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The Filling of the Spirit (Part 4)
By Ralph I. Tilley

I concluded part 3 of this series with these words: "The only prerequisite required for a seeking heart to be filled and purified—and continually filled and purified—with the Spirit, is a strong appetite for God, a deep thirst for God." Then I said, "Remember, God forgives what we confess; he sanctifies what we offer; he fills what he sanctifies; he uses what he fills.

The Power of the Spirit

The 120 who gathered for prayer for ten days prior to the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit were thirsty-hearted followers of the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. These men and women had walked with Christ during his earthly sojourn; they were convinced he was the way, the truth, and the life. They had been told by their Lord that apart from him they could not do anything that God considered a success. They were to live lives in total dependence upon him, always giving Christ the glory for anything he accomplished through them. The select apostles were to serve as his witnesses, going into all the world to preach the gospel, making disciples of all their converts. But there was one requirement that must first be met before they were prepared to serve Christ fully—they must be filled, filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Spirit.c

The Lord Jesus, just prior to his ascension, alerted the disciples to the one essential for successful ministry—the power of the Holy Spirit: "And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" Lk. 24:49).

To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit's power—power to live a life pleasing to God; power to accomplish God's purposes through us.

Too mush of the work of the church is self-generated and self-maintained. One can hear it in so much of the music, praying, and preaching. What pleases carnal hearers and what pleases our Father in Heaven are not to be confused.

Prior to the Pentecost event, Simon Peter was the personification of one who possessed good intentions, but lacked the power to bring those intentions to successful fruition. He, along with the other disciples had power to cast out demons, but lacked the power of the Holy Spirit to consistently control their passions and energize their respective ministries.

How we need the power of the Holy Spirit! How we need his power to minister effectively and live obediently.

Without the indwelling, filling power of the Holy Spirit, we cannot—absolutely cannot—live a life in total consecration and surrender to the Lord Jesus.

The same Simon Peter who denied his Lord three times, but repented—and was subsequently empowered with the Spirit at Pentecost, wrote a letter to the Christian Diaspora some 30 years later. In that letter (The First Epistle of Peter), this Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered apostle of the Lord Jesus, called the letter's recipients to a humanly impossible lifestyle. Note the following selections from each of the five respective chapters.

   "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1:14-16)

   "Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God" (2:18-20).

   "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind" (3:8).

   "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly. Love covers a multitude of sins" (4:8).

   "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, . . ." (5:5b).

Don't you see the impossibility of living out these, or any other, biblical imperatives—apart from the ever-present indwelling, filling, empowering Holy Spirit?

Christianity is a supernatural religion that is incapable of being lived-out without supernatural help. But the good news for Christians is that the Helper is available to all who invite him to take control. But that's the problem—we want to be in control, at least to control some areas of our life.

Transformed and empowered by the Spirit of God, Peter knew his readers could not possibly obey his apostolic injunctions. How could one possibly not be conformed to sinful passions, treat an unjust master with respect, live in unity and brotherly love with all Christians, and walk in humility with fellow believers? Impossible!—as long as we seek to live a self-directed life instead of a Spirit controlled and Spirit-empowered life.

Here is where the church is falling miserably short. We are walking in the flesh instead of being controlled by the Spirit. Hence, the tensions and conflict, the disputes and arguments, the world-conformity instead of Christ-conformity, the man-pleasing spirit instead of a God-fearing spirit, pride instead of humility, self-assertion instead of self-abasement.

The average Christian stands in need of another conversion! Why? He is living without power, without the Spirit controlling his and her passions, temperament, desires, motives, choices, ambitions, thoughts, and pursuits. The church needs changed Christians, Spirit-filled and Spirit-controlled followers of the Lord Jesus.

When our grandson Luke was six years of age (now seven), he was just learning to spell a bit and learn a few punctuation marks. One day he placed a little yellow note on my desk. Here's what he wrote: "I love you God. ! ?" Period, exclamation point—then a question mark. Those three items could very well summarize Peter's walk with Christ—before the Pentecost event, as well as summarizing the walk of many of Christ's contemporary spasmodic disciples. They are living life without certainty, without true purpose and direction. Their hearts are divided. They need a fresh cleansing and the definitive filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit.

What is the answer?

Repentance and Cleansing

For those who are professing faith in Christ but living powerless lives, the first step one must take before he can enter into a life of fullness and power is to repent of his fleshly ways and receive a renewed cleansing. What one needs to repent of can only be suggested by the Holy Spirit.

