WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
By Frank Eiklor and Cecilia Contreras
LESSON 36 Part 2
INTRODUCTION
Study the Book of Acts and you learn in a hurry why the early church was so alive, dynamic and effective. One person was in charge, and that was the Holy Spirit. He gave the orders, furnished the power and produced the results.
All each believer had to do was hear His voice, be filled with His presence and obey His instructions. That early church reached its then-known world in only some fifty years!
Today’s church has much to learn from their example. We have often substituted our plans for His power and looked to human personalities rather than to the person of the Holy Spirit Himself.
And we have suffered the consequences: too many uninspired preachers, too many sleeping saints and, as a result, too many lost souls and too many unreached areas of the world.
In our last lesson—Part 1—we called for a return to our only hope to be like Jesus—to be emptied of self and filled with the Holy Spirit. Please go back and review Part 1. Then these final four evidences of a Spirit-filled life will excite you and make you willing to pay any price to say “No!” to self and “Yes!” to God. The first two manifestations of the Spirit-led life given in the last lesson were: 1) Unconditional love for Jesus that makes Him your number one priority and 2) A purified heart and a holy life that accepts no excuse or compromise to sin.
Here are the final four manifestations:
3. Humility that draws the spiritually hungry (a spirit of servanthood that esteems others better than oneself). “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:3-5
4. A love for the brethren, regardless of differences or denominations. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.” John 13:34, 35
5. A longing to reach a lost and dying world. “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” John 4:35 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8
6. The power of the Holy Spirit to be a moment by moment witness to the reality of Jesus. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8
