sorrow or grief (John 16:6). One is not filled with these emotions
but controlled by them.
The Holy Spirit is a person. One cannot be filled with a person but
can be controlled by a person. A
Christian cannot get more of the Spirit, but the Spirit can always control more
of the Christian.
The filling is compared in Eph. 5:18 with drunkenness. Alcohol is an outside force that
controls a person. Alcohol
controls oneÕs speech, actions and walk; the Holy Spirit does the same.
Command. ÒBe filledÓ is a command and it is to be kept. Not to keep this command is sin.
Repeated
Act: ÒBe repeatedly filledÓ (present
tense). Filling is done over and
over again.
The
command is to all; therefore, all Christians can be filled.
Hindrances
to Filling
The one hindrance to a full working of the
Spirit in the believer is sin. The
Holy Spirit is always displeased with sin in the ChristianÕs life. Eph. 4:30 definitely implies that when
the believer is in sin or disobedience that the Spirit can be grieved with the
result that His influences are not so great upon him, and he is not in a
position when the Spirit can give him His fullest blessing. ÒAnd do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with whom you were sealed for the day of redemptionÓ (Eph. 4:30). The context of Eph. 4:30 is about a
misuse of the tongue.
It
should also be noted what Eph. 4:30 does not teach: 1) It does not teach that when the
believer sins the Spirit stops working in him. God loves the believer. When a child disobeys his parents the parents do not stop
loving him or providing for him.
The parents may take away certain privileges and, if need be, apply
strong discipline, but they always do it because they love the child. So it is with God and the wayward
Christian. 2) It does not teach
that it is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit away.
Some
believe that a Christian may also quench the Spirit (put out the fire);
that is, that grieving deals with sins of commission and quenching deals with
sins of omission. ÒDo
not put out (quench) the SpiritÕs fireÓ (1 Thess. 5:19). However, most commentators take
quenching as that which the total assembly was guilty for they were despising
prophecy in the church.
HOW TO BE FILLED WITH THE
SPIRIT
It is interesting to note that as much as the
Scriptures seem to testify to the filling of the Spirit, nowhere is it
definitely stated how one received the filling. However, there are some verses that
indicate how the believer may appropriate the working of the Spirit in his
life.
John
7:37-39:
This says, ÒWhoever believes in me.Ó Control by the Spirit involves occupation with the person of
Jesus Christ as one acknowledges His sovereign Lordship over his life. ÒIf anyone is thirstyÓ—There
must be a desire to be controlled by the Spirit. ÒLet him come . . . and drinkÓ—There must be an act of
believing and a Christian must come to Christ and desire to be controlled. Desire must find its fulfillment in a
positive act. ÒWhoever believes in MeÓ (Keeps on believing in me) –There
must be occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. These words stress the importance of repeated faith
in Jesus for a full working of the Spirit.
Eph.
5:18. ÒBe filled with the Spirit.Ó The emphasis in this verse is upon
control and, to be controlled, one must be yielded to the Holy SpiritÕs sovereign
workings in the life.
Gal.
5:16. ÒLive (walk) by the Spirit.Ó To walk by the Spirit seems to imply obedience
and dependence.
Acts
4:31. ÒAfter they prayed, the place where they
were meeting was shaken. And they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.Ó It seems in this one case that the filling came during a time
of concentrated prayer. Prayer is
an attitude of dependence and submission. This verse doesnÕt say they were filled
by prayer but during a season of prayer, the filling came. We cannot minimize prayer.
Col.
3:16-17. ÒLet the word of Christ dwell in you richly
as your teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms,
hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or
deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him.Ó The results of letting the Word
dwell in the Christian are the same as the results of letting the Spirit
control the life. ÒBe
filled with the Spirit. Speaking
to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to
the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of
our Lord Jesus ChristÓ (Eph. 5:18-21). There is a close relationship between being obedient and
submissive to GodÕs Word and being controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion. The means for appropriating the control of the Spirit is yieldedness, which involves faith towards Christ, dependence upon the Holy Spirit
and submission to GodÕs
Word. Some have said that the key
to the filling of the Spirit is summed up in the word obedience.
