{"id":645,"date":"2017-09-03T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/?p=645"},"modified":"2017-09-02T16:56:07","modified_gmt":"2017-09-02T21:56:07","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-filling-of-the-holy-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/2017\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-filling-of-the-holy-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about the filling of the Holy Spirit?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cAnd the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.\u201d Acts\u00a013:52<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is much misunderstanding concerning the doctrine and practical nature of the filling of the Holy Spirit. On one hand, there are many Christians who claim that the filling of the Holy Spirit is a special anointing with the Holy Spirit subsequent to salvation. On the other hand, Christians who do not believe in a \u201csecond work of grace\u201d tend to settle down into a form of Christianity that forgets the significance of the Holy Spirit\u2019s influence on their lives. There must be a middle course since that is where the Bible directs the careful student of the Word.<\/p>\n

There are two verbs and one noun that are translated \u201cfilled\u201d in the Bible. The first is pimplemi<\/em>. It appears in Luke\u00a01:15, 41, 67; Acts\u00a02:4; 4:8, 31; and 13:9. Luke employs the word on the occasion of Christ\u2019s miracle of healing the paralytic in Luke\u00a05:26: \u201cAnd they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, \u2018We have seen strange things today!\u2019\u201d You can imagine the mix of emotions and the fixation of thought on what the crowd had seen. Concerning this word Thayer says, \u201cWhat wholly takes possession of the mind is said to fill it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This captivation of the mind and heart is what is being alluded to in Acts\u00a02:4. At the birthday of the Church, the Holy Spirit was given to the Church on Pentecost, just as promised by our Lord. Acts\u00a02:4 reveals, \u201cAnd they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later we read, in Acts\u00a04:8, \u201cThen Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, \u2018Rulers of the people and elders of Israel\u2026.\u2019\u201d By Luke\u2019s use of this word in Acts we are treated to the fact that the filling of the Holy Spirit is His captivating the heart and mind of believers, equipping them in their Gospel witness.<\/p>\n

The second verb translated filling is pleroo<\/em>. It appears in John\u00a016:5f, \u201cBut now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, \u2018Where are You going?\u2019 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.\u201d The idea behind the word is similar to the first; it means to pervade, or take possession of. Just as after viewing the Lord\u2019s healing of the paralytic when all the crowd could not stop fixing the mind and heart on what they had seen, so here the very thought of Jesus leaving the disciples caused their heart to fix upon the sorrow that filled their minds and hearts.<\/p>\n

Our text from Acts\u00a013:52 uses this word to describe the heart and mind condition of the believers. Controversy was stirring and Paul and Barnabas were booted out of the city of Antioch. Persecution of the saints was on the rise. And the response of the saints? It was to fill their heart and mind with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Joy and the Holy Spirit pervaded them and filled their thoughts!<\/p>\n

Ephesians\u00a05:15ff uses this word when it says, \u201cSee then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs\u2026.\u201d As one can readily see, the passage is not about some sort of second work of grace one must wait for, rather it is a call to action in light of the shortness of time and to immediately behave wisely in the face of an evil world. The believer is not to wile away his time in a self-medicated stupor, but rather to fill his mind and heart with Spirit-led thoughts and desires, and to fill his day with Spirit-led decisions, all the while speaking forth in word and song, praises to the Most High!<\/p>\n

The noun version of filled is pleres<\/em>, often translated full. It appears in Luke\u00a04:1, Acts\u00a06:3, 5; 7:55; 9:17; and 11:29. In Acts\u00a06 there is the calling of the first deacons. They were men full of the Holy Spirit. Stephen (Acts\u00a07:55), was of course, among them. The men were thoroughly permeated by the Holy Spirit just as with faith. God Himself was in control, and all around them knew it.<\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit exerts His influence upon the individual. He does not do so in the form of filling like we would fill a bucket. Instead, His filling is more akin to the idea of being full and satisfied, like with Thanksgiving Day and the joy of fellowship and family. The Holy Spirit is a person rather than a thing. Being filled with the Spirit is living under the control exerted by the Holy Spirit. Essentially, His filling is His controlling the volition, reason, emotion, and actions of the submissive believer. A Spirit-filled saint is an obedient saint who lives in conformity to the Word of God.<\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit\u2019s role is to suppress your old man\u2019s (sin nature) desire for control, to exert His influences on you toward godliness, and to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in you. In order for this work to succeed you must actively pursue His leadership, live in conscious dependence upon Him, and lean upon Him for guidance and power in your spiritual life. Trust and obey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.\u201d Acts\u00a013:52 There is much misunderstanding concerning the doctrine and practical nature of the filling of the Holy Spirit. On one hand, there are many Christians who claim that the filling of the Holy Spirit is a special anointing with the Holy Spirit subsequent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}