Six Principles – seed of ideas by John MacArthur Jr.
 
We are continuing our discussion from our last devotional thought.
 
Since God’s will is not lost, it is not something to be found. Rather, it is something to be experienced.  How, then, do we “find” (experience) God’s will?
 
We are looking at SIX PRINCIPLES to experiencing God’s will. 
 
Last time, we looked at the first principle: You Must Be SAVED.
Today, we look at the second principle:
 
2. You Must Be  S P I R I T   F I L L E D 
 
Ephesians 5:17-20  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
We are to understand what the Lord’s will is.
 
Spirit-filled is opposite of filled with the spirits. It is to be in control rather than out of control. Wine, alcohol, beer and drugs make us mentally out of control.
 
The Greek Language in Jesus’ day was filled with many nuances. The phrase translated “Be Filled” is a single Greek word. It is a verb, present tense, passive voice, imperative, second person, plural.
 
* It is a verb meaning it is something we must do.
* It is in the present tense meaning we are to continually maintain being filled (as opposed to a one time event),
* It is in the passive voice which means it not so much an action we do but an action we allow to be done to us.
* It is an imperative which means it is a command.
* It is in the second person which means Paul is speaking to his readers.
* And it is plural which means it is for everyone.
 
So, God through Paul is commanding all of us to actively allow the Holy Spirit to fill us at all times.
 
It is not the idea of a full cup. There is an old song that goes, “Fill my cup Lord…”. The problem with most of us is that our cup has holes in it.  On Sunday, we hear an inspirational challenge to Christ-like living but by Monday, we lost half of our inspiration.
 
Rather than a full cup, it is the idea of a full hose. We are responsibility to keep the faucet open.  As we allow our faucet to remain open, God’s Holy Spirit is allowed to flow through our lives.
 
Paul exhorts us not to be filled with wine, but with the Holy Spirit.  Which is worse, getting drunk or not being filled?  Many of us Baptist folk pride ourselves for not allowing alcohol to control us, but we fail to acknowledge the second half of this command.
 
What does a person look like who is Spirit-filled? Simply, under control as opposed to out of control.
 
V. 19 – 20   Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in  your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
The acid test of being Spirit-filled, the proof in the pudding, what demonstrates that the Spirit is present, is living with the fruit of the Spirit hanging off of our lives.
 
Galatians 5:22-23 
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
 
What is fruit? Fruit is that which reveals what something is. For instance, I can’t tell an apple tree from and orange tree.  But, if an apple is hanging from the tree, I know that’s an apple tree.
 
It’s the same for us. When we see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control dangling off of a person, we will know that they are under the control of he Holy Spirit.
 
And, by the way, one does not get self-control by controlling themselves, but by allowing the Holy Spirit to have control.