Are you Spirit Baptised and Filled?

Pentecost – what a day, what an event!

Before Jesus went back to heaven he said that he was going to send One just like himself, One who would be in us and remain with us. Now sat down at the right hand of the Father he sends the Spirit, and my, how he came! I’m not sure they new what to expect, but when he came it was evident, a mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire, speaking in other tongues… church had never been like this!

Throughout the book of Acts the Spirit turns up again and again, in similar and different ways, and as the story unfolds you get the sense of a real dynamic at work – God present speaking, guiding and empowering…..

We need to remember, they didn’t have the Bible as we have it, they didn’t have the structures we have, they didn’t have the programs we have, they didn’t have the technology we have…. but what a church, and what a missional impact.

Today in the church at large we have the Word (in multiple versions), various structures, an endless array of programs, and a powerful array of technology.

As a young person I sat in chapel and wondered about the disconnect between what I saw and experienced and what I saw in the Bible – something was missing. Then I encountered Pentecostals. Well this was different, and they still believed in and experienced the Spirit in ways I had never known – but was it really for today? were they of the devil?

Over time a hunger grew…. then one day God met me, the Spirit came, he filled me and I spoke in tongues (even tough I was still struggling to believe in all these things due to the cessationist theology I was brought up with). The Christian life took on a new and powerful spiritual dimension – what I believed, became real and powerful, suddenly I was energised and enabled to witness like I had never done – God was present with me.

This shy and retiring guy felt the call of God, and the Spirit enabled. The guy who wouldn’t speak unless he was spoken to, suddenly found himself empowered to lead worship, preach the Word, go out door to door…. all because He had come. The Spirit made the difference.

Then over the years I found that I backed off due to the abuse of the gifts and some of what was being said and done in the name of the Spirit. I found myself becoming sceptical even cynical, and my experience began to dry up. At one point I felt like going back to straightforward evangelicalism, only to come under the conviction that I would be denying what I knew to be part of God’s Word. I couldn’t do it. God had to get me through, and he did. Abuse and mis-use should not lead to no-use.

I wonder where you are today, maybe you’ve seen some stuff that turned you off, maybe seen or been on the end of the abuse of gifts and today you are in a backwater?

Are you reliant on an intellectual knowledge of the Word?

Are you reliant on your own personality, abilities and or strength?

Are you reliant on your own ability to make music, turn up the sound, create an atmosphere?

Are you still doing it like you did yesterday, afraid to listen to the fresh wind of the Spirit?

Are you dependent on the structures of your church, the way you’ve always done it, afraid to listen to the Spirit?

Don’t settle for false fire, don’t settle for no fire and don’t settle smouldering embers.

It’s time to open up again to the fresh wind of the Spirit, don’t allow the enemy to rob you of what God wants to give you – why don’t you stop and take time to open up to God, to welcome afresh the gift of Spirit.

A Spirit Filled Life & Church

Back to Pentecost and the things of the Spirit
Jesus on the last day of the feast “cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive…” (John 7:37-39). Then in John 20 he breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Receive in the Greek means, receive now, at this moment.

Initial Experience
Throughout the book of Acts there are various ‘initial’ experiences of the Spirit

• Disciples at Pentecost Acts 2,
• Samaritans – Acts 8,
• Saul/Paul – Acts 9,
• Cornelius (Gentiles) – Acts 10
• Ephesus – Acts 19

An Ongoing Experience
In fact throughout the New Testament you see not only initial experiences but an ongoing experience of the Spirit, a dynamic of life about the church. As Larry Tomczac put it some years ago, “Remove the pages from the book of Acts where supernatural activity is recorded and there’s hardly anything left!” Larry Tomczak, Beyond the Ordinary – A Supernatural Lifestyle, Restoration Magazine, July/August 1990, Harvestime Publications, Leicester.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “The essence of the Christian position is experience – experience of God! It is not a mere intellectual awareness or apprehension of truth.” Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Ephesians Chapter 6:10-13 – The Christian Warfare, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh (1976) – (p197).

“The Spirit is thus the empowering Presence of God for living the life of God in the present”. Gordon Fee, Paul, the Spirit and the People of God, Hodders, p183.

Such experiences of the Spirit were the normal part of church life for the first 8 centuries of its life. They were the very soul of the church, take them away and you have a body, a form, a structure. Excesses crept in, theological balance was sought, but the balance tipped too far in the other direction, and such experiences of the Spirit began to die out and the church became institutionalised. Form became everything. There was no longer any expectation of such a thing.

