And They Were Filled Yet Again With the Holyghost

Exist Continuously Filled with the Holy Spirit

Summary:   Jesus spoke in John 14:12 of believers doing the "works that He did" and fifty-fifty "greater works." Where are those greater works today? The early Church believers, in the Volume of Acts, healed the sick, cast out demons , and fifty-fifty raised the dead . What did they have that we have overlooked? I believe that a big function of the answer to that lies in their awareness of their need to be continuously full of the Holy Spirit of God.

Ephesians 5:18   Do not get drunk on wine...Instead, be filled with the Spirit .

•• Diverse Greek scholars and bible commentators point out that the Greek present imperative tense is used in this verse. It has the connotation of a continuous replenishment, an ongoing state of beingness filled.

• It has been suggested by some that an bad-mannered simply accurate translation would be something like: "keep being filled" or "proceed on being filled with the Spirit."

•• I endeavour each summer to go along 2 thirds of an acre of grass alive in my one thousand! To do so, I must water it ... again and again and over again! If I don't water it repeatedly, it dries upward in our hot, dry southern Oregon climate. I never allow my lawn to get parched.

• Explanatory annotation: I am not trying to make a abrupt distinction between the very similar words continuously (pregnant non-stop) and continually (essentially meaning once again and over again and over again...). The Scriptures use both with regard to the Holy Spirit. For example, Acts 13:52 - "And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." At the aforementioned fourth dimension, some Greek scholars, as noted higher up, say that the "exist filled" in Ephesians 5:eighteen has the continuous sense of "continue being filled" with the Holy Spirit of God.

• My lawn watering instance is intended to capture the sense of both continually and continuously. In southern Oregon'south hot, dry out summers I had to water my lawn continually (again and once again!) in order to go along moisture in its life-giving roots continuously (that is, nonstop).

•• In Acts 2:4, information technology says, "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit " on that first New Testament Day of Pentecost, with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. Simply then again in Acts four:31, information technology says of many of the same Spirit-filled believers, "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit ." Huh?

• This is an illustration of Ephesians v:eighteen — those who had received their personal Pentecost in Acts 2 here experienced a stirring up, a rekindling — presumably another of many times of stirring up the Spirit — simply like my lawn, which over again and again needs watering. It can't just go on last week'south watering, or my lawn will dry up.

• I am not suggesting that this is an entirely new baptism with the Holy Spirit for those who take already received it. The Scripture says (1 John two:27) that "the anointing you received from him remains in you." In that location is a biblical principle that applies: "...I remind you to fan into flame the souvenir of God, which is IN you..." (2 Timothy i:6). Some other translations say to "stir up the souvenir of God." But they all remind usa that the Lord's souvenir is IN us, not something that comes and goes. The Amplified Bible reminds united states (Romans 11:29) that "God'due south gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given...]." Our task is to stir upwardly the baptism with the Spirit that is in us and, as Jesus urged usa, to "keep your lamps burning" (Luke 12:35).

• And of class in that location may have been some in the room in Acts iv who had not been involved in the initial Acts 2 Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit of God. So verse 31's "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit" would be a showtime-fourth dimension feel for them. From then on, like the others (and like u.s.a. today), they should be diligent to "proceed their lamps burning" and to "stir up" that precious empowerment of the Holy Spirit that is "in them."

•• What is the surroundings, the context, for this ongoing empowerment, this stirring up, in Acts 4:31? Let's see.

Acts 4:24, 29-31   When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, ... (29) "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your give-and-take with peachy boldness . (30) Stretch out your paw to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy retainer Jesus ." (31) Afterward they prayed, the identify where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the discussion of God boldly.

•• This Holy Ghost stirring of these Spirit-filled believers came as they prayed to God for MORE — (1) bold preaching ... (two) healings ... (3) miraculous signs and wonders — all in Jesus' Proper name.

•• If they had been content to residue passively in their initial, Acts 2:4 Holy Spirit anointing, they would not take asked, and they might non take received — "Ye have not because ye ask not " (James 4:two).

•• Jesus said, "Believers, you volition exercise the works I exercise ." Well, these first-century believers did those works! How? — Many of that group, perchance even about or all of them, had already received the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). Simply they understood their need to stay full of the Holy Spirit — to "go on existence filled" — in guild to effectively preach the discussion of God confirmed by the supernatural spiritual gifts.

John fourteen:12, sixteen-17a   I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do fifty-fifty greater things than these, because I am going to the Father .... (xvi) And I volition inquire the Begetter, and he will give you lot another Counselor to exist with y'all forever — (17) the Spirit of truth.

•• How and why tin nosotros practise the works Jesus did and greater? He says, "... because I am going to my Father... [and] He will give yous another Counselor ... the [Holy] Spirit ..." And 1 outcome of our receiving the sky-sent souvenir of the Holy Spirit baptism is an empowerment of us to do His works, specially by the enablement of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

•• So you meet how totally dependent we are on having the fullness of His Spirit in order to practice His works.

•• How are you doing today? Do you notice yourself somewhere betwixt your own personal Acts 2 and Acts 4? Somewhere between that kickoff anointing and the current state (perhaps declining) of the anointing'south expression in your life?

• I offset received that Acts 2 anointing, that mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit, in 1971. That outpouring of the Holy Spirit on me personally was a starting point, not the stop.

• I've needed a lot of Acts 4 replenishments since then. I (and you lot) demand an ongoing renewal of Holy Ghost power in our lives and our ministries.

• How can we stay continuously filled with the Spirit of God daily, hourly, moment to moment? Allow's read on...

John 7:37-39   On the last and greatest day of the Banquet, Jesus stood and said in a loud vocalisation, "If anyone is thirsty , let him come to me and drink . (38) Whoever believes in me , as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from inside him." (39) By this he meant the Spirit ....

•• We need to thirst for this living water — for a flowing river, not but a glassful ... for Holy Ghost fire, not simply a flickering candle.

•• Nosotros demand to believe Jesus, and to believe in Him.

•• We demand to come up to Him. He is the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:viii). Take advantage daily of His blessed gift to yous of speaking in tongues, of praying in the Spirit.

•• We need to drink deeply. Don't merely sip; drink!

2 Kings 2:9, KJV   ...Elisha said, I pray thee, permit a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

•• Let that be our prayer:

• "Lord, thank you for that Acts 2 filling with the Holy Spirit. Help me now daily to stir up, to fan into flame, that abiding anointing of the Spirit in my life and ministry building. Lord, my prayer today is for a double portion of your Spirit , twice the measure of whatsoever of my previous experiences. In Jesus' Proper noun."

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Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.

wommacksooder.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.jimfeeney.org/filledwiththeSpirit.html

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