David Jeremiah - The Filling of the Spirit
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We’re studying the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. People want to know who the Holy Spirit is and what in the world He has to do with life. We’re going to talk about that today as we focus our attention on a verse of Scripture in Ephesians chapter 5, which tells us to be filled with the Spirit and not drunk with wine. Quite a analysis! One of the most memorable events of my childhood happened when I was living in Dayton, Ohio, years ago. My father was a pastor in that city, and I was a paperboy at the time. I think it was in the seventh grade, and my paper route went up and down Woodman Avenue into some very interesting subdivisions that were being built along that road.
Living in one of the subdivisions was a very mean man-mean in every sense of the word. He did everything he could to terrorize the kids who lived in the neighborhood. If you happened to be a paperboy there, you delivered your papers on that street as fast as you could and got out of there! One Halloween, some of my buddies and I decided it was time to get even with this guy. We cooked up some elaborate tricks because we knew Mr. Nasty wouldn’t be giving out any treats that night.
When my friends and I got to his door, however, it became immediately apparent that somebody had already been there before us with the same idea. Oh, Mr. Nasty was primed and ready! He came around from outside the back door and started to chase us, screaming at the top of his lungs and firing tin cans at us like missiles. I mean, he might have been old, but he was fast! And he almost got on top of us before we knew what was happening. I have to honestly tell you I don’t think up until that time I’d ever been so afraid in my life.
You see, it was dark. It was Halloween, and we were doing something we knew we shouldn’t do. I tell you what I did, but I don’t want to contribute to the delinquency of any minors here this morning. I took off from the front porch as fast as I could, tore down the cul -de-sac, raced across Woodman Avenue, and jumped over a fence I could not jump over again if I lived to be 100 years old. The next day I found myself back at the scene of the crime, delivering my papers. I remember driving by that fence I had jumped over and straddling my bike, thinking, How in the world did I ever jump over that fence? Man, I should go out for track! Oh, what the wonders of adrenaline! I was filled with fear; I had discovered a strength I never knew I possessed.
Have you ever been filled with fear? You know, I’ve read stories about women, mothers who were filled with fear, who actually lifted a car off of one of their children. Is that possible? No. But when you’re filled with fear, all kinds of things happen. There’s a story about a young man who was going home from work one night and decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery. He did not know that that very day they had dug a fresh grave. It was dark, and lo and behold, he fell into the grave. He tried to get out, and he couldn’t. Every time he tried, he just pulled more dirt in behind him, and finally he gave up and thought he’d just sit in the corner of the grave and wait till daylight, maybe for somebody to come and get him.
In the meantime, another guy was walking through the cemetery and fell in at the other end of the grave. He started the same routine, trying to get out, pulling dirt down beside him. Finally, from the end of the grave where the first guy was, he heard, «You can’t get out of here.» But he got out! He was filled with fear. You know, I used to think when I read these passages about being filled with the Spirit, I wondered: filled up to the waist, filled up to the shoulders, filled up? No, it’s not being filled up like you fill up a canister. Being filled means being controlled by. So when you read the words «Be filled with the Spirit,» what it means is be controlled by the Spirit.
And the illustration that’s given in Ephesians is an interesting one because it compares being filled with the Spirit to being drunk with wine. When you’re drunk with wine, the wine takes over, and you end up doing things you never would have done without it. When you’re filled with the Spirit, in a very positive way, you live life in a supernatural way-unlike anything you would ever be able to do if He weren’t controlling the situation. You say, «Well, what does this have to do with the world as we live in today? Is it some mysterious doctrine that belongs to the mystics? Does it have anything to do with real life? I mean, does it have anything to do with Monday morning, or the pile of dirty laundry, or the stack of bills, or the daily commute?»
Most of us would agree that the standards of Christianity are impossibly high. Christianity is not hard; it’s impossible if you do it in your own strength. Scripture tells us to be humble, to be gentle, to always be rejoicing, to be constantly praying, to be taking every thought into captivity, to be loving those who oppose us. On the screen are all the places where we’re told to do something. Trying in our own strength to do all that is exhausting. Not only is the standard too high, but we face an enemy at every step who’s trying to oppose us in our walk with the Lord. If we don’t have a power beyond ourselves, the Christian life becomes one long defeat.
I love that old joke about the man who bought a new chainsaw from a local hardware dealer. He took it home and cut a cord of wood. The dealer happened to be in the area just as the man was finishing up, and he stopped to chat with him. He said, «How do you like that new saw, sir?» He said, «Well, it’s all right, I guess. To tell you the truth, it’s not much of an improvement over my old saw.» The store owner said, «Really? That doesn’t seem right. This is the latest model. Let me see that thing.» And he picked it up, pulled on the starter cord, and the big saw roared to life. The man who had bought the saw said, «What was that noise?»
