My RSS Feeds
PSD 1 Filling by means of the Holy Spirit
FILLING BY THE HOLY SPIRIT: PSD #1
1. Filling BY the Holy Spirit
A. Definition: The filling BY the Holy Spirit is the means by which the believer moves from an egocentric life to a Christocentric life, which life cannot be achieved apart from yieldedness to the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit whose responsibility it is to take the believer's life and fill it with the fullness of God, producing the Christ-like character which is demonstrated by the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in the believer's life situations.
B. Documentation: (Ephesians 5:18)
- Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with [BY] the Spirit; (KJV)
- Ephesians 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (KJV)
- Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (KJV)
C. Problem solved: The believer is faced with the problem of becoming "filled with the fullness of God," which is just another way of saying that the believer is to be filled with the character of Christ, that is, the believer is to match the character of the humanity of Christ which is demonstrated by the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit from the believer's life.
D. How does the filling BY the Holy Spirit solve the problem of being "filled with the fullness of God?"
The Holy Spirit who indwells the believer provides the power to become Christ-like in Christian character. Independent of the power supplied by the indwelling Holy Spirit, the believer is powerless to become like Christ. The believer is totally dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit to produce Christ-likeness. This is why Ephesians 5:18 teaches "filled BY" the Holy Spirit rather than "filled WITH" the Holy Spirit. (See the document titled, Two Fillings with the Holy Spirit, for an exegetical study on this subject.)