Be Filled With ...

• A Spirit Filled Life
• Filled With Joy & Peace
• Filled With Love, Peace, and the Word
• Filled With God’s Power
• Filled With the Fullness of God

As I’ve written before, works don’t get us into heaven. Those who have trusted in Jesus, however, should live lives that are different. They should wish to work with and serve God. They should not live lives like those who have not received the gift of salvation and sonship.

§A Spirit Filled Life

The Bible says:

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; (Ephesians 5:15-19) {emphasis mine}

Look at the commands given here:

• “Be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise” - How we live our lives matters. We need to know God’s word and live out God’s word. We need to know God’s commands and obey them.
• Make “the most of your time” - We shouldn’t waste our time on earthly, unimportant matters, but focus on serving God and sharing the gospel with others. It isn’t that we can’t have fun on earth or we shouldn’t live responsibly on earth, but that our primary focus should be on eternal matters — honoring God and sharing the Gospel.
• “Do not be foolish” - We need to live according to God’s will and not the will of foolish man. Following the culture and the crowd almost always leads to acting foolishly and also leads to harm for ourselves and others. We need to fear God and not the crowd. We need to look to God as our authority and not to man.
• “Understand what the will of the Lord is” - Although we can be led by the Holy Spirit, the only true way to guarantee that we understand the “will of the Lord” is to read, study, and know the Bible. We can then pray that the Spirit would guide us in wisdom.
• “Be filled with the Spirit” - If we are saved, we have the Spirit, but I look at the Holy Spirit in our lives kind of like radio waves. They are always there with us, but just like an old transistor radio can drift off frequency, become fuzzy, and then become nothing but static, so also the we can tune in or tune out the Spirit. We need to open up to the leading of the Spirit by listening and obeying and by being in the word daily. When we repeatedly disobey the leading of the Spirit, the “signal” will get less and less clear. When we obey God, the Spirit’s leading gets clearer.
• Speak “to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” - Yes, it wonderful to sing and praise the Lord in worship, but this means more. All of our words should be honoring to God and spoken in love and truth. Our every word should make us look different than our unsaved friends and acquaintances.

This passage also has a verse that I think is often taken out of context to emphasize one thing, when the main point is something else. “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” Most of the time I hear this verse quoted, the focus is on the first half of the verse, “And do not get drunk with wine.” Based on the context of this verse, I believe the focus should be on the second half of the verse, “but be filled with the Spirit.”

When a person is drunk, the alcohol affects the person’s thoughts, words, and actions. Those around them can tell that the person has been drinking by looking at their actions. When a person is filled with the Spirit, it should affect the person’s thoughts, words, and actions. Those around them should be able tell that the person is a Spirit filled Christian by looking at their actions.

Is your Christianity hidden in the back closet and only put on for church on Sunday, or is it worn proudly, everyday like Joseph wore his many colored coat?

On the day of Pentecost, when the church was first filled with the Holy Spirit, believers were instantly changed. Everyone saw the difference.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4) {emphasis mine}

In the same way our lives should change when we trust Jesus and are filled with the Spirit of God.

§Filled With Joy & Peace

Paul shares with the Romans how he expects believers to be filled.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. (Romans 15:13-14) {emphasis mine}

First, the believer is expected to be filled “with all joy and peace in believing.” We shouldn’t see Christians who are always complaining about everything. We should see Christians who are filled with “joy and peace” despite and through hard circumstances. This “joy and peace” is one of the big attractions to Christianity when it actually occurs.

Believers should also “abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” One of the reasons we can be filled with “joy and peace” is because of the hope we have in God’s promises. The more we read the Bible, the more we understand His promises. The more we understand His promises, the more we have hope for the future. The more we have hope for the future, the more we have joy and peace.

Believers should also be “full of goodness.” As Christians we are called to have the heart and mind of God. We should have desires in alignment with God. We should love good and hate evil. Our words and actions should be according to God’s commands. Even when unbelievers don’t like us, they should acknowledge that we are good and moral and different.

Believers should also “filled with all knowledge.” Too often Christians are considered ignorant. Sometimes this is because the truth of God looks like foolishness to those who are perishing, but sometimes it is also because Christians don’t bother learning the Bible or anything else. Nobody has greater knowledge than God. As image bearers, we should seek knowledge about God and His creation. We should be wise and knowledgeable. God calls us to gain knowledge, not just to know more than others, but to be able to obey Him and to “admonish one another.” Knowing God’s words can help us to correct ourselves first and then to correct others also (in a loving manner).

§Filled With Love, Peace, and the Word

Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:14-16) {emphasis mine}

When believers are filled with the Spirit, they should be filled with the love of God to the point of overflowing. That love should flow out of ourselves to pour on others. This means when we see someone hurting, even when their response is to act out in hate, we should love them and seek good for them. This means that attacks on Christianity shouldn’t be taken as personal attacks, but as others being slaves to sin and needing salvation. Just as Jesus on the cross said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”, so also we should forgive those who attack us. Our love for others, especially other members of the body of Christ, should shine forth like the sun.

Believers should “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” When we acknowledge the sovereignty of God and His love, then we don’t need to worry about anything, even in the worst circumstances. We should have peace like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. When they were about to be thrown into the fiery furnace for not obeying King Nebuchadnezzar’s sinful command to worship a statue, they replied,

… “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16b-18) {emphasis mine}

That is such a great example of faith and peace, “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us … But even if He does not…” They knew God is good and God is powerful. God is able to deliver them in this world or in the world to come at His discretion. It also shows a faith so great that they can say like Jesus, “but not my will, but thy will be done.”

Believers are also to “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another.” God’s word can’t dwell within us if we haven’t read and studied it. Knowing God’s word, with the help of the Holy Spirit, gives us wisdom. We can then use our knowledge and wisdom in teaching and admonishing.

Sadly, in our culture today it is considered wrong to admonish or correct. Any correction is considered hateful. People will ask, “what right do you have to correct me?” If we are correcting based on our own opinions, they have a point, but if we are quoting the Bible, then they are completely wrong. Our Creator God has all authority to define right and wrong for His creation. As His stewards on earth, we are called to admonish according to God’s law. There is only one right way to God and we do not get to each decide for ourselves; it is defined by our Creator.

We do need to keep in mind a couple of things as we teach or correct:

• God defines right and wrong; we don’t. We only have the right to correct if someone is contradicting the explicit Word of God.
• Our goal in correcting should be to help the other person to come to a right relationship to God and to glorify God. If we are trying to win an argument or to put down or embarrass the other person, we are in the wrong.
• God holds teachers to a higher standard, so it is important to make sure our corrections are Biblical.

§Filled With God’s Power

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, (2 Timothy 1:7-9) {emphasis mine}

This passage, instead of commanding what we must do, mostly focuses on what we must not do. We must not be timid. We must not be ashamed. We must not fear suffering, but should join in suffering for the sake of the gospel. All that we do should be in accordance with God’s purpose and grace and not solely for our own comfort, pleasure, or even good.

§Filled With the Fullness of God

I usually end my posts with a benediction of my own, but in this case, I decided to end with this benediction from Paul to the church in Ephesus:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Trust Jesus

I ended up not using this verse, but it is a good one, so I leave it with you without comment.

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; (Colossians 2:6-9)

All verses are NASB unless otherwise noted.