What does it mean to be "filled with the Spirit", and what are practical ways to achieve it?

[TruthSeek3r]

The New Testament mentions many times the importance of being filled with the Spirit, but what does it mean, and what are practical ways to achieve it? How can I know if I'm filled with the Spirit or not?

 

[friend of]

We don't achieve it, He achieves it in us.

If you have believed on Jesus to the saving of your soul, Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to reside with you already.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

The New Testament mentions many times the importance of being filled with the Spirit, but what does it mean, and what are practical ways to achieve it? How can I know if I'm filled with the Spirit or not?

I don't think anyone can tell you how to be filled with the Spirit, but the instruction is very clear.
Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

But Lord Jesus tells us to ask.
Matt.7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Pray out loud.

 

[ViaCrucis]

The way the New Testament uses the language of "filled with the Holy Spirit" often indicates a present tense imperative, "be filled with the Holy Spirit". So I think that, at least in some ways, this needs to be understood as distinct from the receiving of the Holy Spirit, whom we have received by God's grace through Holy Baptism (c.f. Acts of the Apostles 2:38).

To be filled with the Spirit, I think, presents us with the invitation to life walking in the Spirit. I think a dangerous way of thinking is imagining that walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, as a highly privatized, interior, supernatural esoteric experience. That's not how the Holy Spirit operates in our lives.

The way the Holy Spirit operates in our lives is by continually drawing us to the fountain source, to Christ and His Gospel. He draws us ever toward Christ, rejuvenating and renewing us day by day with God's grace--as we hear the word of God being preached, as we live into the life of our baptism, as we are brought together to the Table of the Lord's Supper. Through Word and Sacrament the Holy Spirit is, daily, bringing God's word into our lives, into our hearts and minds.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[FutureAndAHope]

Being filled with the Spirit is to be filled with God's purpose. Jesus said,

Mat 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Of ourselves we are dominated by the flesh, if we don't daily seek God for His filling and strength we will be overcome and beset by weaknesses. Prayer, consistent prayer is the key to being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit is rarely a feeling, it is seeking God in His word (the bible), and prayer. Which aligns us to God's will, and nature. It will also give us greater access to the fruits of God's Spirit, love, joy, and peace. Again these attributes manifest more in contentment, rather than an overflow of emotion.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

The New Testament mentions many times the importance of being filled with the Spirit, but what does it mean, and what are practical ways to achieve it? How can I know if I'm filled with the Spirit or not?

Jesus Christ of Nazareth said He and His Father will make their Home in us. So all true belivers walk in His Spirit daily. It is when we " quench" and or "greieve" Him that His work in us subsides. The fruits of the Holy Spirit is how we know.
Blessings

 

[TruthSeek3r]

Jesus Christ of Nazareth said He and His Father will make their Home in us. So all true belivers walk in His Spirit daily. It is when we " quench" and or "greieve" Him that His work in us subsides. The fruits of the Holy Spirit is how we know.
Blessings

Some follow-up questions:

• How can we know if we are true believers?
• How can we know if we have quenched or grieved the Holy Spirit?
• How can we stop quenching/grieving the Holy Spirit and restore the relationship with Him?

 

[FutureAndAHope]

Some follow-up questions:

• How can we know if we are true believers?
• How can we know if we have quenched or grieved the Holy Spirit?
• How can we stop quenching/grieving the Holy Spirit and restore the relationship with Him?

Christianity is about believing. While we have faith that Jesus died and rose again for our sins we are saved. Sin separates us from God, we grieve the Holy Spirit when we desire sin more than Him. To restore our relationship with God, we should be consistently moving away from sin, and towards God.

Sometimes this process can seem dry, we can not feel God's pleasure, but we will be saved if we persist in obedience and love.

 

[friend of]

How can we stop quenching/grieving the Holy Spirit and restore the relationship with Him?

By walking according to the Spirit. By cultivating the fruits of the Spirit. And by avoiding sin.

 

[Francis Drake]

We don't achieve it, He achieves it in us.

If you have believed on Jesus to the saving of your soul, Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to reside with you already.

Being born of the Spirit when you believe on Jesus, is not the same as being filled with the Spirit, which is a secondary experience, just as the scriptures illustrate.

Jesus said his Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
So ask and keep on asking, daily, to be constantly filled.

 

[friend of]

Jesus said his Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask

I mean, isn't it implied that one born of the Spirit would walk in the Spirit?

