Be Filled With The Holy Spirit

By Pastor M. Isi Eromosele

In Ephesians 5:18, Apostle Paul wrote, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”  What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? And, how can we be filled with the Spirit?

Being filled with the Spirit means, basically, having great joy in God. And since the Bible teaches that "the joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10), it also means there will be power in this joy for overcoming besetting sins and for boldness in witness.

Basically, it means radiant joy, because the Spirit who fills us is the Spirit of joy that flows between God the Father and God the Son because of the delight they have in each other. Therefore, to be filled with the Spirit means to be caught into the joy that flows among the Holy Trinity and to love God the Father and God the Son with the very love with which they love each other. 

And then, in answer to the second question, the way to be filled with the Spirit is by trusting that the God of hope really reigns; that not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from his will (Matthew 10:29) - and that he runs the world for you and for all who trust His Word. In believing that, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and with joy.

What Does "Baptize in the Holy Spirit" Mean?

The phrase "baptize in (or with) the Holy Spirit" was apparently coined by John the Baptist. All four of our gospels record that he said, "I have baptized you with water, but He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33).

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:12, 13:

Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

According to this one reference, Paul conceived of Spirit-baptism as the act by which the Spirit made us members of Christ's body. Once we were alienated from God, cut off from Christ (Ephesians 2:12), but then the Holy Spirit swept over us and brought us to life by uniting us to the living Christ and thus to His people in one body. This is a once-for-all event. It is never repeated, and nowhere does Paul ever admonish a Christian to be baptized by the Spirit.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit is an experience you have with God after conversion in which the Holy Spirit falls upon you in such a way that your heart bursts forth in the utterance of tongues (some ecstatic speech or unknown language).

We are sometimes urged to seek a "second blessing" or second experience of the Spirit after our initial conversion experience. Two things need to be said.

First: the blessing of the fullness (or baptism) of the Holy Spirit may occur at the moment of conversion and leave nothing to be sought but its preservation and growth or repetition. Second: even if one does not experience the fullness of the Spirit at conversion, the thing to be sought is not "the second blessing," as if that experience would be the end of our spiritual quest.

What we should seek (and this applies to all Christians) is that God pour his Spirit out upon us so completely that we are filled with joy, victorious over sin and bold to witness.

And the ways he brings us to that fullness are probably as varied as people are. It may come in a tumultuous experience of ecstasy and tongues. It may come through a tumultuous experience of ecstasy and no tongues. It may come through a crisis of suffering when you abandon yourself totally to God. Or it may come gradually through a steady diet of God's Word and prayer and fellowship and worship and service.

However it comes, our first experience of the fullness of the Spirit is only the beginning of a life-long battle to stay filled with the Spirit.

Pastor M. Isi Eromosele is a part of the Leadership Pastors at God’s Intervention Center in New York. He is also the Founder and CEO of Oseme Group, a global management consulting company based in New York City.

Rivers Of Living Water

By Pastor M. Isi Eromosele

We have before us one of the most remarkable and challeng­ing statements in the whole of the New Testament. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).

These words were spo­ken by Jesus to people who were spiritually dry, empty and defeated. They are like many people of our day, going through religious ritual and ceremony but finding no real meaning, life and victory.

The Apostle John includes the commentary on the words of Jesus. Verse 39 tells us that Jesus' statement about "rivers of living water" is a reference to the Holy Spirit. When it comes to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to go to extremes.

However, despite our fear of one extreme, we must not go to the other extreme and be devoid of the person and power of the Holy Spirit. Herein lies the power for life and ministry. The Holy Spirit is our power source.

The 21st century church needs to be reminded of the purpose and power of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. It seems that the modern church has replaced the power of God with the performance of man. Instead of singing, "Holy Spirit breathe on me," we are saying, "Lights…cameras…action."

The setting of our Lord's words amplify their meaning. The occasion was the Feast of Tabernacles, the third in a series of Jewish Feasts. In the Old Testament, the Feast of Tabernacles lasted seven days. In the New Testament the Feast of Tabernacles lasted eight days. It was a Thanksgiving Feast.

