Thank you for patiently waiting this next session. I have prayed fervently over this material you are about to read. Should you find it helpful, give praise to our Lord. Should it provoke questions or concerns, please let me know about those. You may also have insights to add to these. I certainly welcome those as well. Eph. 5 :18 KJV Session 12 "...but be filled with the Spirit." In our previous session, we began to assess our personal spiritual status. Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Are you running on empty, or somewhere in between? If you consider yourself filled with the Holy Spirit, what does that look like? How can you tell whether you are filled, or something less than filled with the Spirit? If you once were filled with the Holy Spirit? What happened to change that status? How does one "leak" the Spirit? First, let's review what we learned and in our last session: One can have the Holy Spirit residing within, and yet not be filled with the Spirit. One can be to some degree other than filled with the Holy Spirit. One can apparent leak out the effects of the Holy Spirit's sovereignty over one's life. The individual is responsible for the Holy Spirit's status within. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is the preferred status standard for us. Before we can consider what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, let's first own the fact we are accountable before God to be filled with his Sprit. Filled, not something less is the divine standard. Let this reality seep into the innermost recesses of your being. To understand the dynamic of being filled, we must revisit the original working of the Holy Spirit within us after our salvation. We are full of ourselves when the Holy Sprit first arrives. He brings this unacceptable reality to our attention almost immediately upon our conversion. We sense the need for a new, different perspective. We begin to ask the Lord to help us see what he sees, hear his voice, and choose things which please him. Seeking his will initiates an "emptying" process. The Sprit begins to drain our life of things which displease him, hinder our spiritual development and interferes with our service to Christ. The "big," obvious things drain off first. As this process continues, a filtering system is installed. As we grow we move from draining overt sins, to draining things which are just unwise, and unbecoming to a child of God. As we progress, the Spirit continues to change our "filtering system." We now must drain off good things which clog the better and best things God has for us. According to Romans 12:1-3, the filtering becomes so stringent we are draining off everything that is not the perfect will of God for us. Our spiritual development produces godly virtues, but also installs spiritual discernment which we never had before we were saved. Here now, in Ephesians 5 we are instructed to "understand what the will of God is..." To understand is to have grown beyond seeking God's will. Understanding the will of God requires of us submission of our human will to the will of God. This is achieved through draining off the desires of the flesh and of the mind. It requires dethroning our will and installing the will of God in its place. Getting "empty" is no small task. Unless our will cooperates with the Holy Spirit it will require fierce, protracted warfare inside of our being. (See Rom. 7 and Gal. 5:17-24) How do we accomplish "empty?" Replace our personal perspective with God's perspective Replace human reasoning as our navigation system with faith Live is a perpetual state of repentance over everything the Spirit highlights  Live in a posture of submission and yieldedness to the Holy Spirit Obey immediately, completely the dictates of the Holy Spirit  Replace carnal desires with spiritual desires Hunger and thirst not for more knowledge, but for more fervent experience with God Pursue holiness If you have been saved for any length of time, you already know this is not merely a "To Do List" to be checked off. Inherent in these items is a radical transformation process. Accomplishing these involves advances and yes, setbacks.  Getting to "empty" is not the same as being filled with the Spirit either. Jesus related the parable of the demon possessed man who "swept out the demon, but did nothing more. The demon in fact, did leave for a span of time. But he returned, found the man swept, and clean, but empty. This prompted the demon to re-enter the man bringing more demons in with him. Jesus said, the later end of such a man was worse than his beginning. Now, don't misunderstand. A true child of God cannot be demon possessed. EVER. Yet, getting empty of our flesh is not the same thing as being filled with the Holy Spirit. Before we address the dynamics of being filled with the Holy Spirit, we ought to investigate why we struggle so in both becoming filled, and maintaining "fulness." Earlier, I said, "We leak the Holy Spirit." Well, I said it that way to give you a visual. I must add here though, while we do experience a receding of fulness of the Holy Spirit, we cannot lose his presence and residence within us. God crafted us as beings in flux. We are both capable of extraordinary changes, and also require change to progress to our full God ordained purpose. This essentially means, we are never stagnant. 