Why Wouldn't Everyone Want to be Filled with the Spirit? [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Sometimes when we say you have the Holy Spirit, the way we end up saying that and talking is almost like, have you got this thing? Have you got this power?

Have you got this quantity? How much of the Holy Spirit do you have? And so we start thinking almost spatially, almost like he's some force, some power, some liquid, some something. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series filled as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with this throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource today. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

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That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. I want to show you one verse in Ephesians and then we're going to go to Acts chapter 8. If you want to just find the chapter 8 of Acts, I'll read you this one verse from Ephesians 5, 18. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit. As an interesting comparison to say do not be intoxicated with a substance, but instead be consumed by or controlled by the Spirit of God. And then in Acts chapter 8 verse 14. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

I was a senior in college. I was in a Bible study that began to explore who the person in work of the Holy Spirit is. At the same time, interestingly enough, I was taking a course at Carolina, secular religion course on religious movements. Interestingly enough, the two religious movements that we were studying in our course was Mormonism and Pentecostalism.

Just two religious movements according to the secular university. And we were looking, I guess, to see what religious movements have in common. As it turned out, my professor, my favorite professor, Grant Wacker, himself had been raised in an Evangelical and Pentecostal background and would become really one of the great scholars in our country on the history of Pentecostalism. And we did our study on Mormonism and all the crazy stories about Joseph Smith and so forth. And then we switched subject and we started studying Pentecostalism. And so we would read some of the accounts of Pentecostals and things that they experienced. And at the same time, our Bible study began to get sort of curious about if the Holy Spirit is still doing supernatural things today, and we were studying that. And so somewhere amidst all of that, there was a charismatic fellowship on campus that had brought a healing evangelist onto the campus and they were having a series of meetings. And so as sort of a extra curricular, kind of extra credit thing for my Pentecostalism course, I told professor I was going to go to a Pentecostal meeting. And our Bible study said that they would dare to go to the Pentecostal meeting as well. And so off we went to our first really kind of Pentecostal meeting.

And it was livelier than what I was accustomed to. And yet it was a warm meeting and we were seated there together, about eight of us in our Bible study, on the same row in one of the lecture halls there on the Carolina campus. And at a certain moment in the service with every head bowed, every eye closed, the evangelist asked the question, how many of you, raise your hand, would like tonight to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

And on the one hand that seems like a very simple question, doesn't it? On the other hand it seemed kind of complicated to me because a big part of my mind, and I was quite the intellectual in my own eyes, was asking what do you mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit and what will happen to me if I raise my hand. But there's another part of me as I look back on the question to think that it's one of the silliest questions and most unnecessary questions perhaps that we should ever have to ask, who would want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Because now having walked in the things of the Spirit, pretty much since those college years until today for these decades now, I realize that He is the presence of Jesus in my life.

He is whatever Jesus was to the disciples while Jesus was on earth, the Holy Spirit is to us who believe and more so. He is the cause of whatever real joy I ever experience. I do have happy moments in life and I do have sad moments in life. But joy is something that is transcendent and has a supernatural origin. It is the stuff of heaven. And when I think about what I'm most grateful for and I think about the presence of the Holy Spirit, I thank Him for joy because you cannot manufacture your own joy. He is my joy and He is the greatest teacher you could ever imagine having. The Holy Spirit is such a great teacher in that not only does He know everything, but He has the ability that only God can have to know what you need to learn at the moment you need to learn it. And He knows how to teach you what you need to learn by way of life circumstances, examples, models, illustrations, revelations, visions and dreams. He knows what your Spirit will stand at attention to receive. I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit because without the Holy Spirit there would be no witness to my spirit that I'm a child of God.

And I, like so many in our generation, had been orphaned. And I would not know God as my Father except the Holy Spirit has come into my life to bear witness to my spirit that I'm a child of God and no longer an orphan. And it is by the Holy Spirit that I'm able to call out Abba, Father. So if there be any joy in my life, if there be any direction and call and wisdom in my life, and if there be any solace and deep sense of destiny as a child of God in my life, it's because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the giver of gifts. He has all the gifts of God to give.

God is love and He loves us so deeply, so passionately. And He, like a good Father, wants to give good gifts to His children. And the means by which He gives these good gifts to His children is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And the Holy Spirit has a diversity of gifts. And what's wonderful about the Holy Spirit in giving of gifts is He knows what gifts you're supposed to have. And no people have the same gifts.

