If you want to change the world, then first the Holy Spirit must change you. “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. …be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18).
You need the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit in you changes everything.
The Holy Spirit in you, completes you.
Nobody is filled by a fraction of the Holy Spirit, but the fullness of God. “… be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). Whatever fills you defines you.
You don’t need a program, you need the Holy Spirit.
You need the Holy Spirit in you for the purposes of God to come from you.
You don’t need natural talent, but spiritual power. You would not need so many gimmicks if you just had the Holy Spirit. “…‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).
Trying to explain the Spirit-filled life is like trying to explain falling in love. A thousand poems have been written, and a thousand times more songs, but it is not until a man or a woman actually falls in love can they truly understand. The same is true with being filled with the Holy Spirit.
“‘I will put My Spirit in you… Then you shall know…’ says the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:14). To teach the Spirit-filled life, see to it that they themselves become filled.
Filled with the Holy Spirit
If the Holy Spirit has come upon you then the power of God is in you.
The same Holy Spirit that filled the Apostles fills you. Stop thinking God cannot do great things through you. It’s not about you.
The proof of the Holy Spirit in you is the Holy Spirit through you. The waters are not still, but flowing. The Lord Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).
The power of a church is not in how filled a building is with people, but how filled the people are with the Holy Spirit.
We don’t need a new way, but to return to the old. To solve 21st century problems, we need Holy Spirit power like the 1st century church. “…And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit… And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:5,8).
Imagine a church with saints filled by the Holy Spirit! It always begins with that one saint. Be that one.
Hindrances to being filled
You can’t be filled with the Holy Spirit if you are full of yourself.
Scripture says be filled, and there is no emptying in the instructions that follow.
You will not have the power of the Holy Spirit unless the power of the Holy Spirit has you. The ability of God to use you has more to do with your surrendering than His conquering.
Beware that you would organize the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit right out of your life.
The harder you try the less you have. The more it is about you the less it is about Him in you. The world says be strong, and God says be weak.
The reason so few walk in the power of the Holy Spirit is not the scarcity of all that God has, but the scarcity of those willing to live the life that they could receive all He would give them.
The only man who can argue against the power of the Holy Spirit in you is the one who does not have it.
The Holy Spirit cannot do a work through you until He has first done a work in you. If you want to help others, get out of the way.
Keep pressing in
If you don’t know whether you are filled or not, then you are not. You will know. Never give up until you take hold of all that God has for you.
Jesus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). The proof of power is power. Keep asking until you receive all that the Lord has for you.
Blessings,
Paul