PT-3 "The Meaning of Being Filled" (Eph. 5:18b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/13/2019 9:56 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “The Meaning of Being Filled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:18b

 

            Message of the verse:  “But be filled with the Spirit.”

 

            “The continuous aspect of being filled (‘be being kept filled’) involves day-by-day, moment-by-moment submission to the Spirit’s control.  The passive aspect indicates that it is not something we do but we allow to be done in us.  The filling is entirely the work of the Spirit Himself, but He works only through our willing submission.  The present aspect of the command indicates that we cannot rely on a past filling nor live in expectation of future filling.  We can rejoice in past fillings and hope for future fillings, but we live only in present filling.”

 

            This can be pictured in marriage, as marriage couples cannot rely on the love they had at the beginning of their relationship, nor the hope of what they will have in the future, but the love they have for each other on day-by-day living with each other.

 

            John MacArthur writes Pieroo connotes more than filling something up, as when someone pours water in a glass up the rim.  The term was used in three additional senses that have great significance for Paul’s use of it here.  First, it was often used of the wind filling a sail and thereby carrying the ship along.  To be filled with the Spirit is to be moved along in our Christian life by God Himself, by the same dynamic by which the writers of Scripture were ‘moved by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Pet. 1:21).”  “For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

 

            I am about to quote all fourteen verses found in the fourth chapter of Zechariah, and before I do this I want to say that it seems to me that the Spirit of God has made something clear to me about what is found in this chapter about being continually filled with the Holy Spirit.  I wrote about this chapter when I went through my study on Zechariah, and then also when I was teaching and studying the book of Revelation when we were looking at the two witnesses from the eleventh chapter.  As we look at this quotation from Zechariah we see two olive trees connected to the lampstand.  Now the lampstand had to be filled by the priests two times a day in order for it to continue to burn, but as we see the olive trees connected to the lampstand and the oil continually coming out of it then that means that the lampstand will continually be filled with the olive oil and never need anyone to fill it again.  The same, I believe is true with the Holy Spirit, as I look at the passage from Zechariah, as He will keep us continually filled to do the works that God has prepared for us in eternity past (see Eph. 2:10).

 

            “1 Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened from his sleep. 2 He said to me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it; 3 also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side." 4 Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, "What are these, my lord?" 5 So the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord." 6 Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. 7 ’What are you, O great mountain? Before

Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"’" 8 Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that the

LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 10 “For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel-these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth."

    11 Then I said to him, "What are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left?" 12 And I answered the second time and said to him, "What are the two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes, which empty the golden oil from themselves?" 13 

So he answered me, saying, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord." 14 Then he said, "These are the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth.’”

 

We have another unknown author giving a quotation for us today:  “No one ever falls into sin as the result of being too watchful.”

 

7/13/2019 10:20 AM