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

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/18/2019 11:29 PM

 

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

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:18b

 

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

 

            In Ephesians 4:1 we read “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,” and the highlighted words show us a good analogy of a moment-by-moment yielding to the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit filled life style yields every step to the Spirit of God.  As we move through life as a believer we can take one thought at a time and give it to the Spirit, or perhaps every step we take spiritually causes us to turn them over to the Lord so that His Spirit will fill us in order to do the things that He has planned for us to do, and as we continue to yield to the Spirit He will fill us and empower us to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish for the cause of Christ.

 

            I really wish it were that simple to follow this plan of walking in step with the Spirit, but as Paul writes in his letter to the Romans we many times do the things we should not do and the things we want to do we can’t do because of the sin-nature we have, so what we have been talking about is difficult but we are not to give up.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Not to be filled with the Spirit is to fall back into ‘the deeds of the flesh…which are:  immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these (Gal. 5:19-21).  We do not have to consciously choose to do the deeds of the flesh.  If we are not living under the control of God’s Word and Spirit, the deeds of the flesh are the only things we can do, because the flesh is the only resource we have in ourselves.

 

            “The sole defense against the negative power of temptation, sin, and Satan is the positive power of the Holy Spirit.  We have no power over those evils, and to try to combat them in our own strength is to try to walk on water by our own power.  We win spiritual victories only when God’s Holy Spirit, does battle for us.

 

            “But when we surrender to the control of God’s Spirit, we find Him producing amazing things in us, things which are entirely of His doing.  Paul calls these marvelous blessings the fruit of the Spirit, and they are:  ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control’ (Gal. 5:22-23).  The person who is Spirit-controlled and who bears the Spirit’s fruit is the person who belongs to Christ and who has ‘crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit,’ Paul continued, ‘let us also walk by the Spirit’ (Gal. 5:24-25).  To walk in the Spirit is to fulfill the ultimate potential and capacity of our life on earth as God’s children.”

 

The verse that goes along with Corrie Ten Boom’s quotation in Matthew 6:31-32 “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’…For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”        7/18/2019 11:51 PM

PT-2 "The Means of Being Filled" (Eph. 5:18b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/17/2019 10:21 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “The Means of Being Filled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:18b

 

            Message of the verses:  “Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit” (NLT).

 

            When we talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit there are some who think that you have to be of some influential group of people and have some kind of a special formula in order to have this privilege of being filled with the Holy Spirit.  When we look at both Colossians 3:16-25 and also Ephesians 5:19-33 we see Paul writing what happens when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit.  The following is from Colossians 3:16-25 “15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them. 20 Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart. 22 Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”  I have to say that this puts a whole new light on these verses to me.

 

            John MacArthur writes “To be filled with God’s Spirit is to be filled with His Word.  And as we are filled with God’s Word, it controls our thinking and action, and we thereby come more and more under the Spirit’s control.  As Charles Spurgeon said, the Christian’s blood should be ‘Bibline,’ bleeding Scripture wherever he may be pricked or cut.”

 

            When we think about the apostle Peter we often talk about some of the things that he says and does which make us think about Peter having foot in mouth problems.  However as long as Peter stayed close to the Lord he did not have this kind of problem, and as long as we stay close to the Lord through His Word and the preaching and teaching of His Word then we will also be better off, just like Peter.

 

            A couple of examples in Peter’s life are the fact that he was the only person, other than Jesus Christ who walked on water that is until he took his eyes off of the Lord.  Next example was when Jesus asked His disciples who He was and Peter right away said that He was the Messiah, and was his Lord.  Jesus told Him that it was not flesh and blood who told him that Jesus was the Messiah, but “My Father in heaven.”  John MacArthur writes “A short while later, however, Peter pitted his own understanding against the Lord’s and discovered that he then spoke for Satan rather than for God (16:22-23).”

            Now it was after Jesus was raised from the dead and then taken back into heaven that His promise of the Holy Spirit filling His disciples was fulfilled.  In my Bible reading this morning I was looking at Acts chapters three and four, and in chapter four we see the boldness of Peter as he confronts the Jewish leaders, and the reason that He does this is because he was filled with the Holy Spirit.  This is recorded in Acts 4:1-22. 

 

            I will conclude this SD with one more quote from John MacArthur’s commentary where he writes “To ‘be filled with the Spirit’ is to live in consciousness of the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, as if we were standing next to Him, and let His mind dominate our life.  It is to fill ourselves with God’s Word, so that His thoughts will be our thoughts, His standards our standards, His work our work, and His will our will.  As we yield to the truth of Christ, the Holy Spirit will lead us to say, do, and be what God wants us to say, do, and be.  ‘We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit’ (2 Cor. 3:18).  Christ consciousness leads to Christ likeness.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To yield to the Spirit’s control is what we are learning about here, and this is something that I indeed desire to do.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to remember that everything that I do for the cause of Christ I need to be humble in doing it because that is the only way I can do things for the cause of Christ.

