What Does It Mean to Be Filled with the Spirit? [1 ed.] 9780834126176

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What Does It Mean to Be FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT? RICHARD

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TAYLOR

Permanent FHa Copy PLEASE RETURN TO Nazar.C)B.e l'llhllsbing House

Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri

Copyright 1995 by Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City [SBN 083-411-5611 Printed in the United States of America Cover design: Royce Ratcliff All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the New King James Version (NKN) . Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. Permission to quote from other cOPYnghtedversions of the Bible is acknowledged with appreciation: The New American Standard Bible (NASB), © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. The Holy Bible, New International Version~ (NIV~). Copyright © 1973, 1978,1984 by International Bible Society: Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.

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CONTENTS Foreword

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1. Filling the Void

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2. Who Is the Spirit, and What Does He Do?

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3. The Idea of Fullness

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4. Two Kinds of Christians?

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5. A Short Grammar Lesson

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6. The First Word: Speaking

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7. The Second Word: Singing

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8. The Third Word: Giving Thanks

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9. The Fourth Word: Submitting

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10. The Simplicity of Being Filled

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Notes

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FOREWORD No one is more qualified to explain what it means to be filled with the Spirit than Richard Taylor. His credibility as an interpreter of Scripture is supported by many years in the classroom as a professor in both graduate and undergraduate institutions in the United States and abroad. His concern for born-again Christians to achieve their full potential in spiritual development was cultivated in his pastorates, where he served admirably and successfully. His books, written over the span of many years, have illuminated the way God wants His followers to travel. Now he has done it again. How fortunate we are that Dr. Taylor has refused to lay down his pen in his retirement years! What Does It Mean to Be Filled with the Spirit? was written with laypersons in view. Theologians, however, will find these pages stimulating and enlightening as well. Those who know what it is to be filled with the Spirit from personal experience will find this book a wonderful affinnation of that experience. Those who are seeking will find adequate instructions on how to receive Him in 7

His wholeness. Those who have wondered, yet were never sure, will thrill over the prospects of grace available to them. I feel there will be positive response from all who take time to read these pages. I personally found it to be one of those "hard to lay down" manuscripts and continued until I had read it in its entirety. My confidence is that you too will enjoy and appreciate what Dr. Taylor has written. -JERALD D. JOHNSON General Superintendent Church of the Nazarene

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And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. -EPHESIANS 5:18-21

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1 Filling the Void When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they lost from their hearts the happy presence of the Holy Spirit and the sweet contentment of His daily fellowship. As a result they not only became depraved themselves but also transmitted their own fallen nature to their posterity. Along with this corruption, humankind became afflicted with a haunting inner void. Their hearts were empty, for the One for whom they had been created was no longer with them in the way they had known Him before. They were like a glove that had lost the fullness of a hand or a bird with wings but no sky in which to fly. For man was created with a nature that fitted perfectly the nature of God and will not function properly without that union. All the quarrels, divorces, and wars in the world are signs of this malfunctioning. 11

• .• FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?

When God is gone from the human heart, it is lonely, frustrated, and frightened. All people everywhere, consciously or unconsciously, are seeking something to fill that void and recover life's meaning. Wine is named as the symbol of the many fleshly ways men and women across the centuries have tried to fill the void. Other ways are sexual pleasure, the pursuit of money, the climb to power, and praise from others. The ways symbolized by wine are not the only ways men and women try to fill the void. Other ways may be wholesome, legitimate, and even constructive in themselves, such as the solution of problems, the pursuit of scientific discoveries, the creation of useful inventions, or the mastery of the fine arts. These ways seem fulfilling and actually bring a measure of inner satisfaction-but they fall short of reaching the inner core of the soul's craving. All are like ''wine fullness" in that they promise more than they can give. They are false gods. Like wine, they bewitch with a sense of wisdom and power; but the power is capricious, and the wisdom crumples before the profound enigmas of life. And like wine, they are addictive and monopolizing. They demand the time, energy, and total commitment that rightfully belong to 12

FILLING THE VOID

Christ. Thus, they keep the person blinded by keeping him preoccupied. He then lives and breathes making money or mastering tennisor whatever-so that there is not time for spiritual matters. In this way, even the so-called finer things can become destructive in the end, for one's deepest hungers are stifled. Even great music can be an emotional substitute for the inner satisfaction of knowing God. These substitutes create within the soul a fixation on the lesser. They drug the soul into accepting echoes for reality until the soul ceases to know they are mere shadows. By playing an out-of-tune instrument, we become conditioned to "out-of-tuneness" and then forget that there is a tone trueness. These blinded worldlings squander life as the indolent squander time or the profligate squander wealth. And so, in the end, life is dissipated as truly as when debauched by wine. It is wasted. The high and lofty designs God had in mind, both for time and eternity, are missed. The loss is incalculably tragic, both for this world and the next. What, then, is the Scripture telling us by the command '~d do not be drunk with wine, ... but be filled with the Spirit" CEph. 5: 18)? It is 13

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saying, "Stop seeking to fill that void by self-invented, humanistic ways of the flesh! Let God fill that void! Only He can. It was the loss of His inner presence that caused the void in the first place." After centuries of wandering and groping (as a human race), the ~me has come to return to the soul's true home. B'eing filled with the Spirit is simply recovering the lost relationship God intended in creation .. When the Spirit abides in His fullness, we are well on the way toward the recovery of our whole and normal selves. No one was ever made better by wine-always worse. No one was ever made worse by the fullness of the Spirit-always better. No one was ever made stronger by wine-always weaker. No one was ever made weaker by the Spirit-always stronger. No one was ever made truly free by winealways enslaved. No one was ever enslaved by the Spirit-always set free. While subject to the Spirit and gladly obedient, Spirit-filled believers are the freest of all. They are enabled to do what they know they ought to do. They are empowered to escape the frustration of Romans 7. They are emancipated from the addiction to entertainment. They are set free to love and serve without the 14

FILLING THE VOID

contamination of smut and sin. They are released to become the persons God intended them to be.

