THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE

In one terse, concise command, God shows us the highest point the believer can reach in his relationship to the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”

You, who have the Holy Spirit in you, give Him full right-of-way in your life; let Him dominate your whole being; let Him who dwells within you fill you from the center to the circumference of your life. You are in the sphere of the Spirit; therefore, let the Spirit live out His life in you. Through regeneration, God has endowed you with Himself, and in the Person of the Spirit, He dwells within you. Allow Him now to work out His perfect will unhindered through the undivided control of your whole being. Permit Him to energize you with His almighty power through filling you with Himself.

“Be filled with the Spirit” is a command given to every believer. No Christian is refused the blessing of such a precious experience, and none is exempt from its responsibilities. As the refusal of life in Christ is the greatest sin of the unbeliever, so the refusal of life more abundant in the Holy Spirit’s fullness is the greatest sin of the believer. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is not the privilege of a few, but it is the prerogative of all believers. Since it is a command, it is not optional, but it is incumbent upon every Christian to be so filled.

Acts 4:31

“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

“Be filled with the Spirit” — “Filled.”

“Full of the Holy Spirit” — “Full.”

“That ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God” — “Fulness.”

These words suggest that there is an infinite, exhaustless fullness which the believer may receive according to his receptive capacity. He may be “filled” today, yet tomorrow he shall need to be “filled” again so that his life may be habitually “full”; and the process of continuous infillings will need to continue as long as he lives, since the source of supply is “all the fullness of God.” A life “full of the Holy Spirit” should be and may be the normal life of every believer. “We may be always full, yet ever filling, the first reception of the fullness being a crisis that leads to a process.

Acts 6:3

“Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”

Acts 11:24

“For he [Barnabas] was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and much people were added unto the Lord.”

To be spiritual, then, one must be filled and be kept filled with the Holy Spirit. The habitual fullness of the Holy Spirit is the divine provision for a life lived on the highest plane. The Holy Spirit is the divinely appointed means of communication of “the abundant life” of the ascended, glorified Lord in heaven to the believer on earth. There is a threefold manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s infilling.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Lord, the only way to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ is to maintain an ongoing fellowship with You and the Father by being continually filled with the Holy Spirit. Being continually filled with the Holy Spirit is a command. We can’t live the Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever cannot afford to reject Jesus Christ as their Savior, nor can we, as believers, neglect the ongoing need for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. We will not enter the Kingdom of God without having lived this Spirit-filled life while we lived here on the earth. Thank You for the privilege of living a daily life “full” of the Holy Spirit.