Life in Christ: Filled by the Holy Spirit | Devotional

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” —EPHESIANS 5:18

The Holy Spirit is the member of the Godhead who operates in our everyday lives and experience. It is He who regenerates us, which means He imparts new life, and that life is His presence within us. But before the Holy Spirit works in us, He works on us first; that is, He works in drawing us to God, opening our hearts up to Him, and creating an appetite within us for the things of God. In submitting to Christ, He then indwells us, seals us in Christ, and undertakes the task of equipping, directing and empowering our lives.

The Bible speaks of three primary relationships people have with the Holy Spirit. The first are those who live without the Holy Spirit; that is our natural state in which we were born. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 2:14 where he says, “The man without the Spirit does not understand the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Christianity doesn’t make sense without the presence of the Holy Spirit, because it is the Holy Spirit who illuminates and gives understanding. It is not a question of intellectual ability, though we need intellect, but of spiritual capacity. Neither is it a natural process, but a supernatural one, which only the Spirit reveals in our desire to receive and understand the things of God.

Secondly, there are people indwelt by the Holy Spirit, sealed by Him in Christ, but are grieving the Spirit by not allowing Him to do the work in them for which He was given. They have limited, subdued, suppressed or completely closed Him down. When Paul wrote to the deeply divided church in Corinth, he said, “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly” (1 Corinthians 3:1). These were people indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but living for their own agendas, and grieving the Spirit of God.

Thirdly, the Bible speaks of Christians who are ‘filled with the Spirit’ and ‘full of the Spirit’. 

Being full of the Spirit is actually a command and not a suggestion. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is what keeps our feet on the ground, and makes us useful whereby we become the instruments God uses to bring energy and life to others. There is no formula for being filled with the Spirit, because it is a day-to-day relationship of love, trust and obedience to Christ. The Holy Spirit then becomes the ongoing source of our strength and enabling for which our Christian lives depend.

I ask, Lord, that You fill me with your Holy Spirit, and make me an instrument of leading others to You. Thank You, Lord.

Am I praying for a deeper work of God’s Spirit in me?