Financial expert and radio personality, Dave Ramsey says there are three things one can do with money: spend, give, or invest. Of course, one must become debt free first. There’s a parallel between what he says about money and what God says about life. I can spend my life, give my life, or invest my life. But first, I must make sure I am debt free. Through Christ, I can experience the freedom from the debt of sin that I need. Once freed, I can then spend, give, and invest my life in things of eternal significance.
Which brings me to a question, “How can I be sure I am doing what I really ought to be doing with my life?” As a child of God, this question should be uppermost in my mind, because I should want to live life on purpose, making sure that my life is being spent, given, and invested for both time and eternity. So, this is a very important
question; and it’s a question Paul answers in today’s passage.
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Paul says, “Be filled with the Spirit,” (v. 18) and the primary reason he gives is that it is essential to living by God’s wisdom and making the most of opportunities given us in this life (vs. 15-16); to make sure we are able to understand and walk in God’s will (v. 17).
Paul tells the Ephesians God’s will is not to get drunk on wine, but that we be filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 18). This was an appropriate thing for him to say to the Ephesians, whose city was in the heart of wine country, where over-indulgence was common. The wine god - Bacchus was honored by his devotees having drunken orgies. So Paul contrasts the way followers of the wine god, Bacchus, sought to honor him with the way God calls us to honor Him as followers of Christ.
Drunkenness degrades both the drinker and others. The activity of the pagan Greeks was demeaning. The activity of the Christian, by contrast, should be uplifting. And that’s how the Christian can live, as he allows the Spirit to fill and empower him from day to day. While the pagans lived “under the influence” of alcohol, Paul says Christians are to live “under the influence” of the Holy Spirit!
Which brings us to Paul’s command in verse 18b. Notice four things Paul says about how to live empowered by God’s Spirit.
1. This is a command for our good.
This statement is in the imperative mood, which means it’s a command, not a suggestion, recommendation, or polite piece of advice. We have an obligation to obey this command as we do any other in Scripture. To live the Spirit-filled life is not optional for the Christian, but obligatory.
Corrie Ten Boom would illustrate the importance of living the Spirit-filled life this way. She would hold up a glove and say, “I have a glove here in my hand. The glove cannot do anything by itself, but when my hand is in it, the glove can do many things. It is not the glove, but the hand in the glove that acts. The Christian is the glove. It is the Holy Spirit (the hand) in us who does the work. We have to make room for the hand so that every finger is filled.”
God did not give Himself for us only to leave us on our own to try to do our best to live our lives for Him. No, He not only gave Himself for us, but He gives Himself to us; and He does this through the presence of His Spirit in our lives. The moment I trusted Christ as my one and only Savior, God’s Holy Spirit took up residence within me.
“When you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit.” - Ephesians 1:13b (NLT)
As a Christian, the question is not “Do I have the Holy Spirit?” but “Does the Holy Spirit have me?” He resides in me, now He must be allowed to preside over me. And God commands us to allow His Spirit to fill every part of my life so I might stand firm in all the will of God. This is a positive command, for just like all of God’s commands, it is given to us for our own good, so we might experience God’s best.
“Now His commands are not a burden, because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.” - 1 John 5:3b-4 (HCSB)
2. This is a command for every Christian.
The promise of the Spirit filling every area of my life to enable me to live life on purpose is the heritage of every Christian, whether I am one who’s known God a long time, or hardly any time at all. Whether you’re a spiritual giant or a spiritual infant, the promise of a purposeful life by the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit is for you!
Stand on the sea-shore looking at the ocean, you can see the sun reflected from its depths. Look at a lake you can see the sun reflected from its shallow waters. Look at a pond, and you see the same great sun. Look into the dewdrop of the morning, and there it is again. The sun has a way of adapting itself to its reflections. The ocean’s not too large, nor the dewdrop too small. So God can fill any man, whether his capacity be like the ocean, the lake, the pond, or the dewdrop.
Whatever the capacity, there is opened up the possibility of being filled with the presence and power of God’s Spirit. And just like any body of water, whether it be an ocean, a lake, a pond, or a dewdrop can reflect the sun, every Christian’s life can reflect the Son, by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Which means . . .
A. The Spirit can transform your walk.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord (James 1:22-25), are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” - 1 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NKJV)
B. The Spirit can empower your witness.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses . . .” - Acts 1:8 (ESV)
3. It is a command to cooperate.
In essence, Paul says, “Let the Sprit fill you.” In other words, the Spirit will fill your life if you will let Him! If the Spirit isn’t working freely in our life, it isn’t because He is reluctant, but because we are resistant. So how do we cooperate with the Spirit and let Him fill our lives?
When is a pitcher full of water? When there’s nothing in it but water that comes all the way to the top. Suppose you have a pitcher of coffee and want a pitcher of water. If you empty half the coffee and fill up the pitcher with water, what do you have? A pitcher filled with coffee and water. If you leave one sip of the black liquid in the pitcher, you still have a pitcher of coffee and water. It is only when you empty out all of the coffee and wash the pitcher that you can then have a pitcher full of water.
The Holy Spirit is actively working in the life of every Christian to enable us to be our best for God and do our best for God; and the Spirit uses the Word in our lives to speak to us and to lead us. The Word is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17b).
Compare Ephesians 5:18-33; 6:1-9 (the Spirit filled life) and Colossians 3:16-25; 4:1 (the Word filled life).
We need to surrender to the Spirit to fully understand the Word; and we need to surrender to the Word to be more fully filled with the Spirit.
Paul says that God is at work “to make her (the church - every Christian) holy, cleansing her (the church - every Christian) by the washing with water through the Word” (Ephesians 5:26 NIV).
There are two ways the Spirit washes us with water through the Word.
A. The Spirit convicts us of where sin is in control.
When we’re convicted by the Spirit through the Word of wrong things we have done, we need to claim cleansing by confessing each sin. These are what we commonly call sins of commission.
B. The Spirit convicts us of where self is in control.
When we’re convicted by the Spirit through the Word of right things we have not done, we likewise, need to claim cleansing by confessing each sin. These are commonly called sins of omission.
How do we deal with either type of sin?
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:9 (ESV)
As we claim cleansing as the Spirit brings conviction through exposure to God’s Word, we can get out of the Spirit’s way and make it more possible for the Spirit to do His complete work in us.
“Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.” - Romans 6:13 (NIV)
4. This is a command to persist.
Literally, Paul says “be being filled with the Holy Spirit.” So yielding to the Holy Spirit is a decision I must make daily, indeed, moment by moment. If we are to apply God’s wisdom and walk in God’s will, we must daily choose to say “no” to sin and self and “yes” to the Spirit.
A toll bridge was built over a river. It was decided once it was open, that a $1,000 prize would be given to the l00th car to drive across it. A crowd gathered and excitement was high. At last, car number 100 was seen in the distance. The crowd cheered as it approached the bridge. But then it paused, and made a U-turn. A police car chased it down, and the driver was asked why he turned around. “Oh,” he said, “when I saw the sign about a $1.00 toll, I decided I didn’t want to pay the price.” Many lose out spiritually because what God asks of them looks like too high a price to pay.
“Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself?” - Matthew 16:25-26a (The Message)
To neglect the filling of the Spirit is to reject the filling of the Spirit; and to reject the filling of the Spirit is to reject God’s will and wisdom; and choose to not live a life of purpose.
