The Holy Spirit - How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit, Part 2

So, what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? And perhaps more important, how do you get filled with the Holy Spirit?

I mean, what's the process? Let me tell you, it may not be what you think. Stay with me as we discover how to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's today. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Today we're continuing Chip's series, The Holy Spirit, experiencing his power and presence 24-7. And if you've missed any part of this enlightening study, catch up through the Chip Ingram app or at livingontheedge.org.

There's a lot of good content to get to. So here's Chip with a second half of his talk, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's look at the clearest New Testament passage. And by the way, here's what I can tell you. In my personal journey, there's a lot of things to argue about.

This isn't one of them. And I've done ministry here and all around the world with Reformed, Dispensationalists, Pentecostals, Baptists, Methodists. I'll tell you what, the Bible is really, really clear that Jesus is God, salvation is by faith alone, there's a virgin birth, he's coming back, there's the Trinity. I mean, there's the box that is absolutely clear for all of us Bible-believing Christians is very clear and unmovable. There's gonna be different perspectives about how you grow spiritually and there's gonna be people that will look at the Book of Acts through this lens or that lens. I will tell you what, what we're gonna see is the real evidence of being filled by the Spirit will not be an experience. The real evidence of being filled by the Spirit will be fruit.

It will be what happens in your life. Read through the books of Acts quickly and what you'll find is it's not an experience that anyone has that marks the church when they're filled. When they're filled with the Spirit, go through all those verses I listed for you, they are bold, they are courageous, they're pure and they love lost people. That's what being filled with the Spirit always produces.

It produces this amazing forgiveness of their enemies, this passion for people that are outside of Christ, this boldness that is supernatural and they have all kind of different experiences. So with that, let's look at the New Testament passage that is crystal clear that commands us, tells us what it means to be filled with the Spirit, how to know if we're filled with the Spirit and with that turn, if you will, in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5 is gonna give us first the context.

In verse 1 he says, the imitators of God therefore is dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering, a sacrifice to God. And so in chapter 5, the first three chapters he's given us the doctrine. Chapters 4 through 6 he's gonna say, since you now know who you are in Christ, remember chapter 4 opens up, now walk in a manner worthy of your calling and then it'll teach us in chapter 4 who we are in Christ, teaches how we get equipped by the church, teaches us how to put off the old, put on the new, have our mind renewed and then cites five specific areas that we need to go into spiritual training with regard to truth, our emotions, our tongue, our relationships. And then chapter 5 opens up and notice the command is to walk in love, walk in love the same way Jesus is. Now skip down to verse 8, the walk continues. He says, for you were once in darkness but now you're in the light, live or walk as children of the light. And so walk just means your habitual practice.

How do you live? And so you're to walk in love, you're to walk in the light. He's gonna talk about purity and especially sexual purity. And then skip down, I put it in your notes, verse 15, be very careful then how you walk. This is a warning. Not as unwise but as wise.

Making the most or literally buying up the opportunities because the days are evil. And then here's the warning, don't walk as unwise people in this world but walk as wise people then notice the word, therefore, do not be foolish but understand the will of the Lord. In other words, this is God's will, this is not an option. Here's God's will, do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery, negative command. Positive command, instead, be filled with the Spirit. And then, well how would you ever know if you're filled with the Spirit? Here's the evidence, speaking to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.

Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And so on your notes, you see the context is to be imitators of God, walk in love, walk in the light, and then you have the command. And the command to be filled literally means to be controlled. Substitute, get that word, to be filled means to be influenced to the point that the Spirit is in control. The Spirit is in control of what comes out of your mouth. The Spirit's in control of your thinking. The Spirit's in control influencing your behavior. The Spirit's in control of your priorities. The Spirit's in control in giving direction about your money.

The Spirit's in control about forgiving people that have wounded you and hurt you. And then notice as you look at this, the command to be filled is in the plural form, so it's for all believers. In other words, if we were in Texas, it would say, you all be filled.

It's not just you. You all. This is for everybody in the church. And then notice it's in the passive voice. You can't fill yourself.