The guidelines for the Feast are found in Leviticus 23. The people were required to leave their permanent residences and build booths of willows and palm branch­es. During the Feast of Tabernacles they would live in these booths made of branches as a reminder of their nomadic days in the wilderness.

It was a time of remembering God's wonderful provision. During the Feast of Tabernacles, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple area were filled with booths made from branches.

At the heart of the Feast was a daily pro­cession. Priests carrying Golden Pitchers would lead a parade or procession through the city to the pool of Siloam singing the words of Isa. 12:3, "Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salva­tion."

The great crowd of people would parade back to the Temple and the Priests would pour the water from the pool of Siloam down upon the Altar and the peo­ple would shout and wave palm branches.

This procedure went on for 7 days, but on the last day the procedure was repeated with two significant exceptions. First, when the parade of people returned from the pool of Siloam, the Priests would march around the Altar seven times com­memorating Joshua's victory at Jericho.

Secondly, the Priests would raise the gold­en pitcher over the silver funnels as they had done each day previously, but this time there was no water — only an empty pitch­er. This signified the disobedient genera­tion that died in the Wilderness. Instead of a shout and the waving of palm branches as the people had done each day, they now stood in silence.

It was in the moment of silence — this moment of bewilderment, emptiness and meaninglessness — that Jesus cried out. You must get the picture. Our Lord had been watching the people go through the motions, perfectly following the order of service, but there was no meaning, no power, no life. They found themselves right where they had started. Nothing was any different.

Think of the great crowd of peo­ple who gathered annually for this obser­vation of the Feast of Tabernacles. Think about their lives, their homes, their jobs, their communities and their churches.

Think about what they brought with them to the great Feast: their hopes, their dreams and their expectations. Think about what they took away when they returned to their homes. Were they any different? Or did they just go through the same old motions only to conclude with an empty pitcher?

What happened to that crowd over two thousand years ago still happens to people in our world every Sunday. People go to church filled with hopes and dreams and expectations. And all too often they go away unfulfilled and empty.

Fellow pastors and church leaders: are we sending our people away empty? Do they come to the House of God in search for the Water of Life only to hear the clanging of an empty pitcher? Do they hear the dipper banging against the bottom of your bucket?

The Holy Spirit function comes to the preacher not in the study, but in the closet. It is heaven's distillation in answer to prayer. It is the sweetest exaltation of the Holy Spirit. It impregnates, suffuses, softens, percolates, cuts and soothes.

It carries the Word like dynamite, like salt, like sugar; Makes the Word a soother, an arraigner, a revealer, a searcher; Makes the hearers a culprit or a saint, makes him weep like a child and live like a giant.

Opens his heart and his purse as gently, yet as strongly as spring opens leaves. This function is not a gift of genius. It is not found in the halls of learning. No eloquence can woo it, no industry can win it. No prelatic hands can confer it. It is the gift of God - a signet set to His own messengers…It is given to those who have sought this anointed honor through many an hour of tearful, wrestling prayer."

Jesus said, "If anyone thirsts…" Thirst is a consciousness of an unsatisfied need. Thirst expresses desperation. Thirst will kill faster than hunger. One can go weeks without food, but only days without water.

Are you thirsty?  Are you thirsty for God? God will meet man on the level of his desire, man can have as much of God as he wants."

Eric Alexander, the former pastor of St. George's Tron, Church of Scotland, in Glasgow once said, "We need to learn that the blessing of God is not a cheap com­modity lightly dispensed."

The Psalmist said, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God, my soul thirsts for God - for the Living God" (Psalm. 42:1-2).

Do you have an unsatisfied need for God in your heart? Are you thirsty for Him?

"Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water…"

Jesus did not promise a trickle or a stream or a flow…He promised a river. Can you get your mind around this? The Holy Spirit is like a mighty rushing river…a life-giving river. He is like the mighty river found in Ezekiel 47 that produces life wherever it flows.

Pastor M. Isi Eromosele is a part of the Leadership Pastors at God’s Intervention Center in New York. He is also the Founder and CEO of Oseme Group, a global management consulting company based in New York City.

