Ephesians 5:18 "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit."
This passage has two commands, both I am sure are of equal importance. If I were to come to church next Sunday drunk, I know this church would know what to do, for the Bible says we are not be drunk with wine, for this is dissipation or excess. If the worship team, the Sunday School members, the church board were to show up on Sunday imbalanced because of alcohol, the church members would know what to do in handling this situation.
Yet, the passage says there is something else, Be filled with the Spirit. It would be just as much of a sin for me to come into the pulpit and preach without being filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is not limited to just preachers.
I like the story of the minister who was in his study preparing for the Sunday service. He was in prayer asking the Lord to fill him with the Holy Spirit before he left the room to begin the service. A little boy passed the study hearing the pleadings of the minister. As the boy sat in the pew, someone asked where the minister was at. The little boy said he was in the office with yelling at someone in his study saying that if that person did not come out of the office with him, then he was not going to come out either. Church, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Tonight, it is my desire, it is my prayer, that everyone here in this room will be filled with the Spirit.
I am an Assembly of God minister, and I believe the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues, that is having a prayer language, but I also believe this to be just the starting point in what the Spirit is going to do in each of our lives.
I want to quickly go through some Scripture to show you the God given mandate to be filled with the Holy Spirit as believers.
Acts 1:4 Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me tell you about.
Acts 1:5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them
Luke 24:49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you
Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
Ephesians 5:18 Be filled with the Spirit
Whatever term you uses, we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit, God does not want us to be a powerless people.
We need to know what unction is today. We need to know what it is that caused Wesley to say that he walked with God.
We need something akin to George Whitefield who when he came home had blood dripping from his face because of his enemies.
We need something akin to John Knox who cried and prayed, Oh God give me Scotland or I will die. And bloody Mary, the queen of England said she feared the prayers of John Knox more than she did all the armies of Scotland.
We need something akin to George Fox who stayed in a trance for 14 days
We need something akin to what Savanna Roland had when he stayed in his pulpit in a trance for 5 hours as the Spirit came upon him
We need something akin to what David Brinard had when he walked with God and left his knee prints in the planks as he prayed that God would send revival to the Northeastern United States.
We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit in this land today. It will bring boldness upon our lives, it will give us power over the demons and devils of our land.
Jacob in Genesis Chapter 32 wrestled with an angel and said that he would not let him go unless he blessed him.
Isaiah saw an angel take a coal from the alter and place it on his tongue. The prophet cried out, Woe is me for I am unclean
Ezekiel wept the Bible says in the bitterness of spirit
Elisha got Elijah’s mantle and the Bible says Elisha performed twice as many miracles as Elijah
In Judged 6 it says the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon
In 1 Samuel 11:6 it says the Spirit came upon Saul
In 1 Samuel 16 is says the Spirit of the Lord came upon David
How did Gideon win the battle over the Median when he had such a small army that lapped water like dogs? How did David slay the lion, and how did David kill a bear, and how did David slay a Goliath? And how did Saul win the battle, and how did Samson have the power? They did it in the energy of the Holy Spirit.
When the Spirit was over the earth when God created mankind, that same Spirit at creation has been at work in the world through mankind since that day. The power of the Holy Spirit is not just an Old Testament truth, it is also a New Testament truth as well.
When Jesus preached at Zechaus in the tree, and when he spoke to the woman at the well, and the people at the Cross, they were saved in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As far as we know, Jesus never caused one lame man to walk, or one blind eye to see, or cast demons out of anyone, or caused one dead person to rise up to life until he went first through the baptismal alters and the Holy Spirit came upon Him.
And that same power is at our disposal today.
Do you remember the story in Luke where the man went to his neighbor and knocked on the door looking for bread because unexpected guests had arrived at his home. The neighbor told him it was night, to come back in the morning. The man could not go home empty handed, so he want back and waked his neighbor, and finally got the bread. The Bible said he received because of his importunity, which means much begging.
We need to be filled, and filled and filled. We need to continually be asking God to fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is not only an Old Testament truth, this is not only a New Testament trust, it is a historical truth in being filled with the Holy Spirit.
We love to talk about the great men of times past, Billy Sunday, Dwight Moody, Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley and others.
