The Holy Spirit
Go on being being filled (no that’s not a typo!)
Ephesians 5:15-20
I count myself incredibly blessed by the church community into which I was saved. I became a Christian just before my 15th birthday (27th February 1983) at a Baptist Church in Bedford. It was a community of faith that was itself rediscovering some of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This meant that I got saved and worked out the early years of my Christian life in a community that was digging into all that the Bible said about the Holy Spirit.
We were discovering together that the Holy Spirit was not some abstract force, but rather a person of the trinity. It really was about God the father, God the son, and GOD the Holy Spirit. He really was a counsellor just like Jesus. Just like Jesus he wanted relationship with us and when the Holy Spirit was in the room Jesus was in the room. This meant we had an expectation that when we gathered for worship, we gathered to worship God and to encounter God. We expected to see in our meetings what the disciples and the early church had seen in their meetings. When they met with Jesus they experienced the power of God in salvation, sanctification and signs and wonders. Hence, we expected those things to happen when the Holy Spirit, who was just like Jesus, because he was and is part of the trinity, was in the room.
Ephesians 5:15-20 was one of our go to texts then, and it still is for me today. I love its reality, its imagery and its encouragement.
Be careful how you live it says. Be wise not foolish. We live as broken people in a broken world. But we have been restored and made new in Christ. Therefore we must make the most of every opportunity to connect with God. As people who have been saved, but who are being transformed, we will face challenges. It is so easy to look for the things of this world to help us cope. Things like alcohol. Paul uses the illustration of drink in this passage, but he could have chosen any number of the created things that we can medicate with: food, family, career, sex, ministry! So many good things can become the worst thing when they become our go to place to cope with the stress of a broken world. But we cannot get too much of God.
Literally Paul tells us to go on being being filled! (Paul writing in Greek uses the present imperative tense to make this point). What I learned back in 1983 and remind myself of regularly in 2022, is that we are meant to live with a continuous awareness and empowering of God in our lives. Like Adam and Eve walking with God in the cool of the evening, Jacob wrestling by a river, the Israelites following the cloud and gathering around the tabernacle, like the churches in Galatia keeping in step with the Holy Spirit. We are created for relationship with God in God’s presence through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives.
What is more this personal walk/life with the Holy Spirit enables us to live in a community of the Holy Spirit. Where medicating through alcohol can change our speech and our activity in a way that separates us and does us harm, going on being filled with the Holy Spirit changes our speech and our activity in a way that does one another good. Living lives full of the Holy Spirit creates blessings, unity, encouragement and thankfulness. When we go on being filled, we go on being transformed and the community of the Holy Spirit speaks prophetically and powerfully to the world around it. So friends, let us go on being being filled this week and in the months to come.
We were discovering together that the Holy Spirit was not some abstract force, but rather a person of the trinity. It really was about God the father, God the son, and GOD the Holy Spirit. He really was a counsellor just like Jesus. Just like Jesus he wanted relationship with us and when the Holy Spirit was in the room Jesus was in the room. This meant we had an expectation that when we gathered for worship, we gathered to worship God and to encounter God. We expected to see in our meetings what the disciples and the early church had seen in their meetings. When they met with Jesus they experienced the power of God in salvation, sanctification and signs and wonders. Hence, we expected those things to happen when the Holy Spirit, who was just like Jesus, because he was and is part of the trinity, was in the room.
Ephesians 5:15-20 was one of our go to texts then, and it still is for me today. I love its reality, its imagery and its encouragement.
Be careful how you live it says. Be wise not foolish. We live as broken people in a broken world. But we have been restored and made new in Christ. Therefore we must make the most of every opportunity to connect with God. As people who have been saved, but who are being transformed, we will face challenges. It is so easy to look for the things of this world to help us cope. Things like alcohol. Paul uses the illustration of drink in this passage, but he could have chosen any number of the created things that we can medicate with: food, family, career, sex, ministry! So many good things can become the worst thing when they become our go to place to cope with the stress of a broken world. But we cannot get too much of God.
Literally Paul tells us to go on being being filled! (Paul writing in Greek uses the present imperative tense to make this point). What I learned back in 1983 and remind myself of regularly in 2022, is that we are meant to live with a continuous awareness and empowering of God in our lives. Like Adam and Eve walking with God in the cool of the evening, Jacob wrestling by a river, the Israelites following the cloud and gathering around the tabernacle, like the churches in Galatia keeping in step with the Holy Spirit. We are created for relationship with God in God’s presence through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives.
What is more this personal walk/life with the Holy Spirit enables us to live in a community of the Holy Spirit. Where medicating through alcohol can change our speech and our activity in a way that separates us and does us harm, going on being filled with the Holy Spirit changes our speech and our activity in a way that does one another good. Living lives full of the Holy Spirit creates blessings, unity, encouragement and thankfulness. When we go on being filled, we go on being transformed and the community of the Holy Spirit speaks prophetically and powerfully to the world around it. So friends, let us go on being being filled this week and in the months to come.
Apply
- Think about your personal and church community experience of the Holy Spirit. Has it been shaped by what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit? Is your expectation consistent with a biblical/early church expectation? How does it differ?
- How might you create a more biblical expectation? Who might be able to partner with you on that journey?
- How might we make more space in our personal and corporate lives to wait on the Holy Spirit?
- Who might you pray for to experience more of the presence of God in their lives?
Prayer
Father God,
Thank you for the gift and promise of the Holy Spirit. Thank you that we get to live in relationship with you through the Holy Spirit. Thank you that he is another counsellor just like Jesus. Help me to give him more space in my life today. Fill me afresh with your presence Lord that I might be blessed and be a blessing to others.
Amen.
Thank you for the gift and promise of the Holy Spirit. Thank you that we get to live in relationship with you through the Holy Spirit. Thank you that he is another counsellor just like Jesus. Help me to give him more space in my life today. Fill me afresh with your presence Lord that I might be blessed and be a blessing to others.
Amen.
Today’s Everyday Devotions were brought to you by Simon Elliott our Lead Elder.
If you would like to listen to the whole of this week’s sermon on the Holy Spirit why not download the Everyday Church App or visit our website, YouTube Channel or join our Online Church Services.
This Everyday Devotions has also inspired a devotional video that you can watch on our YouTube Channel.
Follow our Everyday Devotions Playlist for some songs to help you worship God in Spirit and truth this week.
If you would like to listen to the whole of this week’s sermon on the Holy Spirit why not download the Everyday Church App or visit our website, YouTube Channel or join our Online Church Services.
This Everyday Devotions has also inspired a devotional video that you can watch on our YouTube Channel.
Follow our Everyday Devotions Playlist for some songs to help you worship God in Spirit and truth this week.