CHAPTER 8

REMAIN UNDER THE INFLUENCE

All Christians are committed to be filled with the Spirit. Anything short of a Spirit-filled life is less than God’s plan for each believer.

BILLY GRAHAM

ON THE NIGHT BEFORE HE DIED, Jesus gave a long message to his closest followers sharing his heart with them about his coming departure and how they should live in his absence. The sermon known as the Upper Room Discourse is found in John 13–17. Jesus told his disciples many things, but he repeatedly mentioned the Holy Spirit, whom he would send to be with them in his physical absence (see John 14:15-17, 25; 15:26; 16:7-15).

Then, after his resurrection, just before he ascended to heaven, Jesus’ final words to his followers were about the Spirit:

“Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. . . . But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere —in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.

ACTS 1:4-5, 8-9

Of all the things Jesus could have shared in his farewell address, he underscored the disciples’ need for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus believed the Holy Spirit was important enough to mention over and over in his final instructions to his disciples, we need to take notice and learn about the Spirit’s ministry in our lives in these end times. Nothing is more vital to your spiritual survival and success as you await Christ’s coming than the Spirit.

Many believers today mouth the words about believing in the Spirit, but when it comes to their daily lives, he is out there somewhere on the periphery. Many today in the church are guilty of loving the Father, adoring the Son, and ignoring the Spirit.

In his classic book Knowing God, J. I. Packer calls the study of the Holy Spirit “the Cinderella of Christian doctrines” and adds, “Comparatively few seem to be interested in it.”[102] Sadly, the Holy Spirit can be just a footnote in our theology —the minor key in our worship. Many Christians are settling for “two-thirds” of God. I once heard someone say, “The sin of the world is rejecting the Son; the sin of the church is neglecting the Spirit.” We must make sure this isn’t true of us. We need the Spirit’s power to survive.

FOCUSING ON THE FILLING

There are many ministries of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament that we need to understand, but none is more central to the believer’s daily life than the filling of the Spirit. Evangelist D. L. Moody once gathered a group of pastors together to discuss Christian holiness and productivity in daily living. At the end of their time together, Moody offered this summary: “I can tell you in five words how Christians can become more holy, useful, and fruitful —be filled with the Spirit!” Moody was right. These five words hold the key to our spiritual survival and service in these final days. There’s no substitute.

In the troubled, temptation-filled times we all face, we’re prone to believe that everything we do depends on us, that we simply have to try harder or be smarter, but we must not fall into the trap of thinking that we have the power to live the Christian life in our own strength. We can’t live the Christian life without the filling of the Holy Spirit. We must have power beyond ourselves to flourish, especially in times like these. Simply stated, we can’t survive spiritually without the work of the Spirit in our lives. Spiritual survival without the Spirit is a deadly oxymoron.

Spirit power is necessary for spiritual prosperity. Spirit saturation is necessary for spiritual survival. Spirit filling is necessary for spiritual flourishing.

But what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?

The biblical entry point for understanding the Spirit-filled life is found in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians is a book that’s rich in teaching about the Holy Spirit. Several key truths about the Spirit are highlighted:

Ephesians 5:16-21 is a key New Testament passage that tells us about the filling of the Spirit:

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 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. And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

This passage begins by telling us that we need to “make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” I don’t have to tell you that the end times are evil days —not just bad days or tough days but downright evil days. We see it all around us. We’ve fallen so far that evil is now cool.

If we’re to survive spiritually and “make the most of every opportunity” in evil days, the apostle Paul tells us that we must have a power and strength beyond ourselves. To put it bluntly, you will fail on your own. I will fail on my own. We are wholly inadequate on our own to meet the demands and challenges of life. We must stay under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Since this is true, we need to look together at what it means to be filled with the Spirit, how we can be filled, and what it will look like if we’re filled. Along with Bible study and prayer, nothing is more important to your spiritual survival than being Spirit-filled.