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2 VVhoIsiheSpllit, and VVhat D'oes He Do? The Holy Spirit (sometimes designated simply as "the Spirit," as in Eph. 5:18) is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. The Scripture teaches that God is one rather than multiple (Deut. 6:4). But Scripture also compels us to perceive God as three in one. The distinctions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eternal distinctions within God himself. It is therefore proper to speak of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. What is the special ministry of the Holy Spirit? First, He is to make God the Father and God the Son real to us. Second, He is to accomplish in our hearts and lives all the benefits that God the Son made possible by His death and resurrection. Central to this task is our sanctification (2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2). 16

WHO IS THE SPIRIT, AND WHAT DOES HE 007

In this section let us look at the Spirit's ministry in making the Father and the Son real to us. The Spirit represents God and Christ to us. He is Their Spokesperson. It is the Holy Spirit who is the immediate one-on-one contact between God and our hearts. When we feellonely for God, when we are ashamed of sin, when we are restrained from an unholy action, when our vagrant thoughts are rebuked, when we are drawn to Jesus and helped to repent and believe-at every such point in our lives we are being ministered to by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit moves upon our feelings, influences our thoughts, and disturbs our consciences. Because we do not see Him, we are often unaware that it is He. But it is. These movements of the soul are not selfgenerated. Humankind is too corrupt to have even the capacity for that. In their free agency (what is left of it), they have the capacity to resist the Spirit but not to initiate the Spirit's work. This means that men and women hunger for God only by the quickening of the Holy Spirit. They discover their sinfulness only by His awakening. It is possible to perceive Jesus as the Savior and to believe on Him in true penitence only as the Spirit helps us. This is what 17

• •• FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?

the Scripture means when it assures us that "no one can say [from the heart] that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3). To resist the Spirit, therefore, is fatal. For when we cut ourselves off from the Spirit, we cut ourselves off from the Father and the Son. This is the reason Jesus told us that sinning against (resisting arid blaspheming) the Spirit leaves no ground for forgiveness (Matt. 12:32), for without honot:ing the Spirit, there can be no possibility of repentance. Two important truths about the Spirit must be held in tension. They are in tension because holding one makes it at times difficult to keep a firm grasp on the other. The first truth is that of the Spirit's universality. He is omnipresent among us. Jesus the God-Man accepted the limitation of locality. He was in one spot at a time on earth and today is at the right hand of the Father. t The Spirit is not thus limited. He is near the primitives in the highlands of Papua New Guinea as immediately as He is near the Sunday School pupils of the church around the corner. And the Spirit influences them, though they know it not. An elderly couple was debating the pros and cons of predestination versus the offer of salvation to all. The man argued that the Spirit 18

WHO IS THE SPIRIT, AND WHAT DOES HE 001

spoke redemptively only to those elected by God. His wife protested, saying (as she pointed to the gently swaying poplar trees in front of their house), "Show me a leaf that has never been moved by the wind, and I will show you a soul that has never been touched by the Spirit of God." The tragedy is that men and women cannot know the Holy Spirit until they hear the story of Jesus, who lived as a man in a land called Palestine almost 2,000 years ago and who died on the Cross and rose again. Then when they come to believe in God the Son and experience His forgiveness and His new life, they can also come to know God the Holy Spirit (John 14:17). The other important truth that must be held firmly is the Spirit's personhood. He is the Third Person. Granted, the word person for us in our humanity means a separate and totally private individual. The word Person in respect to the Trinity does not imply such separateness; it does mean a divine functioning as a Person, even though never in independence of the other Persons. But it is this functioning as a Person that makes it appropriate for us to refer to Him as He (never it!), for He acts freely toward us in personal relationship. We can speak 19

· .. FILLED WITH THE SPIRITI .

to Him, and He can speak to us (see, e.g., Acts 8:29). One of the most common, yet most deplorable, errors respecting the Spirit is speaking of Him and treating Him as a nonperson. Even some theologians explain the Spirit as "God's power," "God's activity," or "God's invisible influence," to which we give a name merely for the sake of convenience. On the other hand, folk religion. often confuses the Spirit with a certain kind of feeling. The answer to all this is nein! '~d do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (Eph. 4:30). Only persons with feelings and consciousness can be grieved. "You always resist the Holy Spirit," declared Stephen to the Jewish leaders; "as your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51). The bold accusation cost him his life, but their resistance cost them their souls.

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3 The Idea of Fullness Any child understands what a full glass of water is. But even a well-educated adult has difficulty grasping the concept of being full of the Holy Spirit. It is an elusive idea. It is easier to see the picture if we reduce Spirit to spiritwith a small s. We can then talk about a spirited horse or a high-spirited child. We can say, "He is full of spirit"-meaning energy and drive. But the concept before us is not that at all. It is a question of being full of a divine Person. Jesus said to the disciples, "He dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:17). So we are sure of this much: the Spirit's presence is not outside us or even surrounding us, but in us. The event of Pentecost matched the promise, for we read that those who had tarried in the Upper Room ''were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4). This means that in some way the Spirit had taken residence in the very 21

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citadel of their souls. He was where their thinking took place. He was where their feelings occurred. He was where their decisionmaking "apparatus" was. The glass full of water is not the best picture of Spirit fullness. The idea of wind filling all the house may b~ more helpful. One of the three inaugural signs of the new dispensation that occurred on the Day of Pentecost was that of the "sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind" that "filled the whole house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:2). Then in verse 4 we read, "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit." The fullness of the sound of wind suggests how we can understand the fullness of the Spirit. It is the Spirit taking over the whole house-upstairs and downstairs, kitchen, bedroom, closets, attic-and yes, the treasure chests too. But, of course, this implies that we have given Him all the keys. There is no fullness without the surrender of the keys. There are other problems. While the picture of fullness may now be clearer to our minds, we may still wonder, "How can one person be inside another?" It is possible only if the guest person is a spirit and gets inside us as a spirit. In such a relationship, he can make himself 22

THE IDEA OF FULLNESS

known and influence our lives. This happens in demon possession, as anyone knows who has seen this nightmarish bondage. Demons first influence; then, if yielded to, they take over, so the demon-possessed person becomes helpless. The demon uses the individual's body and mind, even his vocal cords, to assert his presence. Demon possession robs the victim of freedom and progressively destroys his personhood. Is Spirit fullness like that? In one way, yes. As in the case of demons, the Spirit must be yielded to if He is to come in. Another similarity is very striking. The Spirit can command our physical body and control even our vocal cords, as He did when He caused the 120 to speak in languages they had not previously learned (Acts 2:4-11). Occasionally the Holy Spirit does this today when He sees that the evangelistic situation requires it. This is a sovereign action ("as He wills," the Scripture says in 1 Cor. 12:11) that can be imitated but not duplicated-and cannot be commanded. And this rare action should never become the basis for defining what is normative in the Spirit-filled life. It is not normative. But Spirit fullness is also very different from demon possession. The Holy Spirit's presence is 23

· .. FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?

healing, quieting, and freeing. He is always gentle, never forcing His way and never violating our free wills. Even in those rare times when He controls us physically, it is with those of us who have consecrated ourselves to be used as He wishes. He will leave if unwanted. But as long as He is welcomed by us, He .can -quicken our minds to understand His truths -quicken our wills to be able to obey -quicken our sensitivities to the needs around us -quicken our awareness of invisible realities including angels, demons, Christ, and heaven -quicken our consciences to sound an alarm at the slightest approach of sin -quicken our sense of the orderly, the proper, the good, the beautiful, and the true. This means that the Spirit will mold us away from coarseness toward refinement, away from back-alley tastes to cultivated tastes, away from boorishness to good manners, away from slovenliness to cleanliness and neatness. "Slovenliness is an insult to the Holy Spirit" is a saying credited to Oswald Chambers. 24