What was going on was he was trying to saw wood with an electric power saw where there was no power. You know, that’s so much like what we do as Christians. We feel frustrated that we can’t get stuff done, that we know God has called us to do this and act that way and live this way. But if we do it in our own strength, it will always be frustratingly a failure. The Bible tells us to be filled with the Spirit. Let me explore that for just a moment. In the Bible, we’re told that this is something we are supposed to do. It’s nothing less than a command. Ephesians 5:18 says, «And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.»
Now, there are a couple of things about this command that I want you to note. First of all, it’s in the imperative mood. That means it’s not an option. It isn’t something that says, «If you have time to ponder for days or weeks, you might come to the conclusion of being filled.» It’s not one of those nice-sounding but far-away goals. The Word of God says that every believer, no matter who we are, no matter how long we’ve been saved, is commanded to be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
It’s in the plural rather than in the singular. That means it’s for all of us! It is not just for special people, spiritual giants, or super saints. It’s for everybody! And then, it’s in the passive voice, which means the object has something acting upon it from outside. In other words, we don’t fill ourselves. The Holy Spirit is given to us by God. We pray, and God fills us with His Spirit so that we’re controlled by the Spirit. Paul compares being filled with the Spirit to being filled with alcohol. When someone drinks, the alcohol comes from the outside and starts to control them on the inside.
But when you let the Holy Spirit have access to your heart, your mind, and your life, He begins to guide, strengthen, and empower you from the inside out. And then the last thing about this is that it’s in the present tense. That means you don’t just get filled once. Actually, the text really says, «Keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit.» All of us know there are times when we just settle into doing our own thing whether we like to admit it or not. But if you want to have victory in your Christian life, you need to let the Spirit of God tell you what to do.
You say, «Well, how does that work, Pastor? How does the Spirit of God tell me what to do?» First of all, I believe the Spirit of God speaks to us inwardly. I’ve told people that when you become a Christian, God gives you a little wheel here in the middle of where you live. It’s got sharp edges around it. When you do something you’re not supposed to do, that wheel goes around, and it hurts you inside. You know, «Wow, I shouldn’t do that!» Now that’s the Spirit of God working in your heart. The Bible says one of His goals is to convict us.
Have you ever noticed that you’re walking along doing your own thing, and something comes along, and you yield to it, and you feel very uncomfortable about it? That’s the Spirit of God in you saying you’re going down the wrong road. The same thing happens when something good approaches and you know you’re doing the right thing-the Spirit of God speaks to you. But most of all, the Spirit of God speaks to us through the Bible. The Bible is God’s written Word. And when we read that, two things happen: we have the inspiration of the Spirit in the writing of the Bible, and we have the Holy Spirit living within us helping us to understand what the Bible says.
I remember hearing a guy say, «You know, I never could understand the Bible. Then I got saved, and in the meantime, I discovered somebody rewrote it.» No, they didn’t rewrite the Bible; you just got the interpreter on the inside. He’s helping you understand! The Bible says, «The natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit, for they’re spiritually discerned.» That means if you don’t have the Holy Spirit because you’re not a Christian, you can read the Bible until your eyes fall out, and it won’t make any difference in your life.
The Spirit of God is the message that God gives you from His Word, and the Spirit of God interprets it. More and more as I grow in the Lord, I understand that being filled with the Spirit is an ongoing process. Sometimes, as I’m reading and studying the Bible, the Spirit of God will reveal something to me-some area of my life or ministry that isn’t under His control. He brings it to mind. He does. I have to either yield that to Him, or I have to deny it and go on doing my own thing. We should never imagine that being filled is a once-for-all deal that you can nail down at some Bible camp, throw a chunk of wood on the bonfire, and it’s all settled. Being filled is a continuous thing.
Every day you seek the Lord, and you wake up in the morning and say, «Spirit of God, control my life today. I want to be a Spirit-led, Spirit-filled person on this day.» Now, what are the conditions for this gracious act? What do we have to do? How do we go about this? How do I become a Spirit-filled Christian? First of all, you have to desire. You have to desire to be filled with the Spirit. If you have no desire for the Spirit of God to fill you and control you, guess what? It won’t happen!
In John 7, Jesus says, «If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.» And then He tells us later in the verse that that verse is about the Holy Spirit. In the Beatitudes in the New Testament, there’s a verse that says, «Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.» What that means is if you’re a Christian, do you ever have this feeling that there should be something else going on in your life besides what’s going on right now? That you want something more, something different, something more aligned with what God’s will is? And you know in your heart you’re not walking the straight and narrow; you’re living on the fringe areas.
