Filled With the Spirit

John 14:15-17 

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” 

Every Christian enters into a covenant with each Person in the Trinity. That involves accepting each Person's mercies, and performing duties to each Person. Yes duties are required. To take and believe God as our God we must do more than just believe. To take Christ as our Saviour involves more than just believing in Him as Saviour. To believe in the Holy Spirit requires more than to believe that He is the third person in the Trinity.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin (Matt 12:31-32; Luke 12:10; Hebrews 6:4-6). Since sin against the Holy Spirit has special aggravation, we should not take Him lightly. Our duty towards the Holy Spirit is certainly not our smallest and least important. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit do not deserve the last place in teaching, learning, reading and meditating. 

The Holy Spirit is Christ's agent on earth. Instead of Christ being in His bodily form on earth in one place at one time, He sent the Spirit to be His agent to all believers (John 16:7-8). 

The Holy Spirit also inspired the writing of the Scriptures, guiding the apostles, prophets and evangelists to preach and write the Word (John 15:26; 16:13; Gal 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:3-4). 

The Holy Spirit ordains and directs men for the ministry and preaching of the Word (Eph 3:2-3, 7). 

By this Word, both heard and read, the Holy Spirit renews and sanctifies the hearts of the elect, “teaching them all things” (John 14:26), “opening their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith” (Acts 26:18). 

As previously mentioned, we have the obligation to do more than just believe the above. We have a duty and obligation toward the Holy Spirit. We must firstly obey Him and heed His directions. However the Holy Spirit is to be distinguished from the spirit of Satan and our own flesh. It can be easy to think you are obeying the Spirit when you are obeying Satan or your own fleshly desires. However the directions of the Spirit of God are easily known by their fruits. 

The Spirit's directions are for heavenly wisdom, and not foolishness or craftiness (Ps 19:7; 94:8; Jer 4:22; 1 Cor 2:4-7). The Holy Spirit exercises love and goodness and not selfish or hurtful (Gal 5:22). He values unity of all believers, and abhors divisions among the elect and unity with unbelievers (1 Cor 1:10; 3:3; 12:12-27). He hates pride, boasting, self-exaltation etc. (Matt 18:3; Eph 4:2). It can be easy to test the spirits by these fruits. But the sure way to measure if a direction is of the Spirit or Satan is by measuring it against Scripture, for “if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). 

We must not quench the Spirit (1 Thess 5:19). Don't wilfully sin. Don't neglect His offered help. Rather pray for it. His help is the wind in your sails – you can do nothing without it and completely rely on it. Obey Him speedily. Delay is an unthankful kind of denial. Obey Him thoroughly. A half obedience is a disobedience. Obey Him constantly. A sometime rejection is an all-time rejection. 

Practically this means not neglecting the means that the Holy Spirit uses. Pray, read, hear, and meditate. See and partake in the sacraments. The Spirit does not work alone. He requires a concious effort on our part, just as a successful crop requires rain, sun, soil, God's blessing and a farmer's toil. 

Be thankful for the help of the Holy Spirit. Don't deny its existence, don't ascribe it to yourself or nature. Unthankfulness and neglect will lead to Him denying further help.