Learning about the Spirit-filled life was one of the major turning points in my own spiritual life. Knowing about the Spirit’s power and influence available to me was life-changing. We need the Spirit’s filling all the time, but in these evil days at the end of the age, our need is magnified even further.

THE MEANING

The best definition of being filled with the Spirit is being controlled or influenced by God the Holy Spirit —being under the influence of the Spirit. Where do we get this definition?

Vocabulary

The first key to understanding the filling of the Spirit comes from the vocabulary or terminology used. There are three Greek words used for the filling of the Spirit, and they all carry the idea of being controlled, influenced, or gripped by something. We observe the meaning of these words as they are used in other contexts, for example, the people in the synagogue being “filled with rage” when Jesus taught (Luke 4:28, NASB), sorrow having “filled” the hearts of the disciples when Jesus announced he was leaving them (John 16:6, NASB), Ananias allowing Satan to “fill [his] heart” in lying about the gift he brought to the apostles (Acts 5:3), and the false prophet Bar-Jesus being “full of every sort of deceit and fraud” (Acts 13:10). In the same way that these people were gripped or controlled by an emotion or outside force, believers are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Contrast

The second key is the contrast between drunkenness and the filling of the Spirit. Three times in the New Testament the filling of the Spirit is contrasted or at least mentioned in conjunction with getting drunk:

He will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth.

LUKE 1:15

Others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days,’ God says,

‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions,

and your old men will dream dreams.’”

ACTS 2:13-17

Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

EPHESIANS 5:18

Everyone knows that a person who is drunk is under the control of alcohol. Drunkenness puts a person under the influence of alcohol, and according to Ephesians 5:18, this leads to a ruined life, or as the New American Standard Bible has it, “dissipation.” Notice in Ephesians 5:18 that being drunk is contrasted with being filled with the Spirit. Just as being drunk leads to being under the control of a foreign influence, being filled with the Spirit leads to his control —being under his influence.[103]

Both parts of this verse are equally true and operative —“don’t be drunk with wine” and “be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Both are commands (imperatives in Greek). Christians often settle for half of this verse. We may not get drunk, but we also aren’t filled with the Spirit. It’s not enough not to be drunk with wine. Getting drunk is a sin of commission, while not being filled with the Spirit is a sin of omission.

I like the story of the children’s Sunday school class where the teacher asked, “What is a sin of omission?” One little boy, after weighing the question, raised his hand and said, “Those are the sins we wanted to do but never got around to.” Actually, sins of omission are good things we never got around to doing. Not being filled with the Spirit is a sin of omission.

Leighton Ford tells of a visit his brother-in-law, Billy Graham, made to a very large and influential church. His host told him of an unfortunate experience. One of the officers in that church had repeatedly gotten drunk, and so they had to discipline him and put him out of the church fellowship. Mr. Graham asked, “How long has it been since you put somebody out of the church for not being filled with the Holy Spirit?” His host looked startled. So Mr. Graham continued, “The Bible says, ‘Don’t get drunk with wine,’ but the very same verse says, ‘Be filled with the Spirit.’”

Billy Graham was making a valid point. The positive command to be filled with the Spirit is just as binding as the negative command not to be drunk with wine.

The Command

After the contrast between getting drunk with wine and being filled with the Spirit, we observe three important things about the command to be filled. First, the command is in the present tense. This indicates that it’s an ongoing, repeated experience, not something that happens once for all. We could translate this as “Keep on being filled.” Stanley Toussaint writes, “You can’t go on last week’s experience, last year’s experience, or yesterday’s experience. It is something that you must experience in the eternal now. Be filled with the Spirit constantly.”[104]

There’s an important distinction I need to point out between the filling of the Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit. These are two distinct ministries of the Spirit. Believers in the New Testament are never commanded to be indwelled by the Spirit. Every believer in Christ has the Spirit from the moment of salvation (see Romans 8:9). The indwelling of the Spirit occurs once for all at the moment of salvation; the filling of the Spirit occurs again and again throughout our Christian life.