 

[Mark Quayle]

Just walk with God. Like Enoch.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Some follow-up questions:

• How can we know if we are true believers?
• How can we know if we have quenched or grieved the Holy Spirit?
• How can we stop quenching/grieving the Holy Spirit and restore the relationship with Him?

1) By this do you mean someone who truly believes as a Christian, or are you using "believer" as a synonym for "saved"?

a) The essential confession of faith for the Christian religion is the Nicene Creed, anyone who does not believe these things does not share the faith of Christ's Church.

b) We can have confidence and assurance of our salvation on account of God's own word to us, the Gospel, that Jesus Christ died for us. And what Christ has done is ours we can know because of the objective, external, and even visible word of God. The Scriptures declare that whoever has been baptized has put on Christ, they are clothed with Jesus Christ and His righteousness (Galatians 3:27), has been united to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12-13), is born again of God (John 3:5, Titus 3:5), has their sins forgiven and have received the Holy Spirit (Acts of the Apostles 2:38). Christ gives His flesh and blood to us in and under the bread and wine of the Eucharist. Christ tells us we are forgiven when we receive Holy Absolution in accordance with Christ's word and promise.

Our salvation comes from God alone, as a gift, grace alone, entirely apart from all human effort; and which we receive through faith alone.

Thus "Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved." (Mark 16:16), not as a prescription of what we must do, but as God's promise and assurance to us, to be clung to in faith.

2) The grief of the Holy Spirit is by doing what we ought not do, and failing to do what we ought, as indicated by the Apostle in the following verses.

"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." - Ephesians 4:30-32

In this same way we quench the Holy Spirit, we grieve Him because He loves us and wants us to grow and mature in faith in the love of God the Father which is in Christ. We grieve Him because we pit ourselves against Him, we try to extinguish the flame of God's grace and work of the Spirit in us by turning away from Christ, toward seeking our own selfish interests, by returning to the ways of the world. The Holy Spirit wants to give us faith, that's what He does, He gives us faith and works faith in us; when we turn away, and feed the lusts of our flesh--feeding the old man (Romans 6:6)--we stand against the work of the Spirit, and we turn toward making shipwreck of our faith.

3) Repentance. Do not grieve the Spirit, repent, confess your sins, boldly confess that you are a sinner; grieve over your sin, and trust in God's promise to you that He loves you and saves you, you are forgiven.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Some follow-up questions:

• How can we know if we are true believers?
• How can we know if we have quenched or grieved the Holy Spirit?
• How can we stop quenching/grieving the Holy Spirit and restore the relationship with Him?

If you love the Lord your God more than anything or anyone and especially love Him more than the lust of sin. This is the true beliver because He is in them.
The rest of your questions hang on the answer of the first.
Blessings.

 

[aiki]

The New Testament mentions many times the importance of being filled with the Spirit, but what does it mean, and what are practical ways to achieve it? How can I know if I'm filled with the Spirit or not?

Being filled by the Spirit is, I believe, predicated upon being in submission to him, surrendered to his will and way throughout every day (Romans 6:13-22; Romans 8:14; Romans 12:1; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6). When one is living before God in humble yieldedness to Him, the Spirit moves to fill the believer with himself, conforming the believer to the Person of Christ, transforming their desires, thinking and conduct, producing in them the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:9).

For some reason, Christians think they can move forward with God, growing in their experience of Him, becoming more like Christ while simultaneously maintaining autonomy from God, acting largely according to their own preferences and personality, thinking of God as a mere aid to living rather than as its fundamental core. He orbits their life, they believe, rather than the reverse. But so long as this is the case, real fellowship with God, real filling with, and transformation by, the Spirit cannot happen. God will not force us to change; He will not wrest from us the life He made us to have; we must choose it; we must agree to His rule. And we do so by the constant renewal of our submission to Him throughout each day.

In any event, the filling of the Spirit is not a sensual thing, provoking one's physical senses, stimulating them, and inducing hysterics, convulsions, etc. The Spirit deals with us spiritually, in our minds, particularly (Romans 8:6; Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23; Philippians 2:5; 1 Corinthians 14:19), as well as our hearts and spirits, acting upon our thinking and desires, not in the realm of our fleshly sensations and emotions. In fact, the more flesh-centered, the more sensual, one's experiences of God are, the less truly spiritual, the less of Him, they are.