Grammatically here would be a good translation. Allow yourself to be filled by the Spirit. Allow yourself to be controlled by the Spirit.

So only He can do it, but you have a part and I have a part in that process. It's in the present tense. That means what? Allow yourself to continually, habitually be filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit. Now, you might in your notes jot, if you will, Colossians chapter 3 verse 15 and following.

It's a very interesting passage. He says, let the word of Christ richly dwell in you. And then it'll go on to say, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart, giving thanks for all things out of reverence for Christ.

Whatever you do who go on to say toward the end of that chapter, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. When you are filled with God's word, when you are filled with the Spirit, it has the same outcome. So the evidence of being filled with the Spirit, our experiences may be different.

They may be very emotional or not very emotional. They may have some manifestation of the Spirit that's visible or a manifestation that's not visible. That's what we learned from the book of Acts.

It can look different for different people. But here's how you know if you're filled with the Spirit. Here's the evidence is number one in your speaking. Jot in your notes if you would also Luke 6 45. Just from the lips of Jesus, the good man out of the good treasure in his heart speaks forth what is good. The evil man out of his heart speaks forth what is evil.

For that which fills the heart proceeds out of the mouth. If you ever want to know what's really in your heart, just listen to your speech. Listen to your tone of voice.

See there's a lot of people who would say, there's this experience or that experience, you got to do this, you got to do that. I will tell you what, you want to really know whether you're controlled by the Spirit or not? Just listen to your speech. Your words are like an MRI telling you what's going on in your heart before God. And so when the Spirit of God using the raw material of the Word of God is influencing your life, your speech, your tone of voice, all those verses that you know kind of Christians today we really are you know we've got this list of four or five or six sins that we think are really really bad and then God has this other list that we say I mean how bad can gossip be or being critical or disunity or putting people down or sarcasm or speaking evil of someone or passing on untested information. Go look those up in the Bible. Some of those that I just said are among the seven deadly sins of Proverbs.

But see what happens you know as what they got a new TV show, I won't mention this name because I don't want to get it on tape for anybody anywhere ever, but the TV show about the sort of pseudo Christians that live in the south and talk behind everyone's back and somehow we think that what comes out of our mouth doesn't really matter. When you are controlled, you want to know if you're filled by the Spirit? Examine your tongue. James would say when you want to change your behavior, when you want to get a hold of some issues that are hard to get a hold of, chapter three, what's he say? He said there's something in between your lips that's powerful. It's called your tongue and as your tongue goes, so goes your body. Like the rudder of a ship, the rudder, so goes the ship. Like just put a bit in a horse and you can make a powerful horse go this direction or that direction. When you're wrestling with issues in your life that have to do with attitudes or heart issues, you can actually begin to direct your life by going into discipline about how you speak about certain things.

I'm going to be positive. Let no unwholesome word Paul would say in Philippians 2 proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word is as good for edification. See, being filled with the Spirit gets real practical.

The experiential part can look different ways for different people. Depends, I think God often gives us experiences that we need. Early in my Christian life, because I didn't know anything and I really wondered about God, I had multiple what I would call very supernatural experiences. On the missions field, I've had some very supernatural wow God experiences, but I don't have those all the time. In fact, what I've learned is the more and more and more mature I've got over time is God expects me to actually believe His word and walk by faith and not live on dependency on experiences to keep my faith propped up. Now, I've got to tell you privately, I want all the yummy, supernatural, wonderful, outside the box experiences I can get. I do.

I mean, oh God, please. But faith isn't what? What did Paul say? We don't walk by sight, but by faith.

See, maturity is you begin to deal with real life where the rubber meets the road. The second is singing. What? In your heart. Have you noticed that when you're intimate with God, have you found that, you know, there's just a song in your heart? There's something about taking truth from your mind to your heart and your emotions that music does. Ask yourself, what kind of music do you listen to? What comes out of your mouth?

What do you sing? The third test is thankful. When you're filled with the Spirit, what's it say? It says, giving thanks for all things.