There’s also a distinction between the filling of the Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. These two ministries of the Spirit are sometimes confused with one another. Every believer in Christ is baptized by Jesus into his body by the agency of the Spirit at the moment of conversion (see 1 Corinthians 12:13). The baptizing work of the Spirit is a universal, unrepeated work in the life of every believer.

The baptism and indwelling of the Spirit are part of the “standard” package that comes with salvation —they aren’t optional equipment.[105] The fullness of the Spirit is received by every believer at the moment of conversion, but we must be filled (influenced and controlled) again and again. There is one indwelling and one baptism of the Spirit but many fillings.

As believers in Christ today, we are no longer waiting for the Holy Spirit; rather, he is waiting for us —waiting for us to surrender to him and yield our lives to him completely.

The filling of the Spirit must be repeated in our lives again and again.

There’s an old story I heard years ago about a man who came forward to the altar every week at his church when the preacher asked who needed to dedicate their life to the Lord and get filled with the Spirit. After many weeks of the same routine, one man in the congregation turned to the man next to him and said, “Why does that man go down front every week to get filled with the Spirit? What’s his problem?” The other man whispered back, “He leaks.”

That’s the problem for all of us. We leak. We must all be filled again and again.

Second, the command to be filled with the Spirit is passive. We could translate it “keep being continuously filled.” It’s something that’s done to us. We allow it or yield to it. We allow the Spirit to take control of our lives. This makes all the difference.

I love the story about the medical doctor and evangelist Walter Lewis Wilson. Wilson was a believer who struggled with the futility and spiritual barrenness of his life. In 1913, a French missionary asked him, “Who is the Holy Spirit to you?” Wilson replied, “One of the Persons of the Godhead . . . Teacher, Guide, Third Person of the Trinity.” The missionary said, “You haven’t answered my question.” Wilson responded, “He is nothing to me. I have no contact with Him and could get along quite well without Him.”

The next year, on January 14, 1914, Dr. Wilson heard James M. Gray preach a sermon on Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (KJV). Gray said, “Have you noticed that this verse does not tell us to whom we should give our bodies? It is not the Lord Jesus. He has His own body. It is not the Father. He remains on His throne. Another has come to earth without a body. God gives you the indescribable honor of presenting your bodies to the Holy Spirit, to be His dwelling place on earth.”

The message hit home. Wilson went home, fell on the floor before the Lord, and prayed, “My Lord, I have treated You like a servant. When I wanted You, I called for You. Now I give You this body from my head to my feet. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain. You may send this body to Africa, or lay it on a bed with cancer. It is your body from this moment on.”

The following day two people came to his medical office selling advertising, and they both left believing in the Lord. From that point on, he was an effective, fruitful witness for the Lord —a Spirit-filled believer.[106] His life was changed. Surrendering to the Spirit made all the difference. Wilson was a dynamic personal evangelist and founded Central Bible Church in Kansas City, Flagstaff Mission to the Navajos, and the institute later to become Calvary Bible College. Wilson later wrote, “With regard to my own experience with the Holy Spirit, the transformation in my life on January 14, 1914 was much greater than the change that took place when I was saved.”[107]

Surrendering to the Spirit makes all the difference.

The third key to the command is that it’s plural, which means it’s for every believer. The command to be filled with the Spirit is not just for pastors, elders, missionaries, mature believers, or some elite group. The Spirit-filled life is for every Christian. None of us are to get drunk. All of us are to be filled with the Spirit. Being Spirit-filled should be the normative experience of every Christian. Stanley Toussaint writes, “We can be filled with the Holy Spirit. All of us are to be filled with the Holy Spirit; it is a command. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the chassis —the drive train —of our Christian experience.”[108]

In sum, being filled with the Spirit means we are to continuously allow our life to be controlled by the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is not about me getting more of the Spirit but about the Spirit getting more of me. As I once heard someone say, the Spirit must not only be resident in our lives; he must be president.

