Our Greatest Need

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OUR GREATEST NEED Ephesians 5:18 Ephesians 5:18-20 To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be full of joy, full of thankfulness, and to be filled with thoughts and concerns for others. Eph. 1:12-13; I Cor. 3:16 When we become born again we all receive the Holy Spirit of Promise. Ephesians 4:30 As believers we are sealed, (fixed, secure, kept, confirmed), with the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 12:13 As new believers we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. Acts 4:8; 31;6:3; 7:55; 9:17 We all as believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit but if we are to be used of God in any capacity we not only have the need to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit but we need to be filled by the Holy Spirit. God needs to be in charge of our good works or they amount to nothing. POSSESSED AND CONTROLLED Ephesians 5:18 The reason why Paul contrasted drunkenness to being filled with the Holy Spirit was that in Ephesus it was the pagan belief that their god dwelt in the blood of the wine they drank. So the more they drank, the more their god would control them. Paul had to educate the new believers about the filling of the Holy Spirit. God wanted to control them with the Holy Spirit and not with wine. Lk. 5:26; Jn. 2:7; 16:6; Acts 5:3 The word “filled” means to grip, to possess, to control. The Holy Spirit's divine nature does not want to eliminate our personality, He wants to control it for God's glory. Rm. 6:13; 12:1; Phil. 2:5; I Thes. 5:23 To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that He takes full possession of our body, of our mind, and of our spirit. Jn. 10:10; Rm. 8:37 Is your Christian life a life of abundance, an overwhelming life that is filled with joy and an attitude of a conquering spiritual hero? Is it instead a life of spiritual weakness with little or no fruit and lots of ineffective service that shows a less than victorious Christian life? There is only one reason for living lower than how God wants us to live and that's not living a Spirit filled life. REPEATED FILLING Acts 2:4; 4:31 There is an initial filling of the Holy Spirit at salvation but this filling must be constantly repeated. These disciples in Acts 2:4 were again filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 4:31. Eph. 4:30; I Thes. 5:19 We may hurt, or grieve the Holy Spirit with sin and lose His filling and fellowship. We will never lose His presence because we are “sealed with Him” but when we lose His fellowship we need to be filled again. The 'tense' of Eph. 5:18 is present continuous. CONDITIONS FOR FILLING Ps. 51:10; Pro. 28:13; I Jn. 1:9 To be filled with the Holy Spirit first and foremost requires a clean heart, a right spirit and a repentant attitude about our sin. Turning away from sin and turning to God. Mk. 11:25; Eph. 4:31-32 We must have a forgiving spirit in order to have the filling of God's Spirit. Lk. 11:13; II Cor. 13:14 There must be a sincere, earnest desire to be filled with the Spirit yourself or to ask that others might be filled. I John 5:14-15 Once we have repented and confessed all known sin and have made certain that we are sincere in our desire to be filled with the Spirit in order to better be used by God we can be assured that God not only will hear our prayer but answer it as well.