SPIRIT,
FILLED WITH
WHEN a person is drunk, we say they are under the influence. The influence of alcohol on the brain affects their movement. A drunken person doesn’t walk like they normally walk. They stagger. A person under the influence will exhibit changes in their personality. They think they can sing when they can’t. Their speech and coordination are impacted. Something else has taken over the brain. The filling of alcohol leads to control by alcohol.877
[Holy Spirit, Filling of]
Acts 2:1–21; Eph. 5:18
MASSIVE campaigns have been launched to carry the message “Don’t Drink and Drive.” The idea is that if a person is going to choose to drink, they should also plan to have a friend do the driving. The person agrees to be drunk and relinquish control.
To be filled with the Spirit is to turn control over to someone else. It is to be governed and guided by the work of the Holy Spirit. It is to let the Holy Spirit do the driving.878
[Holy Spirit, Filling of; Surrender, Concept of]
Matt. 10:39; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:18
A BOY went to the country to visit his aunt and uncle. One evening, he noticed his aunt enjoying a drink.
“Hey, Auntie, what’s that you are drinking?”
“Do you want to taste it?”
“Sure!”
The boy tasted it and found it to be the nastiest thing he’d ever tasted in his life. When he asked his aunt how she could bring herself to taste such terrible stuff, his aunt said, “Oh, I’ve acquired a taste for it.”
Being filled with the Spirit may seem like quite a different experience, but if you taste it enough, you’ll like the effect, and you will acquire a taste.879
[Holy Spirit, Filling of]
Eph. 5:18
THE MOMENT you pull away from the filling station, dissipation occurs. As you drive, you use up the gasoline. Over time you will burn gas. The length of time from full to empty depends on how far you travel, how fast you travel, and the amount of air-conditioning or heat used. The fuel indicator slowly goes from full to empty because driving the car uses the energy the fuel provides. Eventually the car will need to be filled up again with gasoline. The filling of a car is an ongoing responsibility.
In the same way, as we live life, we get drained spiritually. We go to church, have our devotions, and spend time in fellowship with other Christian believers so that we can fill our tanks. But as we live our lives, we run empty as we expend our spiritual energy doing the work God has for us. In order to continue to do the work, we have to continue to get refilled.880
[Spiritual Food]
Rom. 15:13