How to be Filled by the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4: 17-24

Ephesians 5:15-20

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Eight examples of how to do this then…

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything that we see in Ephesians 4:17 to the end of the book is about being filled by the Holy Spirit.

My brother told me a story recently when he was visiting here. He was talking with a Methodist minister about the gifts of the Spirit. As a charismatic Christian he wanted to judge the man’s response. What the Methodist minister said to him set him straight and was truly the “right” answer. The Holy Spirit is the gift. He is given to those who follow Jesus in order that they might have and give life!

The Holy Spirit is our gift from God to us. We are called by God to be filled by the Holy Spirit in the same way that people would be influenced, fueled by and attached to alcohol or drugs. We are commanded to continuously be filled by the Holy Spirit.

  1. The Command Implies Real Opportunity

5:15 Be careful. 5:16 Make the most of every opportunity (to      reflect the image and glory of God). 5:17 Do not be foolish,   instead understand what God’s will is!

5:18 Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled by the Holy Spirit!

Those are phrases that imply opportunity.

  1. God calls us to obey things within our reach

        God never calls us to that which we cannot do!!!!

        Can we be careful? Can we make the most of every opportunity? Can we not be foolish, but understand God’s will? Can we not be      drunk?

Can we be filled by the Holy Spirit? Can the Holy Spirit control,         influence, empower our lives?

 

  1. We can be filled by the Holy Spirit today and every day

What does the word filled mean?

Can you be filled with bitterness and unforgiveness?

Can you be filled by lusts for food, sex, comfort?

Can you be filled by the desire to be approved by others?

Can you be filled by the desire for success?

Can you be filled by the desire for material possessions and money?

And in this sense, what does the word filled mean? It means        different actions and attitudes direct our lives. We pursue the    feelings or intentions of those attitudes.

Being filled in this sense means that these things energize your    life!

The fact that we are speaking about opportunity, means there are competing forces at work. We are not guaranteed to be filled by the Holy Spirit. And if we are filled by the Holy Spirit now, we are not guaranteed to be filled by Him later today, tomorrow and so on. We are called to be continually filled. In the words of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is to be like a spring of water welling up. A consistent source of new life. But there are competing forces!

 

  1. The competition of flesh and the Holy Spirit

The flesh is our personal nature in its sinful state.

We want things that God does not want and are not good for us.

We will naturally take the blessings of God too far and displace    God with them.

We will express our will and desire as the ultimate directors of     our lives.

And we must deny the flesh and pursue the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-17 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want.

Galatians 5: 1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

We can be free in life or be can be enslaved to desire of the world, flesh and the devil. Jesus says in John 8:

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 

Back to Galatians 5:

First exhortation is relative to circumcision. Do not enslave yourself to the need to add anything to Jesus and what He has done for you!

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Second exhortation relates to not indulging in fleshly desires. This is especially as it relates to one another.  And these actions and attitudes are listed (not all of them) later: Do not walk after the flesh!

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Third exhortation is about what to invest our lives in.

The acts of the spirit (the fruit of the Spirit): This is what the life of the Holy Spirit produces in people! Walk after the Spirit, not every desire!

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Back to our passage in Ephesians about being filled by the Holy Spirit, what does Paul say to us is our big problem in following Jesus ?

  1. The Problems is Described as Futile Thinking

       4:17-19

It is a problem of thinking poorly! When you think poorly, then you misunderstand situations in life, you get the important things wrong and you make decisions that lead to vanity emptiness and futility. Bad thinking leads to a loss of life!

 

  1. Darkened understanding v.18

Jesus is the light of the World.

John 8:12 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

 

  1. Ignorance of the truth v.18

        Jesus is the truth of God.

Ignorant means that you don’t know. Again, back to

John 8:31-32 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 14:6 I am the truth.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word.

John 1: 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

John 1:14 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

  1. Insensitivity to the truth v.19

        The negative spiral of ignorance expressed in Romans 1

            18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Worship God or creation? This is a great question for our materialistic world!

If we worship creation there is a confusion of sexual practice and then gender identity. But there is much more than this. At the end of Romans 1 the list of behaviors looks just like the list of the flesh in Galatians 5. Our Romans 1 list:

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

So the problem is a descending spiral of bad thinking about life! What is the solution? Well, the solution for darkness is light. The solution for futility is effectiveness. The solution for ignorance is understanding. The solution for insensitivity is renewal of our senses.

III. The Solution is Described   v.20-24

20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

How will you be filled by the Holy Spirit? By managing your thinking about God, yourself and the world properly.

  1. Accept Jesus as your source of truth

John 8:12-13

12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”

 

John 8:31-33

        31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Having established the teaching and example of Jesus Christ as the baseline for behavior that yields life…

  1. Put off things that don’t agree with Jesus

Stop pursuing sinful desires.

Prayer for pride

Giving for greed

Fasting for sensual pleasure

Don’t make this an all or nothing proposition. Fight the        battles in you that need fighting. Improvement is real. Do better.       And when you find yourself doing poorly, repent again and again.

You may be double minded today, but you can be clear minded in        the moment. Set your foot down and say no to the flesh.

 

Do not make provisions for the flesh. Romans 13:

12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

 

  1. Establish new patterns of behavior

        Example after example here in Ephesians 4

Put off falsehood, speak the truth

Don’t steal, work with your hands and give

Manage your anger in a way that does not create a lasting   attitude. Do not act toward others out of anger!

Don’t tear down others with your speech, build them up!

Etc. etc.

Then in chapter 5 after the command to be filled with the Spirit:

Husbands and wives

Children and parents, fathers and children

Work relationships

Spiritual warfare and prayer

 

It is as we recognize our sinful patterns of behavior (convicted by the Holy Spirit as we will be) and then understanding the forgiveness of Jesus and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we invest in new positive patterns of behavior that reflect the fruit of the Spirit, not our sinful desires. This is how we will be filled by the Holy Spirit.