BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT part 1
“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but ever be filled and stimulated with the [Holy] Spirit (Eph. 5:18 Amplified Bible, emphasis added).”
The command carries with it an implicit promise: If, at any time, I should become conscious that I am NOT filled with the Holy Spirit, all I need do is lay hold of the Lord by faith for His re-filling. This is the most significant part of my inheritance in Christ, whose Holy Spirit has been provided as a down payment, or guarantee, of the same. (See Eph. 1: 13, 14.)
“Once-filled, always-filled” is a popular theological position that has greatly hindered the advancement of the kingdom of God.
It has spiritually neutered many through the illusion that a past experience with Him, however valid it might have been, automatically translates into current reality.
This thinking prompts an unmerited confidence in what was, rather than a present-tense contact and involvement with I AM.
Instead of encouraging one to believe God and His word right now, it points one away from any existing responsibility for the exercise of faith.
The end product is a people who are complacent in nostalgia.
The notion of a single Holy Spirit infilling is not consistent with the testimony of the saints in the early church. The same men and women who were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost were subsequently filled again on numerous occasions—a very unnecessary statement of fact, if being filled with the Holy Spirit involves merely a one-time encounter with God.
After healing a lame man, preaching Christ, and being persecuted through threats and imprisonment, Peter and John convened with some of the saints to expound upon their adventure. In the midst of prayer, God filled them again with the Holy Spirit.
“And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31, NKJV).” (See also Acts 4:8; 9:17, 18; & 13: 9, 52.) Peter, John, and some of the others who were filled anew with the Holy Spirit in Acts 4 were filled previously in the upper room in Acts 2.
This and other examples underscore the fact that a single encounter with the Holy Spirit is insufficient. We all need His brand new empowering to re quicken us on a regular basis.
How would one know whether or not he is in need of refilling, given the reality that his past experience(s) are inadequate as a proof test?
Can one know with certainty whether he is currently filled?
Is there tangible fruit that accompanies one who is full of the Holy Spirit? Fortunately, the Scriptures provide clear answers to these questions.
The next discussion will have some identifying characteristics that come with being filled to overflowing with God’s presence:
Blessings