Are You Spirit-filled? (Ephesians 5:18)

God has provided the Christ follower an inexhaustible, free, readily available source of power to live the life of following Jesus! And yet, many Christ followers don't use the power that God has provided to overcome selfishness, temptation, and sin. And so this teaching about being Spirit-filled, is vital for every Christ follower to understand, embrace and practice. As often has been said, the life of following Jesus is not hard; it's downright impossible, apart from the enabling power of the Holy Spirit! Jesus said (John 15:5), "apart from Me you can do nothing." But in the same context, He repeatedly promised to send the Holy Spirit to abide in us as the divine Helper (John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:13). In other words, the life of following Christ must be the Spirit-filled life! According to apostle Paul, in order to walk wisely, to redeem the time in these evil days, to understand the will of the Lord and live in light of His will, we must be Spirit-filled! To live as God calls us to live, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. Have you found this to be true of your life? Can I get a witness? What does it mean to be Spirit-filled? What is the filling of the Holy Spirit? How can the Christ follower experience the Spirit-filled life? How can we know that we're filled with the Holy Spirit? Because of so much confusion in our day, I must first spell out what it is and then clarify what it is not. To be Spirit-filled is to live with every conscious area of your life yielded to the control of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is a moment by moment sensitivity to and dependence on the Holy Spirit! Did you catch that? It is a condition of increasing spiritual maturity, not about a momentary experience! Being Spirit-filled is to be an ordinary part of our daily lives. Just as the person filled with wine is under the influence or control of the wine, so the person filled with the Spirit is under the control or influence of the Holy Spirit. Being Spirit-filled enables us to live life the way life was intended to be lived! Praise God forevermore! Let's continue this teaching in part two of "Are You Spirit-filled?" Your move. Be encouraged!