 

Today’s quotation is from Corrie Ten Boom who states “Worry is and old man with bended head, carrying a load of feathers which he thinks are lead.”

 

7/17/2019 10:56 AM

           

 

 

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

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

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/15/2019 9:11 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-5 “The Meaning of Being Filled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:18b

 

            Message of the verses:  “but be filled with the Spirit,”

 

            John MacArthur writes the following after writing about how Stephen was filled with the Spirit even when he was about to be stoned to death.  “Being filled with the Spirit detaches us from the desires, the standards, the objectives, the fears, and the very system of this world and gives us a vision of God that comes in no other way.  Being filled with the Spirit makes everything else of secondary importance, and often of no importance at all.”  Just before Stephen died by stoning he looked into heaven and saw the Lord standing beside God.  I have read that Jesus stood up to welcome Stephen into glory.

 

            As we look through the New Testament we see that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and then later in Acts 4:8 we read that Peter was filled with the Spirit again as he was speaking to the Jewish leaders.  When Saul saw the Lord on the road to Damascus he became blinded and three days later God sent Ananias to lay his hands on Saul and tell him that he would regain his sight and that he would be filled with the Spirit to accomplish what the Lord had for him to do for the cause of Christ.  We also see in Acts chapter eleven that Barnabas was also filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

            John MacArthur concludes this long sub-point with the following paragraph:  “The concern we often hear about recapturing the dedication, zeal, love, and power of the early church is commendable.  But we cannot have the early church’s spiritual power simply by trying to copy its methods of operation.  We can experience those believers’ spiritual power only when we are surrendered to the Holy Spirit’s control as they were.  It was not their methodology but their Spirit-filled lives that empowered believers to turn the world upside down in the first century (Acts 17:6).”

 

            It is my desire to have the Holy Spirit fill me each and every day, but especially when I am doing the things that God has chosen for me to do which He ordained for me to do before the foundation of the world as seen in Ephesians 2:10 that way He will receive all of the glory and that is the main thing that I want to do.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to keep my life clean from the things that are in this world in order for the Spirit of God to fill me to accomplish what the Lord has for me to do.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to think about and learn humility so that the Spirit can fill me.

 

Today’s quotation is from John Wesley:  “O Lord, let us not live to be useless, for Christ’s sake.”

7/15/2019 9:33 AM   

 

         

PT-4 "The Meaning of being Filled" (Eph. 5:18b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/14/2019 8:40 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-4 “The Meaning of Being Filled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 5:18b

 

            Message of the verse:  “but be filled with the Spirit,”

 

            We gave a definition of the Greek word “Pleroo” the word that means filling, yet we said it means more than filling and gave a way it was often used and that was that it was often used of the wind filling a sail.  We want to move onto the second way it was used and that was that it carries the idea of permeation, as it speaks of how salt was used to permeating meat in order to flavor and preserve it. I know that sounds strange to me too. “ God wants His Holy Spirit to so permeate the lives of His children that everything they think, say, and do will reflect His divine presence” (John MacArthur).

 

            MacArthur goes on:  Third, Pleroo has the connotation of total control.  The person who is filled with sorrow (see John 16:6) is no longer under his own control but is totally under the control of that emotion.  In the same way, someone who is filled with fear (Luke 5:26), anger (Luke 6:11), faith (Acts 6:5), or even Satan (Acts 5:3) is no longer under his own control but under the total of that which dominates him.  To be filled in this sense is to be totally dominated and controlled, and it is the most important sense for believers.  As we have already seen, to ‘be filled with the Spirit’ is not to have Him somehow progressively added to our life until we are full of Him rather it is to be under His total domination and control.  This is in direct contrast to the uncontrolled drunkenness and dissipation in the worship of Dionysius that was alluded to in the first half of the verse.”

 

            Now when Jesus was on earth we can see from Matthew 4:1 that the Holy Spirit led Him, “into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”  In a parallel passage from Luke we see that it was Jesus “full of the Holy Spirit” and this prepared Him to be “led about by the Spirit in the wilderness (4:1).  In Mark’s writing on this he used even stronger language “the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness” as seen in 1:12 of Mark.  Why did Jesus do this, did He have to be talked into it?  No Jesus wanted to do exactly what His Father wanted Him to do and so He submitted Himself entirely to the Spirit’s control.  Jesus was full of the Spirit and that is why He was controlled by the Spirit.

 

            Now because it is Sunday I will not do too much more and then, Lord willing we will finish this section in our next SD.