You know what that really does? That forces you to a level of a picture of God's goodness and sovereignty that's off the charts. It doesn't mean I say praise the Lord. Isn't it wonderful? I just wrecked my car. You know, praise the Lord.

My best friend's biopsy report came back positive. It's not this glad-handing, praise the Lord, speak something to existence. This is saying, look, if God is good and He's sovereign in a fallen world, you can be like Job and tell him how disappointed you are, and you can be like the psalmist who laments, and you can tell him how angry you are and how much it hurts, and then you work all that through, and then you say, and Father, in light of your sovereignty and goodness and faithfulness and power, I want to thank you. I want to thank you that you will use this for my good. I want to thank you that the evil of the world and the enemy and all the things that I don't understand is I choose to give thanks in things and for all things because they don't come to me randomly. Every issue that ever comes into my life is either ordained by you or it's gone through the filter of your grace, and you're going to use this in me and through me or those I love. And all of life isn't about now.

There is a heaven that is real, and some scores will be only settled there. I trust you. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Before we hear the rest of Chip's message, let me remind you that we are a listener-supported ministry. Your financial gifts help us create programs like this one, develop new resources, and encourage pastors globally. Prayerfully consider supporting us today. Then go to livingontheedge.org to give a gift.

Thanks so much for your help. Well, here again is Chip. When you learn to say thanks in all things and for all things by faith, you are saying you trust a good and kind and sovereign God. And I will tell you, when you do that, the only person that can give you that power is that holy, living, indwelling person that's manifesting the love of God in your heart and the holiness of God in your heart and the power of God in your heart. And the Holy Spirit isn't just some neutral, religious vapor. The Holy Spirit takes the written word of God, and as you renew your mind, he takes the written word and makes it the living word in your heart, and it bursts inside of you the reality of his presence. If you don't have the raw material of God's word, the Holy Spirit has little to work with to transform you. That's why trying hard does not work. The Bible doesn't say, don't be conformed to this world, but try really hard not to be.

Does it? What's the Bible say? Don't be conformed to this world, be transformed, metamorphosized from the inside out by the renewing of your mind.

Why? So you can be disciplined and legalistic and tell people how much you know. What's it say? What's the end of that verse? So you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might test or taste or prove or demonstrate what God's will looks like, the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. And so when you're controlled by the Holy Spirit, it affects your speech. It affects your heart and your attitude and your joy level and your song.

It develops this gratitude 24-7 for all things. And then the last one, as you study them carefully, they're harder to fake progressively. I mean, I can say the right thing in my heart and not be doing so well, right? Well, it's hard to sing.

I can sort of try that one. To give thanks, it gets tougher. But notice the last one. It's submission. Submit to one another in love. It's the Spirit of God. Jesus, not my will, Father, but yours. It's giving preference to one another in honor. It's treating others the way you would want to be treated. See, the Spirit of God filling you and filling me dramatically changes us and makes us more and more like Jesus. At the end of the day, being filled by the Spirit is just by His power through His Word in the context of community is just making you more and more like Jesus. And you know what? Here's the deal. You can be filled with the Spirit at 9.10 in the morning and unfilled with the Spirit at 9.20. Can't you? It's 9.10. I just sang a song.

The kids are doing well. Everything's fine. Someone just cut in front of me. I can't believe that guy. The flesh wages war against the Spirit. You're filled with the Spirit. Just read the Word. So thankful for my mate.

She said this. I feel rejected. Now I'm pouting now. Now I feel bitter. Now I feel resentful. Now I'm thinking how to pay him back. I think I'm going to be not very affectionate at all. I'm going to be really quiet.

I'm going to make him pay. You're not filled with the Spirit. So what do you do? It's not magic. When you recognize that what's coming out of your mouth doesn't represent the Spirit's control, when you recognize the thoughts in your heart are not the Spirit's control, when you recognize that you're complaining and whining and negative and critical, that's the flesh. When you recognize that it's about you and your rights and your program and your agenda and your way, that's not the Spirit. But you know what?

