184: Be Always Being Filled
- Our lives are not to be influenced, or controlled, under the subjection of earthly influences like wine and drunkenness because that dissipates life.
- The Spirit builds up, and doesn’t tear down. Controlled by the Spirit, flooded with the Spirit.
- Ephesians 5:18
- Acts 2:1-4
- Acts 19:1,2
God Intended Being Filled With The Holy Spirit To Be A Continual Thing, “Walk In The Spirit” It Is To Be A Way Of Life Every Day
- The Holy Spirit will come upon you as needed throughout life and ministry.
- Be always filled with the Holy Spirit.
Thank you Pastor Jeff for this Podcast, I am far behind in my podcasts, but God knew what I needed to hear! When we are off, God is always on. As someone who has come from a complicated up bringing, born into a catholic family and went to church with my neighbors every Sunday who were Pentecostal. I was very unsure of The Holy Spirit, as I have seen some things at the Pentecostal church and when attending Catholic church on Holidays, it was quite different. As I grew up and The Lord eventually Saved me, and HIS Spirit fell upon me, it was at first event after event. Thats what I grew to know. As I now am in a deeper walk with Christ, I see that HE calls us to continue to be led by HIM. always being led by HIM and seeking HIS Spirit to lead us and fall upon us, how else can we counsel? We cannot and should not. If it is not from HIM, About HIM or For HIM. It is of us, and that is not Spirit lead.
Very helpful observation that people come because of a lack of victory in their lives. The ‘solution’ to turn back to the cross and walk daily by the Spirit of God. Constant dependency. Not looking for emotional / spiritual highs, but this consistent walking worthy in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Yes, Ann-Louise. I agree with you. As we continue to walk in HIS fullness, we are walking according to HIS Will, not our own. It sometimes is easier to rely on our own “Knowledge” but why? We are nothing apart from Christ. We can give “Good” advice or give Truth! HE is truth.
Wonderful, informative podcast Pastor Jeff!
It does matter how we care for the outside of ourselves physically, as well as mental and spiritual. We have Drs for physical, biblical counselors for mental and the Holy Spirit for Spiritual health. So important. Good word!
Amen! Yes, We have Dr’s, Biblical Counselors and The BEST of all The Holy Spirit! So thankful for HIS mercies and grace that allow us to be used by HIM.
Another excellent podcast! It has caused me to think of my mother and Grandma counseling concerning the events that have come about in our son and grandchildren’s lives. Divorce is devasting especially when other things are packaged with it. I too need to make sure I am getting enough sleep, staying hydrated and eating well, exercising, and staying in the Word and maintaining my walk with the Lord every day.
I agree with Dr Lloyd Jones that there is a subsequent work of the Holy Spirit. It just makes sense with the doctrine of sanctification. I am a testimony of that kind of walk with the Spirit in my life and am so very grateful. We can help people discover that even though they feel like the sand is giving way around their house, they can still get down to the bedRock, THE Corner Stone. And with the Holy Spirit’s empowering, inundating, filling, coming upon them they can rebuild their lives with more foundational truths from the Word of God to be able to stand upon them for the rest of their life and help others as well.
What a wonderful gift we are given as believers. The filling of the Holy Spirit must line up with Scripture. We must also remember that the Holy Spirit’s work is to glorify our Lord and Savior. It is about fulfilling the needs as God directs and not according to man’s ideas, wisdom, and resolve. God will honor our request to be filled with the Spirit as we trust, seek, and rely upon Him. Great point: He has us but we don’t always have him or we can miniize the power of the Holy Spirit as we are hindered by the flesh. I believe that in order for the Holy Spirit to fill us, we must be humbled and submitted to the will of God. Prayer is also an important part to ask and realize the filling of the Holy Spirit
Humility and submission are paramount attitudes in our walk with God. No grieving or quenching of the Spirit. I believe James 5:16, “Confess your faults to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”, plays a big part in it all too.
Walking in the Spirit is a way of life! A full life with many memorable events that strengthen our walk with Christ. As Jeff said it is definitely a moment by moment decision to rely on Him.
Have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit? Are you walking in the Spirit? Great questions that get to the roots.
I love how you (Pastor Jeff) said that the Holy Spirit within should be a daily walk and work. I love that. Yes, there can be special events but I know He guides me constantly because there are days I hear the Lords voice, urging me to either turn or speak or mostly don’t speak. Praise Him for that daily.
Be always being filled… a way of life walking in the spirit. instead of being under the influence of alcohol be under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing wrong with noticing special events where God moved yet we should be continually looking to be filled with the spirit continually not just from event to event. We shouldn’t look for events where The Spirit falls on us we need to press forward looking to The Holy Spirit daily.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you and empower you! So encouraging.
I agree, Landon. I love the scripture that says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” I want my daily life to be that kind of testimony to Christ.
Always being filled isn’t always the feel-good all the time in life. To always be filled is in the everyday fun and not-so-fun parts of life. John 14:15 through 31 speaks of Jesus’s promises of the Holy Spirit. In John 14:16, Jesus says He will pray to the Father and give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, and in verse 17, he says the Spirit will be in you. “Wow, He will abide with you forever” We can choose to live with God the Holy Spirit and commune with Him daily. We are called to live in constant trust unto the Lord. The world’s values are opposite of God’s values. We must continually pray and seek the Holy Spirit daily to overcome the obstacles that get in the way. God will not dwell where sin is, so we need to repent of our hidden sin or resentment because it can block what the Holy Spirit may want to tell us. He convicts us of sin, helps us to change daily as we walk with him, and lean on Him for guidance. He can help us through any struggle we encounter in daily life and help lead us through the daily struggles we face. We will hear God’s voice if we keep reading God’s word and constantly walk in prayer. I have learned that sometimes when he is quiet, he is doing work as I prayerfully wait for his guidance. I have learned that I can’t always be the one doing the talking. I need to rest, wait and listen.