After all, yieldedness is just one phase of obedience. Ryrie says,
ÒGod does not ask believers either to tarry or to pray for the
filling. This does not mean,
however, that the filling is given without conditions. In a simple word the condition is
obedience.Ó (Ryrie, The Holy Spirit)
THE RESULTS OF BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
Since there is a filling of
the Spirit, then there must be ways to detect this work of the Spirit in others
and us.
Scriptural
Evidences according to Paul
Eph. 5:18-21. After
commanding the Ephesian Christians to be filled with the Spirit, Paul lists
some very definite evidences of the filling. These evidences are as follows: 1) Singing of outward praise
to God; 2) Singing of inward praise, in the heart, to God; 3) Giving of thanks
for all things, good or bad. 4)
Rejoicing in the Lord; 5) Giving thanks for all kinds of providential
circumstances, and 6) Submitting to the Christian brethren.
1 Cor. 12:7. ÒNow
to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.Ó Every Christian is part of the body of
Christ, the Church. Each member
has been given at least one spiritual gift for the effective functioning of the
Body. Apart from the controlling
work of the Spirit, a ChristianÕs spiritual gifts cannot be used properly for
the functioning of the Body.
Gal. 5:16. ÒLive
by the Spirit, and you will not gratify (complete, bring to fulfillment,
perform) the desires of the sinful nature.Ó Unless the Christian is dependent upon the Holy
Spirit, he cannot control the flesh (sin nature). The sin nature is a powerful force in the Christian but the
Holy Spirit is more powerful. It
does not say one will not have the passions of the flesh but one will not bring
them to completion.
Gal. 5:22-23. ÒBut
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.Ó In these verses, the fruit of the Spirit is enumerated and is
the product of the Holy Spirit, being manifested in the life when one is
walking by means of the Spirit (Gal. 5:16). Notice that the first fruit mentioned is love. Love is the highest Christian standard
for holy living (John 13:34-35) and without love the Christian has nothing (1 Cor.
13:1-3).
Acts 4:31. ÒAfter
they prayed, . . . they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word
of god boldly.Ó The
controlling work of the Spirit is essential for effective witnessing, and
faithful witnessing brings more controlling of the Spirit (Acts 13:52). The winning of souls is GodÕs business
(Acts 13:48; 16:14) and the main agent of soul winning is the Holy Spirit (Acts
1:8). If men are to be effective
witnesses, they must be rightly related to the Holy Spirit. Christians should be constantly asking
the Holy Spirit to lead them to people that have been prepared to receive the
gospel. God does not expect the
Christian to witness in his own strength.
God has provided a supernatural power that can make witnessing exciting.
Acts 7:55. ÒWhen
they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,
looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right
hand of God.Ó The
controlling work of the Spirit is that power that enables men to be
martyrs. God always gives dying
grace to His children.
Acts 6:3. ÒBrothers,
choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and
wisdom.Ó This verse tells us that the
controlling work of the Spirit enables one for Christian service and, in
context, it is necessary for serving in the office of deacon.
Acts 11:22-24. ÒHe
(Barnabas) was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit land faith, and a great
number of people were brought to the Lord.Ó The controlling work of the Spirit is essential for
effective pastoring of a flock..
Barnabas encouraged the flock.
Acts 2:4. ÒAll
of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as
the Spirit enabled them.Ó
On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples spoke in tongues not by the
baptism of the Spirit but by the filling.
Tongues may be the result of filling, but Christians can be filled with
the Spirit without speaking in tongues.
Personal
Evidences
Occupation
with Christ:
One of the clearest evidences of the controlling work of the Spirit is that one
is taken up with Jesus Christ. The
Holy Spirit came to glorify Christ, not Himself. ÒHe (the Holy Spirit) will bring glory to me . . .Ó (Jn. 16:14).
Observation
by Others:
Others notice that the Spirit is working in oneÕs life to increase the
character of Christ (fruit of the Spirit).
