Marks Of ‘spirit’ Filled

Opening illustration: Story of a famous oil field called Yates Pool ~

During the depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.

Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.

And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it.

Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright.

Let us turn to Ephesians 5 and explore what the ‘Holy Spirit’ filled person possesses …

Introduction: Are you joyful, thankful and submissive? Then you are being controlled by God’s Spirit. This filling is a continual experience, for we constantly need to be filled with God’s all sufficient, inexhaustible supply of spiritual power if we are to continually walk supernaturally in a manner worthy of the Lord. Not something that leaks or has to be filled when it runs out. Remember the Holy Spirit is a person and is always referred as “HE.” The more you open yourself and submit to Him, the more He will have of you. If we can grasp this concept, it will become easier for us to understand and move and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

(i) Being filled with the Spirit of God does not mean an emotional, dramatic and sudden experience that somehow catapults you into some kind of spiritual hierarchy, into a permanent state that is called the second blessing. (ii) It is not some act of our own flesh that seeks God’s approval. (iii) It is not a process of progressively receiving bigger and bigger doses of the Holy Spirit.

lf God’s people have reason to sing for joy. Though we are not always singing, we should be always giving thanks; we should never want disposition for this duty, as we never want matter for it, through the whole course of our lives. Always, even in trials and afflictions, and for all things; being satisfied of their loving intent, and good tendency. God keeps believers from sinning against him, and engages them to submit one to another in all he has commanded, to promote his glory, and to fulfill their duties to each other.

What are the marks of a “Holy Spirit” filled person?

1. Joyful (v. 19)

Your past, present and future circumstances do not determine your joy. It says in Nehemiah 8: 10 ‘Do not sorrow. For the Joy of the Lord is your strength.’ The text here expresses that we are joyful with one another in the body of Christ and that joy is targeted towards our Lord and Savior. Are you happy or joyful? What are you joyful about? With whom are you joyful? What or Who are you targeting your joy toward?

“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Beloved, when the Spirit of God fills you, you will not only speak, but sing. Let the holy power have free course: do not quench the Spirit. If you feel like singing all the while, sing all the while, and let others know that there is a joy in the possession of the Spirit of God which the world does not understand, but which you are experiencing, and to which you wish to bear witness. Oh, that the Spirit of God would come upon this entire church, and fill you all to overflowing! Here “melody” is an agreeable succession of sounds; a succession so regulated and modulated as to please the ear. It differs from “harmony,” inasmuch as melody is an agreeable succession of sounds by a single voice; harmony consists in the accordance of different sounds. The word which he uses - ψάλλω psallō - means to touch, twitch, pluck - as the hair, the beard; and then to twitch a string - to “twang” it - as the string of a bow, and then the string of an instrument of music. It is most frequently used in the sense of touching or playing a lyre, or a harp; and then it denotes to making music in general, to sing - perhaps usually with the idea of being accompanied with a lyre or harp. The idea here is that of singing in the heart, or praising God from the heart. The psalms, and hymns, and songs were to be sung so that the heart should be engaged, and not so as to be mere music, or a mere external performance. It is not a mental praising of God but distinctly speaking, teaching … Apparently the joyful praise is of the Lord and also addressed to Him. Singing, as here meant, is a direct and solemn act of worship, and should be considered such as really as prayer. In singing we should regard ourselves as speaking directly to God, and the words, therefore, should be spoken with a solemnity and awe becoming such a direct address to the great Yahweh. So Pliny says of the early Christians, “and they sang among themselves hymns to Christ as God.”