Being Filled With the Spirit
1 Corinthians 2:9/11-3:4/9
I am sure that everyone knows who Bert and Ernie, the Cookie Monster and Big Bird are? They were among the Muppet stars on Sesame Street. Following one of the shoots, a man climbed out of the Big Bird suit and a little kid said, “Mon, Do you think Big Bird knows he has a man inside of him?”
But here is the bigger question for us to consider tonight; do we realize (as Christians) we have something big inside of us?
Jesus told His disciples that when He left, He would send “the Comforter” the Holy Spirit. He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” John 16:8
The book of Acts 2:38 promises that whoever repents of their sins and is immersed in the waters of baptism will receive the “gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter replies to the crowd, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remissions of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
The book of Ephesians 1:13/14 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the seal of our salvation. It marks us as being property of God. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
Paul tells us in the book of Romans “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” The Holy Spirit is our connection with God through Jesus Christ.
Paul says, “if we have the Spirit of God within, we have the mind of Christ.” Having the Holy Spirit dwelling within, we then have His ability, with the potential to think like He thinks. However, without the Spirit of God there would be a lot of things about God we would understand or know.
Let me Illustrate this, three atheists sat in the lobby of an old time hotel. One of them said “I will not believe anything that I don’t understand.” “Neither will I” said another. “Nor will I,” said the third.
They were overheard by an old Christian famer sitting close by and he smiled as he overheard the comments of these three men: He said, “On my way to town this morning I saw some geese in a field eating grass; do you believe that?” The men said, “Well certainly.” I also saw pigs eating grass; do you believe that? They said yes, there was also sheep and cows eating grass; do you believe that?
Of course, was the reply. The old man said the grass has turned to feathers on the geese and to bristles on the swine and to white wool on the sheep, and to hair on the cow; do you believe that? They replied “yes.” Then the old man smiled again as he asked. “But do you understand it?”
Because we have the Spirit, we can know things about God that the world cannot know. “Because God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, and the deep things of God.”
The Holy Spirit helps us to KNOW where the secret things of God are hidden. However, without the mind of Christ there would be a lot of things we couldn’t understand. We would not be able to understand the nature of God or His character. Or why He does the things He does, or why He did what He did under the old covenant.
In fact, we would not know how to pray as we should without the Spirit helping us. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness, when we do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
There were false teachers in the early church telling the believers they must be circumcised and keep the traditions of their forefathers, AND THEN they would have the Spirit of understanding. That kind of teaching became a stumbling block to the believer, and continues to bring confusions in the body today.
Such teaching was going on in the church at Corinth. Paul chastised the congregation by tell them they were unspiritual. You may ask how that is possible. How could that be? The church at Corinth was known as THE church with all the spiritual gifts a congregation could want.
Now if they had all these gifts why would Paul say they were not spiritual? The answer is found in 1 Corinthians 3:3 they were jealous of each other. They were quarreling with one another. They were acting like MERE MEN.
The people at Corinth didn’t have the Mind of Christ. They were thinking like the world, they were not thinking like Christians – they were thinking like Pagans. If you want to be filled and led by the Spirit of God you need to change your thinking.
The answer is found in the book of Ephesians. Paul says, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”
Being drunk with wine in the natural, will confuse your thinking and you will not be able to walk a straight line. However, being filled with the Spirit will give you clarity of thought enabling you to go deeper in the things of God.
To walk in a more powerful relationship with the Father, you must make your heart a comfortable place for the Spirit to dwell. You see, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. As we pray we should remember the words of David saying “Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew in me a right Spirit.”
To accomplish this we must following the instructions that are found in Ephesians 5:19/21. We need to surround ourselves with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Learn to give thanks for EVERYTHING and develop a grateful heart. Lastly, be submissive to others, this was the key to Corinth’s problem.
Submission was the issue that would have changed them from “carnal” to a “spiritual” people who were capable of understanding the deeper things of God. Paul did not talk about what we should expect of others; instead he focused on what we should do for others as servants of God.
When we believe others should serve our needs and understand our desires, that’s what causes conflict. It creates quarreling, jealousy, and fighting and when this happens, we know, that we still have the mind of the world, not the mind of Christ.
If we have the Mind of Christ, and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us we will surround ourselves with Christian friends offering praise and thanksgiving having an attitude of thankfulness and most of all an attitude of servant hood and submissiveness.
Then we can avoid fighting, quarreling and jealousy which will bring healing of the wounds in the heart of others rather than making those wounds worse.