THE IDEA OF FULLNESS

We need always to remember that it is the Holy Spirit we are talking about. Demons drive

their victims toward evil, including suicide. The Holy Spirit draws toward everything that is holy, pure, and good. One thing more. The Spirit sharpens our spiritual appetite, so we are "spoiled" toward the world but alive to the things of the Lord. We can't get enough of God, the Bible, church, and holy people. One thing He will not do is make us infallible. His control is not automatic or mechanical. When we are behind the wheel of our car, the steering responds instantly to our touch. Unless there is total collapse of the steering mechanism, the car never goes right when we tum the steering wheel left. But being filled with the Spirit does not reduce us to machines. We never become the Spirit's puppets. We sense His tug, His rebuke, His guiding us in a certain direction, but we remain the choosers, and we can resist the Spirit. Or we can miss His cue and go right when He says go left. In that case, we have misinterpreted His will. In other words, we made a mistake. Let us beware of permitting the notion ever to take hold of us that we are infallible because 25

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the Spirit is within. Our assertion of His special guidance, unchecked by Scripture and unevaluated by the Church, is a sure sign of the revival of the old self nature. Such an illusion plunges us down the road of disastrous fanaticism. But another gia!lt problem looms. Demons are many, plenty to ·go around. There is only one Holy Spirit. I am but one; He is one. How can He dwell in me and also dwell in you? In fact, He can dwell in every person in the world as completely as if there were only one person in the world for Him to indwell. This is one of the mysteries of God. But to some of us "science-ignorant" laypersons, that is not much more puzzling than the television picture that comes into our homes-from one source. A transmitting tower somewhere beams the picture simultaneously in every direction, and a hundred thousand or more television sets pick it up, and each one receives the whole picture (not a hundred-thousandth part of it), just as if there were one television receiver only. Explain that to me-to my satisfaction-and I may come closer to fathoming the wonder of a Holy Spirit, who can make himself available as a whole Person to millions of hearts without thinning out into a vapor. 26

4 Two Kinds of Christians? But we are still left with the most difficult question of all. Why the insistence on "fullness," rather than being content simply with "inwardness"? Because while all Christians have the Spirit, not all are filled with the Spirit. When the Scripture commands that we abstain from drunkenness, the command assumes an option. We can refrain. When in the same sentence the Scripture commands that we be filled with the Spirit, it is implied that at this moment we may not be filled with the Spirityes, as Christians. Paul is writing to a specific body of believers. They are Christians (whom he customarily calls "saints"). They have been born again. Furthermore, he says they have been "sealed" with the Spirit (Eph. 4:30). But they have not necessari27

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ly been filled with the Spirit. That is implied by the command to "be filled" (5:18). He is commanding a relationship with the Spirit into which many of them have not yet come. Attention should be called to the present tense of this command, which in Greek grammar indicates the n~ed for continuity. Live day by day a Spirit-filled .life, he is saying. But many Christians have not yet begun to live a Spirit-filled life. Therefore, there must be a starting point. Not only is it possible to be saved without yet being filled with the Spirit, but also it is possible to cease being filled with the Spirit without ceasing to be saved. Many a once-Spirit-filled Christian, once · alive with spiritual power, is now walking in the doldrums, yet plugging away in average Christianity. Open sin has not come in, but something precious has gone out. He or she may still have the Spirit but no longer be filled with the Spirit-which suggests that as Christians we may need at times to be reinfilled. That believers are not necessarily filled with the Spirit when born again is indicated in many ways in the Bible. The disciples had been born again in the sense of receiving the forgiveness of sins, and after the Resurrection, Je28

TWO KINDS OF CHRISTIANS?

sus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). But they were not filled with the Spirit until the Day of Pentecost. Neither were the Samaritan converts until the apostles came down to pray for this specific work of grace (Acts 8:14-17). Neither were the disciples at Ephesus filled with the Spirit, though they had been baptized with a "baptism of repentance," which in the Gospels implies forgiveness of sins. They were rebaptized in the name of Jesus (to bring their faith up to date-no longer in the One who was to come after John the Baptist, but in the One who had come); then the Spirit baptism came (Acts 19:1-7). Are Spirit baptism and Spirit fullness the same? Not entirely. Spirit baptism is the crisis experience by which we are brought into the state of fullness. The infilling experienced on the Day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of John's and Jesus' promise of the baptism with the Spirit. And that baptism was promised to God's people, not to sinners. "Whom the world cannot receive," declared Jesus, "because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him" (John 14:17). 29

· .. FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?

There is never an instance of Spirit baptism (Spirit infilling) that is not preceded and prepared for by some degree of authentic spiritual life. Even Peter's instruction at the end of his masterful sermon, when the conscience-smitten listeners exclaimed, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37), makes this clear. He said, "Repent, and let' every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you ~hall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (v. 38). Whether those baptized received the fullness of the Spirit one minute or six days later is irrelevant. They were told to become converted in order to be eligible. Forgiveness of sins comes first as the condition for being filled with the Spirit. The instructions laid down the requirements for eligibility. That the fullness does not necessarily accompany regeneration is indicated further by a simple observation. When it was time to establish the first board of deacons, the apostles said, "Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business" (Acts 6:3). Clearly not all of the believers were full of the Holy Spirit, any more than they were all full of wisdom and were of good reputation. 30

TWO KINDS OF CHRISTIANS?

It is especially noteworthy that the apostles assumed that these qualities would be recognizable. There is something about spiritual and practical wisdom that is recognizable. There is something about having a good reputation that is recognizable. There is equally something about being full of the Holy Spirit that is recognizable. We do not know how the election was carried out. We can assume that there was some sort of "search committee," for the instruction was to "seek out." Their seeking, with the threefold qualification in mind, eliminated many from consideration. Some were eliminated because their reputation had not yet been fully established. Others were eliminated because they had not demonstrated common sense, let alone wisdom. And still others were eliminated because their brethren did not sense in their lives the evidences of Spirit fullness. What, really, was the problem with these people? Why were they not Spirit-filled, even though born of the Spirit? Perhaps we can answer that by pointing to a related problem. The concept of fullness puzzles some, because they think it suggests that until we are full of the Spirit, we have only part of the Spirit. Since the idea of getting part 31

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of the Spirit now and the rest of Him later does not make sense to them, they stumble over the whole concept. And, of course, they are right. But they are creating their own problem by taking hold of the wrong end of the stick. The problem is not getting only part of the Spirit, but the Spirit getting only part of them. When we are born 'of the Spirit, we come into relationship with the entire Holy Spirit, not a fraction of Him. Bu,t even though we do not yet know it, He has only a fraction of us. There are pockets of resistance in our soul, pockets of reserve, pockets of secret idols, which make enjoying the Spirit in His fullness impossible. His ministry from conversion onward will be to reveal to us those pockets and work with us toward their dislodging. When the Holy Spirit has all of us, we have all of Him. Well known is a story about Dwight L. Moody. When some pastors were contemplating calling him for a citywide meeting, one jealous pastor growled, "Does Moody have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?" The quiet answer was given, "No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Moody." I once played a dilapidated old pump organ at a small camp meeting in the Northwest. For years I thought I had been filling the bellows 32

