Welcome to Refinery Life Australia.
This week we are continuing our series titled Questions People Ask About The Holy Spirit.
Today we are talking about How Can I Be Filled With The Holy Spirit?
Text
Ephesians 5:18 (AMP)
18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the [Holy] Spirit and constantly guided by Him.
Scripture Reading
Prayer
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Introduction
I read a story this week about an oil field.
During the depression in America this oil field was a sheep ranch owned by a guy called Mr Yates.
Yates was unable to make enough money from the ranch to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage and was in danger of losing his ranch.
With little money for food and clothes, his family had to live on government hand outs.
Day after day Yates was troubled about how he would pay his bills.
One day a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told Mr Yates that there might be oil on his land.
They asked him for permission to drill a well, and he signed the lease.
At just over one hundred meters deep a huge oil reserve Wass discovered.
The first well came in at 80000 barrels a day, and many other wells produced twice as much.
Thirty years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed that it could still produce 125000 barrels of oil a day.
And Mr Yates owned it all!
Since the day he had purchased the land he had held the oil and mineral rights, yet he had lived on welfare, a multimillionaire living in poverty!
What was the problem?
He did not know the oil was there.
He owned it, but he did not possess it.
The moment we become children of God through faith in Christ we become heirs of God, and all of His resources are made available to us.
Everything we need to live a joyous life of Christian victory is ours in the person of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.
But many Christians do not understand how to draw on the resources of the Holy Spirit.
As a result, they live in spiritual poverty, not knowing or experiencing the great riches and resources that are already theirs through the Holy Spirit.
Like Mr Yates before the oil discovery, many Christians own but do not possess the riches that are already theirs.
So that we might draw upon the vast reservoir of the Holy Spirit, let us answer some questions today that people ask about being filled with the Holy Spirit.
- What is being filled with the Holy Spirit?
- It is a birthright to be claimed.
Romans 8:16-17 (AMP)
16 The Spirit Himself testifies and confirms together with our spirit [assuring us] that we [believers] are children of God.
17 And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory.
Part of your inheritance is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Because you are a born again christian, it is your birthright to be filled with the Holy Spirit just as Peter was filled, as Stephen was filled, and as 120 men and women were filled in the upper room.
What have you done with your birthright?
B. It is a command to be obeyed.
Ephesians 5:18 (AMP)
18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the [Holy] Spirit and constantly guided by Him.
Some people think, it’s optional whether you I claim my birthright or not, no doubt it is a good thing for some people to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but I don’t need to be.
Let us learn , however, that “Be filled with the Spirit” is a command to be obeyed.
You will notice in Ephesians 5:18 a double command, a negative, “Do not get drunk,” and a positive, “be filled.”
The positive command is as authoritative as the negative, and it was binding on just as many of those Ephesian Christians as was the negative command.
And what was true for those believers is equally true for all believers today.
C. It is a commitment to be made.
Romans 12:1 (AMP)
Dedicated Service
12 Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.
To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with Christ.
If we are filled with the Spirit, we are in Christ.
We are walking in the light as He is in the light, and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse and keep on cleansing us from all sin.
To be “filled” with Christ means to be controlled by Christ, not as a robot, but as one who is led and empowered by the Spirit.
Eight years had passed since the conversation of the people at Ephesus until Paul commanded them in Ephesians 5:18 to “be filled with he Spirit.”
This has been the experience of many of us.
Quite unintentionally we operated for years without really giving the Holy Spirit the control He needs to have in our lives.
Our goals were good and noble, but they were just that, our goals.
Then one day we realised there just had to be more than we had discovered.
2. Why should I be filled with the Holy Spirit?
There are three reasons why you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
A. God’s will is that you be filled (John 14:16-17).
B. You have some problems that can only be solved by the Holy Spirit.
The paraphrase of Romans 7:18-19 and 24- 25 is this, “I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned.
No matter which way I turn I can’t make myself do right.
I want to but I can’t.
When I want to do good, I don’t, and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.
Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in!
Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature?
Thank God!
It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord.
He has set me free.”
Some of the obvious problems you may have that can only be solved by the Holy Spirit include a secret spirit of pride, a love of human praise, anger or impatience, carnal fear, jealousy, unbelief, and deadness.
These are some of the traits that generally indicate a carnal heart and thus the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
C. You want to experience the greatest joy and effectiveness in your Christian life.
John 10:10 (AMP)
10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].
It isn’t unusual to hear someone say, “I have never surrendered my life to Christ because I am afraid of what He will do to ne.”