And aren't we glad for that. That not only does He know what gifts that you should have and how you're to live your life, but He knows how the body of Christ is to come together and use a diversity of gifts so that together we would all be built up. The Holy Spirit is not only the giver of gifts, but He is also the one who emboldens me for the gospel.

And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Someone once said, doing your will by your power is humanism. Doing God's will by your power is religion.

But doing God's will by God's power, that's Christianity. Can anyone love his enemy just by deciding to be nice? Can anyone produce peace that passes understanding by mental discipline?

Can anyone heal depression by just trying harder to be happy? Of course not. In fact, almost everything about New Testament Christianity is impossible by human power alone. Thankfully, God has never expected you to live the Christian life by your own strength. He has sent a helper and every single Christian is invited to live a supernaturally empowered life through the continual infilling of the Holy Spirit. In a special bundle alongside the audio teaching, Pastor Alan has also written a booklet. Both the audio and the booklet not only explain the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but will nourish, inspire, and draw you nearer to the God who longs to immerse you in His love and power.

Discover how to be filled with the Spirit and get ready for your life to be filled with fresh love, joy, and power. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Allen Wright. If ever there has been one delicious word from God's written word that has come forth out of this mouth that I've been preaching, it is because of the Holy Spirit's unction. I do not have any words of life of my own, but the whole world is craving and yearning and thirsting for the living Word of God to come and transform their lives. And as a preacher of the gospel, there is no way to effectively preach or make any difference in anybody's life except to be clothed with an anointing of the Holy Spirit such that I find myself just increasingly just wanting to be His mouthpiece, just wanting to be a vessel, just an earthen vessel through which God's Holy Spirit could speak to His people and speak to the world. If there's ever been a word of solace, transformation, or comfort that has come from anything I've written on a page of a book, it's because of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Everything in my life that I treasure comes by the gift of God in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And now every day of my life, several times a day, I ask God, fill me afresh with the Holy Spirit. So now looking back to think of someone asking the question, who wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Sounds like the silliest question anybody could ever ask. I think the real question is, who wouldn't want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, in all of my hesitation, with every head bowed and every eye closed, I raised my hand, yes, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And suddenly the evangelist announces out there a whole row of them right there together. And as we peeked around, realized that my Bible study was the only people that had raised their hand to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I suppose everybody else considered themselves already filled with the Holy Spirit. And when they brought us down front and people began eagerly gathering around me and variously praying in unknown languages and some shouting things and some pushing on my stomach and declaring that out of my belly would flow rivers of living water, I then began to question whether it was a quality decision that I had made to come down to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I was eager to get out of there. And I had no real encounter with God in those moments. But there were some who did in the midst of that. It served me well my beginnings of exposure to the things of the Spirit to always remember, which I do to this day, how uncomfortable I felt initially and all the concerns that I might have. And now, over the past couple of decades of praying with people for the increase in filling of the Holy Spirit in their lives, I'm keenly aware that there are many people who have many many different reasons why they feel hesitant to truly open themselves up to the fullness of everything that God would have in their lives. And yet, I read two scriptures today that point to at least these two basic truths. One, Paul says plainly in Ephesians chapter 5, it is a command, it is the Word of God be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is not optional part of the Christian life, the ongoing infilling of the Holy Spirit. And in Acts chapter 8, which is a much researched and discussed and written about text, the strange thing that happens is that these are Christians in Samaria who have received the Word of God, have accepted Christ and have been baptized. And if there's one thing that I think is plain in the New Testament about who the Holy Spirit is, it is that every Christian has the Holy Spirit.

And I want you to hear this so plainly, every person who accepts Christ as Savior as part of the initial and permanent inheritance that you receive in the New Covenant is that you receive the presence of Jesus in your heart and you will be with Him forever. The presence of Jesus in our heart is to say to have the Holy Spirit. And so when you receive Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit. Which makes this text in Acts chapter 8 interesting because these are people who have received Jesus and yet the text says that the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them. And at verse 17 it says they received the Holy Spirit. Now clearly, theologically, verse 17 cannot therefore be saying that they received the Holy Spirit as though they had not received the Holy Spirit when they received Christ.