TWO KINDS OF CHRISTIANS?

with air so that the inward pressure would counteract the outward pressure. I supposed the sound was being made by the air rushing out from the full bellows across the sensitive reeds. Then one day an organ builder said to me, "No, you were not filling the bellows. You were emptying them. You were creating a vacuum to make way for the inrush of outside air when you depressed the keys." The Spirit cannot fill many of us because we are too full of ourselves. We must be willing to empty ourselves of our plans, our self-rights, our self-willfulness, our self-importance-then the Spirit gladly fills our hearts. It took the disciples 10 days to empty themselves of ill will and self-conceits, until they were ready for the great outpouring and infilling. When they were ready, He was ready.l

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5 A Short Grammar Lesson If you disliked grammar in school, you will be tempted to skip this section. Please don't do it-it is too important. The passage quoted at the beginning of our study, Eph. 5:18-21, is all one sentence. t This is true in the Greek, and the sentence is kept intact by the King James Version and the New King James Version. The importance of this is in the fact that these phrases express the outflow of Spirit fullness. To be more precise, the command "Be filled" is the primary verb, and this primary verb controls the string of dependent participles that follow. They are: speaking singing and making melody giving thanks submitting 34

A SHORT GRAMMAR LESSON

In other words, be filled with the Spirit, and Spirit fullness will express itself in these ways. The reverse is true also. No one is going to consistently and naturally speak this way, make melody in his or her heart this way, give thanks this way, or submit this way-unless he or she is filled with the Spirit. Only the Spirit within can make such a disposition possible and naturaL This kind of relationship to others and to life cannot be mastered by New Year's resolutions or by heroic moral effort. The carnal mind, with which we come into the world, goes against the grain of this kind of disposition. Only the fullness of the Holy Spirit can dislodge the carnal mind and change the grain of our inner nature. This passage is not a complete listing of the resources of the Holy Spirit within us. There are other facets of His work named in other passages of Scripture. According to John 16:13-15, the Spirit enlightens our spiritual understanding. 2 According to Acts 1:8 and 2:4, the Holy Spirit brings power-power for the kind of witnessing for Jesus that is effective. The Spirit enables the Church to communicate the gospel, some in one way and some in another. This 35

· •. fiLLED WITH THE SPIRIT?

power is not just for doing, but even more primarily for being. In the Book of Acts we see this power at work. In Acts 13:1-4 we learn that the Spirit is the Supervisor of the missionary task of the Church. In 1 Cor. 12-14 .we learn of the gifts of the Spirit, distributed according to His sovereign will. In Rom. 8:26-27 we learn that the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses and especially in our praying (see also Jude 20). In Gal. 5:22-23 is listed the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." In Acts 15:8-9; 2 Thess. 2:13; and 1 Pet. 1:2 we learn that our sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. Obviously these various strands of the Spirit's ministry are complementary to the passage we are studying in Ephesians. Let us now seek to understand the first mark: "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."

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6 The First Word: Speaking Just as drunkenness with wine debases, so in contrast does fullness of the Spirit elevate. It elevates the emotions, the tone of personality, and the spiritual sensitivity. There is an aura of spiritual reality, a certain positiveness in relating to life, and a distinct exuberance and vitality that marks Spirit-filled Christians. There is a dynamic overcoming in their lives. Nowhere is this seen more markedly than in the speech of Spirit-filled Christians. Wine loosens the tongue, but out flows uninhibited and uncensored gibberish. The Spirit loosens the tongue, too, but there flows communication that edifies others and glorifies God. It is significant that the Word does not say "speaking to one another [or, to yourselves, KJV] in unknown tongues." If Paul considered 37

• •• FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?

such speaking an indispensable evidence of being filled with the Spirit, this would have been the logical time and place to say so. On the contrary, the evidence that alone is important to him is that they communicate in forms of speech that everyone understands. This phrase, "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns' and spiritual songs," suggests a moral and spiritual quality that should mark the speech o.f all Christians at all times and in all places. Earlier in this chapter CEph. 5), the inspired writer warns against loose talk: "But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving ofthanks" Cvv. 3-4). It is easy for unsanctified Christians to forget this and drift into a kind of jesting that is not disciplined by good taste and may even be offcolor. When they permit this, they dishonor the name of Christ and grieve the Spirit. Moreover, they expose themselves to subtle temptations by the loosening of their own inhibitions. In contrast, one truly filled with the Spirit will manifest spiritual interests and seek to avoid talk that is not appropriate for God's people. 38

THE FIRST WORD: SPEAKING

A misunderstanding of this phrase, however, can bring one into unintended bondage. This expression of Spirit fullness indicates what a Spirit-filled Christian's prime interests are; it is not designed to be a straitjacket. The description is not to be taken in an extremely tight, literal sense, which supposes that all that Christians are permitted to do on a social level is to sit around in a circle reciting religious poetry. It is not intended to forbid having fun that is clean and wholesome. Nor is it forbidding humorous stories and anecdotes in their proper place. Nor does it exclude talking about cars and houses and other everyday matters of mutual interest. Even recreation and sports can have a legitimate place in one's field of interest, without any inconsistency with Spirit fullness. But if the Spirit is honored, He will be permitted to draw a boundary beyond which certain interests will not be allowed to pass. Those interests will not be the dominating focus of excitement, attention, and time expenditure at the expense of more important values-the Church and the Lord's work. Neither will a Spirit-filled person necessarily be prompted by the Spirit to eliminate from his life all secular music. l He may still retain an ap39

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predation of Beethoven and Mozart, for example. But the music that will vibrate the deepest chords of his soul will be the kind named here -psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Music that does not feed his soul and direct his affection toward God no longer satisfies. In seeking to understand the scope of this clause, we need to distinguish between spiritual-mindedness (which it indicates) and aesthetic development. We have a God-given aesthetic nature, which is capable of grasping the beautiful and fine and which needs to be cultivated. The Spirit will encourage this, for the soul that is finely tuned to the beautiful in form and sound will be better qualified to represent and glorify God. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit will prompt a desire for the noblest and encourage a distaste for the cheap and sensual music that pleases the world. And the Holy Spirit will aid in cultivating a discernment so that one comes to know the difference not only between decent and indecent but between "good," "better," and "best." Even in religious music there is a good, better, and best. In Phil. 1:9-10 Paul prays that the love of the Philippian believers may grow "in knowledge and all discernment," so they may "approve the things that are excellent." 40

THE FIRST WORD: SPEAKING

However, spiritual-mindedness may fall short of the best in aesthetic development. If the Holy Spirit has time, He will gradually prod one toward more refined tastes, but in the meantime uncultivated tastes are not evidence that one is not filled with the Spirit. With great anticipation my wife and I once took a carload of "saints" to the city to hear Handel's Messiah. Imagine our chagrin when on the way they yodeled and screeched in mock imitation of the great choruses-and arias. This greatest of all religious classics belonged to a different cultural world than was theirs. But those same people loved prayer meetings and revivals. They loved to sing gospel songs and choruses and to talk to one another about the goodness of God. So they passed the test of spiritual-mindedness, even if not the test of cultural development. The fullness of the Spirit was working in them as described by this first word: speaking. The sum of the matter is that this first word and its clause is a very graphic picture of one who is thoroughly at home in the spiritual realm. He or she is at home in a prayer meeting. Such persons feel comfortable with the most godly and holy people in the Church. There is a bond of spiritual communication and 41

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understanding. They are on the same wavelength, and that wavelength is a natural and spontaneous spiritual-mindedness.