Lloyd-Jones said, “If your doctrine of the Holy Spirit does not leave any room for revival, then you cannot expect this kind of thing. If you say the baptism of the Spirit was once and for all on Pentecost and all who are regenerated are just made partakers of that, then there is no room left for this objective coming, this repetition, this falling of the Holy Spirit in power and authority on a church. But thank God – there IS room left! The teaching of Scripture plus the long history of the Christian church shows this so clearly.” Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable, Kingsway Books, Eastbourne, p44o.

‘There must be more than this’
Praise God there have always been people who have not accepted the status quo and said ‘there must be more than this,’ people who are hungry for the reality, and so there have been revivals, fresh outpourings of the Spirit, new manifestations of His presence and power.

Paul exhorts, no, commands in Ephesians, “Ever be filled and stimulated with the (Holy) Spirit.” Eph 5:18 AMP

Pentecost - Past Event or Present Reality?

Pentcost

What a day in the life of the church! And what a difference it made to those who were there! In fact if you took the dynamic of the Holy Spirit out of the book of Acts you wouldn’t have a story to tell.

The big question is, is it simply a past event or should it be a present reality? The question has caused all sorts of discussions and disagreements in the church. Church history though reveals that it experienced the Spirit in a powerful and dramatic way for at least the first 8 centuries – so such experiences certainly didn’t die out with the Apostles. So much for cessationism.

Then time and again throughout church history to this day there have been breakouts of the Spirit’s dynamic activity. The history of revival is largly a history of Spirit movements. They’ve not always or rarely have been tidy, but then neither was what was going on at the church in Corinth.

The problem is that when it’s no longer, or never has been our experience, instead of questioning our lack of experience we want to justify oursleves, our lack of it, so we go to the Scriptures and seek to make them fit.

To tight a theology

I grew up in a cessationist backgroud, I know the arguments, and Church and the Christian life were predictable. Then in my late teens I came into an experience of the dynamic of the Holy Spirit while I was still trying to get my head round it! The experience changed my life and witness.

I studied and developed my theology, and thought I understood, but over the years as I have gone back to the scriptures I have found that my neat and tidy package was neater than the Bibles! My conclusion? The desire to have such a neat and tidy package may have more to do with our western mindset, and little to do with God.

A straightforward reading of the scriptures gives the game away. It uses overlapping words/terminologies for the various experiences of the Spirit, and maybe, just maybe this all part of God’s design. After all, if we could define the experience and nail it down, then we could package it and God would become predictable.

But God will not allow himself to be boxed in or used by man or woman … God is still a mystery. God will not allow himself to be reduced to a formula.

Symbols & Expressions

The very symbols and expressions should tell us that: wind, fire, oil, fell upon, baptised (immersed), filled, drink, etc. …. God in his Word has used a whole range of earthly symbols and descriptive terms to show us something of the variegated work of the Spirit.

So, past event or present reality? God never intended that the experience of the Spirit should come ‘to pass,’ but to be the continuing and variegated experience of the people of God through every generation, in every land.

The promise is for you and your childrens children, and to all who are afar off. (Acts 2:39)

Spirit-Filled? What does it Mean?

THE PROMISE
Jesus promised his people the gift of the Spirit. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37-38). What a promise! Nothing less than a mighty life giving river, yet sadly for many it seems like a stream, or even just a trickle and some wonder whether he's there at all.

THE PROMISE STILL REMAINS
The promise did not die out with Jesus or the apostles, but continues to this day - Peter said it was for “everyone who the Lord our God calls to himself.” Acts 2:39. The Bible teaches continuationism not cessationism. The idea that it all ended with the apostles or the completion of the canon of Scripture has to be read into it, and when it is it is frequently from our lack of experience and a seeking to justify it. The fact of the matter is we need all that God gave to the early church in the way of the out-poured Spirit and His gifts in every part of our personal and church life today.

THE COMMAND: TO BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
Paul says in Ephesians that we should “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (5:18). This is not an option, the Bible commands it. It's as essential to the Christian life as fuel in the tank of a car, but more so! Much of Paul's teaching is about the place of the Spirit in the Christian's life and that you can't live the life without knowing his presence.