Achieving The Holy Spirit Filled Life

By Pastor ChyChy Ayodele

The Holy Spirit filled life does not take time to attain. It takes a decision. No one on Earth but you can make that decision for yourself. A man will always pursue his true desires with decisive actions and labour.

The Holy Spirit filled life is entered into by decision. You are going to realise by yourself that you do not and cannot actually exist as a Christian in the true meaning of the word without The Holy Spirit and this is the beginning of the journey.

Most Christians think to be a Christian means to be free from certain gross sins. So they say, self-righteously, such statements as "I do not fornicate, I do not steal, "etc, naming a few gross sins that in real sense they are still even guilty of in thoughts, words or permission as they are still enjoying observing those who do, (as in magazines, TV, video and music).

Additionally, these Christians may be fellowshipping closely with those who do without confronting them. It may also be as in listening to their exploits in these regards and enjoying it.

However, these self-proclaimed Christians still fall short in many other areas. Christianity is simply not doing wrong. It is not doing wrong by the power of The Holy Spirit and of the new creation and doing the works of righteousness, love and service inspired and powered by the Holy Spirit and by the new creation.

True Christianity is not only passivity (omission), it is also activity (commission) powered by the Holy Spirit. The decision is not a decision to just conduct yourself a certain way by acts of the will so as to satisfy a religious conscience and to meet up to a regulation.

The decision should be to enter a vital, active and real contact, relationship and fellowship with Jesus Christ and The Father through the Holy Spirit. In other words, it is a decision to enter into direct encounter with The Holy Spirit. This is where prayer and The Word come in.

The commitment to these is not of duty but of love. You love someone so much that you want to be with that person endlessly, know the person, be involved with the person, share interests and please the person.

To be filled with The Holy Spirit is not just to have received the Holy Spirit baptism four or five years ago and then claim to be spirit filled. "Spirit-filled" describes an actual state of being possessed, taken over, in the grip of and under the influence and control of the Holy Spirit and this is achieved in degrees.

In other words, if you are not filled by the Holy Spirit today, you are not spirit filled. It is an on-going experience that never ends. Be aware that you can turn on or off the blessings of the Holy Spirit by your lifestyle.

It is a daily opening up to God to be filled anew with the Holy Spirit. That is called "fresh anointing". This should occur every day, moment by moment, every so often and every night. You must be baptised in the Spirit daily. There must be a renewal daily, always, which causes you to increase in your spiritual capacity until you get to that point where you are full, not just filled...

Overflowing with the Holy Spirit

Filled with the Holy Spirit means He fills you to the capacity to which you are emptied of self. Full is not arrived at overnight. It is the result of overtime or being filled by the Spirit day by day, by emptying yourself more and more of Earth and self until you are full, completely possessed and the infilling now becomes an overflow to others... This is called being anointed.

The journey to fully filled by the Holy Spirit begins by desire. Many believers live stale, dry Christian lives, unfruitful, bearing no proof, sign or mark outwardly of any relationship with Christ - the Holy God.

When you look at them, you see nothing of that sweet, meek, loving, gentle, holy and joyful Jesus. They do not exude the aura of Christianity that is manifested to you. When they tell you they are Christian, you would have ample reasons to doubt them.

No one among them can boldly say anywhere that "I am a child of God, born again" because they know that they do not look it, live it nor really show it in anyway. Their appearance from a distance and up close does not portray or radiate the influence and the effect of Jesus on their lives.

There is only one way such a diseased condition can be corrected. This would be through repentance from dead works, carnality and love of this world, among others and running back to the closet to begin a life of active and vital contact with the glorious Holy Spirit.

Transformation takes place there. They would need to get on their knees on a daily basis. They should tarry before Almighty God as one tarries at the wine until drunk, yielding until they are drunk of the Holy Spirit, filled afresh and everyday with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit would quench their thirst and hunger as they pant for more. He is there to fill them again and again as He gives them a glorious experience again and again as they yield again and again for more and more.

