Lesson 18: Being Filled with the Holy Spirit (part 1)
Read: John 14:15-31- www.bible.com/bible/59/joh.14.esv
There are a lot of ideas in the Christian world today about how or when or why we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's visit the “when” first. In 1 John 5:12 the Bible tells us if we do not have the Son we do not have life. Jesus told His disciples, in John 14, that it would be to their advantage to have Him go away because then He could send His Spirit. For the disciples that happened on the Day of Pentecost. Since then His Spirit comes to live in us at the moment we believe in Him, accept Him as our Savior. That is why our verse above says that if we do not have the Spirit we do not have life. It is the action of the Holy Spirit which gives us eternal life, He enters us and we are saved. It is His work alone that saves us. So, the presence of the Spirit cannot be said to come at another time.
Another example, the teaching on the unity of all believers in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, says all are one in Christ, there are no categories of those with and those without the Holy Spirit.
The question of how we are filled with the Spirit is initially answered by salvation itself. He fills us when He comes to reside in us. We are "un-filled" when we sin and grieve the Holy Spirit. This does not mean the Holy Spirit leaves us, it only means we remove Him from the control seat of our life. To remove the Holy Spirit from control is to remove His filling, because to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to give Him control.
Therefore, the question of how we are filled by the Holy Spirit is essentially simple even though it is not an easy task for most of us. We are not naturally willing to give up control of our lives. We think we can do it ourselves. We think we understand the circumstances of our life better than God does because we're living it and God is “up there somewhere." So in this lesson we will look again at the steps necessary to give complete control of our life into God's hands.
The first thing we need to do is to yield to God. Let's put it another way. When we drive and we come to a "yield" sign, we stop and we "yield the right of way" to the other person or driver. We stop and let him/her go first. In our lives, yielding to God is no different. In 2 Chronicles 30:8 we are told we should not "be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to His sanctuary." This verse says yielding is the opposite of being stiff-necked. In other words, yielding is the opposite of pride. In fact, the Bible repeatedly tells us we must "humble ourselves" before the Lord (see James 4:10 and 1 Peter 5-6).
The second attitude we must have when desiring to be filled by the Holy Spirit is one of waiting. Now, someone might ask why we would have to wait when yielding to the Holy Spirit. Again, there might be a simple answer – waiting on God is the action of building an expectation of something we want Him to do. But waiting on God is not the same, for example, as waiting on our children when we shout, "I am waiting for you – hurry it up!" Waiting never results in the Holy Spirit’s filling when we have an impatient heart.
*What part of your life do you need to yield to Christ?