Points
to Ponder. 1). Be careful not to put too much
emphasis upon the Holy Spirit. He
has come to glorify Christ, not to be glorified; 2) The person, who is always
fretting about whether he is controlled or not, probably is not controlled, but
the person rejoicing in Christ and His work, for and in him, is the person who
is controlled by the Spirit; 3). Do
not make the Christian life mechanical.
The control of the Spirit is dealing with the Holy Spirit, a person, not
a series of facts and method; 4) Do not run your Christian life on experience
but learn to walk by faith and trust God for a genuine Biblical experience; 5). There are no special formulas for
living the Christian life. Today
there are many man-made rules and formulas set forth as the only way to have
victory in the Christian life.
These man-made plans often state that Christians can attain unto
something that God has not promised.
GodÕs plan is a simple one but a necessary one: ÒTrust and obey,
for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.Ó And 6). Remember that all Christians have
different personalities. The fruit
of the Spirit will be evidenced through their individual personalities. Some people are quiet by nature; others
are extroverts, etc. The fruit
will be seen but donÕt try to pour everybody into a mold.
THEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS RELATED
TO THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT.
1. The Bible teaches that God works
100% in man and man works his salvation out 100%.
2.
The thing that must be remembered is that God has ordained the final
outcome of all things but He has also decreed the means to accomplish His ends.
The means deals in the areas of
human responsibility. God has
ordained that through faith, obedience and submission on the part of the
believer, the sanctification process would be carried out.
3.
From the divine side and in the practical outworking in the life, there
is no place for passivity on the part of the Christian because the Holy Spirit
is working 100% in him.
4.
From the human side, it
appears that man, because of lack of faith, unyieldedness and disobedience, can
hinder the full working of the Spirit in the life.
5.
In the control (filling) of the Spirit, a Christian does not get more
of the Spirit, but the Spirit gains more control over the Christian.
6.
The degree of the SpiritÕs control in the life of the Christian will
depend on whether he seeks Him by faith or not.
7.
Man is held 100% responsible to seek the control by the Spirit and the
work of giving the control rest 100% with God. Man is responsible but God gives all the ability that man
has.
8.
Any Christian, babe or mature, can be controlled by the Spirit, but it
takes time to learn to walk consistently by the Spirit. We progressively learn to walk by means
of the Spirit. We always
experience progressive victory, not ultimate victory.
The work of the Holy Spirit in the ChristianÕs
experience is a very important subject, but there has been much abuse of the
doctrine, especially in holiness groups.
Wrong teaching of the Holy Spirit will bring frustrating Christian
experiences. Many people have
tried this extreme emotionalism and found it very superficial and unsatisfying
and have rejected Christianity, thinking that what they had experienced was
Christianity.
We must avoid the extremes when teaching on the
filling of the Spirit. There are
some (Reformed Theology) who hardly make mention of the filling of the Spirit
in their writings, and there are others (Holiness groups) who speak constantly
of the Holy Spirit but with a twisted emphasis. There is a balanced teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Nowhere does Scripture teach that the filling of the
Spirit involves ecstatic and great emotional experiences. A person may or may not have experience
when controlled by the Spirit. Any
number of environmental factors may put a person in a low physical or mental
state, but there still can be control by the Spirit. God longs to keep us controlled by the Spirit while we trust
Him to do it. On the ChristianÕs
part, feeling has nothing to do with it, but faith everything. The order for Christian experience is fact,
faith and feeling.
One may expect the Holy Spirit to continue glorifying Jesus. Do not look for emotions, do not expect
exhilarated feelings—these, if present, are temporary—but expect
the Spirit to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus is precious then you know that you are controlled
by the Spirit.
Nowhere does the Scripture teach that the filling of
the Spirit is a post-salvation work.
It is never connected with the concept of a Òsecond blessing.Ó There are some that claim that the work
of the cross is sufficient to save but real sanctification does not take place
until one discovers the filling of the Spirit. They believe that after salvation, one must discover the
secret of filling or defeat will result.
To these people, the doctrine of the filling becomes all-important for
Christian living. Their
Christianity often becomes experience-centered rather than Bible centered. This group usually equates the baptism
and the filling of the Spirit.