24/7, 365, for the duration of our earthly life at least, and I believe eternally as well, we are undergoing constant alteration. This is a fact, a spiritual, rather an eternal law virtually never mentioned in our pulpits and study groups. We somehow see ourselves as essentially the same person we have always been, and will always be. Yet, human experience alone defies this flawed perspective. One needs only pull out a photo album to see the evidence of change. Certainly, the "before, and after," of our salvation ought to manifest this spiritual law so clearly, we would never forget it. Yet, forget it we do. There is a reason God gives us a fresh start every 24 hours. He understands our constant need for course correction. Correction involves: Honest, factual assessment  Pursuit of proper direction Intentional alterations Constant vigilance and self monitoring  Understanding of both our default strengths and weaknesses Absolute dependence upon God the Holy Spirit Continual deference to his will and comfort over our own Recovering addicts have been taught to do a daily inventory at the conclusion of each day. To begin with they write this out on paper. Eventually, it becomes engrained and a way of life for them. It is just as wise, and useful for non addicted Christians. After all, we are in fact addicted to our own fleshly desires and self will. The old sinful nature remains within us. Unless we intentionally combat it, the flesh will rise up again and again. We "leak" because of the dynamics of change at work within our being. Just as a car owner "checks the fluids" in a car, because of the dynamics of its moving parts: we must do our own personal "checks." We need to understand also leaking is not a flaw in the master design. God intends us to be vigilant and an active participant in our transformation and service to him. Our "leaks" are merely reality we must factor in to our manner of life. Get this, and you are well on your way to spiritual maturity. We are beings with a lot of moving parts, thus the potential for multiple leaks. We leak in our major systems, just like an engine. Our soul leaks. As I said in an earlier session, our soul houses our personal will, intellect, and emotions. Each of these subsystems are very complex. Only when they operate under God's will and purpose do they operate at maximum capacity. Human will is totally depraved, and shall remain so for the entire duration of our earthly, physical life. It is naturally contrary to the will of God, and thus, the authority of the Holy Spirit. The only way to remain filled with the Holy Spirit is to keep the human will subordinate and submitted to the authority of the Holy Spirit. Extreme vigilance is the only way to accomplish this result. Refuse to make occasion or provision for the human will to rise in rebellion  Pay perpetual attention to the comfort zone of the Holy Spirit Be attentive to signs of grieving the Spirit manifested by silence, unrest, non-direction The next subsystem within our soul is the intellect. While this includes the brain, it is far more than the gray matter between our ears. Our intellect possesses vast, and incredible capabilities. With our intellect we think. We gather, sort, and draw from incoming data brought to us through our sensory system, and total being experiences. Here, respective of our need for "filling," we learn we must be stringent guardians of incoming data. Yet, its more than what "facts" we allow in, it also involves the filter through which these facts are processed. This is essentially what Paul intends in Rom. 12:1,2 with his term, "renewing of our minds." He insists we must install new filters through which all incoming data enters our intellect. Christians are often accused of being narrow minded. We are likewise accused of failing to be "well read." This accusation says, we have ignored non-scriptural resources. Great intellectual Christians like Francis Shaffer Sr., Henry Morris Sr, and I could go on and name others got it right. They installed the right filters through which their intellects processed incoming data regardless of the source. Someone once said, "We ought to be open minded, but not so open minded our brains fall out." Narrow mindedness is not a virtue and Christians ought to cease considering it a virtue. The Bible is a vastly open book. No other book on earth touches so many diverse subjects, issues, and human experiences. It only appears narrow because it reveals what has been filtered through the divine perspective.  God is not afraid of humanity's toughest questions. In fact, he invites them. We who are his ambassadors and witnesses on earth, ought not to fear, dread, or avoid the toughest questions either. Let us, "...Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you..." ( 1 Peter 3:12) Our emotions construct the final element within our soul. This arena is vastly misunderstood by most Christians. Admittedly, its the most challenging to grasp from a biblical perspective. Science reveals our physical bodies are complex, chemical producing machines. While there are specific bodily organs and systems which produce the actual chemicals, why the chemicals are produced in the first place remains unknown, and certainly misunderstood even by science. Some of our chemical production stems from prompts from various other parts of our physical body. Insulin is a good example of this type of chemical. Other chemicals are produced because of factors outside the physical body. Adrenaline is a good example of this type of chemical. It is produced when we encounter a provocation to fight or flight due to external threat. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is a state wherein, the Holy Spirit, not the physical body, nor external circumstances control our emotions. Fear is a natural human emotion, produced by specific chemicals within us. So is anger, sadness, and happiness are also a natural emotional behavior of every human being. When we are "filled with the Holy Spirit, he produces spiritual alternative emotional states of being. He instills peace, joy, contentment, temperance over our emotional and intellectual responses. James describes the "unstable" person as being one who is "double minded in all his ways." This means, such a person is driven by more than the Spirit's authority and control. Frequently, such a one falls back onto the former defaults of his/her unsaved former life. "Singlemindedness," then is the emotional and intellectual posture of the Spirit filled child of God. Paul counsels us to "bring every thought into captivity to obedience to Christ." This is where our new, spiritual, emotional defaults must kick in. Circumstances, experiences, even realities, are not intended by God to dictate our emotional health. It is true, many great Christians, even Christian leaders have struggled, and do struggle with emotional disorders, and even mental illness. Were not these people filled with the Holy Spirit? Remember, we are constantly in flux. We are changing every minute. As great as some Christians are, they still struggle with remaining filled. Only Jesus maintained the "full" status continuously throughout his life. Also, let's understand, even the Holy Spirit grieves and is quenched. When he is so, we are bound to feel this acutely. Jesus was a man of sorrows. We read of his tears, but never of his laughter. Only sporadically is it recorded of him to have even rejoiced. Was not our Lord filled perpetually with the Spirit? Indeed, he was! This brings up another consideration for us. This life is not divinely intended to be carefree, or without burden. There is godly sorrow over sin in oneself and others. There are legitimate cares of life which beset us. Even Paul "dispaired" of life. Life involves low places for everyone of us. However, we are not to remain in any emotional place perpetually. God is, "the God of all comfort." Jesus is the great Physician, who heals even soul wounds. Our soul leaks. But that's not the full extent of our dilemma. Our flesh is porous.  We remain in "the flesh" both in physical body and nature. Our flesh doesn't merely leak, its porous. It has absolutely no capacity to retain spiritual things. This is why we can hear a great sermon, experience a wonderful worship service and thirty minutes later be in full blown fume at the lunch line at the restaurant, or the driver of the car in front of us on the drive home. Our flesh cannot retain spiritual things. Thus it is essential to our spiritual maturity that we replace the order of dominance within our being. The flesh must be brought into submission, and slavery to the will and authority of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can retain spiritual things. When we are not filled with the Holy Spirit we are like a yo yo. We cannot hold any position more than momentarily. We're up one moment, and down the next. This is a tell tell sign of a dominate flesh and a silent, grieving Holy Spirit. I feel the need to pause here, and let us absorb what we have learned. I cannot be the Holy Spirit to you. But dear child of God, does any of this ring true of you? Have lights come on in specific areas you ought to address? God wants us filled with his Spirit. What I have shared may have discouraged you with overmuch complexity. That certainly is not my intention. What God wants for us, he is well able to do in us. He has commanded we be filled with his Spirit. This means, we can indeed be filled with the Holy Spirit. We ought to be in relentless pursuit of this. When we experience it, we must doggedly  maintain it. Let us hunger and thirst for it as though we shall perish without it. It is to be had. Therefore, we must have it. Remember Phil. 4:19 God, not us, not the world, only God supplies our need. He supplies ALL our need. I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must look to God to supply this need in us.