Does that sound like a loving Father?
These people do not understand how much God loves them and how much freedom and joy He will give them.
Christians who allow the Holy Spirit to fill them experience a new dimension of peace and effectiveness.
3. How can you be filled with the Holy Spirit?
We must be sure not to confuse being filled with the Holy Spirit with the gift of the Spirit.
If we do not see a clear cut difference between these two, we can never have an intelligent grasp of what being filled with the Spirit means.
In AD56 these Ephesian Christians had received the gift of the Spirit (Acts 19), and then, eight years later when writing from prison in Rome, Paul told them to be filled with the Spirit.
If the gift and being filled were the same, there would have been no need for Paul to write.
The gift of the Spirit comes at conversion, Acts 2:28 (AMP)
28 ‘You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will fill me [infusing my soul] with joy with Your presence.’
Being filled with the Spirit comes at consecration, Romans 6:13 (AMP)
13 Do not go on offering members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. But offer yourselves to God [in a decisive act] as those alive [raised] from the dead [to a new life], and your members [all of your abilities—sanctified, set apart] as instruments of righteousness [yielded] to God.
They may be close together or years apart.
- Self examination.
1 Corinthians 11:28 (AMP)
28 But a person must [prayerfully] examine himself [and his relationship to Christ], and only when he has done so should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
Above all else, we must be honest with ourselves.
We must not ignore or attempt to hide from ourselves any of our sins.
We must ask ourselves, “What are those things in my life that prevent the Holy Spirit from being able to fill me?”
B. Confession of all known sin.
1 John 1:9 (AMP)
9 If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].
After examining ourselves in the light of God’s Word, we should confess all sin brought to mind by the holy spirit.
Until we start calling our pride, anger, complacency, and bitterness “sin”, we will never have the filling of the Holy Spirit.
However when we recognise these deficiencies as sin and confess them to God, He will “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
C. Submission of ourselves completely to God.
Romans 6:13 (AMP)
13 Do not go on offering members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. But offer yourselves to God [in a decisive act] as those alive [raised] from the dead [to a new life], and your members [all of your abilities—sanctified, set apart] as instruments of righteousness [yielded] to God.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit, we must make ourselves completely available to God to do anything the Holy Spirit wants us to do.
If there is anything in our lives that we are unwilling to do, then we are resisting God, and this always limits God’s Spirit.
D. Ask to be filled.
Luke 11:13 (AMP)
13 If you, then, being evil [that is, sinful by nature], know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him!”
Any suggestion that we wait or labour is a human suggestion.
Only the disciples were told to wait, and the reason was the day of Pentecost had not yet come.
Since that day, God’s children have only had to ask for His filling to experience it.
E. Believe you are filled.
Mark 9:23 (AMP)
23 Jesus said to him, “[You say to Me,] ‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes and trusts [in Me]!”
For many Christians, the battle is one or lost right here.
Believing we are filled with the Spirit is merely taking God at His word, and that is the only absolute this world has.
4. How can you know you have been filled with the Holy Spirit?
- Because of the promise of God’s Word.
Mark 11:24 (AMP)
24 For this reason I am telling you, whatever things you ask for in prayer [in accordance with God’s will], believe [with confident trust] that you have received them, and they will be given to you.
B. Because of the fruit of the Spirit.
Matthew 7:20 (AMP)
20 Therefore, by their fruit you will recognize them [as false prophets].
Galatians 5:22-23 (AMP) lists the fruit of the Spirit.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
C. Because you will have both the power and the desire to witness.
Acts 1:8 (AMP)
8 But you will receive power and ability when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses [to tell people about Me] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.”
D. Because the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ through you.
John 16:14 (AMP)
14 He will glorify and honor Me, because He (the Holy Spirit) will take from what is Mine and will disclose it to you
Conclusion.
When can you be filled with the Holy Spirit?
Now!
Examine yourself.
Confess your own sins.
Submit yourself unreservedly to Christ, then simply ask to be filled and believe you are filled.
Why not trust the Holy Spirit with your life?
This is not a once for all experience.
It is an experience that will repeat everyday, but it must begin sometime.
Why not let that be now?
Until next time
Stay in the Blessings
I really want to encourage you to be diligent with your Bible study time, because God has so much more for us than we can get from just going to church once or twice a week and hearing someone else talk about the Word.
When you spend time with God, your life will change in amazing ways, because God is a Redeemer.
Theres nothing thats too hard for Him, and He can make you whole, spirit, soul and body!
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