The Indwelling Spirit

[stephen]

".........that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God" - Eph 3:19.

There are those who seem to have a misconception in thinking that being filled with the Holy Spirit means that we get more of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is a person. and when you have a person come to live with you, the whole of that person comes.
We do not get the Holy Spirit on the installment plan, a little when we receive Christ, a little bit more when we come into some further experience. The Holy Spirit came to dwell in you and I the moment we received Christ as Saviour, but when we are filled with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit gets all of us.
Now He is going to be unhampered and unhindered in the work He has been divinely appointed to do. What is this divinely appointed work? That Christ should be glorified in you and I, and become Lord of our life and the light of our life.

Now some may say, Is that possible for me? It is possible for a missionary or a minister of the gospel; they should be filled with the Holy Spirit - and we may criticise if they are not, and we do not realise that the Word of God says that every born again Christian should be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Three days after Paul was 'born again' he was filled with the Holy Spirit; and on the day of Pentecost all that were in the Upper Room, the women as well as the men, were all filled with the Holy Spirit - ordinary men, ordinary women, ordinary people just like you and I are.

So God set His standard both for the Church and for the Christian, and any of us who is not filled with the Holy Spirit is living far below the standard; we are living an abnormal life, for the only normal Christian life, is the life of the Spirit-filled Christian....Then it is possible for you.

 

[Boanerges]

There are those who seem to have a misconception in thinking that being filled with the Holy Spirit means that we get more of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is a person. and when you have a person come to live with you, the whole of that person comes.

While this is true, a leaky container needs a fresh filling if it is to hold anything.
Perhaps instead of saying we get more of Him we should be saying He gets more of us as we surrender and draw near.

 

[stephen]

While this is true, a leaky container needs a fresh filling if it is to hold anything.
Perhaps instead of saying we get more of Him we should be saying He gets more of us as we surrender and draw near.

Amen brother Larry....You are correct to say that. As a boy I had dear Pastor who would often say "One baptism, many fillings"

Blessings....in Jesus

 

[Boanerges]

Since you brought up baptisms, I would like your opinion my friend:
The bible plainly declares one lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph_4:5 ). Jesus came to baptize us in the Holy Ghost and fire as a stated mission- I believe them to be one or at least simaltaineous as they happened at the same moment in the Book of Acts (chapter 2). Then there is water baptism which was a relatively new event occurring slightly before the birth of Christ and representing a change of covenants for Jewish converts.
What is your opinion on the subject?

 

[B-A-C]

Of course it is possible we have to ask for the Holy Spirit.

Luke 11:13; "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

Also, I see no guarantee that because we receive it, we necessarily keep it.
Heb 6:4; For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
Heb 6:5; and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
Heb 6:6; and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

Luke 11:24; "When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.'
Luke 11:25; "And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.
Luke 11:26; "Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."
I wonder if we have the ability to put our spiritual house "swept and in order" by ourselves, or if that requires the Holy Spirit?

Gal 6:8; For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

1 Thes 4:3; For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
1 Thes 4:4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
1 Thes 4:5; not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
1 Thes 4:6; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
1 Thes 4:7; For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
1 Thes 4:8; So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.