If that doesn’t bother you and if you don’t have a desire for there to be something more in your life, you’re never going to be filled with the Spirit of God because He doesn’t come where He’s not wanted. He’s not going to come into your life and take control unless you ask Him to-unless you desire for that to happen. Are you thirsty? Maybe a little desperate for a closer walk with God? You say, «Well, that makes me feel like something’s wrong.» Let me tell you something: the Bible says you’re blessed if you hunger after righteousness. It doesn’t say you’re blessed if you’re righteous-although that’s true. It says you’re blessed if you hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Do you have a desire for more of God, more of His will, more of His person? You’re a candidate for the Holy Spirit’s filling. That’s what the Scripture says. Some people have told me, «Pastor, I wish I could get to the place in my Christian life where I could just be happy.» Jesus says, «You will be blessed if you hunger and thirst after righteousness.» The word «blessed» is the word «happy.» Happy is the one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness. Don’t deny that in your life. Don’t push that away. Don’t say, «What’s wrong with me? I just keep wanting more of God.» If that’s true of you, the Bible says you’re a candidate for the Holy Spirit’s infilling.
Then you have to denounce sin in your life. Let me tell you something: the Holy Spirit will not cohabitate a life that is filled with willful sin. If you’re living in habits that are not honoring to the Lord, the Holy Spirit’s not going to move in next to that. His first name is Holy, and He wants to be in a place where holiness is true. Paul explained it like this: «Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates the body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.»
When we come to be filled with the Holy Spirit, first of all, we have to want to be. We have to desire it. And secondly, we have to be willing to deal with the things in our lives that are not pleasing to the Lord. I’ll tell you something I’ve learned. You say, «Well, I don’t know if there are things like that in my life.» If you ask the Lord to reveal them to you, He flat out will do it. You won’t have to ask Him a number of times. You won’t have to say, «Oh Lord, please show me the things that are wrong in my life.» What I’ve discovered is if you ask Him for that, He will show it to you through His Word, through a sermon, through something you hear on the radio, through a conversation. I don’t know what it’ll be, but He has this way of always making us aware of the things in our lives that are not pleasing to Him.
You may be afraid to ask that question because you don’t want to know the answer. That’s what I discover from a lot of folks I know. Why don’t you ask the Lord to show you those things in your life that are not pleasing to Him? Because you already know those things in your life that are not pleasing to Him. You don’t need God to tell you those things, so you don’t ask. The Bible says if you want to be controlled by the Spirit of God, you have to get serious about not living your life according to the old way before you were saved. You need to live your life in a new way. Denounce sin in your life.
The third thing you’ve got to do is you have to dedicate yourself fully to Christ. To be filled with the Spirit is to yield to His control. The Holy Spirit doesn’t want to just be the resident of your life; He wants to be the president of your life. He wants to sit on the throne of your life. He wants to rule every day in the decisions you make, in the things you do, and in the places you go. I used to pray when I’d get up in the morning, «Lord, help me to take Jesus Christ with me wherever I go and be an influence for Him.» And then I realized that’s a prayer I don’t have to pray because He’s going with me anyway.
So, to be filled with the Spirit is to yield to the Spirit’s control. Romans 12:1-2 has been used over the years to illustrate this, and I’m not going to read it from the King James; I’m going to read it from Philip’s paraphrase because it’s so good. Listen to these words: «With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good and it meets all of His demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity.»
So, we say, «All right, Lord. You know what I want, and my life is clean now, and I’ve confessed my sin. Now, I’m just going to give You control in my business, in my home, in my free time, in every part of me. Lord, You’ve got it all. No strings attached, no clauses, no reservations. You’ve got me.» Someone has illustrated this as a house with a bunch of rooms in it. Jesus wants access to every room in your life. He wants to control. You can’t lock Him out of some rooms. You can’t say, «No, this is my thing over here, Lord. I’ll take care of this. You’ve got all the rest of it, but I’ve got this.» He wants absolute, total control.
Some of you know that I went to Dallas Seminary. Dallas Seminary is a wonderful place. It was founded by a man named Lewis Sperry Chafer. I was there when the school was founded; that was a long, long time ago. But I’ve read a lot about this man, and he was unique. He did things most people wouldn’t have the courage to do, and usually, it turned out pretty good. I remember reading that on one occasion in Dallas, he was asked to speak at a banquet. There were a lot of preliminaries, a lot of music, a lot of announcements, along with various presentations and endless acknowledgements. I know what that’s like; I’ve been in that spot. I went to a place once where they had a bunch of sponsors on the radio, and they let every sponsor speak for five minutes.
