In Ephesians 5:18 Paul admonished Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit as an essential element of our walk with and work for the Lord. But what exactly does it mean to be “filled with the Spirit”? Well Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest gives four things that come through in the Greek that will help us to understand what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
1. “Be filled with the Spirit” is a command in the Greek that God expects us to obey.
It’s a command that is plural in the Greek which means it applies to all Christians—not just to a select few like missionaries, pastors and evangelists. It’s a command because we can’t begin to do the work God has called us to do without the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 24:49)
I believe that this is the greatest need in the Church today and the single greatest reason why we are losing the culture war to the devil in America when Jesus clearly promised us that against His Church the gates of hell would not prevail. It’s because we are trying to do the work of God in our own strength, ingenuity and intelligence and not in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have substituted programs for the power of God and theological degrees for the dynamic of the Holy Spirit—
I remember growing up as a kid with T.V. shows like, “Leave it to Beaver”; “The Donna Reed Show”; “The Ozzie and Harriet Show”; “The Dick Van Dyke Show”; and “Father Knows Best”. And while these shows tended to be a little idealistic in the way they portrayed the American family—they, nevertheless reflected the norm in our society at that time—what some have called the “traditional family unit”.
You have to understand the era that gave birth to shows like these. During the 40’s and 50’s and up until the early 60’s there was a post war idealism and optimism that pervaded our country. The economy was booming, babies were booming, patriotism was in vogue, life was sacred and prayer was still in public schools.
In those days people got married first and then lived together (how novel!). Closets were for clothes (not for coming out of) and bunnies were small rabbits. Back then grass was mowed, coke was a drink, ‘gay’ meant happy, and ‘aids’ were helpers in the principal’s office—a kind of innocence abounded.
At the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua was 110 years old—too old to lead the army of Israel into battle against the remaining Canaanite strongholds and so God told him that it was now up to each of the 12 tribes to conquer their own portion of land that the Lord had given to them.
The problem was that by this time many of God’s people were tired of war—they didn’t want to fight anymore—all they wanted to do was to settle down in peace and comfort and enjoy what they had already taken possession of.
And Joshua seeing this attitude of compromise and complacency beginning to settle over God’s people when there was still so much work left to be done—this was no time to rest the enemy had not been completely driven out as God had commanded. Joshua being a man of deep conviction and wholehearted obedience toward God knew that partial victory was not ‘good enough’—not for him and certainly not for God. Read more…
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil
The Greek word translated circumspectly in verse 15 carries with it the idea of “precision and accuracy”—but also has the idea of looking, examining, and investigating something with great care— But this Greek word further includes with it the idea of alertness. So Paul is telling us,
“See that you walk (live) your Christian life carefully with great precision—looking all around and giving strict attention to all things as one might do when passing through a very dangerous place.” Paul went on to say,
As we enter this New Year of 2016, Pastor Phil challenges us to seek hard after God’s will for our life. He closes with this thought, “May we look back on 2016 and say, “Wow—to God be the glory, for all of the good things He has done…”
In Revelation Chapter 2 Jesus dictated a letter to the apostle John that was to be given to the church at Ephesus. In that letter the Lord commended the church for the zeal and tireless effort that went into their service for Him—this was a church that had a lot of good things going on.
However in verse 4 the Lord Jesus went on to say—
Revelation 2:4 (NKJV) 4 “Nevertheless I have this
against you, that you have left your first love.”
It seems that all of these positive works of service were being erased by one negative—they were going through the motions but they had lost the emotion in their relationship with Jesus. Their church was a well-oiled machine—but God doesn’t want machines cranking out emotionless service—He wants a love relationship with His people.
In Ephesians 3:17 Paul the apostle prayed something for the Christians in Ephesus that some have found to be a little confusing—he prayed, that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith.
You might be thinking to yourself—“Don’t all Christians already have Jesus living in their hearts? Didn’t He enter in when they put their faith in Him? So why is Paul praying that He may dwell in their hearts through faith—I’m confused?”
It is true that Paul is writing to believers living in Ephesus—it is also true that Jesus lives in the heart of every Christian the moment they receive Him into their heart by faith as Lord and Savior.
So then what is Paul actually saying here? Well, the answer is found in the word “dwell.”
At the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua was now 110 years old—too old to lead the army of Israel into battle against the remaining Canaanite strongholds; so God told him that it was now up to each of the 12 tribes to conquer their own portion of land that the Lord had given to them.
The problem was that by this time many of God’s people were tired of war. They didn’t want to fight anymore—all they wanted to do was to settle down in peace and comfort and enjoy what they had already taken possession of.
And Joshua seeing this attitude of compromise and complacency beginning to settle over God’s people when there was still so much work left to be done—this was no time to rest the enemy had not been completely driven out as God had commanded!
Joshua being a man of deep conviction and wholehearted obedience toward God knew that partial victory was not good enough—not for him and certainly not for God. And so he gathers the nation together in Chapters 23 and 24 to give them his farewell address.