Nowhere does the Scripture teach that the filling of
the Spirit is the same as the baptism of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit deals with the Christian being
positionally placed into the Body of Christ, the Church (1 Cor. 12:13). The filling or control of the Spirit
involves an experience and is to be repeated.
Nowhere does the Bible teach that the fruit of the
Spirit is an automatic result of being filled with the Spirit. There is teaching that if all the
conditions are met for filling then the fruit in its fullness will come
naturally. Notice in 2 Peter 1:5-8
the believer is told to add to his faith love, knowledge, temperance, patience,
kindness, etc. This is a picture
of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Scripture teaches the believer is held responsible to desire
and seek the fruit of the Spirit but only God can sovereignly produce the
control of the Spirit and produce the desired spiritual fruit (Eph. 5:22-23).
Nowhere does the Scripture teach that in the filling
(control) of the Spirit is the ÒkeyÓ to the Christian life. If this was the all-important doctrine
for Christian living why doesnÕt Peter, James, John or Jude mention it as such
in their epistles? Or why doesnÕt
Paul place a greater emphasis upon it?
Paul mentions it only once in all his writings. If this is the ÒkeyÓ to the Christian
life, why doesnÕt any writer in the New Testament tell the Christian
specifically how to be controlled?
There are many dear Christians who have lived a victorious Christian
life without knowing about the filling of the Spirit. POINT: The
doctrine of the filling of the Spirit is a very important doctrine but the
Christian life is the Christ-life as one seeks to be occupied with Jesus Christ
through faith and obedience. The
Christ life, however, is made real by the filling of the Spirit.
Nowhere does Scripture teach that a person must be
filled (controlled) by the Spirit before he can keep any other commands of
Scripture. In Eph. 5, Paul gives no
more importance to being filled than walking as children of light, walking
circumspectly, knowing GodÕs will, husbands loving wives and wives being in
subjection to their husbands. In
Acts we see that the filling of the Spirit was accompanied with joy, wisdom and
faith (Acts 6:3; 11:29; 13:52). To
be controlled by the Spirit is one of the many commands of God the Christian is
to keep. NOTE: While other commands may be kept
without the filling, it is questionable if there will be any joy in doing the
will of the Lord without the SpiritÕs control. Without the filling, service becomes a burden rather than a
blessing.
Problem
When a person is filled (controlled) by the Spirit
is he filled absolutely so that all the fruit of the Spirit is being manifested
completely or equally, or is he never completely controlled but only filled in
relative degrees?
Possible
Solution
1). Filling
of the Spirit is both relative and absolute. Control (filling) of the Spirit is directly related to oneÕs
spiritual capacity or maturity; 2). There was only one man who was completely filled or
controlled by the Spirit and that was the God-Man, Christ Jesus. He had 100% spiritual capacity or
maturity (John 3:34); 3). The
Christian does not get more of the Spirit but the Spirit gains more control
over the Christian as the Christian yields to the sovereign control of the Holy
Spirit. There are many areas of a
ChristianÕs life that are not completely yielded to God. Each Christian is somewhere along the
maturity line and each has his own spiritual capacity, which various in
degrees.
Practical
Aspects
1). This explains how two Christians can be
controlled by the Spirit and yet the depth in one is far greater than the other
but manifestations of the Spirit can be seen in both, and 2). The fruit of the Spirit comes through
our individual personalities and personalities differ. Therefore, manifestations of the
Spirit, while evident in the Spirit-filled believer, will vary somewhat
according to personality.
Practical
Suggestions
1.
DonÕt
get too tired. If you do, go to
bed. Pray about the sin in the
morning.
2.
Become
aware of your weak areas and donÕt put yourself into situations that would
grieve the Holy Spirit.
3.
DonÕt
run on your emotions. Experience
can be deceiving. We are filled
when Christ is precious and we donÕt necessarily have to have some exhilarating
experience.
4.
Listen
to what the bible has to say about the filling of the Spirit and be careful not
to copy the experience of other Christians in the area of the filling. God will control us through our own
personalities.
5.
Do
not try to pour everybody into the same mold. Let the Spirit of God manifest Himself through the unique
personalities of Christians.