The question is what is it, and does it look like?  And do we, do you, know it? And is there enough evidence to convict you/me/us of that?

Now it's not unusual to hear the question/statement, ‘if God were to withdraw his Holy Spirit from the church, would we notice the difference?’ or put to another way,‘if God withdrew his Holy Spirit everything would just carry one as before,’ the implication of both being that we don’t have the Holy Spirit or he is little involved in what we do. The question is, is that true?

I'm not sure it is.

The fact is that if the Spirit was not among us we would be in deep, deep trouble, personally and corporately - I would be and so would you, so would the church, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all we do is inspired and empowered by the Spirit, and it doesn’t necessarily mean we have the fullness of the Spirit. The fact of the matter is that Scripture (e.g. Acts 6:3; Eph. 5:18) and experience tells us that we are not all as Spirit-filled as we should be, but that doesn’t mean we do not posses the Spirit, it just means we are not as ‘filled up’ with the Spirit as we could be or should be.

A DIFFERENCE
The Bible speaks about receiving, or being baptised in the Spirit. This normally happens at conversion, (Acts 2:38), but by no means always, sometimes it comes later (see Acts). The baptism though is a one off experience. You do not need to receive or be baptised in the Spirit again and again.

On the other hand the Scriptures do talk about being filled with the Spirit as an ongoing activity (Eph 5:18),  something that is commanded and should be expected.

WHAT DOES A SPIRIT FILLED LIFE LOOK LIKE?
In trying to understand what it means to be filled with the Spirit it might be good to ask, what does it look like?

Here are five evidences that you can find in Scripture and in the lives who have been and are:
• Passionate – the early Christians were passionate about God, worship, prayer, the Word, the gospel.
• Power – there was a divine enabling that took them outside of or beyond themselves to speak and act for God.
• Purity – they were changed, he is the Holy Spirit, and produces his fruit in our lives.
• Purpose – there was a strong sense of purpose, it's not a self-serving end, but the blessing of others.
• Prophetic - a present experience of gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit.

IT’S NOT ABOUT QUANTITY
I want to suggest that we make a mistake when we focus on the idea of quantity, as if we can have more or less of the Holy Spirit (of God), when the reality is we either have him or we don’t! As I said earlier, Paul says if we don't have the Spirit we are not his (Rom. 8). Thinking in terms of quantity begs the question 'does the baptism run out?' or, 'how long does a filling last?' This leads some to say that ‘The Baptism that you had ten years ago is no more use to you than the dinner you had ten years ago.’ That I'm afraid is nonsense, the Baptism and a dinner are two totally different things - one is a consumable, the other the person of the Holy Spirit! It helps to get our thinking straight.

A NEW ANOINTING?
Thinking and experience go hand in hand, the one impacting the other, so for example our experience is not helped when we sing songs that are Biblically incorrect, i.e. “O for a new anointing ...” which immediately suggests the one we had is past it's sell by date, or we've lost the one we had! Or Charles Wesley's hymn, Love Divine All Loves Excelling, which says, "never more thy temples leave." This suggests a coming and going, a possessing and a losing, whereas the Bible says that the anointing we have abides (1 John 2:20,27). And Jesus himself said that the Holy Spirit would abide with us forever (John 14:16).

The problem then is not the River! It’s there! "Out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water..." said Jesus. He does not run out! Or to put it another way, the Gift does not melt away. The question then is not one of presence or quantity, but rather more one of flow, or his possession of us. This begs the question of grieving or quenching the Spirit, two things that are very important, but not very often talked about when it comes to the Spirit-filled life.

To return to Ephesians 5:18 the focus is not on our having more of the Holy Spirit but on him filling our lives and relationships, especially 'church.'  The problem in the West is reading these texts through individualistic eyes, thereby making it all about me and my experience, whereas this is is not Paul's focus. His focus is the church, a body of people, and so we could easily read it as "Be filled together with/by the Holy Spirit..."

The abuse of alcohol leads to abuse and disfunctional relationships. The Spirit's presence and fulness leads to unity, blessing and praise as he 'oils' our relationships, and so we experience the reality of the church becoming the dwelling place of God by the Spirit, and God revealing himself, walking in it and speaking to it - church was never meant to be a round of rituals but one of dynamic encounter.

So it’s not about receiving more of what we have already got, but discovering how he might more fully possess us and how we might live in what we have, and in doing so we will know more of his fulness.