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7 The Second Word: Singing Three words belong together here: singing and making melody.

This is not the promise of a good voice, but of a singing heart. Spirit-filled Christians have inner resources for happiness that are not dependent on happy circumstances. Think of that awesome night in the Philippian jail. After having been beaten with "many stripes," Paul and Silas were thrust into the inner prison for extra security, with their feet fastened "in the stocks" (Acts 16:23-24). Imagine the scene. With bleeding backs and fiery throbs of pain, gnawed by hunger and thirst, in an agonizingly cramped position, stuck in a foul, clammy, rat-infested cell without light or heat, they began to pray-then soon burst into song. 43

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They were "making melody in [their] heart[s]" to the Lord. They were singing hymns-songs of adoration and praise. They were not singing laments. These two victims of outrageous injustice were not discussing the writing of a book, Where Was God When the Blows Fell? They were praising God because they had a trysting place ·with Christ in their hearts that was as real in the prison as out of it. Their praises were the.spontaneous outpourings of persons who knew that their circumstances told nothing of their true welfare. They rejoiced in blessings-right then-that were totally unimaginable by their enemies. Though hurting and bound, they were freer than the jailer, freer than those who arrested them, freer than the magistrates who had confined them. They were free from the gUilt of their sins, free from fear of the future, free from self-pity, free from anger or resentment, free from bitterness, free from doubts and unbelief. So they did what came naturally-they praised God. How was this possible? By psyching themselves into a pollyanna optimism? By positive thinking? No, none of these tricks will work when you are locked in a dungeon-or when your child is killed, or when your daughter is 44

THE SECOND WORD: SINGING

raped, or when your mate walks out, or when you are given a pink slip, or worse yet, when you are lied about and maligned before a scornful world. There are times when life deals such hard blows that any calls to be cheerful and brave seem mockingly hollow. But what cannot be done in the natural can be done in the supernatural. That supernatural is the presence and sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. Only He can get inside at the worst of life's moments and create a buoyancy of spirit that will not sink under the raging waves of adversity. Only the Spirit can make all God's available grace and assurance powerfully real. Only He can somehow bring heaven into hellish circumstances and lift one into the realities of the spiritual dimension. God lives! Christ is risen! Satan is defeated! Heaven is ahead, and divine comfort quiets my heart-yes, even the heart that is aching. This power of the Holy Spirit is far greater than power to work miracles or raise the dead. The power that can cause the helpless and hurting to sing, when in the human realm there is seemingly nothing to sing about, is totally of God. There is no miracle quite like itand there is no surer evidence of the divine Source of the Christian's faith. 45

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This is what baffles the world. Paul and Silas did not sing to be heard, but they were heard. "The prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25). Perhaps these lawbreakers had been groaning and cursing. Now an awed silence came over them, followed by a growing wonder. What kind of religion was this that could enable sick and bruised prisoners to sing and pray at midnight? At another time Paul demonstrated the power to transcend the hurts of life. When he had sought three times for deliverance from his stinging, nagging, painful thorn in the flesh, and God offered him grace to endure instead of a miracle of deliverance, Paul said, "It's a deall" He closed the offer exuberantly and exclaimed, "Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infinnities." Why? "That the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9). The moment he understood that God would get glory out of his thorn and that bearing it victoriously and uncomplainingly would demonstrate God's power far more than healing would, he instantly chose grace over deliverance. He wanted to glorify God more than he wanted to be comfortable. What profound love for Christ! But only Spirit fullness can make that possible. 46

THE SECOND WORD: SINGING

It may be hard at times for us to believe that God will get more glory out of not answering our prayers than answering them. It is nevertheless true. A little story may illustrate. When grocery shopping one day, I noticed a jar of orange blossom honey on the shelf. Of course, that sounded good, so I took a jar home. The next time we were at the same grocery, I declared I wanted another just like it. But while reaching for the orange blossom honey, I noticed a jar beside it labeled "thistle honey." My curiosity was piqued. Could thistle honey possibly taste as good as orange blossom honey? We took it home and found it equally delicious. My mind began to ruminate. Any old bee ought to be able to make honey out of orange blossoms. But to make honey out of thistles! From the bee my mind went to the Creator. I was fascinated with the idea that God is more glorified by the bee that makes honey out of thistles than He is by the bee that merely makes honey out of orange blossoms! Now, of course that is a little fantasy that scientifically means nothing at all. Thistles pose no special problem for bees in the natural order of things. But they do for us humans. And the fact is: it is no special honor to God for hu47

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man beings to make honey out of the orange blossoms of life. Any old sinner can do that. But when God's grace can sustain and comfort and strengthen hurting men and women so they are enabled to make honey out of the thistles of life, then everyone knows we have a great God. The blunt truth is: it"is pur evident joy when the world can see nothing in our lives to be joyful about that is the cutting edge of evangelism. This is the winsome side of our holy religion. This is the one thing unsaved people cannot explain. The Bible says, "The joy of the LORD is your strength" (Neh. 8:10). If so, we are only as strong as the joy of the Lord is strong in our hearts. Therefore, we can expect Satan to do everything possible to rob us of our joy, for he knows that when we lose our joy, we have lost our strength and our winsomeness as Christians. Some Christians are as straight as a gun barrel and just as hard. Some are as pure as an icicle and just as. cold. Some have strictness without freedom-law, but no liberty. Some work their fingers to the bone, but it is joyless labor. They may even be burdened for the lost, but it is a sigh without a song. 48

THE SECOND WORD: SINGING

If we live a Spirit-filled life, the presence of the Comforter within will teach us to make melody in our hearts in the worst of times, even in the midst of tears-tears of human sorrow or pain, yet profound inner joy. Totally supernatural-but tol'ally possible! "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17, NASB).