Kristen, your comment prompted me to add on what my Pastor had just spoken on Sunday. My Pastor asked the question “Are you communing with God?” (in reference to reading daily and praying) and I had to then ask the question “Or are you unwilling to sacrifice?” (in reference to the passage in Numbers 28-29 on the offerings).
What you said aligned so well with that teaching. If we do not abide in Christ, Christ cannot abide in us or work out His fruit in our lives (John 15). Thank you for your post!
Love that kristen. A daily, prayerful walk of dependency! Amen.
I love the expression that Pastor Jeff used in this episode. Our lives, being filled by the Holy Spirit, is not an “event to event” way of life. One way that I heard this explained, years ago, was “we cannot grow our faith waiting for the next mountaintop.” Referencing, of course, several stories from scripture where our hero’s of the faith had one-on-one encounters with God on a mountaintop. I also heard it said that if you observe creation, mountains and valleys; the growth and vegetation happens in the valleys. The same is true about us: we are given the privilege of having these occasional spiritual mountaintop moments in our lives, but the growth happens when we are in the valleys. Faith is strengthened in the waiting, because faith isn’t required until we are required to wait.
Yes, we see such a fantastic view from the mountain top, but the struggles in the valleys and trails to the next mountain top are all of the building and preparing for the next mountain top view. I appreciate the view if I have walked the path and had my aches and pains as I move towards the one who made the mountain view. Sometimes the best views are the ones where we look back at all we went through to get there. The same is for the event-to-event way of life. We lose the appreciation of the event if we skip all the work in between.
Ah, what a good picture. I was going through a hard time and reflecting on my past sins, and I coined this phrase “Over the mountain and into the Valley.” (referring to the valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23) God rescued me from my sins (the mountain I could not climb) and now walks with me through the darkened valley, yet there are green pastures that He leads me to if I am faithful to obey His calling.
Many of us today and our counselees settle for temporary highs that Paul talks about in Ephesians 5:18, when he speaks of getting drunk with wine. The world offers us temporary pleasures where the Holy Spirit offers and delivers on a daily basis lasting and permanent joy. Like Pastor Jeff said I can look back on my life and see many different events in my life where the Holy Spirit was directing me. However, it wasn’t until I submitted my life to His will on a daily basis that I truly experienced the continual filling of the Holy Spirit that brought real change in my life. We need to help our counselee see that submission to God’s will in their lives will help them to experience the fullness of the Spirit’s working and His power in and through them. The Spirit can be grieved (Eph. 4:30) and quenched (1 Thess.5:19) in their lives depending on their actions.
Totally Don.
So important to encourage counselees to consistently be looking the Word and Holy Spirit on the day to day so simple and so important.
Thank you for your post, Don. Please pray for my father, as he is going through a season of quenching the Holy Spirit in his life. I want to continue to live in submission to the Holy Spirit and learn His ways – though I often get sidetracked. I praise God for His good work in your life, Don!
I agree Don the submission to Gods will daily helps to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
(#184)
Redeeming words from the secular and “overly religious” world is important, a word such as “counselor” is a great example. I appreciate the focus of BCA to depend fully on the scriptures for our understanding and to own what God has provided for His people. I stand in awe that our Savior God intends to fill us with His Spirit…again and again and again. Just as we are to remain continually grafted into Jesus, The True Vine, so should we continually be experiencing His Spirit power to continually be flowing through us. I confess that there have been times that I allowed myself to become spiritually dry but the Lord taught me to sit under worship music, and to focus on the beauty of Jesus, and I could feel my life being filled with His presence once again.
I agree Laura our actions can either diminish the Holy Spirit in our lives or fill our lives with His presence. Our focus in life usually dictates our actions.
I can relate to having spiritually dry seasons and worshiping Christ with thanksgiving is where I begin to feel his presence and the filling of the Spirit again.
I liked that connection you made, Jeff, concerning “being influenced” by either drunkenness or the Spirit. I had never thought of it that way. DUI’s are “Driving Under Influence” – what Spiritual co-pilot are we being influenced by? The flesh or the Holy Spirit?
Another contrast I had never thought about is that, you can be continually filled with wine “physically” with the continuation of drinking. If Christ is the Living Water, we should be drinking His Living Water and continue to be filled Spiritually with His Holy Spirit. I was going to ask “How do we do this?” but I think the next verses in Ephesians 5 tell us. 5:19-21 “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.”
As a retired Police Officer I can tell you many people allow the world to be not only their co-pilot but their driver. Imagine if the world allowed the Holy Spirit to be the driver.
Kayla,
Yes I was encouraged by that connection as well you see so many people that will go to the store to fill there refrigerators with alcohol and then drink it until they are drunk but we as believers have it even easier to become under the influence of The holt Spirit we just have to ask what a blessing .
Love that imagery of the Holy Spirit as co pilot.