THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit and Believers (part 4)

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FILLED WITH GOD'S SPIRIT

Being filled with God's Spirit, that is, being under the control of the Spirit is not simply a luxury that Christians can do with or without. It is vital that the Christian be filled with God's Spirit. The reason Jesus died is that we might receive the Spirit and follow His leadership. According to Paul there are only 2 ways to live life: either in the power of and under the leadership of the HS or else in the flesh. According to Rom. 8:12 "So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to live according to the _________________."

Earlier Paul gave reasons we should NOT live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. According to Rom. 8:6 and Galatians 6:8 what are 2 reasons we should live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit?

According to Paul you either live according to the flesh or according to the HS. There is not a third option. Either I am following the HS on a daily basis and allowing Him to empower me to live that life, or else I am living in the flesh, in my own strength and power, and under the leadership of Satan. There is no third option according to Paul.

Why is it that living under the leadership of the HS leads to life? In Genesis 2:7 we saw that the Spirit breathed life into Adam in order to make him a living soul. Later we saw in Ps. 104:29-30 that whenever God takes His Spirit away from us, we perish, that whenever He breathes His Spirit into us, we live. We were not only made BY the Spirit, we were also made FOR the Spirit. As Augustine wrote, "Our soul finds no rest until it finds its rest in Thee."

THE COMMAND TO BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

According to Paul instead of being filled with wine, we are to be filled with the ____________ (Eph. 5:18).

To be filled with God's Spirit basically means to live in the power of and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I cannot manufacture spiritual power; it is something God's Spirit must do in and through me. The Spirit is Someone I received by faith, not by efforts on my own part.

There is a radical difference between being filled with the Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit. The HS indwells every believer, that is, He lives in every believer. The believer may not be following the leadership of the Spirit at any and every given moment of his life; however, the Spirit does not depart the Christian. According to Eph. 1:13 God has ___________ us with His Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit though is a daily affair. When Paul commands us to be filled with the Spirit, he uses the present tense of the verb, that is, keep on being filled with the Spirit. Whereas I cannot manufacture spiritual power in my own strength and power, I can allow God to fill me with His Spirit and I can keep Him from filling me with His Spirit. The decision is mine. God wants to fill me with His HS more than I want to be filled with that Spirit.

THE ABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN TO BE LED BY THE SPIRIT

Earlier in 1 Cor. 2:12-14 we saw that the Christian can know the mind and will of Christ first because Jesus is a communicator. Jesus is such a communicator through the Spirit that John calls Jesus "the __________" (John 1:1). Second, we can know what the Spirit wants to communicate to us because the Spirit of Christ lives in us. According to John 10:14-15 how close can we be to Jesus? If we can be this close to Jesus, then surely we can know what He wants us to do.

The key to a vital relationship with the HS is being willing to do the Father's will. According to Jesus how can you know whether or not something is from the Father (John 7:17)?

In Jesus' farewell discourse to His disciples, Jesus focuses on the role of the Spirit. Right before He tells His disciples though that He will give them His Spirit He commands them to do the following: "He who has My ___________ and __________ them, he it is who loves Me" (John 14:21).

Obedience and humility are critical for a person's relationship with the Spirit. The person who feels like he doesn't need the Spirit will not experience the filling of the Spirit. The person who refuses to obey the leadership of the Spirit in his life is wasting his time hoping for the filling of the Spirit. It is just not going to happen. If I am going to experience the filling of the Spirit, I need to obey the Spirit's voice.

THE WAYS THE HS COMMUNICATES TO YOU AND ME

1. Through prayer. As I pray to the Father and to Jesus about certain situations, the Spirit can impress on my heart what He wants me to know. In order to get the most out of this, we need to remain in a constant atmosphere of prayer. If while praying something hits me out of the blue, I need to go along with it unless it is immoral, unscriptural, unethical, etc. If the Lord leads you to go talk to somebody about Him, do it!
       Recently I felt like the Lord wanted me to go visit somebody who has been a little alienated from the church. I had an excuse not to visit them since my back was hurting me. That night though I felt so guilty that I promised the Lord that come hail or high water I would visit that person on the next day. The next day my back was hurting me even more. I couldn't go back on my word, even if I had to crawl to get to that person's house. When I got there, the father and son were sitting on the floor playing cards. They remained on the ground even though they knew I was having back pains. I felt though that I was supposed to stay and visit with them. I slowly got down to the ground and eventually started playing cards with them. We had the best time, a time I would not have experienced if I had not obeyed the impression I believe the Lord laid on my heart.
   

