Being filled with the Spirit
Day 37
by Gini Crawford, MSW
Who controls you
All Christians have the Holy Spirit living within them. Yet did you know, not all Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit? Let's look at why, through the meaning of being filled. Some people think to be filled with the Spirit is some mystical experience but it isn't. To be filled with the Spirit simply means that the Spirit is controlling you. The Holy Spirit isn't a liquid filling you like you would fill a water bottle. The Holy Spirit is a Person of the Trinity controlling you. Ephesians 5:18 explains this principle clearly: God commands believers to be filled by His Spirit, and not to be filled or controlled by alcohol or anything other than His Spirit. So if you are controlled by anything other than the Spirit you aren't filled with Him.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit... Ephesians 5:18 ESV®
The filling of the Spirit is a work of God, yet each believer has the responsibility to submit to God's control (James 4:7a). I believe no one is filled or controlled by the Spirit all the time because we still have a sin nature on this earth. Yet, to be a mature Christian we need to be controlled by the Spirit the majority of time.
We are letting the Spirit control us when we trust or rely on God. Paul's messages were from the Spirit because he relied on Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Stephen in Acts is a powerful example of consistently being filled or full of faith and the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5). He was so full of the Holy Spirit that even while being stoned to death, he stood strong for God (Acts 6:8-12, 7:54-60).
A walk with the Spirit
When you are walking with the Spirit it gives you a lifestyle that enables the Holy Spirit to fill or control you. We could say, a walk with the Spirit is a walk of faith (Proverbs 3:5-6; Hebrews 11). Walking with the Spirit allows Him to control your will, your reasonings, and show you the sins in your life. A walk with the Spirit gives you a maturity, and a fruitful, powerful and blessed life in God. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18; Galatians 5:22-25, 6:8; Ephesians 3:16-20, 5:2, 17-18).
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 ESV®
Walking with the Spirit is pretty much the same as walking with a good friend, yet it is a walk with God. Quite incredible if you think about it. A logical first step for walking with someone is a desire to walk with them, so to walk with the Spirit you need to desire to. When you walk with someone many times you are communicating with them. A walk with the Spirit will always have communication – prayer and being filled with God's words. You might not have confidence in the person you are walking with, but when you walk with the Spirit it means you have faith in Him (Galatians 3:4).
Our walk with the Spirit is a learning process. It's a step by step walking with God as a song says. Life can be very much like hiking up a mountain path, can't it? There are many places that the path is level and the scenery is beautiful so you can easily enjoy life and trust God. But at times the path gets rough and steep when bills go unpaid, work is disastrous, your child is struggling, you are betrayed, bad health is constant and you could name many more hardships that make you falter in your walk with God. Yet remember, God is always there for you, to steady you, to help you with every step of life, so reach out for Him in prayer, committing to His ways and trusting His words. (Psalm 37:3-7, 23-24, 31; Philippians 4:6-9, 13, 19). I seem to feel God's presence even more on those difficult life paths. You too? How often do you walk with the Holy Spirit?
Life Application
Sin hinders our walk with the Spirit
As you know, God breaks the power of our sinful nature when we believe and His Spirit comes in, giving us a divine nature. As Christians, we do have the power not to sin, but there still is a battle raging within us, tempting us to sin. Read Mark 14:38; 1 Corinthians 10:13; James 1:13-15.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. / Do not quench the Spirit. Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19 ESV®
Sin stops the Holy Spirit from filling you. The Bible says, sin in your life grieves the Spirit, or you could say, the Spirit is saddened or sorrowful over sin in your life. Read Ephesians 4:17-32. If you keep on allowing sin to control you, it quenches or extinguishes the full influence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:15-24. Look at it this way, the Spirit wants to fill you, but your sin is hindering Him. Sin leads you to be filled with yourself or your flesh, and doing your own will. Read James 4:1-10.
Sin also battles with the Spirit within us (1 Corinthians 3:1-3, 16-17; Galatians 6:8). Sounds counterproductive or worse doesn't it? So how can we stop fighting the Spirit? As we talked about, sin starts in the mind, and if we don't stop it there, it turns to sinful actions. The Spirit uses the Word to tell us whether something is sin or not. (Psalm 119:11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). If we don't agree with the Spirit about our sin then we are hindering His control. If this happens a lot, we are in a vicious cycle of walking in our flesh making us unfruitful Christians. Read Isaiah 30:1,63:10; Galatians 5:16-25. What are your insights concerning the Galatians passage on the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit?
I live where the desert blooms with wildflowers; creating a natural beauty all around. It is really lovely. However, as the wildflowers grow so do the weeds. The weeds can overpower the flowers. We have a beauty from the Spirit within but if we let sin fill us instead of the Spirit, an ugliness takes root from the weeds of sin, hiding our divine nature. Let me encourage you to ask the Spirit to weed those sins out of your life by confessing or agreeing with God about those sins. He is an expert weed killer. Read 1 John 1:8-9.
To consider: If you are habitually doing what your flesh wants and not what the Spirit wants, then I would question your salvation. (2 Corinthians 13:5-6). Christianity isn't fire insurance for hell that allows us to forget about God and His will and always do what our flesh wants. Christianity is a relationship with Jesus, Who loved you so much He died for you. So when you don't care about Jesus to the point you are habitually sinning or doing things He is against, it says to me your relationship with Jesus probably doesn't exist. Read 1 John 3:1-9. Do your actions show you have a relationship with Jesus? Be honest.
Reflect on Ephesians 5:18.