The Filling of God The Holy Spirit
This page focuses upon a remarkable developement in God's plan for mankind, a priviledge that was not extended to
Old Testement believers, and will not be given to believer's of the Tribulational and Millenial periods;
The filling of The Holy Spirit. Only we, Christians of the Church Age, have this unique ministry of the
Spirit. "Filling", as stated, is unique to our age, The Church, which is the period which began at the moment Christ died, and extends to the so called "Rapture", which is a prophecy yet to be fulfiled. It is, in fact, the next prophecy of the Bible to be fulfiled, and none know the moment this will occur. But another ministry is similar, in function only, that was provided only select believers of other times. In contrast to "filling", which is the actual presence of The Spirit in our human soul, past and future dispensations have a similar ministry called "enduement", which can also be translated "empowerment". The differences between filling and enduement are many, the greatest being that filling is universal...given to all Church Age believers, and enduement was given to only a chosen few, usually men involved in divine govenment, such as prophets, or rulers that played a major role in God's plan, such as King Saul and David. Sampson was given The Spirit, which accounts for his supernatural strength. His hair, incidentally, was only a factor in so far Sampson was a member of an elite society, men that took a solumn vow to serve God, and one tenet of that comittment was letting one's hair grow. When Delilah gave the lad a haircut it was tantamount to Sampson's breaking his vow, thus he lost enduement. Enduement, like filling, could be lost as a consequence of sin and malpractice, but could not be restored at will. The beneficiaries of enduement had to pray for The Spirit, whereas we have a permanent device which reinstates The Spirit in our souls whenever we choose (once He is lost to us). You might say that enduement was a "bennie", or special blessing. Filling, on the other hand, is an integral part of our spiritual lives, in fact...the very centerpiece. Documentation is as follows: Enduement - Old Testement "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me." (Psa 51:11) Please note in the preceding verse that David had to ask specifically that The Holy Spirit would remain with him. "Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him?" (Isa 63:11) "And He hath [empowered] him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;" (Ex 35:31) The preceding verse alludes to the members of the Tribe of Levi who were assigned to fashion the accourtments of the tabernacle. Only Levities could participate in this preisthood, including the many tershiary functions such as craftsman, chorus, and even the transport of the tent and objects of worship. "And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. " (Num 11:17) "But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abi-ezer was gathered after him." (Jud 6:34) In the preceding verse Gideon is endued with The Spirit to perform a high priority task. He did not enjoy this priviledge following the services for which he was blessed, in this case, to route an enemy army which was vastly superior in number. "And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. " (Jud 13:25) Filling - Church Age The believers of The Church Age are given the Filling of The Spirit on a permanent basis, or I should say; An optional basis. We can choose to be filled, or neglect this magnificent gift. I should also point out that the filling ministry of The Spirit is on a spiritual plane. It cannot be felt, as such, in this "body of death" for it is a soul function, not a physical one. "And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." (1Jn 3:24) "Keeping commandments" in the preceding verse refers to the device I spoke of earlier, a means provided to us for the purpose of remaining in communion with God. "I indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit." (Mark 1:8) "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (Jn 14:26) This final verse speaks of just a sampling of those benefits that come of filling, which I will touch upon presently. Endwelling - The Spirit's Presence in The Body At the risk of confusing the reader, there is a third related category of The Spirit's relationship with us that should be clarified, distinct from the "enduement" and "filling", called "endwelling". This is His presence in our physical body, as oppossed to the soul. This is an entirely different category of doctrine than filling or enduement, and we will not examine it now. But the believer must be aware of these separate and distinct functions so as to discern between the 3 in the study of the scripture. Verses which deal with endwelling folow: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1Cor 3:16) "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"(1Cor 6:19) I won't elaborate on this subject, as it departs from the filling ministry, except to say that endwelling is also exclusive to the Church Age. The Age of Grace vs The Age of The Law The incarnation is the landmark event which has changed the rules which define our relationship with God, in contrast to Old Testement times. The victory of Christ on the cross abrogated, or laid aside the old rules, The Law of Moses. Jesus Christ fulfiled the law of Moses, just part of which is the