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8 The Third Word: Giving Thanks The word is: "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 5:20). This carries the list of the marks of Spirit fullness one step farther. A spirit of thanksgiving is fundamental to Spirit fullness. The Spirit's overflowing presence impels a very natural spirit of thanksgiving. One thing is sure: a habitual spirit of fretting can never be reconciled with the uplifting, dynamic grace of the Spirit's indwelling. Grumbling is a serious sin in the eyes of God. This is seen in a startling way in 1 Cor. 10:110. The writer warns against idolatry, which puts pleasure ahead of God. We feel confident we are free of that. Then he warns of imitating the Israelites in "sexual immorality"-the sin 50

THE THIRD WORD: GIVING THANKS

that brought about the death of 23,000. Our reaction is "No way! Wouldn't think of it!" Then we are warned about the peril of tempting Christ-deliberately challenging God to prove himself. God showed what He thought about that by sending the serpents. But now notice: '~d do not grumble, as some of them did-and were killed by the destroying angel" (v. 10, NIV). Grumbling as wicked as idolatry and immorality? How can that be? Because grumbling is cut from the same cloth. It comes out of the same sinfulness of heart. Grumbling is -the sin of pride, for grumbling says, "I deserve something better than this." -the sin of unbelief, for grumbling says, "God is getting His wires crossed; He doesn't know what He is doing." -the sin of rebellion, for grumbling says, "Even if God knows what He is doing, I don't like it!" -the sin of ingratitude, for grumbling forgets what God has already done in my behalf. The spirit of grumbling will be exorcised when the Spirit comes in His fullness. But there is a problem in the exact wording here. It says "always for all things." The stumbling block is not so much "always" and "all" as 51

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it is "for." In all things is comprehendible, but for? Are we to give thanks for our son becoming an alcoholic? For unfaithfulness? For someone dying without Christ? For sin? That would be a monstrous distortion. A little Greek lesson will pull us out of such a pit of misunderstanding. We all know what a preposition is. It is a connecting word. Examples include for, into, under, through, and so on. I have in my files a drawing that illustrates the Greek prepositions, of which there are 14. The drawing depicts a large slab of cheese with 14 mice in, on, and around it, each mouse representing, by its relation to the cheese, one of the Greek prepositions. The drawing shows one mouse comfortably nestled . inside-that is en, "in." Another mouse is standing with its paws against the cheese-that is anti, "against." And so on. But on the wall is a little bracket with a mouse perched on it, looking down, surveying the whole scene. That is huper, "above"-and that is the Greek word used in this verse, translated "for." What is being said is: Spirit-filled persons will give thanks to God above all things! It can be translated "for" only with the meaning "in respect to" all things-in respect to them because we know the "all things" do not have the 52

THE THIRD WORD: GIVING THANKS

last word. God does! '1\nd we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God" (Rom. 8:28, NASB). The Spirit-filled person believes this and therefore finds it easy to give thanks to God. Only a Spirit-filled person is capable of transcending the hard realities of life and viewing life's circumstances from above them, from God's standpoint. Such a person views strange happenings with spiritual eyes. He or she learns to see even life's calamities from the standpoint of eternity rather than time and from the standpoint of heaven rather than earth. From the standpoint of Calvary, all history is transposed into "His story." Human weakness is turned into divine strength, and the worst Satan can do is transformed into the best God can do. Therefore, to the eyes of the Spiritfilled, calamities are never quite what they seem-they are rather what the living and victorious Christ can make of them. Therefore, we give thanks to God in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. This does not mean Spirit-filled persons will never suffer and at times weep in sorrow. But they will not be plunged into despair, for they will allow the Holy Spirit to fulfill His mission as the Comforter-the Strengthener. 53

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It is also true that physical illness and especially extreme exhaustion can play havoc with one's emotions, even one's perspective. It is easy in such times for the natural person to lose his or her grip on reality. But if Christians who are filled with the Spirit when the darkness comes will hQnor the Spirit by holding steady, He will bring them through. At any rate, the picture of verse 20 is not the picture of the whimperers who complain, "Where is God when 1 hurt?" It is the picture of the "Pauls," who can say, "I know whom 1 have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what 1 have committed to Him until that Day" (2 Tim. 1:12).

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9 The Fourth Word: Submitting We have seen that, as far as this passage is concerned, evidence of Spirit fullness does not lie in spectacular achievements or demonstrations of miraculous power. It does not consist in possessing certain gifts. Rather, it is in a quality of spirit. It is a tone of triumph toward life. It is a radical shift of focus from earthly things to heavenly. Moreover, it is a new spirit of humility toward those around us. This is because the me-first spirit has been replaced by a God-first spirit, and that in tum restores people around us to their rightful place. One of the most striking evidences of this change at the very center of the self nature is a new ability to submit to others when submitting goes against the grain. The rigidity is dis55

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placed by flexibility. The proud ego is broken, and with the breaking comes a new consideration for others. At times submitting may still not be pleasant but will be practiced nevertheless for Jesus' sake. This is the implication of the last clause of the sentence we are, studying-"submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God" (Eph. 5:21, KJV)l-literally, being "subject to one another out of reverence for Christ" (NRSV).

Why "reverence for Christ"? Because we are members of Christ's Body, and to disrupt the Body is to dishonor Christ. The disciples were frequently wrangling before Pentecost, but never afterward. The baptism with the Spirit does wonders in reducing the ego to manageable proportions. Self-importance, self-seeking, and self-willfulness are gone. What is left is proper self-esteem, self-concern for holiness, and a strength of will that can yield as readily as stand fast. Only this sanctified spirit is Christlike. Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29). He was totally submissive to His Heavenly Father. He submitted to His parents as a youth, even though He was aware that He 56

THE FOURTH WORD: SUBMIITING

knew more than they did. When it was time to give himself up to the Cross, He submitted to the rough Roman soldiers, to their spitting and mocking and flogging. He submitted to the crown of thorns and then to the nails and the spear, as He was crucified between two thieves. "When He was reviled," He "did not revile in return" (1 Pet. 2:23). How different from the knee-jerk reaction of the carnal man in asserting his rights and imposing his will! However, this clause has a special focus. While we are taught in the Scripture to submit to governments and their agents and to obey the law, the thrust of this mark of Spirit fullness is the relationship we have with fellow believers in the Church and in the home. We know the home is included, for the applications of this principle that Paul immediately makes include the wife in relation to her husband, the husband in relation to his wife, the children in relation to their parents, and the servant in relation to his or her master. But our relationships in the Church are fundamental. We are to endeavor "to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3). Carnal Christians are prone to be forever disrupting the peace. When the Spirit is hon57

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ored, there will be a Spirit-created peace, which makes the Church impregnable. It is impregnable because the bond of loving concern is unbreakable. The importance of this for the Church's health, power, and influence in the world was so vital in the eyes of Paul that he frequently referred to it (Rom. 12:10, 16; 14:19; 15:2; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 4:3; Phil. 2:1-4; and many others). Only by being subject to one another in brotherly love, out of reverence for Christ, can we fulfill our role as members of the Body: that it be '~oined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share"-with the result that there will .be "growth of the body" (Eph. 4:16). It takes Spirit fullness to enable us to be humbly willing to be a "joint" instead of the head. And it takes Spirit fullness to give us the grace to refuse to get out of joint when things don't go to suit us! What are the specifics? Are there no qualifications to this submission? Yes, the "reverence for Christ" controls when, to whom, and how we are to be submissive. When should we be submissive? When the health and peace of the church will be destroyed 58