It is saying something different. It is saying the Holy Spirit has come upon them in a fresh way. And to say that they received the Holy Spirit is to say that they have received the Holy Spirit in a fresh empowering way that they had previously not received Him.

So all of this is built upon this theological premise then. That every Christian receives the Holy Spirit as they receive Christ. But that there are continued receiving or end fillings of the Holy Spirit for the rest of your Christian life on earth. And therefore, it is proper to say to a Christian be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now before I kind of give a look at the reasons that people might be hesitant to ask for the end filling of the Holy Spirit.

I want to make one more observation from the Scriptures. And I have tried in, as we've begun learning and teaching about the Holy Spirit, I tried to go back to the Scriptures to read the Scriptures as if for the first time. Which is very important every time you come to the text isn't it? Don't take all of your theological presuppositions and all of your assumptions based on traditions that you've been in and bring that and make the text support what you believe.

Just read the text. And so just in reading the text about the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit. I think of all the books on my shelves that have titles like how to receive the Holy Spirit. Or seven steps to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Or how to be filled with the Spirit and all of these titles. And so if you ask the question of the New Testament how do I receive the Holy Spirit and what are the steps that are involved and so forth. What you'll find in the Scripture is that virtually the Word of God is virtually silent on the subject.

We have many accounts of people that have fresh end fillings of the Holy Spirit but we have virtually no teaching about how to receive the Holy Spirit or what do I do. Which is kind of funny in this way because we are so obsessed with asking those questions aren't we? We always want the how to manual. We get married and we want somebody to, men especially, give us a manual that tells us the ten things that good husbands do and I'll try to do those ten things.

And while all these manuals and things might be helpful pointers in them, in the end what we're talking about is about being in a relationship. So there's a sense in which to say how are you filled with the Holy Spirit is like saying how are you filled up with the love of someone in a relationship. I remember many years ago when my children were little and we had had a long vacation together just playing at the beach and I recognized this early on with the kids that when I'd get back after that and eager sometimes you know to get back to work because work is good.

I'm thankful for work but when I've had just time with Anne and the kids and just no interruptions to it and lots of laughter lots of play lots of meals together and I come back and you know I realize is in the early days of coming back to work thankful for work it's good but you know I miss them you know I miss them. Isn't that an odd thing? Allen Wright in today's teaching why wouldn't everyone want to be filled with the Spirit? It's from our series Filled and Allen is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and our final word today.

Thankfully God has never expected you to live the Christian life by your own strength. He has sent a helper and every single Christian is invited to live a supernaturally empowered life through the continual infilling of the Holy Spirit. In a special bundle alongside the audio teaching Pastor Alan has also written a booklet. Both the audio and the booklet not only explain the infilling of the Holy Spirit but will nourish inspire and draw you nearer to the God who longs to immerse you in his love and power. Discover how to be filled with the Spirit and get ready for your life to be filled with fresh love joy and power.

Call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org. Allen it really is a good question but for the person right now that may be nervous to ask for this to pray and say Lord fill me why do you find that to be the case so often? Well I can identify because I think there was a time in my own Christian life that I had a number of fears and apprehensions about the idea of being quote filled with the Spirit. You know we've seen images of things that say gonna make me weird is it gonna make me turn my mind off is God gonna is God gonna go take me make me in a missionary I mean you know we just all of these different thoughts and so this is a series that is about how wonderful the Spirit of Jesus is he is the third person of the triune God he's God's presence you know we say I have Jesus in my heart but what we really mean is I have the Spirit of Jesus in my heart we have the Holy Spirit that's who we're talking about and so we're gonna demystify that and also I think help a lot of people who might have had some apprehensions go well of course if that's who the Holy Spirit is I want the fullness of his life in mind. When Paul says in Ephesians be filled with the Spirit the language there is kind of a ongoing kind of continuous you know so every Christian has the Holy Spirit by nature of being a Christian the Spirit of God the Spirit of Jesus takes up residence in your life but I think that there's a process of Christian growth in which we are ever increasingly yielding to the Spirit's presence in our life so it's not really you getting more of the Holy Spirit is really the Holy Spirit getting more of you and I think in that sense we say I say ran up pray regularly Lord fill me with your spirit let me continue to learn to be sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit continue to give me gifts and let the fruit of the Spirit pray like that and foster the daily trust in the leading of the Holy Spirit this is what is I think involved in the Spirit filled life. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.