Ten Commandments, and in so doing He ushered in a new and exciting period in human history, The Age of Grace. This new venue has changed drastically our relationship with God, for the Mediator has done His work and we are the fortunate beneficiaries. Those who have any knowledge of the Old Testement have probably suffered some confusion on this count, for it is perplexing, apart from the doctrine of the transition from law to grace, just what God is about. Under the Levitical Priesthood rules believer's could literally be put to death for not observing the sabbath! And this was one of many harsh punishments for failing to observe the tenets of The Law. Then there was the sacrificing of animals, a messy business, and other priestly rituals that had to be carried out. All of those Old Testement rules were in place because the actual work of redemption had not yet been accomplished. One might say that believers in those days recieved "credit" from God, in anticipation of the 1st advent of The Lamb of God. As such, the killing of animals was a form of "shadow worship" which represented the murder of The Lord. Obviously, things have changed for the better, for we have the historical reality of the cross, and God is now free to pour blessing into our lives without the gaudy rituals and harsh restrictions of The Law. With these advanced blessings comes responsibility. As believers, we each are obligated to conform to our new life, our new rank, and the offices we hold as priests, ambassadors and adopted sons. However, God does not expect us to perform our obligations in the power of our humanity, which is transitory, fluctuating, and mercuracal...strong one moment and weak the next. No, we are given a source of divine power; The Filling of God the Holy Spirit. As I mentioned, believers of other ages had only enduement, which accomplished the same end, but was given arbitrarily by God. The Filling, in our case, is a commandment, a necessity. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." (Eph 4:30 The filling of The Spirit is key to this transition because He is the "uplink" between man and God. Remember, Old Testement believers did not have this conduit which connected them directly to The Most High. "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."(Jn 1:17) "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Rom 6:14) "But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Rom 7:6) "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Rom 10:4) Rebound - Regaining Communion with God We are responsible to maintain contact with God, being Royal Priests in our own right. God has done the mighty work which makes our fellowship with Him possible, and it is our place to exploit grace and assure that The Spirit resides in our souls as much of the time as possible. The endwelling (in our bodies) is absolute, and therefore unchanging under any condition, but we lose the filling each time we sin. The resultant condition of our souls is called "carnality" in scripture, as oppossed to "spirituality", which is charactaristic of The Spirit's presence. "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." (1 Cor 3:1) Rather than explore the means of restoring The Spirit to our souls at length, I will refer you to the page which goes into detail on this topic, Rebound. Mechanics of Filling - Spiritual IQ God's Justice becomes a factor in that we must all be given an equal opportunity to comprehend spiritual information if we can reasonably be expected to apply it to life on the same terms as all other believers. Note that we are accountable to God (at the Evaluation Throne) to answer for our conduct in this life. This parity is addressed in a doctrine called "spiritual IQ" in which The Spirit "overrides" human IQ and makes possible an understanding of spiritual matters. Luke 10:21 (below) draws the distinction between human IQ and spiritual IQ, the latter being resident in "babes", believers whose intellect is inferior. "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent (human knowledge), and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight." (Luke 10:21) "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (1 Cor 2:10) Mechanics of Filling - Transfer to "Epignosis" The human soul has two lobes, to liken it it to the material brain, where exclusive processes occur. Both of these lobes are well documented in scripture; The left lobe, called "nous" in the Greek, is the "mind", and the right is the "heart", the Greek "cardia". Incoming information is processed in the mind and understood, comprehended. Comprehension triggers the volition, which is presented the issue of accepting or rejecting the information as truth or untruth, valid or invalid. When rejected, information is stored in memory with the "not accepted tag", so it can be recalled in detail only, and not applied to life. Take communism, for example, as a study subject. The student can learn the principles of this tyranical system, remember them, but prevent them from becoming a modus vivendi for life. This process in scripture is called "knowledge", "gnosis" in the Greek. On the other hand, if the volition accepts information as true it is transfered to the "heart" as "epignosis", or wisdom. From this depository the principles can be recalled from memory for application to life. Note the distinction between "mind" and "heart" in the following verse; "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." (Mark 