How Can I Be More Filled with the Holy Spirit?

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First season is available now wherever you get your podcast. How do you as a Christian live under the influence of the Holy Spirit? And what does that actually look like? Does it mean having supernatural abilities like the ability to speak in tongues and to prophesy? Or are there other signs of the Spirit's presence in your life?

How can you grow in cultivating those signs of the Spirit, whatever they might be? How can you be more filled with the Holy Spirit? So it's important to understand that every single Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 3 that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. That means that a genuine profession of faith in Christ requires the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in you. Just a handful of verses later Paul wrote, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body.

Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13. Another verse that makes this clear is what Paul told the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14. In him, that is in Jesus, you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire the possession of it to the praise of his glory. So this means that if you believe in Jesus you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. He lives in you so that the question is never do I have the Holy Spirit as a Christian.

Your body is actually a temple for God's Holy Spirit. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9 and when we say and when we sin we grieve the Holy Spirit, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30, but he doesn't stop indwelling us. This is actually one of the reasons why believers experience the conviction of sin because the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives impacts our daily decisions.

What we do and what we shouldn't do. Now all believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit but as a Christian you can be more or less filled with the Holy Spirit. So we can distinguish then between the sealing of the Spirit being indwelled with the Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. And one of the things that makes this clear in the New Testament is the fact that we're commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So for example not long after Paul told the Ephesians that they had been sealed with the Spirit he wrote and said to them, this is Ephesians chapter 5 verse 15, look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. It's really interesting the contrast that the Apostle Paul draws there between being drunk on the one hand or under the influence of wine and filled with the Holy Spirit on the other hand. I think this contrast actually helps us to define what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to live our daily lives under the influence of God's Holy Spirit so that our thoughts, speech, and actions are governed by God's presence and guidance.

What does that look like practically speaking? Well in the New Testament oftentimes when someone was filled with the Spirit say in places like the book of Acts that filling would manifest itself in outward and miraculous spiritual gifts. Gifts like the gift of tongues or the gift of prophecy. Now those were clear signs of the Spirit in the first century and there's debate about whether or not God is ordinarily giving those sign gifts today for the life of the church and for the good of believers. Additionally while miraculous signs may be an evidence of the Spirit's work they're not always necessarily indicative of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit.

Think of Pharaoh's magicians in the Old Testament for example. A better gauge of the filling and work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers today is what Paul called the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In fact this is the very thing Paul said would characterize those who are walking in the Spirit. But I say to you he said walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill or gratify the desires of the flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law. That's Paul in Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 and 22. The ultimate sign of the Spirit is not whether or not you can speak in tongues or prophesy it's whether the fruit of love is being manifested in your life by the presence and power of God's Spirit. Paul said in Romans chapter 5 verse 5 and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

In fact in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul relativizes the miraculous gifts in comparison to love stating that a Christian might have all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the ultimate degree but if we don't have love those manifestations are worthless. True maturity in Christ is not measured by the gifts of the Holy Spirit but by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. That fruit is cultivated in our lives as we're increasingly filled with the Spirit day by day.

Now the question is how can I be more filled? Well for Jesus and the apostles it's actually quite simple. This filling of the Spirit happens in our lives through prayer, worship, and growing in our understanding of God's word. Jesus made it very clear in Luke chapter 11 verse 13 quote if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

Isn't that wonderful? God wants you to be filled with the Spirit more than you want to be filled with the Spirit and when you sincerely go to God in prayer and say Father fill me with your Spirit God isn't stingy or reserved like a good Father he gives you his very best he gives you his Spirit. So one simple way to be filled with the Spirit is prayer. In fact there's a really cool example of this in Acts chapter 4. The disciples had just experienced persecution for preaching the word of God there in the early days after the day of Pentecost and they prayed to God for boldness in the face of this opposition that they had been facing and here's what the text says happened and when they had prayed the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were filled all of them with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. The filling of the Holy Spirit comes on the heels of prayer. Now I also mentioned worship and that's clear from the text I referenced earlier in Ephesians 5. Paul commanded the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit and then right after that he said addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So often in scripture it's in the context of worship that the Spirit of God falls upon the people of God. The psalm is said in Psalm chapter 22 verse 3 God inhabits the praises of his people and by the way worship involves more than just singing we sometimes get caught up into thinking you know the church's worship has only to do with you know the the the worship band the music that's being played not so the Spirit of God works in and through the sacraments or ordinances of the church that Jesus left for us as well baptism and the Lord's Supper a sacrament according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ whereby through sensible signs Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented sealed and applied to believers and actually when Jesus instituted communion as a holy ritual for the church to do in his remembrance he did so in the context of what's called his upper room discourse it's described in John 13 through 17 now what's unique about that discourse in particular is that more than any other it emphasizes the coming of the Holy Spirit Jesus is setting his church up to understand that his presence is going to be mediated to the church by the Holy Spirit and in the context of worship if you want to be filled with the Spirit be committed to a solid church lastly being filled with the Spirit looks like being saturated with the scripture it's interesting to compare the statement from Paul we've been looking at in Ephesians 5 with a parallel text in Colossians chapter 3 again here's what Ephesians 5 18 and 19 says it reads and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart now Colossians chapter 3 verse 16 reads let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God note that in the parallel here being filled with the Spirit is treated synonymously with letting Christ's word dwell in us richly in other words as the word of God permeates our lives we come under the influence of God's Spirit more and more if you want to have a rich Spirit-filled life as a Christian you need to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly so how can you be filled with the Spirit be committed to prayer God is eager to give you his Spirit when you ask to praise worship and remember that it's not limited to just singing and to sound preaching the word of God dwelling in you studying the Bible in church and on your own prayer praise and preaching are the water that God uses to grow the fruit of love joy peace patience etc in the lives of God's children here at Sola we encourage disciples and equip disciple makers by drawing on the riches of the reformation to apply historic Christian theology to all of faith and life our work is only possible thanks to the generosity of thousands of supporters across the world in order to keep our resources free we need your support will you prayerfully consider a donation to help us equip and encourage even more people to grow and knowing God and seeing everything in his light if so please visit solarmedia.org donate