This is not like some magic formula. You know what you do? The moment you catch that, you stop and you say, Father, in the name of Jesus, I want to ask you to forgive me for grieving that holy, tender Spirit living within me that's your presence. I've sinned. And I ask you to cleanse me. And you said that if I confess, if I acknowledge, if I agree with you about what I've done, you are gracious and faithful and you'll forgive my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness according to your promise in 1 John 1.9. And then you say, Lord, will you give me the power to now take the right next step?

And the right next step might be, you know, kids, I don't want you running out in the street, but screaming the way I did and calling you those two names isn't what Daddy is supposed to do. And I want you to forgive me because God has. Or, honey, you know, when you said that, I just want you to know, you know, when you confess your sins to one another, that you might be healed. See, the issue in terms of principles to remember is not getting more of the Holy Spirit.

It's him getting more of you. I have a picture and I want you to imagine with me just a house, the outline of a house, okay? And then put boxes inside the house of different rooms in the house, you know, the playroom, you know, the living room, the hobby room, the bedroom, the kids' room, your work room, just you are the house and the just compartments of your life. And then in the bottom left-hand corner, I want you to put, you know, sort of you scribble a little picture of like a furnace, you know, a furnace in a house and, you know, I put HS there, Holy Spirit. And in a house is what you know is that you have all the heat that's generated is from the furnace, correct? And there's a duct system that goes into every room, right? And there's little vents, you know, and if you're like me, if you don't use some of the rooms and you don't want to heat them or you don't want to cool them, what do you do? You go and you shut the vent, correct? Here's what I want you to know.

Here's the word picture. If you're a follower of Jesus and you're born again, the Holy Spirit lives in you, okay? He dwells in you. The Father and Jesus make His abode by this indwelling person with this unlimited power that raised Christ from the dead.

So you've got all the power you need. Now, what happens is progressive sanctification is that the duct system is already in your house, your work life, your thought life, your sex life, your money life, your relational life, your hobby life, and the duct system is there. And as God begins to speak to your life, pretty soon what you do is you sort of, for some of us, it was pretty obvious, you know, in some areas, work life or relationship life, we open the vent and the heat of the Holy Spirit, right?

If you open the vent, it takes what about 30 or 45 minutes, that the influence of the heat that's being generated in the furnace, travels up the ducts, and it begins to influence the temperature of that room. And what many of us have is a very patchwork affair. And so God is working in some areas of your life and there's some where the vents close. And for some, it's a secret.

It's a pornography issue or it's a thinking issue or it's a workaholic issue or it's an alcohol issue or it's a prescription drug issue or it's a bitterness, I can't forgive so and so issue, and that vent is closed. And there's bitterness that happens in that. And so being filled with the Holy Spirit has to do with being yielded. It's recognizing where God wants to work and it's that living sacrifice. It's therefore my dear brothers and sisters in view of God's great mercy to offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him.

That's your reasonable service. It's that Romans 6 presenting your bodies, recognizing you're dead to sin but alive to God and presenting your members to Him. And so being filled with the Holy Spirit is primarily an issue of obedience, yieldedness, and surrender. Obedience to what you know. Yieldedness to open the vent and say, oh Lord, I have carried around and when I sit really quietly, when I get really close to you, and by the way, the reason that many of us struggle with prayer is that it's very hard to pray when you want to hang on to stuff that when you know if you're really quiet and you're really honest, the Holy Spirit keeps bringing it back up, right?

That's why some of you are busy a lot. Silence is definitely painful because the only one in the room is you and God. And when you sit quietly, you've never forgiven Him. He walked out nine years ago, you haven't forgiven Him.

Yeah, but, you know, you haven't forgiven Him. You've got to deal with this issue. You don't eat because you're hungry. You're eating to medicate yourself. I don't want that for you.

You can keep taking that blood pressure medicine and doing this and doing this and doing that and doing that. I want to bring healing to your soul. See, we have a lot of sort of Christian acceptable sins that are killing us in our relationships and in our bodies, in our hearts and in our souls. And Jesus wants to live in you more fully and part of it is just going through and opening the vent and saying, okay, I want you to influence this area. And surrender is just you tell me what it looks like to obey you and I'll do it. And I don't know.

