WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20
Acts 4:31-37
Ephesians 3:14-19

When shall I come
and appear before God?

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT (I)

Being “filled with the Spirit” is not the same as “baptized with the Spirit.” Baptism with the Spirit takes place at the moment of conversion (1 Cor 12:13; Rom 8:9). It happens to a person once and once only. Filling with the Spirit is a measure of a believer’s spiritual vitality and poses a constant and almost daily challenge from the moment of conversion. The Bible contains not one single command to any man to be baptized with the Spirit, but it has repeated commands and exhortations to believers to be filled with the Spirit.

It is our Lord’s desire to see all believers filled with His Spirit. Before His departure, He promised the disciples, “If I depart, I will send him unto you… ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me…” (John 16:7; Acts 1:8). His command to His followers is: “… be witnesses unto me... unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This command applies to all Christians. To be an effective witness we need power – spiritual power. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to have that power.

Before they were filled with the Spirit, the disciples of Jesus were a weak, disunited, self-seeking, cowardly and fearful lot. Pentecost made all the difference. The disciples were instantly transformed as the Spirit filled them and they stood up as fearless witnesses for their physically absent Master, ready to lay down their lives. In a moment, they became new men, united behind a common cause, serving one common Lord, with all self-interest forgotten. When the Spirit came they became men possessed – transformed!

When filled with the Spirit, believers see the cause of Christ and the Gospel as paramount. The Spirit gives them power beyond themselves, “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man… that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend… the love of Christ… that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph 3:16-19). Filling with the Spirit enables believers to advance the cause of Christ in every situation of life. 

THOUGHT: Followers of Jesus ought to be filled with His Spirit.
PRAYER: Lord, fill me then use me for Thy glory.