The Spirit-Filled Life # 2

Life On The Highest Plane

In the divine plan there is as definite a purpose in the gift of the Spirit as in the gift of the Son. Through the Son the sinner has life; through the Spirit the believer has life more abundant. Through the Son the sinner leaves the sphere of the natural and enters the sphere of the spiritual. Through the Spirit the believer is lifted to the highest heights of life on the spiritual plane. Go has a purpose for every Christian - a life of true, deep, vital, growing spirituality - and the Holy Spirit lives within every believer as God's gracious provision for the accomplishment of this very purpose.

But do not let us think for a moment that the Spirit works apart from the Son. Life more abundant is by the Spirit. He shares with Christ the Head of the body, His intense desire that the fullness of life in the Head in Heaven shall be manifested in the body on earth. But the believer must know that that fullness is for him, he must desire to have it, and there must be a means of communicating it to him. All this is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is His task to reveal Christ in all the perfection of His heavenly, holy life to the believer; to unfold to him the unsearchable riches which are his as an heir of God in Christ; to create within him a desire to possess his possessions; and then, to act as the channel through which the abundant life of the glorified Lord in Heaven is communicated to him.

John 16:14-15, "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you ... All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you."

Romans 8:16-17, "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him."

It is the Holy Spirit who works withing the believer to bring him to make the choice between self and Christ. But as He works He is opposed, thwarted, challenged and resisted every step of the way by that bitter opponent. "The flesh" works as diligently to keep the believer fleshly as the Spirit works to make him spiritual.

Galatians 5:17, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: for these are contrary the one to the other."

Romans seven records the victory of "the flesh" and we see the Holy Spirit ignored, silenced, thwarted and quenched. Romans eight records the victory of  the Holy Spirit and we see Him victorious, active, regnant and supreme. We are compelled to believe that some advance in relationship to the Holy Spirit has taken place which has given Him this wonderful victory and we are constrained to ask God to show us what it is.

The Spirit-filled Life

In one terse, concise command God shows us the highest point the believer can reach in his relationship to the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit."

You, who have the Holy Spirit in you, give Him full right of way in your life; let Him dominate your whole being; let Him who dwells within you from the center to the circumference of your life. You are in the sphere of the Spirit, therefore let the Spirit live out His life in you. Through regeneration God has endowed you with Himself and in the Person of the Spirit He dwells within you. Allow Him now to work out His perfect will unhindered through the undivided control of your whole being. Permit Him to energize you with His almighty power through  filling you with Himself.

"Be filled with the Spirit" is a command given to every believer. No Christian is refused the blessing of such a precious experience and none is exempt from its responsibilities. As the refusal of life in Christ is the greatest sin of the unbeliever so the refusal of life more abundant in the Holy Spirit's fullness is the greatest sin of the believer. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is not the privilege of a few but it is the prerogative of all believers. Since it is a command, it is not optional, but it is incumbent upon every Christian to be so filled.

Acts 4:31, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit and they spake the word of God with boldness."

"Be filled with the Spirit" - "Filled."
"Full of the Holy Spirit" - "Full."
"That ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God" - "Fullness."

These words suggest that there is an infinite, exhaustless fullness which the believer may receive according  to his receptive capacity. He may be "filled" today yet tomorrow he shall need to be "filled" again so that his life may be habitually "full"; and the process of continuous infillings will need to continue as long as he lives since the source of supply is "all the fullness of God." A life "full of the Holy Spirit" should be and may be the normal life of every believer. "We may be always full, yet ever filling, the first reception of the fullness being a crisis that leads to a process."

Acts 6:3, "Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit, and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business."

Acts 11:24, "For he (Barnabas) was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith; and much people was added unto the Lord."

To be spiritual, then, one must be filled and be kept filled with the Holy Spirit. The habitual fullness of the Holy Spirit is the divine provision for a life lived on the highest plane. The Holy Spirit is the divinely appointed means of communication of "the abundant life" of the ascended, glorified Lord in Heaven to the believer on earth. There is a threefold manifestation of the Holy Spirit's infilling.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 3 - "The Realization of Christ's Abiding Presence")