How To Be Filled With the Holy Spirit? Oh Really!!!

We all know the passage.  Most people if they have been Christians have heard the call to be filled with the Spirit, at least once.  It comes from Paul's letter to Ephesus:“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,” (Ephesians 5:18, NIV).  Paul clearly told his audience to not get drunk because it leads to something.  There is an end-product that is undesirable.

Then Paul frames the appeal in another imperative (command): be filled with the Spirit. Now here is a little Greek lesson.  This command is in the second person plural.  The verb is in the present tense and is written in the passive voice.  None of that is irrelevant.   In a nutshell it means that. 

1. It is a command (imperative).
2. It is in the second person plural.  In the southern US that is translated "ya-all!"
3. It is in the present tense meaning that it is an ongoing requirement.
4. It is in the passive voice meaning the subject (you and I) is having something done to us.

Now 'Google' this (for example) or even listen to some preachers (as I recently did) and here's the scoop, "someone says, "How can I be filled with the Spirit?"  Answer?  Repent of all known sin.  Add to this your desire to live holy.  Add to this "do this and do that."  Now here's my point: Being filled with the Spirit is what believing souls need to live a life pleasing to God. To tell someone that they need to do this or do that before they can be filled with the Spirit is like telling someone that need to get healed before they're allowed to take the medicine.  

To understand the command "to be filled" carries with it an inherent understanding that God must do this in us.  In other words there is a sense of surrender, yielded-ness or even submission to God the Spirit, in order to be filled or controlled by Him.  This is one command where obedience has more to do with our not doing something and more to do with His doing something.  It is exemplified so well in the famous prayer of Augustine: "Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt."

Just like being controlled by wine leads to wrongdoing, being controlled by the Spirit leads to God-empowered, God-pleasing, Christ-exalting lives.  This is clearly a case where we need to do what only God can do.  The question is, "Am I willing?"  The question is NOT, "Have I met all the prerequisites?"  Let us surrender to the God of Glory and let Him do something to us.  Let us be filled with the Spirit, now, and throughout the day.