2. Through the Bible. This makes sense since the HS wrote the Bible. In fact whatever way the HS uses to communicate to you and me, what He does communicate WILL NEVER contradict the Bible. Your feelings may contradict the Bible, but God's Spirit never will.
       Recently we experienced this principle in the way God confirmed to Molly that He was calling her into missions. She has really been impressed by Milton's talks on missions. Through these talks she has felt God calling her into missions. One night she came in and discussed what she was believing. Later she went to bed. About fifteen mins. later she came back to the place I was studying and said: "Dad, I want to show you something. I was going to go right to bed, but I felt like the Lord really wanted me to read my Bible. So I just opened it up, and the passage before me was Jeremiah 1." She said: "Dad, I want you to read it." It was the passage about God calling Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations. The passage encouraged Jeremiah to be bold and speak God's message even though he was but a young person. The passage fit Molly's situation TOO perfectly for it to be a coincidence.
       The Spirit-filled Christian is going to be attracted to the Bible since the HS wrote the Bible. The night Nathan became a Christian I asked the Lord to show me a sign that he had made a genuine profession of faith in Christ. I looked into his room and saw him lying on his bed--reading his Bible. He had not done that before. The HS and the Bible are like magnets, really drawing each other to themselves. That was the concrete evidence I needed to show me he had the HS living in him, that is, that he had truly been saved.
   

3. Through circumstances. We may feel that the Holy Spirit wants us to do something; however, if circumstances persistently block our way, then the HS most likely is speaking through our circumstances and NOT through our feelings.
   

4. Through godly people. The HS brings more mature godly people into our lives whom the Spirit will use to speak to us. There is such a thing as experiential wisdom which comes only with age. That is the reason God wants the younger women to submit to the teaching of the older women (Titus 2:3, 4) and for younger men to submit to older men (1 Pet. 5:5).
   

5. Through visions and dreams. Be very careful about dismissing this medium of communication. At least 3x I feel like God has communicated to me in my dreams, the first time to go to FBC Lancaster as a youth minister and the second time to begin more in-depth Bible studies for our men. In January of 2003 I dreamt that the Lord was sitting by my bed, saying to me, "Carey, you could be doing more." As I prayed about this, I felt like the Lord was wanting us to up the ante in our men's Bible study groups. Out of this "communication" came the more in-depth studies on Romans, the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer, Second Coming, and the Holy Spirit. The last time this happened occurred on July 5, 2005. Ruth Irvin, Mrs. Humphries' sister, was a sweet little lady who used to attend our church. Because of declining health she had moved away and now lived closer to her son. That July 5--in between deep sleep and awake--I dreamed I went into the Senior Adult division and asked Mrs. Humphries how Ruth was doing. Before Mrs. Humphries could answer, I woke up. I went into work that morning where I was told that Ruth had passed away. A little later I was asked to do the funeral ceremony. I immediately agreed to because I knew that the vision coming that very morning about people I never dream about let me know that the Lord was in this. I felt the Lord leading me in the talk I was to give at the graveside service. After the service so many of the people told me how much they were touched by the words I had said. Actually not by what I had said but by what the Lord had told me to say. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Below are some verses which show God's Spirit speaking to God's people. Read the verse and then write down the way the HS communicated to the people.

PASSAGE	METHODS THE HS USES TO COMMUNICATE TO BELIEVERS
Acts 13:1	.................................................................
Acts 13:4	.................................................................
Acts 16:6-7	.................................................................
Acts 16:9	.................................................................
Acts 27:23, 24	.................................................................

REJECTION OF A TRIUMPHAL ATTITUDE

I had an acquaintance once tell me that he was not all that excited about Jesus returning because his Spirit-filled life was so good right now. He did not see at all how it could be any better when Christ returned. At the time I did not know how to reply. I would know now how to reply. Just give that person time. What he was experiencing was fresh and new. It was definitely dynamic. Give the person enough time and he will begin to see that the full day has now yet arrived; we still live at the dawn of time. This is seen in the struggle we experience WITHIN OURSELVES as Christians.

The Corinthians had a triumphal attitude. They claimed that they were so filled with God's Spirit that for all practical purposes they had arrived. In 1 Cor. 4:7-8 Paul uses sarcasm to blast this attitude. In your own words how does Paul deal with this attitude?

In 1 Cor. 4:9 what kind of attitude does he have towards being an apostle? Is it a triumphal attitude?

Because we live at the dawn, we have both darkness and light WITHIN us. According to Paul he "________ daily" (1 Cor. 15:31). That is no easy thing to do. It takes struggle.

According to Gal. 5:17 what happens between the HS and our old nature?

If you do not experience spiritual struggle, you've caved in to your old self. As long as you give into the HS, your flesh is going to fight you. The only one that may eventually give up is the HS, not your flesh.

Some claim that in Rom. 7 Paul is talking about his experience BEFORE he became a Christian and not AFTER he became a Christian. That might be true, but 2 Cor. 4:7-12 definitely deals with his experience as a Christian. According to 2 Cor. 4 7-12 what kind of struggle did Paul experience AFTER he became a Christian?