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| BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRITby Dennis Kiszonas The Apostle Paul wrote, in Ephesians 5:18, "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." This study is a brief consideration of what it means "to be filled with
the Spirit," and what the evidence is of His filling.
1.) What does it mean to be "filled with the Spirit"? Sometimes in the Bible we read of someone being "filled" with joy, or sorrow, or anger, etc. What does that mean? To be "filled" is to be controlled by something, under the influence of something: So joyful that they were under the control and under the influence of joy, or of sorrow or of anger. To be "filled with the Holy Spirit" is to be under the control of the Spirit, or under the influence of the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 starts out with the command not to be drunk. I used to read that verse and wonder, "Why put these two so seemingly different commands in one verse? 'Don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit'? Then I realized: to be drunk with wine is to be filled with wine, under the control or influence of wine in much the same way that we are to be filled with, under the control or influence of the Spirit. The two parts of the verse go together very well. When we are drunk with wine, we take in a foreign substance which has an effect upon our brains, and as we begin to think differently, under the influence of the alcohol, we begin to talk differently and act differently. So also when we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, He begins by renewing our minds, our thinking comes under the influence and control of the Holy Spirit, and when our thinking changes, our speaking and acting changes. We are under the Spirit's control and influence. Paul's command in Eph 5:18 is a present tense imperative which indicates "be always filled, controlled, and influenced by the Spirit," or "keep on being filled by the Spirit." Not a momentary action, but a constant condition.
2.) Earlier in Ephesians Paul told us that we all have the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 said that first we heard the good news that Christ died for us. Then we believed in Him as our Savior. Finally, we were sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit. And in Eph 4:30 we learn that the Holy Spirit is never going to leave us, we are sealed unto the day of redemption (the day of the rapture). We may grieve Him, cause Him sorrow as He sees how we act, but He will never leave us. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit. We are never commanded to "receive the Holy Spirit." But every Christian is not filled with the Holy Spirit. So we are commanded, not to receive the Spirit, but to be filled with Him. He is in us, but He may not be in control. We may be saved, and yet we may not be "spiritual." And so Paul writes, "Let the Spirit be in control of your life."
3.) How do we know if we are filled with the Spirit? What is the evidence of His filling, of His control, of His influence? Here's where the doctrine gets controversial! Some churches and denominations claim "we're Spirit-filled--and the others aren't!" Other churches and denominations say "We're not a Spirit-filled church, and we don't want to be!" Spirit-filled has come to have a certain meaning based upon certain supposed evidence: Spirit-filled means speaking in tongues, or acting in some strange manner, etc. But what does the Bible say the evidence is of the Spirit's filling? The Body of Christ today is broken into thousands of different denominations and groups. And each group has their verses in the Bible to prove that they're right and the others are wrong. And they all point to verses in the same Bible, yet they all disagree with each other. It is an awful tragedy to see the Body of Christ broken again, divided and confused. What is the reason for all the confusion? The failure to "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15). Take the commands in the Bible about food for example: In Gen 1:29 God gave Adam the herbs of the earth and the fruit of the trees to eat as his food. Then later in Gen. 9:1-4 God added to Noah the meat of the animals, fish and fowls to eat as his food. Then God commanded Moses in the Law to eat only some meat, fish and fowls as food, only "kosher" or clean food (Lev. 11) Finally the Lord told Paul that we could eat any kind of food, that every creature was created for our nourishment and nothing was to be forbidden or refused if it is received with thanksgiving (1 Tim 4:3-5). Now let's imagine there were four preachers: One preached that we could only eat fruits and vegetables. He preached Gen. 1:29. His followers would start the "Vegetarian denomination." The second preacher preached that we could eat only "kosher foods" and he preached Leviticus. His followers could start the "Kosher denomination." The third said "We can eat any kind of food as long as we gave thanks for it." And he preached Paul's letters and his followers would be "followers of Paul." All three would be "Biblical" -- they all had