See, that's why everyone wants a formula, everyone wants to do these three things, read so many chapters, pray a prayer, do this, take a walk, take a silent retreat. You know what? I don't know what God wants you to do, but He lives inside of you. Don't you think He'd tell you if you ask Him?

Don't you think He wants to? What if you believed He loved you so much that anything hard you're supposed to face, He'd be real gentle and He would do it for your good. And whatever embarrassment or humiliation or struggle, that He'd be with you in it and that He'd want to make you whole. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, is from our series, The Holy Spirit. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. In this eight part series, Chip takes the mystery out of this critical third part of the Trinity. Join us in key passages across Scripture that illustrate the Holy Spirit's power, presence, purpose, and relevance to our lives today.

Learn why He is more than a spiritual force and how a meaningful relationship with the Holy Spirit can lead to deeper intimacy with God the Father. Let me encourage you to stick around for each message. But if you do miss any part, catch up through the Chip Ingram app. Chip's here in studio with me now to share a quick word with all of you.

Chip? Thanks, Dave. I want to share an important request with you. If Living on the Edge is ministering to you, would you consider returning the favor? If you've been listening but haven't yet become a financial partner with Living on the Edge, would you prayerfully consider sending a gift today?

And if you've given but could do it monthly, I can't tell you. It would make a huge difference. If we all pitched in, it would just make an incredible difference in terms of what we can do here to reach and care for more people. So thanks so much for all that you do, and thanks for just praying and doing whatever God shows you to do, and we will receive it with great gratitude.

Thanks, Chip. You know, it takes a team to do what God's called us to do, so we invite you to join us as we encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. Send in your gift or learn how to become a monthly partner by going to livingontheedge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or visit livingontheedge.org.

App listeners tap donate, and please know how much we appreciate your support. Well, with that, here again is Chip. As we wrap up today's program, I'd like you to lean back with me for just a minute, and I gave that picture of being filled with the Holy Spirit and all of that picture about the house with the furnace and you opening the vents to various areas of your life. It's not that you ever need to get more of the Holy Spirit.

It's that He needs to get more of you. And so what I want you to do is realize that if you're a follower of Jesus, the Spirit of God lives inside of you. Paul would actually say in Romans 8, if the Spirit doesn't live inside of you, you're not one of His children.

That's what happens when you pray to receive Christ. You're taken from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved Son, and the Spirit of God comes into your life. You're sealed with the Spirit. He deposited spiritual gifts, and He lives inside of you. And then there's this journey, okay?

Yes, you're completely forgiven. The penalty of all your sin is completely gone. And then there's this journey that we go on where this Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and He begins to change our thinking and our life and our heart and our values together.

And our job is to present ourselves. Remember Romans 6? We present ourselves as those who've been dead and have come alive, and we present ourselves as alive to God, and the Spirit of God then begins to change us.

Here's the question. As you listen to today, what is one of those vents or what is one of those rooms that God whispered and said, you need to give your recreational life to me, or you need to give your video life to me, or you need to present your tongue to me because you feel really bad when you blow up, or you feel bad when cuss words come out of your mouth, or maybe you need to give your financial life to me. I don't know what it is, but God can direct your life better than you can, and He wants to fulfill you. He wants to control you for your good and His glory. And so Father, right now I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus that you would reveal very specifically to every single person listening to my voice where they need to reach up and surrender and open the vent into an area of their life. And then Lord, I pray they would not only do that, but they would tell someone they trust what they've done and ask them, will you help me keep my commitments to Jesus? It's in His name and for His glory we pray. Amen.

Thanks, Chip. And if you're really serious about surrendering all of your life to Jesus, we want to help. Go to TrueSpiritualityOnline.org and check out our resources. You can order Chip's popular book, True Spirituality, get some small group materials, or watch a few insightful videos. These tools were designed to show you the clear path to becoming an all-in follower of Christ. Check them out today. That website again is TrueSpiritualityOnline.org. Well thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouin and I hope you'll join us again next time.