Ephesians 5:18 – “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”
That every believer has the Holy Spirit within them is clear. That every believer is not filled with the Spirit is equally as true. The supreme need for Christians in our day is to be filled with the Spirit. John R. Rice correctly said, “You cannot do God’s work without God’s power.” There are many Christians who do not know the blessing of yielding themselves to Holy Spirit, allowing Him to fill them to capacity, so that they may be used in fruitful Christian service. Christians should seek to be filled with the Spirit so that the lost will be justified, the saved will be edified, and Christ will be glorified!
When this truth is presented, some say that we need a mighty baptism in the Spirit. Others object to that terminology, and say, “Oh, no! It is not a baptism; it is the fullness of the Spirit.” Others say, “No, it is not the fullness; it is the filling.” Others argue still yet that it is instead an infilling.
Whatever you wish to call it, it is desperately needed! Our churches are suffering without it! This point is brought out well by William E. Boardman:
All real Christians agree that it is our privilege to be filled with the Spirit, and that this is the great need of the time. But when this privilege is unfolded and pressed as a baptism, or the baptism of the Holy Ghost, some start back at the term and just stand at the gate.
The New Jerusalem has twelve gates, and each is called by a different name. Yet all who enter by any one of the twelve are really in the City. It would be a strange thing if anyone approaching the gate of Benjamin, for example, should stop in it and quarrel with the overarching name and say, ‘It ought to be Judah or Ephraim, and not Benjamin,’ and so should block up the way.
Let me enter into the City by any gate and by any name and I will praise the name of the Lord, and will not dispraise the name of the gate.*
Whatever name you wish to give it, we desperately need to be filled with the Spirit! Fill us, Lord!
*Boardman, William E. In the Power of the Spirit. Willard Tract Repository. Boston, MA. ©1875. pp. ix-x.
