FILLING WITH THE SPIRIT

FILLING WITH THE SPIRIT

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,” Eph. 5:18

Much has been written about this injunction, and everything has been of value. It certainly is a central word to the saints. To men outside the Christian experience it has no meaning. For them, the first necessity is that they should be born of the Spirit, that they should receive Him. To those that have been so born, and who therefore have become temples of the Holy Spirit, the one and inclusive responsibility is that they should obey this word. The filling of the Spirit is not an event which takes place once; it is rather a continuous experience which has to be maintained. The indwelling Spirit is a spring of living water. As He is yielded to, He fills all the life, and persistently to such an extent that the rivers overflow, and running forth bring life to those beyond. This filling is hindered when any part of the life is shut up against the Spirit. Our constant responsibility is that of yielding ourselves to His inspection, to His direction, to His effective operation. As we do so, He fills, and that means He cleanses, energizes, and transforms the life; and so passes out through the life in the influences which heal and help others. It is interesting to read the words immediately following, in which the Apostle gives us two results which always follow the filling of the Spirit.

1. The first is that of the exercise of praise, which glorifies God.

2. The second is that of mutual submission, which ministers to the needs of others.

Thus the filling of the Spirit means the end of the self-centered life; and the realization of such life as glorifies God and blesses men. In proportion as Christian men and women are today filled with the Spirit of God, is the measure in which they will cooperate with Him in this hour of calamity, and the evil day will be bought up in the economy of the Kingdom of God.

But why connect with drinking? That seems a strange bringing together of opposites. Behind both is the common lust, the same desire. Why does a man drink wine? Because the taking of it opens a window, lifts him, exhilarates him. I dare not say enthuses him, for the difference between enthusiasm and excitement is radical. The word “excitement” simply means things in rapid movement without order. Enthusiasm means God-filled. But the man is after vision, light, excitement, lilt, and lift. What does a man obtain when he is filled with the Spirit of God? Vision, lift, enthusiasm, the thing that puts him high above all the troubles of life and enables him to keep beneath his triumphant feet the very things which perplex and harass and make difficult the way of man. The desire for the vision, for the lift, for the sense of fullness of life-it is that which drives a man to drink.