Galatians 5:17
17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Jude 1:17-19
17 But, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

How do you know you are filled with the Spirit? By a profoundly transformed - and transforming - life; by a life that is constantly in process toward an ever-more holy, Christ-centered, joyful, spiritually-fruitful life. Many believers, though, want the flavor of the World in their walk with God. They want spiritual change in tandem with the fleshly stimulation of the World, the exciting noise and glitter of temporal, carnal things, not the rest, peace, stillness and eternal, heavenly focus of a life filled with the Spirit.

Not Just Relationship, Fellowship.

 

[Francis Drake]

I mean, isn't it implied that one born of the Spirit would walk in the Spirit?

Millions of people are born of the Spirit but have no clue how to walk in the Spirit. Instead, they are infantile, following after man, ie. denominations, pastors, priests, liturgies, traditions etc. all of which get in the way of hearing what the Spirit says to us.

1Cor3v1And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as fleshly—as to infants in Christ.
As infants in Christ, they are obviously born again!

2I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for not yet were you able. In fact, now you are still not able, 3for you are still fleshly. For where jealousy and strife are among you, are you not fleshly, and are walking according to man? 4For when one might say, “I indeed am of Paul,” but another, “I of Apollos,” are you not fleshly?
These and the following verses describe the typical church, where people suckle weekly (weakly!) at the tit of their pastor, never eating meat, never growing up to actually follow Christ for themselves.

Then Paul continues
10According to the grace of God having been given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, but another is building upon it. But let each one take heed how he builds upon it. 11For no one is able to lay another foundation, besides the one being already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Again these people have a foundation of Christ in their lives, ie. Born again!

Let's look at what they have built in their lives on that foundation.-
12Now if anyone builds upon the foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,
13the work of each will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it is revealed in fire, and the fire itself will prove the work of each, what sort it is.
Two categories of fruit/work are listed, which the fire of God will consume, 1). wood hay and stubble, which go up in flames, or 2). gold, silver, precious stones which remain in glory.

14If the work of anyone that he built up will remain, he will receive a reward. 15If the work of anyone will be burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, but so as through fire.

So no, most born again believers do not walk in the spirit, they walk in the flesh, religion, tradition, all of which blinds them to the leading of the Holy Spirit. They are saved but have little or no reward.

 

[Francis Drake]

Being filled by the Spirit is, I believe, predicated upon being in submission to him, surrendered to his will and way throughout every day (Romans 6:13-22; Romans 8:14; Romans 12:1; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6). When one is living before God in humble yieldedness to Him, the Spirit moves to fill the believer with himself, conforming the believer to the Person of Christ, transforming their desires, thinking and conduct, producing in them the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:9).

No, Jesus never said that.
Here's what Jesus said.-
Lk11v9“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

As Jesus said, the Father will give the Spirit to those who ask, not those who have sorted their lives out.

 

[aiki]

No, Jesus never said that.
Here's what Jesus said.-
Lk11v9“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

As Jesus said, the Father will give the Spirit to those who ask, not those who have sorted their lives out.

*Sigh*

Do you know what equivocation and Strawman arguing are? You're doing both in the quotation above and both are fallacious forms of arguing.

Yes, God will give His Spirit to all who seek Him through Christ. Any who place their trust in Christ as their Saviour and Lord (Romans 10:9-10), will become "temples of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) It's how one is born-again. (Titus 3:5; John 3:3-6; 1 John 4:13) And, as you say, this doesn't require first that one has one's life "sorted out."

Being indwelt by the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, however, are not the same thing. The former is available to all, requiring only saving faith; the latter requires submission to God. I've already explained why submission to the Spirit is a prerequisite to being filled with Him and the passage you've cited above doesn't diminish or refute that explanation in the slightest.

In any event, you should not be responding directly to my posts, debating or denying them, in this forum but addressing the OP only.

 

[friend of]

So no, most born again believers do not walk in the spirit, they walk in the flesh, religion, tradition, all of which blinds them to the leading of the Holy Spirit. They are saved but have little or no reward.

As Jesus said, the Father will give the Spirit to those who ask, not those who have sorted their lives out

Under what circumstances would God justify a sinner through faith in Christ and not cause that believer to walk in the Spirit? Do you think God forgets to enable such a one to walk in the Spirit? Do you think God is all like "Okay, he believes in Christ, but I'm not going to help him walk in the Spirit until he asks me"

That doesn't make sense. Being born of the Spirit and walking in the Spirit are inseparable. If a person comes to faith I in Christ, then obviously they desire to be filled with the Spirit, since that is what faith in Christ entails.