12:30) Verses which establish the function of the right lobe; "And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" (Matt 9:4) "And immediately when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?" (Mark 2:8) "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." (2Cor 3:3) Having defined the dual processes of the soul, knowledge in the mind and transference to the heart as wisdom, we can now isolate the function of The Spirit concerning spiritual phenomena in this regard. Note that there is a vast difference between cosmic information, subject to human IQ, and spiritual, which is only comprehended with spiritual IQ. The latter is only possible by the ministry of The Spirit, for spiritual matters are beyond the mental dexterity of man, as noted in the following passage; "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1Cor 2:11-14) The "natural man" ("fleshly man" is a better translation) is a refernece to the unbeliever, who can hear, and even understand the gist of The Word on a human level, but he does not comprehend the spiritual import because The Spirit is no in his soul, nor can He be until the man is saved. Mechanics of Filling - Application of Doctrine (wisdom) to Life There is intrinsic power in this relationship bewteen man and God, divine power, which is manifest in many aspects of our lives so long as we tap the resource of resident truth in our souls as we confront the the moment-to-moment circumstances of our lives. It should be apparent, supposing the reader had disgested the foregoing information on this page, that the configuation of God's plan for us (and we each have a customized, personal plan for our life) is supported entirely upon the grace of God. As such, our human abilities play an insignificant role so far as dealing with the details of our existence are involved. To put it another way; God provides all things and we simply tap the source. This is essentially the formula for living a victorious Christian life, to wit; Knowing God's Person, His provision, and His invlovement on an intimate level in our souls. He designed a plan, executed the plan, and reveals the plan. Our part in this great drama of human history is only achieved to His satisfaction if we recognize our responsibilities as Christians and discharge them diligently. "Knowing" is the key word in our role, which focuses upon learning. What we learn is The Word, into which God has placed every minute detail that we need to use in life. As explained here, learning spiritual information is dependent upon The Spirit's mentorship. So long as we expose ourselves to a source of sound Bible teaching, and are careful to be filled with The Spirit as we sit and listen, The Word of God is gradually constructed in our hearts and becomes the substance of life itself. The Bible mandates us to assimilate "The Mind of Christ", which is the thinking of God as it was processed by the soul of "The Trailblazer", Jesus Christ. In Him, the divine standards and values of God were established and applied to every nuance of His life. In this way, in the life of Jesus, God reduced His attitudes and responses toward every category of circumstance in life to a human format, recorded them in scripture, and perpetuated the complete substance of His life in written form for our benefit. You might say that the Bible, in textural form, is like a concentrated food substance that has been freeze dried. Within the chrystals of this concentrate are the inherent charactaristics of the Source, intact, complete, inert. As simple words-on-paper the bible is just another book. It has no supernatural properties, no special significance. However, when the written words are ingested by a human soul (a believer's soul) and the catalyst of The Holy Spirit is present in the soul, the latent power of those chrystals is released, quickened, and explode onto the terrain of our consciousness. Although this is a spiritual phenomena, and not evident by any physical device, the impact on the thinking of the individual is profound. Yet, in a manner so charactaristic of God, even this dynamic process, the activation of God's Omnipotence, is as subtle as the cool breeze of an evening...bringing refreshment to the withered flora, soothing the overheated brow, sparing nature of the burning sun. But for our awareness of His mighty presence, we would think ourselves as worthy to take credit for the spectacular impact of our lives. I say "so charactaristic of God" because I mean to convey a sense of wonder at how He does things. He is the deft surgeon, meticulous, perfect, concentrating His unlimited power in whatever miniscule dosages are necessary. A man with even a tiny fraction of such powers would be given to excess, and it would eventually destroy him. But God's exercise of power conforms to His remaining attributes (ref: Divine Essence). The Holy Spirit, then, is the agent of revelation, and He expands that function, as our Mentor, to helping us use doctrine effectively, even where we are not aware of a distinction. God's standards, an irresistable force, will slowly shape the believer's soul, ever so gradually. We eventually think divine viewpoint in every detail of life, and the result is a testemony to the glory of God, reaveled at the resurrection. IN the mean time, in this life, even the most accomplished of believers is transparent, unknown. Mind you; The irresistable