How to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
This is Part Three of a series on How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
What is our motivation for wanting to be filled with the Spirit? When we seek this, we do not always understand what we are asking for. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, means that Jesus is taking charge in our life, we will not be the master. There is no magical formula, dance or puppet string we attach to our body. It simply is, but what is not so simple is offering your life on the altar of God to him.
Acts 5:32 (ESV)
32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, [by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This is where it starts and continues, offering our life to Jesus that he be Lord of our life.
Let’s test it in our life.
In prayer and song we sing about how we are sinners and need God, thinking that we have submitted to Jesus. Then, someone at work or a close family member or class mate or teacher says to us, “You are so selfish.” How do we react? Do we say you are right, show me how I was selfish? Many of us will put up walls and get out our guns. We will try to defend our self in hopes that they feel our pain of their judgment.
We could ask, “What lies are you believing in this moment?” Paul says in Galatians 5, we are led by the Spirit, not the sin nature which is contrary to the Spirit. However, in the midst of the text is an understanding of the struggle between the two in ones’ life. Perhaps there is some need for confession in your life.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit is about Jesus being Lord of your life.
What do you find hard about living in Romans 12:1-2? Where do you need to empty yourself so the Spirit can come in? Seek the things of God and not self and the Spirit will rest with you.
Galatians 6:25-26 “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
Repentance is the road to being led by the Spirit.