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Rom. 5:5; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 14:16-17; 20:19-22; Acts 13:52; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8; 2:1-4; 3, 1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 10:12-13; Acts 2:38; 1 John 1:7-9; Eph. 5:18b-19a
I. The need to be filled with the Holy Spirit
II. Who is the Holy Spirit?
III. The two aspects of the Holy Spirit
А. The essential aspect for life
B. The economical aspect for power
IV. The inward filling of the Spirit for life
V. The outward filling of the Spirit for power
VI. The way to be filled with the Holy Spirit
VII. The manifestation of being filled with the Holy Spirit
In the past ten lessons, we have shared with you some basic knowledge concerning life and some basic experiences of life for the growth of life. You must have noticed one common factor — the Spirit. The only life, the real life is zoe, which is divine, eternal, and indestructible. Without the Spirit, we do not have zoe. God is life, yet without the Spirit, the unapproachable God cannot be our life. Christ is life, yet without the Spirit, the Christ on the throne in heaven cannot be our life. Without the Spirit, God cannot flow into us to be our life. Without the Spirit, we do not have life in our human spirit. Without the Spirit, we do not have the law of life in us; thus, we cannot be freed from the law of sin and death. Without the Spirit, we have no light and will live in darkness. Without the Spirit to increase the elements of God in us, we will never have the growth of life. Even the beginning of our Christian life — regeneration — is the entering in of the Spirit into our human spirit. The sense of the Spirit is our sense of life. The flowing of the Spirit in us is the fellowship of life. Though we may be clear that we need to be consecrated to the Lord who has purchased us, the motive of our consecration — love — is poured out through the Spirit (Rom. 5:5). The power we need to preserve our whole being is the Spirit.
Therefore, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit every day, all the day, from the time we are regenerated to the time of our rapture, in the days of our youth and in our old age. Whether we are up or down, in or out, hopeful or hopeless, happy or sad, we need to be filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit affords us the power, the strength, and the authority to overcome every hindrance to life. Being filled with the Spirit is basic to our Christian life, is normal in our daily life, is necessary to our experience of life, and is crucial to our growth of life. It is a miracle that man may be filled with God, yet it is so normal for a Christian to be filled with God. It is as normal as regeneration. Being filled with the Spirit therefore is a miraculous normality. It is fully needed and required for us to go on.
The Holy Spirit is the Triune God who went through a process. Why did God go through a process? Because He has a plan, an economy. [It is according to His economy that God administrates this plan. The first step He took was creation. When the man He had created became fallen, He took the second step, the step of redemption. This redemptive work of God has to do with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In eternity, the Father arranged, designed, and intended everything according to His plan. In time, at the fullness of time, the Son came to become a man, putting on man’s flesh, having man’s likeness and man’s nature, and lived among men for thirty-three and a half years. In His human body, with a human form and with the human nature, He Himself worked, preached, performed miracles, and brought His disciples to live and move together with Him for three and a half years. Then He went to the cross, being willing to enter into death to experience death. According to the flesh, He entered into the tomb; according to the spirit and the soul, He entered into Hades and remained there for a period of three days. In Hades He displayed Himself for all the principalities of death to see, proving that He is one who cannot be held by death, but has overcome death and is resurrected. He went into death by Himself; in the same way, He came out of death by Himself. Once He came out of death and entered into resurrection, He was transfigured from the likeness of the flesh to the likeness of the Spirit. Therefore, in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This life-giving Spirit is the ultimately consummated Triune God.]
The Spirit has two aspects — the essential and the economical aspects. Essential means pertaining to the essence, necessary to the constitution and existence, hence, of life and being. The essential aspect is that the Spirit would come into us, bringing us the divine essence to be our life and life supply. By this aspect we may live and have our being in God to express God. Man was made by God to have God’s life and to express God. This aspect of the Spirit fulfills that intention.
Economical means pertaining to the economy, necessary to the out-working of God’s household administration, hence, of power and work. The economical aspect is that the Spirit would clothe us with power so that we do God’s work of preaching the gospel, shepherding the young ones, perfecting the saints, and building up the church. Man was redeemed and regenerated to become partners of Christ in building up His church according to God’s economy. This aspect of the Spirit fulfills that requirement.
In John 14:16-17 Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter…even the Spirit of reality…shall be in you.’’ In John 16:7, He said further, “If I go I will send Him (the Comforter) to you.’’ Before the Lord’s death, He promised the troubled disciples that He needed to go to the cross in order for the Spirit of reality to be sent. The Spirit of reality was to be in the disciples to bring to them all the divine realities of the Father and the Son. This was fulfilled on the day of resurrection according to John 20:19-22, “When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week…Jesus came and stood in the midst…He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.’’ By the breathing in, the disciples received the Spirit of reality into them for life and life supply, since the Spirit is also the life-giving Spirit.