There’s another story I like about the famous preacher D. L. Moody and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Moody was scheduled to speak several places in England. In advance of his arrival, a meeting was held by several church leaders. A pastor protested, “Why do we need this ‘Mr. Moody’? He’s uneducated, inexperienced, etc. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”

Another pastor responded, “No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody.”[109] That’s what every believer should desire for his or her life.

Now that raises a second key issue —how can you and I be Spirit-filled and remain under the influence?

THE MEANS

Not every believer in Jesus Christ is Spirit-filled. Every believer is Spirit-indwelled and Spirit-baptized but not necessarily Spirit-filled. There are certain spiritual conditions that must be met to experience the controlling of the Spirit. I’ve always found it interesting that there are no specific steps laid out in Ephesians 5:18 for being filled. No conditions are expressly given. There’s no ritual or formula. The verb “be filled” is passive, so we know that this is something we allow to happen, not something we do ourselves. But how does it happen?

There’s a sense in which we could say that “anybody who really loves the Lord Jesus and wants to please Him is going to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”[110] We don’t want to make the Spirit-filled life more complicated than necessary. A. W. Tozer says, “Throw your heart open to the Holy Spirit and invite Him to fill you. . . . Every man is as full of the Spirit as he wants to be. Make your heart a vacuum and the Spirit will rush in to fill it.”[111]

Keeping this in mind, I do believe there are two main clues or hints in other places in the New Testament about the means to being Spirit-filled. These two passages give us keys to how this filling takes place. The first is John 7:37-39, which calls on us to trust in the Lord:

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)

The first attitude that puts us under the Spirit’s influence is trust in the Lord (“everyone believing in him”). It’s coming to the Lord and saying, “I need you. I trust in you. I can’t live today in my own strength. I put myself under your control.”

The second passage is Colossians 3:16-17, which calls us to open our lives to God’s Word and obey it. Note the striking parallels between Ephesians 5:18-21 and Colossians 3:16, which reads, “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.”

Ephesians and Colossians are often considered tandem epistles by the apostle Paul, written about the same time during his first Roman imprisonment and delivered by the same courier. There’s a clear correlation between what Paul says in Ephesians 5:18-21 about being filled with the Spirit and what he says in Colossians 3:16-17 about letting Christ’s word dwell within you. The results of each are the same, so they appear to be parallel. This shouldn’t surprise us, since the Spirit is the Author of the Word. The two are always in sync.

This means that allowing the Word to richly dwell within, to be at home in our lives, is a key means for the Spirit to take over. We must give our minds to the truth of God’s Word, our hearts to its teaching, and our wills to its commands. To be open to the Word and under its influence is to place ourselves under the control of the Spirit. I once heard a preacher say, “When the Word dwells within us, the Spirit swells within us.”

The means of being filled is to trust in the Lord and open our hearts and lives to his Word. Any heart that is open toward God and in submission to the Scriptures will be filled with the Spirit. When we do these things, the Spirit takes over and goes to work.

So what happens when a believer is filled with the Spirit? What does it look like? How do you know if you’re Spirit-filled?

THE MANIFESTATIONS

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but anytime the New Testament speaks of someone being filled with the Spirit, it’s always followed by the word “and.” There’s always an “and” to the work of the Spirit. There are always results of being filled with the Spirit. What are those results we should be looking for? What will a life look like when the Spirit takes over?

First, notice what’s not in Ephesians 5:19-21. Not flashy, spectacular, sensational experiences —speaking in tongues, being slain in the Spirit, being translated into some ecstatic state, or miraculous signs and wonders. The focus is rather on three main manifestations, which are all in the present tense, indicating that these results are continual and ongoing in the life of the Spirit-filled believer.

