Power for Holiness

Filled with the Spirit - the Power for Holiness

24 October 1999

CAPTAIN ALISTAIR VENTER

Reading: Acts 1:4-11

INTRODUCTION:

Someone was saying at Alpha the other day that we are not human beings having a brief spiritual encounter, we are spiritual beings having a brief human sinful encounter. Paul tells us that we are no longer citizens of earth, but citizens of heaven, and as such we need to start living as citizens of heaven. I don’t mean that we have got to become too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good – but we do have to start living the life that God intends us to live. What we do during this brief earthly encounter will pretty much determine where we will spend eternity.

We are told in God’s word that we are to be a holy people. Last week we looked at the fact that the source of holiness is abiding in Christ. This week I want us to look at the topic: "Filled with the Spirit: the power for holiness. It was Jesus Himself who told his disciples concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit – that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Power for what? Power to live a holy live. Power to resist the onslaught of the evil one. Power to witness. Power to be obedient to God. Power to do His work. The Spirit dwells in our hearts and comes as the Spirit of life. In Ezekiel 36:26,27 we read this: "I will give you a brand new heart and put a new spirit in you…I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws". For us human beings, it might seem so difficult to explain the concept of the Spirit.

What we need to do is focus on Christ, but live by the dynamic of the Holy Spirit. Every aspect of our Christian life is performed by the Spirit. In addition to living by the Spirit, we are told to love by the Spirit (Romans 15:30); we are sanctified by the Spirit (Romans 15:16); we pray by the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18); we hope by the power of the Spirit (Romans 15:13); by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13); we worship in the Spirit (Philippians 3:3); we are strengthened by the Spirit (Ephesians 3:16), we are taught by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13); and we produce good fruit by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23). What we are saying then is that without the Spirit, there is no growth for the believer.

The Bible gives four very clear instructions concerning our relationship with the Spirit.

There are two positives and two negatives.

Walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16)
Be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30)
Do not quench the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

As we examine these four instructions this morning, it is my prayer that it will help us to enjoy a right and better relationship with the Spirit, and that we will know the power to live a holy life.

In Galatians 5:16 we read: "So I say to you, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature".

WALKING BY THE SPIRIT:

What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? How a person lives or conducts his life is considered to be the way he walks. According to Scripture, the Godly man walks as if he were always before God. God told Abraham: "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless" (Gen 17:1) One of the Bible commentators says about this verse: "God orders Abraham to live his life before God in such a way that every single step is made with reference to God and every day experiences him close at hand". To put it another way – so many people these days where that bangle WWJD = What would Jesus do. If our walk can be lived in such a way – comparing every action we make with what Jesus would do – we would come pretty close to walking by the Spirit. Walking before God means living a life of obedience.

Listen to what Scripture has to say as to how we USED to walk.

Ephesians 2:2 – "we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air"

Romans 8:4 – "according to the flesh"

1 Cor 3:3 – "like mere men"

1 John 1:6 – "in the darkness".

But, he says, now we are to "walk in Christ" according to Col 2:6, "in the light" acc to 1 John 1:7; "according to love" says Romans 14:15, "in the same manner as Jesus walked" says 1 John 2:6, and "according to the Spirit". (Romans 8:4)

It is only the Spirit that can overcome the tendencies of the flesh. As we walk our new life controlled by the Spirit, we start to bear the fruit of the Spirit which of course is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. In other words, as Galatians 5:25 says, we have to keep in step with the Spirit, living in harmony with Him.

Next we are told to be:

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT:

To be filled with the Spirit means to let the Spirit who lives in us show itself so that His presence fills and controls all our thoughts and actions. Stephen and Barnabas were people who were full of faith and the Holy Spirit. The life of Jesus was evident in their lives because their every thought and action were controlled by the Spirit.

