The Spirit-Filled Life

   On every hand a lack of something is being felt and expressed by God’s people. Their Christian experience is not what they expected it would be. Instead of expected victory, it is oft-recurring, dreaded defeat; instead of soul satisfaction, it is soul hunger; instead of deep, abiding heart rest, it is disquiet and discontent; instead of advancing, it is losing ground. Is this all Christ meant when He said, “Come unto me”? Is this life of constant disappointment the normal life of the Bible Christian? To these sad questionings the Divine Word answers with an emphatic “No,” and the testimony of an ever-increasing number of God’s children answers “No.”

THE BELIEVER’S BIRTHRIGHT

   For this widely felt, though sometimes inarticulate demand, the Divine supply is the fullness of the Spirit; and the Fullness is the birthright of every believer, his birthright by virtue of his new birth. Sometimes we hear it said Christian privilege; but birthright is a stronger word. Reader, it is your birthright to be filled with the Spirit, as Peter was filled, as Stephen was filled, as the one hundred and twenty men and women in the upper room were filled (Acts 2:4), as the men and women in Cornelius’ house were filled (Acts 10:44-47). “And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off” (Acts 2:38-39).

   What have you done with your birthright? Have you claimed it? Are you living at this moment in the possession and enjoyment of it? Or, are you, Esau-like, “despising your birthright”? (Gen. 25:34)-or, if not despising, are you neglecting it? Esau’s eyes were ultimately opened to his folly in parting with his birthright for “one mess of meat,” and he then desired to inherit the blessing, seeking it “diligently with tears”-but alas, his awaking came too late (Heb 12:16-17). May every reader of these lines have the desire graciously awakened (if it has not yet been awakened, and satisfied) to inherit his birthright blessing, while a place of repentance is found. May the prediction be fulfilled in our glad experience: “The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions” (Obad. 17).

A COMMAND TO BE OBEYED

   But lest some one should think, “It is optional with me whether I claim my birthright or no; no doubt it would be a very fitting thing for some people to be filled with the Spirit, but I need not trouble about it”-in case anyone should be tempted to speak and act like this, let us learn that to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18) is a command to be obeyed, a duty to be done.

   Many of God’s people are acknowledging that they do not know that to “be filled with the Spirit” is a command; but it is, and there is no excuse for not knowing. You will notice that in Ephesians 5:18 there is a double command, a negative, “Be not drunk,” and a positive, “Be filled.” The positive command is as authoritative as the negative, and was binding on just as many of those Ephesian Christians as was the negative command. Now, what was true for those believers there in Ephesus long ago is equally true for all believers today.

   Is it a sin for a believer today to disobey the command, “Be not drunk?”-and is it then a virtue to disobey the equally authoritative command, “Be filled”? If it is a sin for a Christian to be drunk, it is surely a sin not to be filled. We are commanded and expected to live a Spirit-filled life, to be filled, not with wine, the fruit of the vines of the earth, but with the new wine of the Kingdom, the fruit of the “true Vine.”

   Reader, if you are asked, Do you obey the command, “Be not drunk with wine,” what is your answer? If it is, “Yes,” that is obedience. Now, if you are asked, do you obey the command, “Be filled with the Spirit,” what is your answer? If it is, “No,” that is disobedience; you are guilty of breaking one of God’s plainest commandments. You have no more license to break this command than you have to break any command in the Decalogue. Had you not better confess your sin and tell the Master that you purpose in your heart new obedience?

EVERYBODY’S NEED

   Some have the idea that this blessing of the Fullness is only for a favored few, for such as have some special work to do for God, but not for ordinary folk. Surely this is one of the devil’s champion lies! Alas! Alas! That it has found such credence! The infilling is what makes this promise true, “He that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God” (Zech 12:8), so that “one man of you shall chase a thousand” (Josh 23:10). This means defeat for the devil, so no wonder that he strives to keep us back from the Fullness! We are here on earth that through us Christ may be glorified; but there is only one Person that can glorify Christ, and that the Holy Ghost. “He shall glorify Me” (John 16:14). To the glorifying of Christ as He ought to be and might be glorified, the filling with the Spirit is necessary.

   Mothers in the home, “with thronging duties pressed,” need the Fullness to enable them to glorify Christ as surely as the Apostle needed it; the washerwoman needs it as well as the pastor; the tradesman as well as the evangelist. To live the Christ-glorifying life in the station in which God has placed us, we individually need to be filled” (Acts 2:4)-men and women the one hundred and twenty in the upper room, the rank and file as well as the Apostles. They all received because they all needed. Do we not all need? Why then should we not all receive? And if we do not receive, we will suffer loss, the Church will suffer loss, and, above and beyond all, Christ will suffer loss.

--John MacNeil