Today, I want to answer this question, “How can I tell if the Holy Spirit is controlling me?” We are not alone in asking this question as the renowned theologian Jonathan Edwards addressed the questions in his work, Religious Affections. In the book, Edwards moves through twelve “uncertain signs” and twelve “true signs.” Edwards gives great counsel for assist you in determining the work of the Spirit in those you love and care for. He wrote those words during the height of the First Great Awakening when many Christians were arguing/debating over the Spirit’s work. This remains a huge question for us even today.
How do I know if the Spirit has filled me? And how can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?
1. A Spirit-Filled Person AGES
When the Spirit of God fills you it will change every part of you. I developed an acronym to help you see this: AGE stands for Attitude, God, and Everyone.
But first …
1.1 Only Followers of Christ have the Holy Spirit
First, it’s important you know that Spirit is selective: “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Romans 8:9b). Only followers of Christ have access to this power source. The Spirit indwells believers only. He will influence people who don’t know the Lord, but He indwells believers.
1.2 AGE
The Bible commands us to be filled with the Spirit: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit…” (Ephesians 5:18). A Spirit-filled life does something to you, your relationship with God, and your relationship with others. You can remember this word, AGE. If I am filled with the Holy Spirit, it will AGE me. Again, AGE stands for Attitude, God, and Everyone.
The Spirit-Filled person has a different Attitude: “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart…” (Ephesians 5:19).
The Spirit-Filled person is filled with thankfulness to God: “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 5:20).
And the Spirit-Filled person has a different way to interact with Everyone: “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:21).
AGE is Attitude, God, and Everyone. We don’t have to guess what a Spirit-filled person looks like because the Bible tells us. For so many people, you were taught that you would speak in tongues when you had the Spirit in you. Tongues is another topic for another day, but look how the classic passage on being filled with the Spirit answers the question. Watch the chain of reasoning in verses 18 through 21.
In fact, verses 18-21 are all one sentence in the original language of the New Testament (Greek). When the Holy Spirit controls you and fills you, there are three marks or traits to look for:
1) you will sing – you’re attitude changes - the fundamental meaning of being filled with the Spirit is being filled with joy that comes from God and overflows in song;
2) you will give thanks to God above;
3) you will submit to others – your relationship changes with everyone.
Again, a Spirit-filled person is AGE is Attitude, God, and Everyone.
1.3 Don’t Miss the Opportunity
There are some things in life you just don’t want to miss out on. Tony Fadell invented a digital music player around the year 2000. He took his new invention to the leader of digital music at the time, a company called RealNetworks. But they reject Tony’s idea because his music device would compete against their successful media endeavors. After his rejection, Tony took his personal digital device to Apple who began production in 2001 and the idea took off.
Eventually, to be known as the iPod, Apple’s Ipods when on to sell around 400 million devices.
There are some opportunities that are simply too great to miss. You don’t want to miss even one opportunity where the Spirit fills you. So the Spirit-Filled Person is when you AGE: Your Attitude about you changed, your attitude changes about God, and your attitude toward Everyone else is radically changed..
1. A Spirit-Filled Person AGES
2. A Picture of a Spirit-Filled Person
The Bible offers us a simple picture of what you look like when you’re filled with the Spirit. Look back at Ephesians 5:18 again with me: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit…” (Ephesians 5:18).
Paul places two items in close proximity that are a canyon apart. Drunk with wine and filled with the Spirit are canyons apart. Surely he had a reason to place these two items so close to one another.
Imagine if I got up this morning and drank six Budweisers. If that were true, I would be acting very differently. Drinking too much means you lose control of yourself. You’re not “yourself”; you’re not acting like yourself. A drunken person is out of control. If you are pulled over by a policeman under the suspicion of driving while intoxicated, he will make you walk a straight line. Why? Because drunk people cannot even control their feet to walk in a simple, straight line. When you are drunk, you simply no longer control your actions. You make promises you can’t keep.
Just as drinking makes the control of your body switch over to alcohol, a Christian is controlled by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit takes control of you much like alcohol would control you, only you gain self-control. Instead of losing control, you gain tremendous self-control. You have control of the tongue, control of the emotions, control of the passions, and control of the mind. Don’t allow alcohol to control but invite the Spirit to control you.
1. A Spirit-Filled Person AGES
2. A Picture of a Spirit-Filled Person
3. The Spirit Empowers for Evangelism
How does all this talk about the Spirit impact evangelism? Christianity is a soul-winning, out-reaching, mind-persuading, heart-entreating, rescuing, missionary faith, or it is not true Christianity. We need to be reminded of this because it is almost incredible how listless we can become while calling ourselves Christians. The book of Acts shows up a powerful link between being filled by the Spirit and witnessing. The link between the Spirit and evangelism is tight. In fact, you could say it this way: Holy Spirit Boldness comes from Holy Spirit Fullness. One of the marks of a person filled with the Spirit is that He makes us strong to witness in the face of opposition. There are two instances of this that come to mind. One happed with Peter and another with Paul.
3.1 Peter’s Encounter with the Spirit
First, look what happened to Peter: “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
The Spirit-filled Peter and the disciples when they faced opposition. They were told to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. The Spirit-filled Peter up – I like to think of mercury in a temperature gauge going up, up, and up. One minute they were not filled but after they prayed, they were filled the next minute.
