Filled

There are four things you need to know about the verb in Ephesians 5:18

Ephesians 5:18 (ESV) And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

"Be filled"

1. It's plural. The Holy Spirit is to be experience corporately. You must be filled in community. Most times you see the Holy Spirit come upon someone in the Old Testament, it is to an individual. Almost every time in the New Testament, it is to a group of people. Notice how the command continues in verse 19: "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,"


2. It is in the "ever" present tense. I'm not an English professor, but here's what I mean, it could be translated, "be being filled." Always receive the Holy Spirit. Always ask God. Every day, whenever you think of it, let the Holy Spirit be filling of your body and soul.

3. It is passive. You are the one who IS filled. You don't do the filling. Let it come. Stop thinking about your past or your denomination, and let the Lord fill You.

4. It is imperative! It's as if Paul is commanding here. "BE FILLED NOW" is the sense of the verb's mood. Don't wait and do not hesitate. Just ask and receive.

We need the Holy Spirit. Every day and urgently. It is power for witnessing and builds the Church. I read online recently that the Evangelical movement owes most of its growth this past century to the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. It also said over half the world's born again Christians are from Spirit-filled churches. 

Every time the Early Church was on the move, it was the Holy Spirit leading and speaking to them. Setting apart people for mission, empowering proclamation, illuminating understanding. We need the Holy Spirit infilling today.

It's also understandable why the devil loves to us us to pick fights over the Holy Spirit. He knows the power of the Holy Spirit better than we do.  And if he can get us demonizing each other over it because we just have to think "we are right and everyone else is wrong" he can relax and drag souls to hell. But the Church didn't start moving forward until the Holy Spirit moved inward. 

The same is true for me and you.

BE FILLED!

PRAYER:
Father I ask you to fill me with the Holy Spirit. I ask you for fresh touching fresh filling so that I may do your work. I ask for power to witness and to share Christ with as many people as possible. I ask that Jesus Christ be glorified in me and empower me to change and be conformed into His image through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. 

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