The prophet Isaiah had evidently ministered for some time before his transformative, cleansing experience. He said it happened in the year of King Uzziah's death. He saw the Lord that day in the temple as he had never encountered him before: "high and lifted up" (all references are from Isaiah, chapter 6). The hovering seraphim were singing antiphonally:

   "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of
   hosts;
   the whole earth is full of his glory."

Immediately Isaiah was convicted of his own uncleanness and confesses:

   "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

Isaiah had allowed the pressure of his culture to influence his life. It was only through the manifestation of God's revealed presence that the wayward prophet recognized his own impurities.

How we need the convicting presence of God on the scene. Why is it that people can come and go from the sanctuary week after week and live untouched, unchanged lives? Because God fails to show up! When God shows up, sinners and saints are convicted of their sins, their shortcomings, their lack, their powerless living. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is personal and pungent. He will press his finger deeply into our need. Conviction always precedes repentance; repentance always precedes cleansing; cleansing always precedes filling; filling always precedes ultimate usefulness for the glory of Christ.

Dear reader, is there an area of your life that needs surrendering to the Lordship of Christ? Are there attitudes, thoughts, or behaviors that need to be repented of? Do you need a fresh cleansing? Can you identify with the cry of the pleading leper: "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean"? Will you feel the touch of the ever-living Christ just now and hear him say, "I will; be clean" (Mt. 8:1-4).

You may wish to prayerfully repeat the words of Charles Naylor (1911):

   Make me clean, make me clean,
   Though defiled and so sinful I am;
   Make me clean, make me clean,
   Make me clean in the blood of the Lamb.

The following words, written by J. Edwin Orr (1936) while conducting revival services in Ngaruawahia, New Zealand, have become classic and used mightily by the Spirit in turning many hearts fully to the Lord:

   Search me, O God,
   And know my heart today;
   Try me, O Savior,
   Know my thoughts, I pray.
   See if there be
   Some wicked way in me;
   Cleanse me from every sin
   And set me free.

I can say that I've never sung or read these words penned by the flaming revivalist, without the Spirit ministering to me through them. Even now, as I listened to them again over the Internet, my heart was touched anew by the Spirit of God.

Cleansing precedes fullness. Cleansing of a self-centered ego, cleansing of a man-pleasing spirit, cleansing of every precious idol, cleansing of a man-managed life, cleansing of every thing that vies for control of the throne of our heart. Our hearts need to be circumcised by the Spirit's surgical knife, with all uncleanness removed.

We are in need of a deep cleansing. But with a deep confession and a deep repentance there will follow a deep cleansing with full assurance. Thereupon we can sing again with Orr:

   I praise Thee, Lord,
   For cleansing me from sin;
   Fulfill Thy Word,
   And make me pure within.
   Fill me with fire
   Where once I burned with shame;
   Grant my desire
   To magnify Thy Name.

Fullness Follows Cleansing

Fullness is the inevitable consequence of cleansing. Following the Pentecost outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the followers of the Lord Jesus were full men and women. Acts records that they were filled with the Holy Spirit (2:4; 6:3; 7:55; 11:24; 13:9, 52); filled with joy (13:52); and that some were filled with wisdom, grace, faith, power and good works (6:3, 5, 8; 9:36; 11:24).

How we need filled churches; how we need filled Christians!

A problem we face, however, is that so often we want to be filled but are unwill-ing to pay the price to be cleansed.

I think just now of the Rev. Duncan Campbell's own testimony. This Scottish evangelist had spent a good many years in useful service to the Lord and then strangely entered a seventeen year period of barreness. In his own words: "Here I was—a lovely congregation, and now proud of the fact that I wsas being asked to address conventions. You see, I was Campbell of the Mid Argyll Revival. . . . Oh, this heart of mine began to swell."

The Spirit of God used both his daughter and a young minister to bring conviction to his proud heart. Listening to the young minister speaking, his heart was powerfully convicted of its waywardness. Campbell said, "As he spoke, conviction deepened and gripped me until I felt utterly unworthy to hold the Bible in my hands. I said to my wife and daughter, 'I'm going to my study and I do not wish to be disturnbed. I want to face God with honesty and sincerity."

Then Campbell said, "So I went to my study. I fell on my face and confessed my backsliding. I confessed how I had drifted into modernism. I confessed how the evil heart of unbelief had gripped me." The altar had been prepared; God responded with forgiveness, cleansing, and fullness.

Do you desire—really desire the Spirit's fullness in your life? What is the Spirit saying to you just now?

- Soli Deo  Gloria -