This month’s Sunday morning message series is titled “Purpose and Power.” We continue to focus on the subject of the SPIRIT-filled life.
As I shared this past Sunday, Ephesians 5:18 is the most important text in all of the Bible for Christians. “Be filled with the SPIRIT” is the key to victory in the Christian life. It is the make-or-break verse for every believer. Everything in the life of a Christian rises or falls on “being filled with the SPIRIT.”
As I said in the message, “It is absolutely impossible to live the Christian life by GOD’s standards without being filled with the HOLY SPIRIT.”
The book of Acts provides example after example of this truth. “Being filled with the SPIRIT” is the spiritual gamechanger.
Look in Acts. In chapter 2, verse 4, “There were all filled with the HOLY SPIRIT and began to speak in other languages, as the SPIRIT gave them utterance.”
Acts 4:8: “Then Peter, filled with the HOLY SPIRIT,” refused to back down from the threats of religious leaders to stop sharing the gospel. Rather, Peter and John declared in Acts 4:20: “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Acts 4:31 tells us that, when Peter and John shared their report, the church at Jerusalem prayed, “and they were all filled with the HOLY SPIRIT.”
Acts 9:17 reveals the encounter of Ananias with the newly converted Saul of Tarsus, i.e., Paul. “And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, ‘Brother Saul, the LORD JESUS, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the HOLY SPIRIT.’” Paul’s life and ministry would testify to the fact he was “filled with the SPIRIT.” Acts 13:9 verifies this truth: “Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the HOLY SPIRIT, looked intently at him.”
But Paul was not the only one filled with the HOLY SPIRIT. According to Acts 13:52, “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the HOLY SPIRIT.”
GOD uses SPIRIT-filled people in a supernatural way. After Peter preached his sermon in Acts 2, the Bible says that 3,000 people were added to the church. In Acts 6:7, “The Word of GOD spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.” According to Acts 2:47, “The LORD added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
Throughout the book of Acts, we read the accounts of the many supernatural ways GOD worked in and through believers because they were filled with the SPIRIT. Likewise, GOD can also work in our lives and our church as well. After all, HE NEVER CHANGES.
So, here is the challenge. Let’s obey GOD’s command to be filled with the SPIRIT. And let this obedience flow out of our love for Him. Let this prayer become both a consistent and daily prayer. “LORD, I re-surrender my life to You right now. Fill me right now with your HOLY SPIRIT.”
Pastor Mike