their verses in the Bible. All three would be "scriptural." But two of them would be Because, though they were scriptural and Biblical, they weren't "dispensational." They failed to "rightly divide the word of truth." It was the Apostle Paul alone who wrote, "If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God that was given (by the Lord Jesus Christ) to me for you (the gentiles)" (Eph 3:2). The Lord gave Paul the dispensation of grace for us today and that includes the instructions on what kind of food we can eat. But this is an illustration of how all the denominations and various divisions got started. They may be Biblical and scriptural, but they fail to be dispensational, and fail to follow "our apostle" for this dispensation of grace, the Apostle Paul, not about food, but about salvation, assurance, prayer, and even the filling of the Spirit, and that's why there is so much disagreement, division and confusion in the Body today. When we want to know what the evidence of being filled with the Spirit is, there are several Biblical and scriptural answers, but there's only one dispensational answer. The first person said to be filled with the Spirit is found in Exodus 31:1-5. His name was Bezaleel. And the evidence of being Spirit-filled was that he was a master craftsman, a carpenter, a jeweler, a metal worker. Moses was building the tabernacle and God supplied him with a Spirit-filled craftsman. Later in the Bible, in Acts 2, we read that the disciples were filled with the Spirit and the evidence then was the ability to speak in other languages (or 'tongues'), so that Jews in Jerusalem who came from other countries could understand the apostles' message in their native languages (Acts 2:11). The Holy Spirit filled people in other dispensations, but the evidence was different in each dispensation. What is the evidence of His filling in the dispensation of grace? Its not being a master craftsman as in Exodus, or speaking in a foreign language as on the day of Pentecost. We know that because the Corinthian church spoke in languages (tongues) more than any other of Paul's churches (1 Cor. 1:4-7) but they were not spiritual believers, Paul said they were not spiritual but carnal Christians (1 Cor. 3:1-4). The gift of languages (tongues) was never a sign of spirituality or of being "Spirit-filled" in the dispensation of grace. The most carnal church spoke in languages more than any other church. The evidence of being "Spirit-filled" in this dispensation of grace that we're living in today is found in Ephesians 5:18-6:9. This is the only place in Paul's letters where he writes about being filled with the Spirit, and here's where he gives us the description of a Spirit-filled believer: Eph. 5:19 "Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." Singing and joy are evidences of the Spirit's filling. 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things..." A thankful, trusting attitude is an evidence of the Spirit's control, not fearful, not complaining. 5:21 "Submitting to one another..." The evidence of the Spirit's
control is seen in our relationships: It is interesting that in this passage that starts with the command to be Spirit-filled (Ephesians 5:18) and then gives this long list of the evidences of the Spirit-filled life (5:19-6:9), Paul mentions speaking in languages (tongues) as one of the evidences. That was never an evidence of spirituality or of the Spirit's control in the dispensation of grace. The evidences of spirituality are things like: a husband loving his wife, a joyful believer making melody in his or her heart to the Lord, a peace-filled believer giving thanks for all things to God the Father, etc. A Spirit-filled believer is a believer who is manifesting the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) in his/her life. The Body of Christ is broken into thousands of denominations, all claiming to be biblical and scriptural, but all divided from the others, and nowhere is the division sharper, the breaks more clear-cut than in the doctrine of the Spirit-filled life. But the answer, as always, is to "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15). The Lord Jesus gave the Apostle Paul the dispensation of grace for us today and that included the provision of the Holy Spirit, His control and His influence to renew our minds and to transform our lives. The command to be "Spirit-filled" is not just for some Christians (the "spirit-filled ones"), but it is for all of us, and it is not a momentary experience, but a constant and ever growing influence as we "let the word of Christ dwell in us richly." (Col 3:16). Note the results of letting the word of Christ dwell in us in Col 3:16-4:1 and compare them to the results of being Spirit-filled in Ephesians 5:18-6:9. They're the same! To become Spirit-filled, we need to spend more time in His word, and let it "soak in." As we "behold the Lord Jesus Christ" in His word, God the Holy Spirit transforms us to be like Him, He exerts that wonderful influence and takes that gentle control of our lives, He fills us to become like Him. |
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