Ephesians 5:18
says this: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with
the Spirit”
The filling of the Spirit is one of the most
controversial subjects among Christianity. Ask any average believer, what it
means to be filled with the Spirit and there is no telling what kind of reply
you might get. The responses may range from indifference to ignorance or even
to religious superstition.
Yet, the Bible clearly explains that when any individual
flees to the cross and finds forgiveness of sins and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ that the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell within them immediately,
completely and unceasingly. Romans 8:9 states that if anyone does not have the
Spirit of God, they are not the child of God. At the very moment of salvation,
every believer has all the Holy Spirit they are ever going to get. Yet, there
is a difference between the indwelling of the Spirit and the infilling of the
Spirit. The question is not, do we have “all the Spirit,” but rather; does the
Spirit have all of you?
We who are saved are commanded here in this Inspired Text
to be filled with the Spirit. Readers, the human spirit fails unless the Holy Spirit fills. Too much of
our Christian life is attempted in the flesh. We seek to serve God in our own
power and we fail again and again. Trying to serve God without the enabling of
the Spirit is a tiring and unproductive task. It is akin to buying a brand new
car with all the bells and whistles, but you don’t know how to operate it. So,
you just put it in neutral and push it everywhere you go. So is the Christian
who seeks to serve God by his own strength. It will wear you out and you will
not get very far.
Each of us, if we are to honor God with our lives, need
to be Spirit-filled Christians. This text is a command, not a suggestion. God
never makes suggestions. God always gives directives. We are commanded by God,
to be filled with the Spirit.
The verse actually begins with a prohibition against
drunkenness. “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.” The believer is never
to be needlessly under the influence of any substance, alcohol included.
Intoxicants lower our inhibition, they make us more vulnerable to sin and more
susceptible to yielding to what is forbidden.
The prohibition in this passage from drunkenness states
that it is excess or debauchery. Too many of us have known men and women who
have wasted away their lives because of the powerful influence of alcohol.
Drunkenness causes us to lose control while being filled
with the Spirit causes us to gain control. In fact, Galatians 5:22,23 lists the
nine fruit of the Spirit; the last of which is self-control. To be filled with the Spirit is not some
spiritual intoxication or inebriation where you lose control of yourself.
Instead, the filling of the Spirit will cause you to exercise temperance or
self-restraint.
Too many Christians place too much emphasis on the first
half of this verse and not nearly enough on the second. The command to be
filled is just as stringent and necessary as the command not to be drunk with
wine. If we are to be fruit-bearing Christians we must be filled with the Spirit.
This demand is not for a select few, but for every believer. Further yet, the
original language presents this mandate to us in the present tense meaning,
“keep being filled with the Spirit.”
A well-known evangelist was asked one time if he was
filled with the Spirit to which he replied: “yes, but I leak.” And so do we
all.
We are filled with the Spirit when, and only when, we
yield to the Spirit. When we disobey God it grieves the Spirit. To be
Spirit-filled, we must maintain a steady diet of Scripture. We must live in
fellowship with God by avoiding sin and obeying His Word. The Spirit-filled
Christian will take up his cross, die to himself and follow after the Lord
Christ.
Only God knows what could be accomplished if all His
children would surrender their whole lives to Him and seek to faithfully serve
Him by the empowerment of the Spirit.
Pastor Lewis Kiger
svdbygrace2@roadrunner.com
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