 

            John MacArthur writes “The Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit can be compared to a glove.  Until it is filled by a hand, a glove is powerless and useless.  It is designed to do work, but it can do no work by itself.  It works only as the hand controls and uses it.  The glove’s only work is the hand’s work.  It does not ask the hand to give it an assignment and then try to complete the assignment without the hand.  Nor does it gloat or brag about what it is used to do, because it knows the hand deserves all the credit.  A Christian can accomplish no more without being filled with the Holy Spirit than a glove can accomplish without being filled with a hand.  Anything he manages to do is but wood, hay, and straw that amounts to nothing and will eventually be burned up (1 Cor. 3:12-15).  Functioning in the flesh produces absolutely nothing of spirit al value.”

 

The Bible verse that goes along with yesterday’s unknown author’s quote is 1 Corinthians 16:13 “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.”

 

7/14/2019 9:11 PM

 

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

PT-2 'Meaning of Being Filled" (EPh. 5:18b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/12/2019 10:04 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-2 “The Meaning of Being Filled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  Eph. 5:18b

 

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

 

            In our last SD we looked at what it is not to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and now in today’s SD we want to begin to look at what it is like to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Be filled’ translates the present passive imperative of pleroo, and is more literally rendered as ‘be being kept filled.’  It is a command that includes the idea of conscious persistence.  Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not an option for believers but a mandate.  No Christian can fulfill God’s will for his life apart from being filled with the Spirit.  If we do not obey this command, we cannot obey any other—simply because we cannot do any of Gods’s will apart from God’s Spirit.  Outside of the command for unbelievers to trust in Christ for salvation, there is no more practical and necessary command in Scripture than the one for believers to be ‘filled with the Holy Spirit.’”

 

            As one might understand from this quote above it is so very important to understand that all of the work that believers do for the Lord Jesus Christ after their salvation has to be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.  It goes like this in my opinion.  First, in eternity past God the Father chose us for salvation, and then the Lord Jesus Christ came to pay four our sins when He came to planet earth.  Next the Holy Spirit gives us an effectual call to salvation, a call we cannot say no to.  Next as we look at Ephesians 2:10 we see that God has chosen works for us to do and in order for us to do these works we must be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to complete these works.  However some people think that just being saved is all that is necessary and even if they do not get any rewards for the cause of Christ here on earth being in a little corner of heaven is better than being in hell.  One who thinks like that may have to read over what Paul wrote in the last chapter of 2 Corinthians:  “5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test? 6 But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test” (2 Cor. 13:5-6).

 

            John MacArthur writes “To resist the filling and control of the Holy Spirit is flagrant disobedience, and to deny or minimize its importance is to stand rebelliously against the clear teaching of God’s own word.  Every Christian falls short of God’s standards and will sometimes fall into sin and indifference.  But he cannot be continually content in such a state, because the experience of sin and indifference will be a constant struggle with his new nature (Rom. 7:14-25).  He knows they cannot be justified or in any way reconciled with God’s will.”

 

            As we saw in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 a person needs from time to time take inventory of themselves to make sure that they are truly a believer.  Just going forward in a church service saying that we have accepted Christ as Savior does not necessarily mean that one becomes a believer.  It is what happens after that that proves that you are a Christian, things that show that a person is growing in the Lord.  The metaphor of a baby is seen in the Word of God to show that once a person is truly born-again is important for believers to understand.  I know in my case that I did not step foot in a church after I became a believer, but none the less I was growing in the Lord as I attended different Bible studies for four years, and was mentored by a new friend of mine in the Word.  There came a time when the Lord laid on my heart to begin to attend church which I obeyed and actually went to that church for over 32 years.  The Christian life has hills and valleys, but when we are in the valleys and are trusting the Lord, perhaps that is the time when we grow the most in the Lord.  None of this can happen if the Holy Spirit is not filling us, continually filling us.  One of the things that can help us to determine if a person is a believer is to see the things that a person longs for.  If a person continues to long for things of the world, of the flesh, then that person needs to take inventory to see if they really are a true believer.

 

            MacArthur writes “Although every Christian is indwelt, baptized, and sealed by the Spirit, unless he is also filled with the Spirit, he will live in spiritual weakness, retardation, frustration and defeat.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There seems to be many things that I am learning that I need to do in order to continue to grow in the Lord, things like longing for heaven each and every day and also being filled with the Spirit continually.  I know that I cannot do these things on my own, but I know that the Lord will continue to do these things through me so that He will receive the glory for what I accomplish in the Spirit for Him.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Humility is still what I think about, and as mentioned it takes humility in order for the Spirit of God to work in my life to accomplish what He has chosen for me to do in eternity past.

 

Verse that goes along with David Jeremiah’s quotation from yesterday:  “Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:10).

 

7/12/2019 10:40 AM