Well, at this event with Lewis Sperry Chafer, it was three hours before he got to speak-three hours! He immediately endeared himself to the audience when he got up and said, «I had prepared a somewhat lengthy message, but the hour is late; I will not detain you. Therefore, I’m just going to present a three-point outline of the message and let the Spirit of God speak to your heart.» Here’s what he said: «My subject is the reason: Reason number one, He is all-wise, and He knows better than anyone else what is best for my life. Reason number two, He’s almighty, and He has the power to accomplish that which is best for me. Reason number three, He loves me more than anyone else in the world loves me. Conclusion: the most logical thing a Christian can do is to surrender his life completely to God.»
What more can I say? What need I say more? And with that, he sat down. He got a standing ovation-not because of the message, but because it was over. But the message was worth that ovation! God knows you better than anyone else knows you. God loves you more than anyone else loves you. And God is more powerful than anyone else could ever be and can accomplish in you what no one else can do. So why wouldn’t you want to give your life over to Him and His Spirit in your heart?
You have to have a desire to be filled. You have to denounce sin in your life. You have to dedicate yourself completely to the Lord. And the Bible says that when we do these things, the Holy Spirit will take control. There are two verses in the New Testament that have often intrigued me about the Holy Spirit. Maybe you’ve read them and wondered, «What in the world does that mean?» They have a lot to do with what we’re talking about today because these things can get in the way of the Spirit of God controlling your life.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 says this: «Do not quench the Holy Spirit.» What in the world does that mean? It means that when the Holy Spirit’s on fire in your life, don’t throw cold water on what He wants you to do. Don’t shut Him down; don’t put Him on hold. You quench the Holy Spirit by not doing something He tells you to do. And when you walk in the Spirit and are filled with the Spirit, you don’t want to quench Him. When He tells you to do something, do it, because if you don’t, you’re quenching Him. You’re pouring water on the influence of the Spirit in your life. That’s why total obedience is required here. You don’t get to pray about it. You don’t get to say, «Give me a couple of weeks to think this over, Lord.» He tells you to do something, and you know it’s from Him; you do it. And if you don’t, you quench the Holy Spirit.
The other one in the New Testament that’s similar to this is in Ephesians 4:30, which says, «Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.» How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? Well, if you’re not going to walk in the Spirit, if you’re not going to be filled with the Spirit, the last thing you want to do is to grieve Him or in any way to shut Him down. The Holy Spirit tells you to do something, and you don’t do it; you grieve Him. You do something that’s dishonoring to the Lord; you grieve Him. The Holy Spirit is a living, vital person who lives within you and wants to help you live your life.
Then the Scripture tells us we have to depend on the Holy Spirit daily. The Holy Spirit says, «Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.» Man, have I got an illustration for you on this point! I’ve had to learn how to walk all over again in the last couple of years. I’m not there yet, but I’m getting there. What I’ve learned is when you walk, you put one foot out, and you have to depend on that foot to hold you while you move the other foot to get ahead of it. You have to take your steps one at a time. If you get too far ahead of yourself, you end up on the floor. If you get too crazy and try to go too fast, you can’t keep up with yourself. Walking is a wonderful privilege. I didn’t realize how wonderful it is until these days. What a joy it is to be able to walk!
But the Bible says we’re to walk in the Spirit. What does that mean? That means we’re to depend on Him every day, one step at a time. You know what most of us do? We get too far ahead of ourselves. I remember years ago, there was a big debate in the church about how to know the will of God. I read the books and heard the sermons, and I never did quite get them. One day, I realized the will of God for your life is composed of the will of God for every day of your life. If you walk with the Lord every day, you will end up in the place where God wants you to be. We worry so much about what God wants us to do tomorrow, next year, next month. And God, I think, is more concerned about whether or not we’re putting one foot ahead of the other and depending on Him and walking in the Spirit. That’s the challenge every day: «Lord, help me to walk with You today.»
Walking in the Spirit means trusting in the Lord God every moment. Every day you get up and say, «You’re in control of my life. I’m going to depend upon You today.» So there you have it. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? It means to let the Spirit of God control your life. It means to let Him take control of everything that’s going on.
Now, one last thing before we close our Bibles: What happens to you when you’re filled with the Spirit? You know, if you listen to television, if you watch Christian television, you’re going to hear somebody say, «When you’re filled with the Spirit, you will speak in tongues.» The Bible doesn’t teach that! I’m not here to debate speaking in tongues; that’s not the purpose of this message. But you know, one of the things that’s interesting to me, that’s very mysterious, very obsolete, is that the real evidence of being Spirit-filled is much more practical than that.
