Good Morning Holy Spirit

What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Some people think it is exactly the same as driving a car into a gas station and filling up the gas tank with fuel. But that isn't it at all. I have a small container of oil that I use for anointing from time to time. It's just a little bottle filled with olive oil, given to me by my mother. When the oil is used up, it's gone. The bottle doesn't fill itself up again.

Ephesians 5
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

The words be filled in Ephesians have no connection to a bottle or a vessel being filled. The Greek present tense is used to tell you that the filling of the Spirit is not a once-and-for-all experience. It's a continuing experience. 

Have you ever spent a day on a sailboat? 

What happens to the boat when the sails are filled? The ship begins to move. That's what Paul is telling us. He wants you to be filled, not like a container that has no action but like a sail that continues to be filled with the wind. Over and over again. He wants you to move forward with the never-ending-breeze of the Spirit filling your spiritual sails. Only by submission to the continual winds of the Holy Spirit, can a ship reach the destinations that the Lord intends for such a vessel to reach. Without submission, it is the equivalent of pulling out a (religious, theological, philosophical, historical, or intellectual) paddle and trying to cross the ocean. Not only do they not know where they are going, but they'll even go against the winds... trying to make it on their own strength. This is a terrible ship wreck just waiting to happen. The moment we surrender to the Lord He will fill us with His Spirit. We don't have to beg Him for the infilling, and it doesn't require a bucket of tears. All it takes is total surrender to Christ and a willingness to embrace His precious Holy Ghost. Total surrender brings total infilling, and total submission brings total fellowship. We must be willing to surrender, for we can accomplish nothing of ourselves. We are not even capable of surrender or submission without a willingness to let the Spirit have His way. When our hearts have become open to this kind of surrender and submission to Christ, we can freely admit that we can't even submit to Christ of our own strength. With a willingness from the heart, the power of the Holy Spirit will break the chains of pride that keep us separated from Him.

Isaiah 64
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Just like learning to swim....when you fight and struggle you'll sink and possibly drown. That's why swimming instructors usually teach children to relax and float first. It's the same way with surrender. It comes instinctively to a yielded heart when you don't fight it. Just like falling in love with someone....nothing happens as long as you are trying to fall in love. Love surrenders.... When Jesus is your Lord, when you love Him with all of your heart, it's not difficult to surrender to Him. It's the same way with the Holy Spirit.

How can a man or woman who is filled with the Spirit speak with profanity? How can he or she have a heart filled with jealousy, bitterness, and criticism? A Spirit-filled person doesn't say, "Who do you think you are, telling me what to do?" Or "How can God treat me this way?" These are signs of a self - centered person who is "Spirit empty," not "Spirit filled." When Christ returned to the Father, He did not intend for you to make it on your own. Help was on the way! After all, it is not your power or your strength that's important....

Zechariah 4
6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

It's by the Spirit that you are able to glorify Jesus. It's by the Spirit that your heart is filled with a song. It's by the Spirit that you are able to say, "Jesus, I thank you for everything." And it is by the Spirit that you are empowered to say, "I forgive you." You will never have to ask someone if you have been filled with the Spirit. If you don't know, then you haven't been filled! Those who have to question their infilling never received it in the first place.

It all starts with salvation....

God bless.