Every time Billy Sunday got up to preach, he first opened his Bible to Isaiah 61 and read, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel
And he would place his notes on that passage.
In times old being filled with the Holy Spirit was preached in every denomination and sought after.
The great preacher George Fox was so burdened by his wayward children and the lack of power he had in his life that he went to his priest and asked what should I do. One priest told him to get married and that would take care of it. Another said to join the army. Another said try Habakkuk and hymns, And George Fox went out and fasted for 14 days, and fell into a trance for another 14 days and the power of God came upon His life.
On Oct. 3, 1730 , John Wesley had a meal with George Whitefield, his friend. They had a meeting with 60 ministers and they prayed all night and he wrote the next morning there has come upon him a blessing from God, and for the first time he knew what it was like to be filled with the Spirit.
All day June 20, 1736, before an ordination service, before George Whitefield, he would not go on the platform until God filled him with the Holy Spirit. The power of God came on him.
D. L. Moody build a church that had a Sunday school of 5,000 in Chicago. He reached thousands. One day 2 little ladies who sat in the front row came up to him after the service and told him they were praying that he would be filled with the Spirit. Moody got mad, "Don’t you pray for me, pray for somebody who needs it, I am filled with the Holy Spirit." Then the Great Chicago fire came, and he did not give an alter call in his service, and a lot of people in his congregation were burned to death in the fire. And he cried out that he would never forget to give an alter call in his services again. He had gone to New York to raise money for the fire victims, and could never get out of his mind those two ladies who said they were praying for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. One day walking down the street he said, Okay, God fill me with the Holy Spirit. And the power of God came upon him. He ran as fast as he could for his hotel room because he was about to make a spectacle of himself, and he began to praise and to shout.
Moody was a car salesman type. He was a great promoter. Remember I said he built a Sunday School of 5,000. He started out by giving kids money to come to church. Moody was walking down the street one day when he saw a kid and asked him why he wasn’t in Sunday School last Sunday. The kid took off running, and Moody in chase behind him. He want up the stairs between two taverns into his apartment and slide under the bed. Moody want into the apartment, slide under the bed and was pulling the kid out with his legs when the boys mother came home. They called him crazy Moody. Moody started a ministry to bring people to church with horse and wagons.
When Moody was filled with the Spirit, he wrote he returned to Chicago and preached the same messages for he had nothing new to give, but he said the anointing of God was on him, he was filled with the Spirit and souls were brought out of hell.
Torrey spoke with other tongues and was almost blackballed because of his stand. Charles Finney was filled with the Spirit.
The greatest need of our church is not good sermons, we need them, but it is not the greatest need. Good training, we need that but it is not the greatest. Outstanding Sunday and Mid week teaching is important but it is not our greatest need. Is it great delivery of the sermons. When you read the biography of Jonathan Edwards, you learn he preached by reading his sermons point by point, and he did not read very good. He had a weak, timid voice, but when he read the sermons, the power of God come down on the people and they fell on their knees to the floor.
The greatest need we have is for all of us to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. From the pulpit to the pew.
It is not only an OT truth, and a NT truth, and a historical truth, but it is a present day truth.
I remember a summer camp when a young man came to the alter to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He had been to the alter before at his home church. I asked his youth pastor to come over, and we laid hands and prayed, and the results were the same. A desire but no evidence of the power. After some time, his youth pastor and I left to join others, but this young man stayed with several friends, and they prayed until a breakthrough came, and the power of the Holy Spirit came down in power on him.
Church, we are seeing a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit coming into the church world with power from on high. There is that same move here at Ione Assembly. The Holy Spirit is looking to move upon the lives of people who are opened to move in the Spirit anointing.
In the Heberties island, 2 people prayed for months for revival to come upon the island. One night, these men stepped out from their prayer meeting together on the hillside. It was 2 in the morning and they could see all the lights of town on. There were men going home from the bar when the power of God came upon them and they stopped the car, got out and fell on their knees in repentance. The churches were having to hold 7-8 services each day for the number of people who were being saved.
It is my prayer that God will do it again. And the hope for this revival rests within us. Let us not be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
(Invite people to the alter to be filled with the Holy Spirit)