When prayer is a dry, drab and boring routine to a believer, it shows that such a believer is in a very seriously diseased condition, in dire need of a revival that will not come from heaven above but from spirit deep within him as the believer returns to devotion to God and yielding in prayer.

It is the absence of the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes prayer boring and such a hard task for believers. They want to do it without the relationship with the Holy Spirit that is conditional upon yielding. They want to do it by themselves in the flesh. This is not possible.

Yielding To The Holy Spirit

If you never get to understand for yourself what “filled with the Holy Spirit means”, you will never know the Holy Spirit. But when you do, you will be able to yield and flow with Him anywhere, anytime.

When the Holy Spirit is in a believer's prayer life and ministry and any other part if his life, he yields to the Spirit (marriage, relationship, etc.) they would be in no struggle, no rigor, just greased flow... This is called Grace. Then it is fun and glory and you don't want it to stop as time doesn't bother you.

How can you claim to love God when you can't stay in His presence for long. You just endure your prayer time and are relieved when your clock tells you to get up? Nobody can say He loves the presence of God acting like that.

We need more than survival and subsistent levels of Christianity in these end times. A nice little shallow prayer time that does not touch God deeply will put you on maintenance status spiritually.

But maintenance status is no longer safe in these last days because "the love of many is waxing cold", (this includes the love of believers for their Lord and Savior and the love for their brethren).

Inequity is abounding... These shall be plagues, pestilence, diseases, epidemics, wars and rumours of war, earthquakes, men's heart failing them for fear of what's happening in the world and sin, immorality, perversion, sensual entitlements, lustful gratifications of the grossest kind swirling around and dragging away many including many believers in its wake.

It is going to take a beyond average Christian existence to deal with the above. Imagine the level of corruption, bribery, bottom power that will be flowing and required to get a contract, position and earn an honest living within government departments to process requirements, for instance?

Imagine how really difficult it will get for anyone who claims he wants to live righteously to survive in these times without the Holy Spirit. Imagine how dangerous it will be to live in such times, with diseases, pestilence on the rise, violent crimes, rape, robberies, occultism and ritual activities multiplying.

All these describe "darkness and gross darkness" as God spoke about through prophet Isaiah as coming to the earth in these last days.

A New Kind Of Believer Is Needed

These end times call for a new kind of believer who lives on a higher status than maintenance. He lives on the advance mode of spirituality. In such a mode, the believer would be the opposite of what is happening in the world today.

Righteousness would be waxing strong and abounding as the love of God is waxing hot. The righteousness in them would be greater than the unrighteousness and wickedness in the world.

They would be ruthlessly righteous and loving it! Bold as the lion. They would have Faith that will quench the raging fires, stop the violence of the sword, of guns and bombs. They live in a Faith Force Field (3.F ZONE) that insulates and shields them from epidemics and diseases,... It is called Righteousness and Truth.

These new believers would not just be running into hiding from the darkness and praying for rapture to happen suddenly. They would be projecting Divine Light and pushing back the darkness. They would be advancing the borders of light and annexing spiritual territories of human souls for the kingdom of God.

Don't be fooled! Darkness is coming upon this generation no matter what the politicians are saying! Jesus already said it. Things are going to get worse in the world. The only sure place of refuge and light shall be in Christ. "For of the increase of His peace and of His government, there shall be no end!" "And Christ is that spirit (2Corinthians 3:17) and where the spirit of The Lord is there is liberty..." freedom from all bondages coming upon humanity.

This dark future which is coming to the world has been revealed prophetically and wisdom calls to us believers to prepare for it. Prepare for manifestation! This will be the manifestation of darkness and the manifestation of Light.

Those who are wise are earnestly seeking God now, being filled more and more with the Holy Spirit and with the Word in anticipation of the great day of The Lord. The unrighteous are also increasing to the climax of wickedness in these last days. Who shall challenge them? Who?

Pastor ChyChy Ayodele is the President and Pastor of Supernatural Life Ministries Global in Abuja, Nigeria. She is also a Lawyer, a Gospel Singer, a Christian Publisher and a Motivational Speaker.