In Ephesians, it says this: «Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God in the name of the Lord Jesus, and submitting to one another in the fear of God.» The Bible says when you’re filled with the Spirit of God, your relationships will be different. You’ll be speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You’ll have a holy way of dealing with people; you won’t always be antagonistic to everything that happens in your life. And then it says singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Worship is one of the evidences of a Spirit-filled person.
Let me tell you something else: Worship is the evidence of a Spirit-filled church! If you’re out someplace and maybe you have to move and you’re trying to find a new church, you can find out a lot about that church before the pastor ever gets up to speak. What’s going on with the worship? Are the people worshiping? You can go to some churches where there are two or three people singing on the stage, and nobody’s singing in the pew. Spirit-filled churches are worshiping churches. That’s why I love to come to this church, because before I ever get to speak, I get to worship.
And then the Bible says we’re speaking, we’re singing, and here’s one that’s really interesting: we’re giving thanks. Do you know that giving thanks is impossible for those who complain and are grumpy and grouchy and whining? A lot of the problems in churches these days are people who are unhappy over crazy things. They don’t like the pews; they don’t like the colors; maybe they don’t like the preacher. The Bible says if you’re Spirit-filled, you’re going to be filled with gratitude. You’re going to be thankful for the things God does for you. You know, I’ve been taken away from some of the things I love to do over these last two years, but God has shown me that I can be thankful for the things I can still do, and I am very grateful for that.
To be Spirit-filled means to be filled with gratitude, to be grateful, to be thankful. I love to be around people like that, don’t you? They just lift you up and make you feel worthy of every day. Here’s one that’ll touch all of us: The last one on this list in this passage is to be submitting. It says, «Submitting one to another.» You know, when I first came here, I did a lot of weddings, and I had a wedding ceremony. In this wedding ceremony, it says, «Wives, be submissive to your own husbands.» And I once had a lady call me and say, «I won’t let you marry me unless you take that out of the ceremony.» I’m not going to do that! I said, «We’re going to have to get somebody else to marry you because that’s what the Bible teaches.»
One time, however, I did a wedding where I got it mixed up, and I had the husband submitting to the wife. It took me a long time to get that one straightened out! But you know what’s interesting about all of that? What’s interesting is this is not about wives submitting to husbands; this is about everybody submitting to everybody. What does it say? «Submitting to one another in the fear of God.» It means to have a spirit of not always having to be number one, not always having to be the one who makes all the decisions, but being submissive, having an attitude of submission. Do you know what I’m talking about when I say that? Be submissive one to another. Give everyone an opportunity. Don’t always have to be first.
Jesus said that when we are filled with the Spirit, out of our lives, rivers of living water will flow. You know what that means? Spirit-filled people will have an influence on others. Spirit-filled people will have a life that is contagious. And when you’re around them, you’ll just want to be around them. I need to tell you this; I’ve told you this before over the years. One of the people like that that I met when I came to this church was Tim Leah. You know, he taught on the Spirit-filled life, but he lived a Spirit-filled life. When I was with him, I always left him feeling better about life and desiring to do better myself. He had a contagious spirit! You can have that spirit if you let the Spirit of God control your life.
If you’ll just be willing to say, «Lord, I’ve been trying to do this on my own, and I need to be filled with the Spirit,» I would encourage you this week to explore that thought in your life. And even today, before we close our service, we’re going to have a little prayer where I lead you in how to ask the Spirit of God to come and control your life. Let me tell you, if you’re not a Christian, if you’re not a believer, you don’t have the Spirit. So that doesn’t work. You need Jesus first. When you get Jesus, you get the Spirit. But let’s just pray together, shall we, as we close this service?
Father, You know what’s going on in every one of our lives. You know that some of us here today are frustrated because we’ve been trying to do this Christian thing in our own strength, and it just is too much. It’s not hard; it’s just impossible. So help us, Lord, to realize how vital it is that we depend on You. Today, we invite You, Holy Spirit, to control our lives. Take over in our lives. Sit on the throne of our hearts. Make the decisions in each day. Help us to be sensitive to Your voice, to hear You speak to us through the Scripture and in the quietness of our time with You.
Lord, we promise the best we know how that when we hear what You want us to do, we will do it. We won’t debate You; we won’t argue with You. We’ll just do what You tell us to do, and we await the joy and adventure of life under Your control. We believe You have the best in line for us, that You love us more than anyone and care about us more than anyone. So we commit our lives to You today. We ask You to help us live that way this week and for the weeks ahead. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.