PT-1 "The Meaning of Being Filled" (Eph. 5:18b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/16/2019 10:01 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “The Means of Being Filled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:18b

 

            Message of the verse:  “but let the Spirit stimulate your souls” (Phillips).

 

            I need to begin with a couple of things before we get into looking at the subject at hand.  First of all we are looking at the second sub-section under the main section of “The command,” and next I want to say that this subject has been kind of a difficult one for me to truly understand, and so I am excited to continue to look at what the filling of the Holy Spirit is all about for me as a believer in Jesus Christ.

 

            We see from the title of this main section “The Command” that the filling of the Holy Spirit is commanded from our God and we can be sure that God commands nothing for which He does not provide the means to obey that command.  Another thing we need to understand that if God commands something then we need to pray for it.  I have mentioned that in the book of Daniel that Daniel knew that the Lord was going to send the children of Israel back to the Promised Land 70 years after they were first taken captive and so once that time got close then Daniel prayed for this to happen, and it surely did happen.  This gives me something that I must pray for as far as God’s command of me as a believer to pray that I will be filled with the Holy Spirit.  I must realize that it is God’s deepest desire that each of His children, including me, be filled with His Spirit.  I only need to discover the resources He has provided to carry out this obedience, and I look forward to understanding them.

 

            John MacArthur writes “To ‘be filled with the Spirit’ involves confession of sin, surrender of will, intellect, body, time, talent, possessions, and desires.  It requires the death of selfishness and the slaying of self-will.  When we die to self, the Lord fills with His Spirit.  The principle stated by John the Baptist applies to the Spirit as well as to Christ:  ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3:30).”

 

            I apologize that this will be a really short SD this evening as my wife and I were gone from our house most all of today as we went with a senior’s church group to view a play in what we in Ohio call “Amish Country.”  To top it off on the way home I had to drive through a very bad thunder storm, and I am thankful to the Lord that He got us home safely.

 

Today’s verse that goes along with yesterday’s quotation from John Wesley is from Matthew 28:19 “God therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

 

7/16/2019 10:18 PM