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Transcript 401B
The Significance of Being Filled with the Spirit
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. My question is, What is your interpretation of being filled with the Spirit? And could you give scriptural references wherever you can?
HC: The question is raised concerning the phrase, being "filled with the Spirit." There are many who speak on this matter of being filled with the Spirit. It is a rather popular topic today.
Actually, to be filled with the Spirit means to be under the control of the Spirit, that is, to let the Spirit more and more take control of your life. Now in the general sense that is true. But God has a very specific meaning when He talks about being filled with the Spirit.
We find, for example, that John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. As we search out this phrase, we'll find that exceedingly frequently it is used in the same breath with another phrase, namely, that someone spoke out or witnessed concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
We read, for example, that Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, was filled with the Spirit and said, I don't recall the exact words. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was filled with the Spirit, and exclaimed, we read about the disciples, right after Pentecost. They were filled with the Spirit, and spoke in other languages. We read in Ephesians 5:18, where God says, "Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit." And remember what phrase follows? "addressing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."
I find that when we synthesize all these statements we find that to be filled with the Spirit in the particular sense means that we have become qualified to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now under no circumstance does being filled with the Spirit have to do with something that happens again and again and again. We either have the Holy Spirit, and are a born again believer, or we don't have the Holy Spirit because we're still unsaved. And the Holy Spirit is not given by measure, as we read in John 3. The Holy Spirit is not a commodity of some kind, where we can be half filled, or a quarter filled. We either are given the Holy Spirit in the sense of being filled with the Holy Spirit, or we don't have the Holy Spirit.
According to what we read in the Bible, before Pentecost it was only occasionally that we would read of someone who was filled with the Holy Spirit. I sighted three of them: John the Baptist, Elizabeth, and Zacharias. We read of Micah that he, being filled with the Spirit, said what he had to say. But it's a fairly unusual phrase before Pentecost, although it is found.
But after Pentecost, beginning with the disciples in Acts, we find that that is to be normative for every believer. They are to be filled with the Spirit. That is the command of Ephesians 5:18 & l9: "Be filled with the Spirit."
When we understand that God really is saying that we are to be His witnesses, all of this begins to hang together. Before Pentecost it was only occasionally that God qualified someone to be a witness. It was not His program at that time that every believer would be a witness. And so it was only occasionally that someone was filled with the Spirit. Now this has nothing to do with whether we're born again, it has nothing to do in itself. We can't be filled with the Spirit without being born again. Only those who are born again are legitimate witnesses, or ambassadors, or Christ.
But it really means that you have the Holy Spirit, which was true before Pentecost as well as after. But it means that more particularly you have been qualified to be a witness. And so after Pentecost every believer was to be a witness.
One of the most unusual places where we find a reference to being filled with the Spirit is in the Old Testament, in Exodus 35, where they are building the Old Testament tabernacle. Now the Old Testament tabernacle was the forerunner of the temple. And the superintendent who was named by God to build the tabernacle was a man by the name of Bezellel.
Interestingly, we read of Bezellel that he was filled with the Spirit. In verse 30 of Exodus 35: "And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, The Lord hath called by name Bezellel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And He hath filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, and to devise curious works, to work in gold and silver and brass," and so on.
Now what does that have to do with witnessing? Is my whole synthesis shot down now? Doesn't it stand now because we find that Bezellel was filled with the Spirit? And we don't read of Bezellel that he spoke to anyone. He was not a prophet. He was the superintendent. He was charged with building the tabernacle. He was a craftsman.
And yet it says of him that he was "filled with the Spirit." But you see, that fits right into what we discovered in the New Testament. To be filled with the Spirit is to be a witness, and the purpose of witnessing, declaring God's Word, is to build the temple of God. We are temple builders in the New Testament.
Remember I Peter 2:4 or 5? We are lively stones in the house of God. Or in Ephesians 2 it says that we are built into a temple of the Lord. You see, whenever we are bringing the Gospel, we are being temple builders. But that's exactly what Bezellel was. He was a temple builder. He was the superintendent of the tabernacle. So we're not at all surprised therefore that it speaks of Bezellel that he also was filled with the Spirit. Can you see how beautifully and cohesively the Bible fits together?
To be filled with the Spirit really means, in its most intense Biblical sense, I believe, to be commissioned by God to be a witness, and a witness of the true Gospel, of course. In Ephesians 5, where it says, "Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," God is simply saying, "Be sure that you are a born again individual, so that you are legitimately an ambassador of Christ." And as an ambassador of Christ you of course are filled with the Spirit, so that you can be a legitimate witness of the true Gospel.