THE FOURTH WORD: SUBMITTING

by a refusal to submit. We will not have the rigid, imperious nature that will rule or ruin. We will speak "the truth in love" (Eph. 4: 15) and let our opinions be known when it is time and proper to do so. But we will not run roughshod over the opinions of others or insist on our way with the threat of walking out. We will recognize the rights of the majority as being majority rights. Minorities do not have majority rights. We would rather lose the debate than destroy the church. 2 But there is another answer to the question "When should we be submissive?" That answer is: When the honor of Christ himself is not at stake. If the proposal or drift or divisive issue is so fundamental that yielding will betray "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3); or if it is a tactic that is sufficiently questionable that the world's confidence in the Church is at risk, then the Spirit would have us stand as firm as the Rock of Gibraltar. We are not expected to yield meekly and weakly to what is patendy wrong. But even then, the Holy Spirit desires to help us maintain poise and not go off half-cocked. There is a right way to take a firm stand, and that right way includes fairness, courtesy, and calmness. A seeker at an altar once told me he 59

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lost his temper defending the doctrine of perfect love! Let us keep a right cause and a right spirit together. Most issues that split churches are relatively trifling. They have to do with choir robes and color of carpet and who is on which committee and the many details of church functioning. In these areas a Spirit-filled person may (or may not) have better discernment than others. But if he or she wants to avoid "getting out of the Spirit," he or she will not loudly proclaim a special direct line with God. These persons will exert what influence they can in the direction they believe is right without feeling that they alone are the Lord's prophets and that the Spirit cannot be leading others. Every day, Christians who are seeking to live a Spirit-filled life should pray, "Lord, help me be part of the solution and not part of the problem!" To whom should we be submissive? The Bible is entirely clear: "Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you" (Heb. 13:17). God has ordained leadership within the Church. If so, He has ordained "followership."3 60

THE FOURTH WORD: SUBMITrING

Sometimes this leadership is not only that of the pastor but of official boards as well-at times even the church itself. Spirit-filled Christians will have a disposition to respect the decisions of the church as a whole. In one denomination are six general superintendents. They are strong individualists who do not always see alike. But they meet several times a year to pray and discuss their problems and plans. I heard one of them tell that in one of their meetings, a proposal was made for a certain course of action with which he vigorously disagreed. He argued against it right down to the wire. But the vote was five to one-and his was the dissenting vote. Then they turned around and voted for him to carry out the course of action! ''l\nd I did it!" he said. That is not only good democracy but good religion. Here was a strong leader who knew the meaning of being "subject to one another out of reverence for Christ." He revered Christ more than his own opinions. When it was appropriate, this man could be an immovable rock; with his brethren, he could be equally submissive. Some people do not need the Spirit in order to be submissive. They need the Spirit in order to be strong. They are already too submissive to 61

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the wrong people, to the wrong influences, about the wrong things, and at the wrong times. They have no backbone at all. Others never submit graciously or willingly about anything. They are like the old man whose iron will had buffaloed the church for years, blocking every forward move and hamstringing every pastor. When he discovered the people were praying for the Lord to take him home to heaven, he 'stood up and said, "I'll have you know I won't go!" There is a cure for that kind of nature. It is the fullness of the Holy Spirit. How do we experience this? Read on.

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10 The Simplicity of Being Filled The key to our understanding of just how simple it really is to be filled with the Spirit is Luke 11 :13: "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (NN).

Note what is implied here. This is a discussion of the relationship of children to parents. The promise of the Holy Spirit is to God's children, who need the gift of the Holy Spirit in His sanctifying presence and power. This is not to be "born of the Spirit" (John 3:6, 8, italics added). When we are born of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit makes us spiritually alive in response to our faith in Jesus Christ. Being born again, we are now children of our Heavenly Fa63

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ther. In our Lord's instruction here, we are encouraged to ask for a special gift of the Spirit that as children we do not have but as children of God we need and have a right to ask for. Not only is this a family promise, but also only members of the family are apt to make such a request. Do sinners know enough about spiritual things to ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit? If religiously educated, they may have a head knowledge that this is in order, but they are not apt to have a profound sense of need and hunger if they have not been born again and are not honestly seeking to live for God. Jesus' assurance that if we ask we will receive indicates three facts: 1. We do not now have this special relationship with the Holy Spirit (even though the Spirit may be working in us through the new birth). 2. This special infilling of the Holy Spirit as a gift is God's will for us. 3. Our way to obtain this Gift is simply by asking. Furthermore, Jesus says the Father is eager to give us this Gift, the Holy Spirit. We see this in the words "how much more." As willing as parents are to give good gifts to their children, even far greater is God's willingness to give the 64

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best gift of all-His indwelling, sanctifying, empowering Holy Spirit. So there is not a problem in God. Seeking is not a matter of overcoming some kind of reluctance in Him. Any sluggishness, any delay, is all on our side. The problem, then, must be in our asking. Asking is our responsibility. The Father will not overwhelm us by an outpouring of the Spirit for which we have not asked. This is a gift that is never forced on anyone. What could be the problem with our asking? There are four possibilities. We do not fully see the depth of our need and our true state; or we ask with wrong motives; or we do not ask in sincerity; or we do not ask in faith. Which is it? First, Jesus said, "Though you are evil." Are we willing to put our names there and acknowledge that in ourselves we are sinful and depraved? Even though we are born again and our sins have been forgiven, there is yet a shocking degree of self-willfulness and duplicity and lovelessness, with traits of ill will and revenge. This state is the very reason we so desperately need the powerful, cleanSing Holy Spirit, who can change our nature at its very roots. 65

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Second, our motives may be wrong. Why do we want the power of the Holy Spirit? To make us a powerful person in our group? To make us famous and sought after? Do we want special leverage in the church that we believe the fullness of the Spirit wj.ll give us? We must be rigorously honest at this point. Let us submit our hearts for searching. As D. Willia Caffray used to say, ''A heart not submitted for searching will not be undertaken for cleansing." Third, we may not be asking in true sincerity. We want the Spirit in times of emergency to give us special strength and see us through the crises of life. But asking for the Spirit's emergency help is not the same as asking for the Spirit to dwell permanendy and sovereignly in our hearts. Some draw back from that, for they are not sure they really want to turn everything over to the Holy Spirit. They hesitate to surrender fully their right to themselves. They want to keep the keys to some locked doors, maybe closets. So when they go through the form of asking, "Give me Thy Spirit," their prayer is unanswered because the God who searches the heart knows that the prayer is not really in earnest. Let us push past our fears until we are able to say from the heart, "Father, give me the gift 66

