Be Filled With The Spirit

Be Filled With The Holy Spirit


As the world thinks of ghost & goblins, remember the ONE who is HOLY. "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." [1 John 4:4]

"For Sadducees say that there is no resurrection--and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees confess both." Acts 23:8 (NKJV)

"Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Eph 5:18-20 (NLT)

The goal is not to abandon the world, but to keep ourselves IN CHRIST and salvage as much as possible from this evil world. Christians do renounce the falseness of the world, but do not reject Creation itself.

Following repentance (change your heart and life), a surge of Holy Joy springs up! But a kind of joy can spring up from darkness also. The temporary joy of wine will ruin your life. For Christians the Holy Spirit gives true HOLY JOY. This JOY is the New Testament worship of GOD who is Father, Son, Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). In the Lord's Supper we give thanks to the Father through the Son. Wine will ruin your life. But he who is filled with the Holy Spirit is rooted in Christ and is gloriously sober. Quoting Scripture and singing hymns would not be spiritual if there if not also humility, submission and the fear (reverence) for God.

"And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will." Romans 8:26-27 (NLT)

Helps. "He greatly assists or aids us."

Our weakness. Assists us in our infirmities, or aids us to bear them. The weaknesses to which we are subject, and to our various trials in this life. The Spirit helps us in this,

(1.) by giving us strength to bear them;

(2.) by encouraging us to make efforts to sustain them;

(3.) by showing us power, and truth, and our Christian blessings, which help us to endure our trials.

For we know not. This tells us of the aid which the Holy Spirit gives us. The reasons why Christians do not know what to pray for may be -

(1.) that we do not know what would be really best for us. (2.) we do not know what God might be willing to grant us. (3.) we are to a great extent ignorant of the character of God, the reason of His dealings, the principles of His government, and our own real needs.

(4.) we are often in real, deep perplexity. We are encompassed with trials, exposed to temptations, feeble by disease, and subject to calamities. In these circumstances, if left alone, we would neither be able to bear the trials, nor know what to ask at the hand of God.

Strength in weakness.

Mr. Christmas Evans (in the 1800s) now made a solemn promise to God, made, as he says, "under a deep sense of the evil of his heart, and in dependence upon the infinite grace and merit of the Redeemer." Some of this renewed determination can be seen in the following. [I have revised the language.]

1. "I give my soul and body to You, Jesus, true God and eternal life. Deliver me from sin, and from eternal death, and bring me into life everlasting. Amen."

2. "I call on the day, the sun, the earth, the trees, the stones, the bed, the table, and the books, to witness that I come to You, Redeemer of sinners, that I may obtain rest for my soul from the thunders of guilt and the dread of eternity."

3. "I do, through confidence in Your power, ask You to give me a circumcised heart of love for You, and create in me a right spirit, that I may seek Your glory. Grant me that strength which You will confess in the day of judgment, that I may hear You speak my name. Grant me this, for the sake of Your Most Precious Blood. Amen."

4. "I plead with You, Jesus, Son of God, in Your power, grant me, by Your agonizing death, a covenant-interest in Your blood, which cleanses; in Your righteousness, which justifies; and in Your redemption, which delivers. As You have tasted death for all men, grant me eternal life. Amen."