Music (Gladness)

The first result of the Spirit’s control is a glad heart full of joy manifested in music.

Ephesians 5:18-19 says, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.” We’re to sing from our hearts, not just move our lips, and “to the Lord” —our songs are directed to the one who delivered us from wrath and gives us the power to live a life that pleases him. God wants to hear you sing to him with all your heart. God wants to hear you sing praises to him.

A Spirit-filled Christian is a joyful, singing Christian who loves to praise the Lord for his greatness, grace, mercy, goodness, and majesty. Do you love to sing? Do you go around every day with a song in your heart? A Spirit-filled Christian is a singing Christian and lives a life filled with joy and music. It’s a dead giveaway. The same is true of churches. Dead churches and dead Christians don’t sing; “they just kind of stand there and mumble.”[112]

Thankfulness (Gratefulness)

The second manifestation or result of being filled with the Spirit is a thankful heart. This means a Spirit-filled believer is not bitter, grumbling, complaining, negative, sour, or grumpy but thankful and grateful. There are four key aspects to our thankfulness to God.

When are we to give thanks? “Always” (NASB).

What are we to give thanks for? “Everything.”

Whom are we to give thanks to? “God the Father.”

How are we to give thanks? “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We understand giving thanks for the good things, and we can even understand giving thanks “in everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, NASB). But “for everything” is a different matter. How do we give thanks “always . . . for all things” (NASB)? Does this include even sin? John Stott clarifies the meaning:

God abominates evil, and we cannot praise or thank him for what he abominates.

So then the “everything” for which we are to give thanks to God must be qualified by its context, namely in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. Our thanksgiving is to be for everything which is consistent with the loving Fatherhood of God and the self-revelation he has given us in Jesus Christ.[113]

Spirit-filled believers are thankful.

Submission (Graciousness)

A third manifestation of the Spirit’s control is submission. This refers to repenting of self-centeredness and putting others ahead of ourselves. Submissive people are concerned about others, are concerned about what others think, and think of others, not just themselves.[114] Spirit-filled submission is humble and gracious.

So, what is the Spirit-filled life? A life under the influence and control of the Spirit.

How can we be filled? By trusting in the Lord and obeying God’s Word.

What are the results of being filled? Gladness, gratefulness, and graciousness.

Today, as evil abounds, there are all kinds of opportunities around us. We need to be filled with the Spirit to meet the demands of life. We can’t do it in our own strength. What follows Ephesians 5:18-21 is a discussion of marriage, family, and work (5:22–6:9). We all know how broken and hurting the family is today. The Spirit-filled life spills over into every area of our relationships. We have to be Spirit-filled to have marriages and families that please the Lord and witness to the world around us.

HOLD ON

A. J. Gordon, one of the founders of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, told of seeing a house across a field when he was out walking, with a man vigorously using a hand pump next to the house. The man was pumping rapidly without ever slowing down or resting. Amazed at this sight, Gordon walked toward it until he saw it was not a man after all, but a painted wooden figure. Wire held the hand to the pump, and the water pouring out came from an artesian well. Rather than the man pumping the water, the water was pumping the man.

When you see a person whose work for the Lord is effective and produces results —someone who is filled with gladness, gratefulness, and graciousness —that is a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit. When we keep our hands on the pump, the Spirit will fill us and use us. [115]

When this happens, you won’t just survive spiritually; you will thrive, and others will be blessed by and through you.

Your spouse needs a Spirit-filled husband or wife.

Your family needs a Spirit-filled mother or father.

Your church needs a Spirit-filled member.

Your friends need a Spirit-filled companion.

Your neighbors need a Spirit-filled neighbor.

Your community needs a Spirit-filled citizen.

The days are evil. Depravity and darkness are spreading. Redeem the time. Take full advantage of every opportunity. But don’t try to go it alone.

Whatever else you do in life, make sure you remain under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Your spiritual survival depends on it.