Having previously considered the Spirit’s work of convicting sinners and birthing them into God’s kingdom and newness of life, and having looked at the Spirit’s ministries of teaching and guiding believers, as well as enabling them to live and serve in love, this week’s focus is on the Spirit’s important work of filling and controlling God’s children.
Every genuine Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, according to Romans 8:9: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” Ephesians 5:18 goes a step further with the command, “Be filled with the Spirit.” Such is the testimony concerning the gathered believers on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:4: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Immeasurable
Of course, the Holy Spirit is not a substance to be measured in terms of “partially filled,” but is a divine Person who is present or not present — never partially present. Since the Holy Spirit cannot be apportioned piecemeal and is not a substance that can be measured, believers have understood that to be filled with the Spirit is to be under the Spirit’s control or dominion.
The idea of “filling” as “controlling” is found in the account of Jesus healing a paralytic, a miracle said to have resulted in onlookers being “filled with fear” (Luke 5:26). Fear was not a substance poured into them until it filled them. Rather, fear gripped them and became the controlling emotion of the moment. In a similar way, John 16:6 records an occasion when Jesus said to His disciples, “Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.”
Fullness
The idea, of course, is not fear or sorrow being substances that fill people, but emotions that take control and for the moment dominate. Hence, we might say a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit is one who is allowing the Spirit to control thoughts, emotions and actions.
Stephen was one of seven men appointed to a special ministry to widows. Acts 6:5 describes him as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” Like faith, the Holy Spirit cannot be apportioned or measured in terms of partially filling someone. Again, the idea is that faith, as well as the Spirit, dominated or controlled Stephen’s actions, so what others saw on the outside was evidence of what was possessing and influencing his conduct.
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