3.2 Paul’s Encounter with the Spirit
Later on, Paul faces opposition from a magician, a false prophet when he was sharing the gospel with Jewish people. The Spirit fills Paul and emboldens him to tell the false prophet you will be blind because of his opposition to the spread of the gospel. The Bible says the man had to have people lead him by the hand because he could not see (Acts 13:11). When you are filled with the Spirit you are empowered to witness with great boldness. We don’t see enough of this in our day. For many of you, you may have never actually have seen anyone who has been filled with Spirit-empowered boldness witnessing to another person. Oh, let’s pray the Spirit fills us over and over and over again for the purpose of finding great joy in Jesus and for boldness in the task of sharing Christ.
3.3 Whitefield’s Encounter with the Spirit
Do you know the name of a powerful 18th-century evangelist named George Whitefield? He was in a remote place in Pennsylvania on Saturday, November 22, 1740, when he related the following:
“Preached, in the afternoon to many thousands, when God was pleased to own His Word. I was taken ill after preaching. Straining caused me to vomit much. I rode about twelve miles, and thought it advisable to retire to bed immediately. But God’s Presence so filled my soul that I could scarce stand under it. I prayed and exhorted and prayed again, and soon every-person in the room seemed to be under great impressions, sighing and weeping. At last I was quite overpowered.”
The Spirit of God filled the evangelist so he could overcome his health problems to share the gospel. Again, Holy Spirit Boldness comes from Holy Spirit Fullness.
1. A Spirit-Filled Person AGES
2. A Picture of a Spirit-Filled Person
3. The Spirit Empowers for Evangelism
4. How Can I be Filled by the Spirit?
I want to finish our time by giving you a handle on this. I want to help you by teaching you a couple of tips on how you can be filled by the Spirit.
4.1 You Don’t Do It
It doesn’t say, “Fill yourself with the Spirit,” does it? “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit…” (Ephesians 5:18).
It says, “Be filled. Put yourself in the position where you can be filled.” The Spirit is not the faucet in your bathroom sink. This isn’t something you have complete control over. Pray continually that you are filled with the Spirit. Make it part of your daily prayers. As the Lord, “Please fill me with Your Spirit. Please drive out my sin this day and fill me with you.”
4.2 Daily Spiritual Disciples
Being controlled by the Spirit is not a dramatic or decisive one-time experience but it’s a daily, ongoing habit. There’s a kind of fullness of the Spirit that comes just simply obeying God and using the means of grace: Bible study, and prayer, and fellowship, obeying his will, etc. It’s a daily or continual thing as well.
The verb in Ephesians 5:18 is in the present tense: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit…” (Ephesians 5:18). I’m not going to bore with you a lot of Greek but the tense of this verb means we are to continue to be filled. Being filled isn’t a one-time thing and you’re done. Being filled is a continual thing.
Repent of your personal sin, my Christian friend.
The Story of Duncan Campbell
Here at the conclusion, I want to share a story of how the Spirit moves us for evangelism. The story is about Duncan Campbell, a minister of the United Free Church of Scotland. On the Monday after Easter in 1952, Duncan was seated on the platform after speaking to the Faith Mission Convention in Bangor, Northern Ireland, when he sensed the inner voice say to him, “Berneray!” (Berneray is a small island in the Hebrides.) Duncan bowed his head and prayed silently. Again came the name “Berneray.” He prayed on, and the name came a third time. So Campbell turned to the chairman and whispered, “Brother, you will need to excuse me. The Holy Spirit has just told me that I am to go to Berneray.” The chairman objected mildly, “You are the speaker tomorrow.” But nothing could stop him. He knew the Spirit had spoken.
Campbell said later, “I had never been to Berneray, had never known anyone from there, and had never received a letter from anyone there.” He went to the hotel and packed his two suitcases and contacted the airport. There were no connections with Berneray because it was too small and out of the way. So he caught the first flight to the nearest island. When he got there he went down to the coast and asked how to get to Berneray. The answer from a fisherman was that there is no usual commercial way, but that he would take him for such and such an amount. It was almost the exact amount Campbell had in his pocket.
When they got to Berneray the fisherman returned and left Campbell alone on the shore. He climbed the bluff and found himself on the edge of a plowed field and a farmer not far away. He said, “Please go to the nearest pastor and tell him Duncan Campbell has arrived.” The farmer responded, “We don’t have a minister for the church now.” “Do you have elders?” Campbell asked. “Yes, all right, go to the nearest elder and tell him, Duncan Campbell has arrived.” The farmer looked at him quizzically, then started off across the field as Campbell rested on his suitcases.
After a while the farmer returned and said, “The elder was expecting you. He has a place ready for you. He has announced the meetings begin at nine o’clock tonight.” While Campbell had been at Bangor three days earlier, this elder had spent the day praying in his barn for God to send revival to the island. God gave him the promise in Hosea 14:5: “I will be as the dew unto Israel.”
He claimed it in faith. His wife in the house heard him praying in the barn, “Lord, I don’t know where he is, but You know, and with You all things are possible. You send him to the island.” He knew in his heart that God was going to send Duncan Campbell, who had been used in mighty revival in other parts of Scotland, to Berneray. He was so sure that he would be there in three days that even he made all the arrangements to use the local church and had announced the services – all by faith.
Just yesterday, I was speaking with a pastor friend whose father-in-law passed away. I had been his father-in-law’s pastor for about five years around his retirement. I asked his son-in-law, “Did CE always closely follow the Lord. It felt like that his discipleship with Christ really came on late in his life. Do I read this correctly?” It was then that his son-in-law shared how his wife heard from the Holy Spirit to talk to her father about his faith. Immediately, she drove three-plus hours to find her father and talk to him about the Lord. It was because of this conversation that my friend really began to follow the Lord. The Lord used him in a powerful way in the life of the church. All because the Spirit prompted a daughter to speak to her father.
The Holy Spirit wants to fill you.
