How to be filled with the Spirit !

Are you a Spirit-filled Christian? The descriptive language of "Spirit filled" and "full of the Spirit" occurs throughout the OT and Luke/Acts. However, the direct command to 'Be filled with the Spirit' only occurs once in the New Testament, in Ephesians 5:18:

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

From the context, Paul teaches us to be filled with the Spirit is the Spirit’s work of forming Christ in us, a life which is pleasing to God (How we speak, think, act, relate, work...etc..)

About the command in 5:18, we can say it is an imperative not a nice suggestion, it is plural, and therefore corporate not private; it is present tense, and so with ongoing daily force; It is passive, it is about God at work in us by his Spirit.

But what does being Spirit filled look like?

Paul unpacks that further in 5:19-21

to be Spirit filled means:

1. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

2. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord.

3. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (which Paul further unpacks in the context of marriage, parenthood, and slavery)

How do these marks of the Spirit filled life show themselves in you ?

What do you need to put off in your life?

Jesus said “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. John 7:37-39

Walk by the Spirit!

GP