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of Your Spirit as my Comforter, Guide, Teacher, Sanctifier. I want Him to search every nook and cranny and cleanse everything He finds wrong. I tum over all the keys. Not one is held back. I will seek His guidance in all things. I will let Him eliminate from my life any person, or any plan, or any association He does not approve. I will be clay in His hands. I will go where He wants me to go and stay where He wants me to stay. I will back up when He tells me to back up. I will make apologies when He rebukes me. I will be willing not to be in the limelight. I will let Him give me whatever success He wants me to have. I will seek to do His work in His way-the way of prayer, holiness, faith, and obedience. I will not grab the reins out of His hands and drive off down my own paths. '~d above all, Lord, cleanse my heart from that nature that wants to whittle this down, just a little-which is putting up a fight just now. I let go of myself; please take over." Have you ever asked for the Holy Spirit in this way? And meant every word of it? Do you mean it now? If so, then let us avoid hindrance number four; which is failing to ask in faith. It is time to rely on the "how much more" of God's willing67

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ness, and thank Him for the answer. Claim the gift of the Holy Spirit in His sanctifying and empowering presence. Don't reverse the order by seeking empowering first. That would be the old self dictating the prayer. It is the sanctifying Spirit you most need; let the empowering take care of itself. The ,e mpowering will be there if the sanctifying is there. Faith is taking God at His word. Jesus says the Father will give His children (not outsiders) the Holy Spirit if we ask. So don't water the matter down by asking for more power, more feeling, more of this or that, but ask for the Holy Spirit-the Third Person of the Trinity, the One who makes God real to us, forms Christ in us, and then quietly works through us. Believe that God for Christ's sake does what we ask Him. Do not seek for evidences of a physical or emotional nature. Simply believe God. You may feel something, but if you insist on feeling thus and so, you will then be believing your feelings rather than God. His promise is really all you need. Believing God's promise is believing God-that He is dependable and will do, even does do, exactly what He has promised. Therefore, whether the Holy Spirit immediately manifests himself to your inner con68

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sciousness or not is unimportant. What is basic is that God keeps His word, and on that word you stand. You will find the next day and the next, and the day after that, that something different is happening inside you. You will become increasingly aware of a new and wonderful Divine Presence-a presence that buoys your spirit in sweet and unexpected ways. Build on continued faith, prayer, listening, and obedience. Thank God for the gift of His Spirit. Praise the Spirit himself for His presence. Acknowledge Him. Learn to recognize His voice. This will take time, but give yourself to it. Don't allow the devil to trick you into the bondage of petty scruples about trifles that are inconsequential. He will tie you in knots of longfaced paralysis if you try to squeeze every jot and tittle of everyday living, such as laughing and eating, into the harness of immediate Spirit guidance. The devil wants extremes; the Spirit wants wholesome, normal common sense. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit will impose no disciplines on you. He will prompt you to study, to seek in every way to improve yourself, for Jesus' sake. Who knows where this may lead? You may spend your life in your home church, serving wherever needed, with 69

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that cheerfulness and dependability that is every pastor's dream. Or the Spirit may enlarge your field of service in directions and ways never imagined. But no matter how your life may unfold, life in the Spirit will never be humdrum. It will be an ever-deepening, challenging, and growing Ufe with God. The prompting of the Spirit will always be for you to stay squarely in the middle of the highway of holiness. He will never lead you to step off the highway, not for one moment, into self-chosen paths or questionable compromises. Obey the Spirit-not your own wild impulsesand you will know the comfort of living a Spirit-filled life. And at the end you will discover that along the way you have left an invisible trail of holy influences that have drawn others to Jesus and enlarged the Kingdom. Child of the Kingdom, be filled with the Spirit! Nothing but fullness thy longing can meet. 'Tis the enduement for life and for service. Thine is the promise, so certain, so sweet! -Lucy J. RIDER

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Notes CHAPTER 2 1. Of course, where the Spirit is, there are the Father and Son also. Jesus said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23). But the context of this promise shows clearly that the Godhead's presence in us is mediated by the Holy Spirit. H. Ray Dunning quotes A. M. Hunter: "Paul does not identify Christ with the Spirit. The truth is rather that it is through the Spirit that Christ comes to Christians" (Dunning, Grace, Faith, and Holiness: A Wesleyan Systematic Theology [Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1988], 425).

CHAPTER 4 1. There were special divine reasons for the outpouring of the

Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. But this does not minimize the importance of their spiritual preparation. See Harold Ockenga, Power Through Pentecost (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1959),30-34.

CHAPTER 5 1. Some versions, such as the New International Version, break the sentence into short sentences, perhaps to accommodate the IiteralY level of many readers. But in so doing, they obscure the special sense in which these instructions are tied together. Other translations separate verse 21 from verses 1820 and use it to begin a separate paragraph. While this is grammatically possible, it is not necessaJY and weakens the intended connection between submissiveness and Spirit fullness. 2. This promise was given primarily to the Eleven and was fundamentally fulfilled in their writing and teaching ministiY, which we have in the New Testament_However, this does not mean that the Spirit does not also teach us-but always in harmony with the Scriptures, which He has inspired.

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· .. FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?

CHAPTER 6

1. Occasionally a person is convinced that the Spirit requires him or her to avoid all secular music. If this is one's conviction, he or she had better obey it-but without being censorious of others who are not so led. CHAPTER 9 1. My authority for retaining this clause as a proper part of the

sentence is the United Bible Societies Greek text, edited by Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, Bruce M. Metzger, and Allen Wikgren. 2. When Paul says, "If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him" (1 Cor. 3:17), he was in the Greek using a play on words, according to A. T. Robertson, who paraphrases the words: 'The church wrecker God will wreck" (Word Pictures in the New Testament [New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1931],4:99. 3. The obligation to "obey" is based on the faithfulness of the leaders to "watch over . .. our souls" (Heb. 13:17, NASB). We are not under obligation to obey heretics or hirelings.

72

Olherwor.ks wrillen or conlribuled10 by i I'JI' II

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RICHARD S. TAYLOR 1

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BEACON DICTIONARY OF THEOLOGY BF083-410-8119

THE DISCIPLINED LIFE BF083-410-2722

EXPLORING CHRISTIAN HOLINESS, VOL. 3: The Theological Formulation BF083-411-0776

GOD, MAN, AND SALVATION BF083-41 0-4407

GREAT HOLINESS CLASSICS, VOL. 3: Leading Wesleyan Thinkers BF083-411-0695

A RIGHT CONCEPTION OF SIN BF083-410-1394

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When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they lost the joyful presence of the Holy Spirit and the sweet contentment of His daily fellowship. They were afflicted with a haunting inner void. The One for whom they had been created was no longer with them in the way they had known Him before. The loss was not theirs alonefor their fallen nature has been bequeathed to all of us. After centuries of wandering and groping, the time has come to return to the soul's true home. Being filled witt the Spirit is recovering the lost relationship that God in creation intended.

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. -Eph.5:18

ISBN 083-411-5611

RICHARD S. TAYLOR, Th.D., is professor emeritus of theology and missions at Nazarene Theological Seminary. He makes his home in Edmonds, Washington, and maintains an active schedule of writing, preaching, and teaching. His Significant contributions as an author include The Disciplined

Life; Exploring Christian Holiness, Vol. 3: The Theological Formulation; and A Right Conception of Sin. 9 780834115613

Theology /Christian Living ISBN 083-411-5611