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.”
What will be the evidence of it? One will be fullness of joy (Galatians 5: 22). The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of gladness, the Spirit of joy. Now do not misunderstand me, there is a difference between holy joy and mere natural merriment. Take the life of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Even though He was the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53: 3), as we read the records in the four Gospels we cannot help but be impressed with the fact that we are not reading the life of a sad Man but of a glad Man. "At that time Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, Father, I thank Thee." (Luke 10: 21) That is characteristic of the blessed Lord. In spite of all the grief and sorrow that He bore He was joyful. But having said that, let me remind you that in these records you do not see depicted what the world calls a jolly man. His was no mere worldly jollity, no mere worldly merriment, but a deep-rooted gladness that was based upon unbroken communion with the Father, and that is the joy that you and I should possess. The one who is filled with the Spirit will be a glad, joyous believer.
2. Thankful (v. 20)
Here Paul addresses that a Spirit filled person is thankful to God in Christ Jesus for ALL things. He answers the queries to what to give thanks for and who to give thanks to … This is a very clear identity of a ‘Holy Spirit’ filled person. His attitude is not to give thanks for few things or those things which he/she likes but for all things. And he/she give thanks to God, not to focus giving thanks to a person or earthly individual but to God alone. Let us not forget that Job gave thanks and praised God for even those things that were unpleasant and uncomfortable for him.
The Spirit-filled Christian is evident by his on-going thanksgiving, expressed in the name of Christ to the Father. Such thanksgiving not only recognizes the existence of God, but the sovereign involvement God has in the life of the believer. It recognizes that all that happens in the believer’s life is from God, that every good and perfect gift is from Him (James 1: 17), and that even suffering is a gift (Philippians 1: 29) which comes from God for our good and His glory (Romans 5: 3-5; 8: 28). It recognizes and responds with thanksgiving for God’s gracious involvement in our lives as the result of His fathomless wisdom.
There seems to be three attitudes towards thanksgiving in our world today, especially in Christianity.
(a) First of all, thanksgiving is not even necessary because we deserved it anyway. You can see this in Scripture. Remember the rich farmer who took all of his crops and stored the produce of it in his barns, never understanding the fact that he didn’t grow those crops, God grew those crops. You know, if anybody understands what God can do and what man can’t do, it is the farmer. All the farmer can do is plow the soil, put the seed in it. The rest is up to God. He gave no thanksgiving to God. For some reason he thought that everything that God produced was his, so he put it into his barns and stored them up. God came to him and said, "You fool. Tonight your soul shall be required of you." A lot of people don’t thank God for anything. They think they deserve it. They think they have earned it.
(b) Now this is a person in scripture who will give thanks but his thanksgiving is like in that singer, it always calls attention to himself. He is not really giving thanks to God, but he loves to talk about it all the time. "Oh, thank God. I really thank God." Luke 18:11-12 describes a Pharisee ...
(c) In Luke 17: 15-17 when the ten lepers were healed, how many came back and thanked the Lord Jesus? Only one.
3. Submissive (v. 21)
This Biblical principle of being an identity of a ‘Spirit’ filled person is contrary to our culture. That is why it identifies with a person who is filled of the ‘Holy Spirit.’ Otherwise there would be no difference between him/her and the world. That person is not of the world but is soaked and saturated with the Holy Spirit. It makes that person stick out for Christ.
Maintaining due subordination in the various relations of life. This is also a general principle of our faith in Jesus Christ as He exemplified it by being submissive to God the Father. Here Paul at the same time enforces this duty of submission, however, he enjoins on others to use their authority in a proper manner, and gives solemn injunctions that there should be no abuse of power. This may be understood either in a political sense, of giving honor, obedience, and tribute, to civil magistrates, since they are set up by God for the good of men, and it is for the credit of religion for the saints to submit to them; or in an economical sense; thus the wife should be subject to the husband, children to their parents, and servants to their masters, which several things are afterwards insisted on, as explanative of this rule; or in an ecclesiastic sense, so the Ethiopic version renders it, "subject yourselves to your brethren": thus members of churches should be subject to their leadership, not in the same sense as they are to Christ, the head, nor are they obliged to believe or do everything they say, right or wrong; yet honor and esteem are due to them, and submission and obedience should be yielded to their doctrines, precepts, and exhortations, when they are agreeably to the word of God; since God has set them in the highest place in the church, called them to the highest service, and most honorable work, and bestowed on them the greatest gifts; the younger members should also submit to the elder, and the minority to the majority; one member should submit to another, to the superior judgment of another, and to the weakness of another, and to the admonitions of others, and so as to perform all offices of love: and the manner in which this duty is to be performed, is in the fear of God; which may be considered as the moving cause of submission, or, as the rule of it; submission should be on account of the fear of God, and so far as is consistent with it; and indeed, the fear of God is that which should influence and engage to every duty; and which should be before our eyes, and in exercise in our hearts, in all concerns.
But here the text very much implies on our submission to one another within the body of Christ with the fear of the Lord. The reason being that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and how many people today, even in the body of Christ our pursuing Godly wisdom. This has become a rarity as more and more people within the body of Christ desire to pursue worldly wisdom and its ways in order to stay politically right with the world and at the same time try to be right with God and be relevant to the contemporary. At the same time the world does what is right in their sight and pleases them. Apparently it doesn’t work that way. You may have worldly success but for sure staying Godly, an utter failure!
Application: What does set apart a Spirit-filled church is that their music is understood as communication both with their fellow-believers and with God. The words which are sung are true to biblical doctrine, indeed, the expression of that doctrine. The “spirituality” of our singing and worship is not how we feel as we sing, but whether or not others are edified and God is glorified. The emphasis is not on us, on our feelings, or on our fulfillment, but on God. We should speak to others about God. We should admonish others not to be disobedient to Him. We should speak with great thanksgiving to God, giving Him praise and glory through Christ.
Spirit-filling is not evident in careless, thoughtless, structure-less spontaneity, but in godly wisdom and in orderliness. It is not seen in those who exalt themselves (even by means of actions and words which seem spiritual), but by submitting ourselves to doing that which edifies and builds up our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us be careful, then, about judging the Spirit’s filling by standards which are worldly or fleshly, rather than in accordance with God’s Word.
• Are you filled with the Spirit of God?
• Are you allowing the Spirit to give you power in the inner man that you never had before?
• Everywhere you go, people are touched by awareness that there is someone living in you that is divine and they want what you have. That is the result, you see, of being filled with the Spirit of God. You are constantly in the stream, letting the river flow through you.
