Filled with the Spirit, Walking in the Spirit, pt 1

In the Bible, we get descriptions of what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit. The craftsmen in the OT who built the tabernacle were filled with the Spirit, and thus had wisdom and skill to build. Those filled with the Spirit in the New Testament are almost always empowered to proclaim the word of God (Acts 2:4; 4:8; 4:31; 9:17; 13:9).

That is what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit. It means proclaiming the word of God with power, it means having a life full of the fruit of the Spirit, it means serving God and others with the ability which God supplies so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (1 Pet 5:10-11).

But how do you become filled with the Spirit? That's the question I want to start thinking about

Let’s start with this command in Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”

• The Bible is clear in its command to not be drunk, and the Bible tells us why we should not be drunk - because it is excessive indulgence that leads to squandering our money and wasting our life (debauchery).

• But Paul then commands us to be filled with the Spirit. He’s highlighting the contrast between a life controlled by material pleasures and a life controlled by the pleasures of God. If you want to know how to not squander your life and not waste your life, then God is giving you the answer right here: Be filled with the Spirit. If we’re going to do anything that has true fulfillment in the eyes of God, then we must be filled with the Spirit.

As we zoom out a little bit more in Ephesians 5, the context continues to add to our understanding of what it means to be filled with the Spirit. For example, Ephesians 5:15-18 are verses that go together. They are a joint explanation of how to walk wisely, imitating God, instead of foolishly, imitating the world (that’s why there’s a therefore at the beginning of v 17, because it connects to 15-16). Then you can zoom out even more and look at the context of chapter 5 which is about imitating God because He has created us in the likeness of God (5:1; 4:24).

So, knowing that context, we can look at Ephesians 5:17-18 and summarize what they are communicating: Do you want to be an imitator of God? Then know what the will of the Lord is, and have every nook and cranny of your life influenced by the Holy Spirit. That’s really what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Paul is says back in 4:24 that you have been created by God in the likeness of God, therefore imitate God (5:1). He's writing the same thing here: you have been given the Holy Spirit (1:13-14), therefore live like it and have every area of your life influenced by Him (5:18).

• • So, to say it again, there are two steps in these verses.

    • 1) Know the will of God. Put in the work to think about and know the will of God.

    • 2) Have every part of your life influenced by the Spirit to do the will of God.

That’s what I think it means to be filled with the Spirit.

We can make sure we're thinking about this the right way by checking our understanding against other passages in the Bible

• Romans 8
  Christians are “in the Spirit” (8:9), meaning we have the Spirit. But then it also talks about how we walk according to the Spirit by setting our mind on the things of the Spirit (8:5). In other words, you have the Spirit, but you also have to walk in the Spirit.
  Romans 8 continues: Sons of God are led by the Spirit (8:14) meaning that Christians put to death the deeds of the body “by the Spirit.” So then, we may say that we are in the Spirit (we have the Spirit), and we walk according to the Spirit when we put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit.
  That is very similar to how Ephesians talks about having the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, especially because Ephesians 4:23 tells us to be renewed in our minds, and then here we read about how we walk according to the Spirit by setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. So when Ephesians 5 talks about being filled with the Spirit, I think we can look at Romans 8 and say that both of those passages are talking about the same thing. One uses the phrase walking by the Spirit, one uses the phrase being filled with the Spirit, but it’s the same thing.

• Galatians 5:16-25
  Verse 25 - we live by the Spirit (we have new life because God through the Holy Spirit has regenerated us - Titus 3:5), therefore we should keep in step with the Spirit. This is the same logic that we saw in Romans 8, and it’s the same logic we saw in Ephesians 5.

So Galatians, Romans, and Ephesians are all consistent. Christians have the Spirit, and should walk according to the Spirit making sure the Spirit is influencing every area of their life, decreasing in sin.

So not only does being filled with the Spirit mean having the Spirit influence every area of our life, but the Bible also seems to use the phrase "walking in the Spirit" synonymously with "being filled with the Spirit." And when we see that, it demystifies what it means to be filled with the Spirit and gives us practical steps to take to be in step with the Spirit.