How do we fill ourselves with the Spirit? Obviously, there are things that we have to empty ourselves of in order for the Spirit to fill that place. So yes, the things in our lives that are wrong must be evicted, and that takes some doing for most of us. Do remember that you cannot be saved without the Holy Spirit – so when you are saved the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your heart and life. But we have to open up every area of our lives to Him, so that He can be in complete control. We cannot restrict him to certain areas of our lives as many of us are prone to want to do. We can’t live a double life. We have to allow the Spirit to fill us so that at work, we are spirit controlled people; in our relationships whether with friends, spouses or children, we are spirit controlled people; when we come to church on Sunday, we are same spirit controlled people as we are every other day of the week. He has to have control of our thoughts, our emotions, our actions. He has got to be the one that fills our very being!

There are three disciplines that we need to submit to if we want to be filled with the Spirit. They are prayer, the Word and our interaction with other Christians within the body of believers. In other words, if we want to be filled with the Spirit, then we must be people of prayer, students of the Word, and active in the Church.

We are told in Ephesians 6:18,19 that we are to "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests." We are also told that it is the Spirit who helps us to pray in order that our prayers may be more effective.

Being filled with the Spirit also means being filled with God’s Word. Paul has two passages that seem very similar. The one is in Ephesians 5:18 where he says "Be filled with the Spirit", and the other is in Colossians 3:16 and says: "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly". After both these commands, Paul lists the results of obeying these commands. The lists are basically identical. Both passages are followed by teaching on how to conduct ourselves as husbands and wives, how to treat children slaves and masters. Would I be that wrong in saying that "Being filled with the Spirit" is almost parallel to letting the word of God dwell in us richly. After all, the Word of God was inspired by the Spirit!

Thirdly, it is the Spirit who created and builds up the community of God’s people. It is the Spirit who equips every believer with Spiritual gifts in order that the body may grow. If we are filled with the Spirit, we will want to be active in the church, we will want to see our fellow believers growing and developing into mature, beautiful people.

There are two warning concerning the Spirit. Two negatives, maybe, which we need to be on the lookout for.

DO NOT GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT:

What causes grief or pain to the Holy Spirit? In the context of Ephesians 4:30, I believe that we grieve and cause pain to the Holy Spirit when we tear down another believer instead of building him or her up. Why is it that we tend to break down other people? Is it when we still harbour in our hearts things like bitterness, rage and anger, every form of malice? These things are contrary to the Spirit. The Bible is filled with instructions to believers to do things for one another. Because we are members of one another, we are to be devoted to one another, honour one another, be of the same mind with one another, accept one another, admonish one another in love, greet one another, serve one another, bear one anothers burdens, bear with one another, submit to one another, encourage one another. My dear friends, if we fail in this area of building one another up and are constantly breaking one another down, we are grieving the Holy Spirit, we are causing him pain. There needs to be a lot more caring among the members of the body of Christ.

Finally, we are instructed:

DO NOT QUENCH THE SPIRIT: (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

In the Bible, the Spirit is often referred to as the Fire – even in our flag we speak about the fire of the Holy Spirit. A fire can be extinguished either by dousing it with water, or by withholding fuel from it. In the same way, when the Holy Spirit comes to us with guidance, or instruction, and we refuse to be obedient - we kind of put the fire out, don’t we. When we do not use the gifts that the Holy Spirit bestows on every single believer, we put out the fire, we quench the Spirit. In the context of 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul speaks about the fact that when the prophets or the preachers words which come from God are not adhered to, we quench the Spirit. We restrict his work. I see this happening in so many churches around the world – people don’t want to submit to discipline, people don’t want to exercise the gifts that the holy Spirit bestows on us. The ones and twos are left to do all the work in the church – and God’s work suffers! Let us not put the fire out by our deliberate actions!

CONCLUSION:

When we are filled with the Spirit, we will have power to be a holy people. What are the positive instructions that we have been given? Walk by the Spirit – be filled with the Spirit. Your co-operation and mine are necessary for this to actually happen. Are we co-operating with the Spirit today? Are we allowing Him control in every area of our lives?

What about the negatives? Are we guilty of inhibiting the work of the Spirit? Do we grieve Him and cause Him pain by what we say and the way we treat other believers? Are we guilty of quenching the Spirit when He wants to do so much through our lives? One of my earlier statements that I made was this: "Walking before God means living a life of obedience". Are you doing that this morning?