In Acts, the disciples continued to experience the inward filling. Acts 13:52 says, “And the disciples were made full of joy and of the Holy Spirit.’’ The Greek word used here is pleroo meaning filling inwardly to fullness. With the inward filling, we have joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).
In Luke 24:49 the Lord Jesus said, “I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you…until you are clothed with power from on high.’’ In Acts 1:4-8 He also said, “Wait for the promise of the Father…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.’’ He talked about the promised Spirit of power after His resurrection, before His ascension. Although the disciples had already received the Holy Spirit to be their life and life supply, they still needed the power of the Holy Spirit to work for God. In order to preach the gospel, they needed to bind the devil and loose the sinners, they needed boldness, and they needed various manifestations of gifts. Therefore, they must wait for the clothing of power by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost according to Acts:2:1-4, “And when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled…they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.’’ The Greek word used here for “filled’’ is pletho meaning filling outwardly. They were empowered by the outward filling. Right after that, they went out to preach the gospel with boldness and power. We all need this type of experience in our daily church life.
How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? According to the incorrect concepts of many Christians today, to be filled by the Spirit is very special and hard to obtain. They think that you need to pray and ask the Father to grant you this special experience. They may fast and pray for days. Sometimes, when they do not believe they have received it, they may pretend to have it and do things they claim are manifestations of the Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, rolling on the floor, crying and shouting loudly, etc.
Firstly, we must understand that we have already received the Spirit on the day of our regeneration as seen in Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized, each one of you, upon the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’’ 1 Cor. 12:13 also tells us that we have been baptized in one Spirit. Therefore, after we are regenerated, we do not need to ask the Father to give us the Spirit that we have already received.
How can we be filled?
We can be filled by calling. Calling on the name of the Lord is the easiest and the fastest way to be filled by the Spirit. First Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit.’’ When we call on the Lord, we are in the Spirit. The more you call, the more you get the Spirit. The Spirit is like the air. Calling is like breathing. The more you call, the more you get filled. Call until you are filled. The Lord is rich to all those who call upon Him. He will save us from ourselves when we call upon Him (Rom. 10:12-13). Call everyday; call all the day.
We can be filled by repenting and confessing. We may have sins that are not confessed. We may have been rebellious to our father, criticized saints in the church, taken things from friends, used abusive words to hurt one another, lusted after things in department stores, had some “boy-girl’’ relationships, and done many other similar things. As a result, our conscience became offended; the arteries of our heart became clogged; our body became defiled, and our fellowship with God was cut off. How then can we be filled with the Spirit? O Lord Jesus! Save us! If we would call on the Lord and pray to turn our hearts back to the Lord and confess our sins as He exposes us, the automatic result would be the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is to exercise our spirit.
We can be filled by praying in one accord. This may be our greatest lack. The first time in church history that the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit was in Acts one and two, after they had prayed together in one accord for ten days. Since then, any time we would pray together in one accord, the Spirit would be poured upon us.
We can be filled by believing. We need to believe the word that when we repent and confess, He will forgive and cleanse, and we will receive the Spirit and have the fellowship (flowing of the Spirit) restored (Acts 2:38; 1 John 1:7-9).
We can be filled by speaking. Speaking is a way to be filled and is a result of being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18b-19a; Acts 2:38; 4:31). After repenting and confessing, we must exercise our faith and speak. Speak to the Lord, yourself, the devil, others, even your cat, dog, and table. Speak to anybody and anything. You will find that the more you speak this way, the more you will be filled with the Spirit, and the more you will have faith and boldness. The more you go to preach the gospel, the more you will experience the outward filling of the Spirit. You will go with the love of God, the authority of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Many will be saved through you and will be baptized by you. You will be doing the work of God for His economy by the power of the Spirit.
What are the manifestations of being filled with the Holy Spirit? Or, how do we know that we have been filled with the Holy Spirit? [Since the Holy Spirit in us is the Spirit of life, and since our being filled inwardly with the Holy Spirit is for the maturity in life, the manifestation of being filled inwardly with the Holy Spirit must be an abundant, overflowing expression of life, flowing as rivers of living water out of our inner being] (John 7:38-39). Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that we also have love, joy, peace, etc., as our various inward conditions and virtues. According to Acts 4:31 we have boldness, power, and authority to speak the word of God in preaching the gospel and to prophesy in the meetings. The Bible mentions more than twenty items of the manifestations of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Do you have some of these manifestations? We must exercise our spirit by confessing, turning our heart to Him, consecrating ourselves to Him, believing that we can be filled, speaking the word of God with boldness, and staying in the spirit by calling on His name and praying without ceasing. Because without the filling of the Spirit, all that we learn become mere doctrines, and all the dealings in the next few lessons will become religious rituals or asceticism. But with the filling of the Spirit, all that the Bible has revealed to us will become ours to enjoy today. All the dealings will result in more filling of the Spirit and experiences of life resulting in the growth of life. Dear brothers and sisters, it is easy to be filled, and we must practice to be filled every day, all the day, until we are raptured by Him. Hallelujah! What a Christian life!