power of truth changes you, not on a schedule as man would have it, but as God causes it to come about. Doctrine doesn't demand drastic alterations to one's life. This phoney scoop is one area which causes millions of Christians to suffer heart burn; Everyone is asserting pressure to change! Stop smoking, stop cussing, stop drinking, yada, yada, yada. Most people think in terms of changing others to suit themselves, but a believer with momentum in his life is mellow, relaxed, and confident. He smokes and drinks and raises hell if he wants, but re-shaping himself isn't an issue which demands his attendence. The natural outworking of Doctrine in his soul will change him. The growing believer is secure in his communion with God because it is based upon God's Word and not subject to human dynamics. In that He has loved us from eternity past, and saved us in one moment of faith in Christ, even when we were yet enemies, we have been redeemed as vile creatures. In His infinite Mind He knew each hour of our lives, the worst we will ever be, and He saved us anyway. So what is the big deal with doing good and religious activities that are no more than social schmooze? Everyone gathers around and utters stupid Christian-speak, and they fairly ooze niceness. Phoney baloney! Those same holy joes will be reeming you a new pooper next week! Savvy? Why??? Because there is no spiritual dynamic in their lives! The best they can come up with is finite good, tainted by some degree of foilble, originating in the carnal mind. Human production has no duration, depends upon impossible standards, agrandizes the doer, is staged for effect, reeks of human schmooze good. The Bible teaches that a prolonged state of carnality produces a "disukos" (double minded) effect on the human soul, like the Jews that followed Moses. Happy one minute and panicking the next. Elated in the morning and suicidal at evening. "Split personality", that's a carnal believer. The changes a man might make to his life are motivated by, at best, human good, But the changes God makes are motivated by His viewpoint in our souls. Changes are made effortlessly, gradually, and in full view of our volition. We consciously decide to change, but so as to conform to the divine standard, and the power to meet the standard is provided by God! At issue in our lives is the matter of motive, the two motives mentioned above; Human vs Divine Good. This is a slippery slope for us, because the finite mind cannot visibly distinguish between the two. We can't really tell, as observers, what motive another has. Consequently, because alot of charlatans are gifted speakers, millions are bilked out of their money by smooth talk and pious imagery which they mistook for virtue. Note that the true man of God is obscure, reputable enough, but probably not suspected to be a person whose life has impact on an unimaginable scale. The operative word here should be "vessel". We are earthen vessels, handiwork of The Master Potter. What we contain is the value we attain. You have to think about this idea at great length to appreciate the meaning. A milk carton is valuble when it has milk in it. When it's empty...we trash it. The Word of God is the treasure that we contain, and thus of greater value to God. Even those souls of believers that arrive in His Kingdom devoid of Bible Doctrine, ignorant totally of God, will have fantastic blessings for eternity, without end ...and they are empty vessels when their time on this planet is terminated. He transforms all of us at the resurrection into creatures of light with endless life, but the Vessels of Honor, the souls that carry precious cargo, will be exaulted above all, rulers with Christ. The means of arriving at the coveted High Ground of the spiritual life, that condition that will be parlayed into riches and blessings beyond the frontiers of imagination, is amassing the substance of Divine revelation, The Word, in our souls. The power this spiritual system runs on is God the Holy Spirit. He is our connection straight to God, no middlemen, no go between. Only our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, stands ahead of us. The one dimension we can insert into the vessel analogy is "volition". We, as "clay vessels", have a free will, and we have the opportunity to deposit what we will inside. The interaction of human and Divine volition is at work in applying doctrine, or learning doctrine. We make ourselves available to God as He wills (and that ain't easy did!). It sounds great, "just let God determine your life", or something like that....and that is the gist of it, but staying out of God's way turns out to be a full time job. It's amazing how difficult it is to just let God handle things. Problems especially. We want to get out the wrenches and start to work! But, when we are motivated by human good, the result is inevitablly negative. Whatever our woes had been, remaining carnal (out of fellowship with God) only compounds them. And when the tough stuff happens we blow it; Lose our temper, worry, get pissed, what have you. The carnal man is weak, subject to emotion, insecure in his management of life's details, uncertain of God's will. At that point, we have to plug back in to the Power! The plug is your soul, the socket is 1John 1:9, "The Purification Verse", The Power is God the Holy Spirit. (ref. Rebound). The Many Blessings of Filling ( to be finihsed at a later date) |