Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves.
—Ephesians 5:18-19
These words are a command. They make us realize what the ordinary, consistent experience of every true believer should be. This commandment to be filled with the Spirit has often been misunderstood. On the day of Pentecost, being filled with the Spirit was accompanied with the manifest enthusiasm of a supernatural joy and power. Such a state has been looked on as one of excitement and strain, quite inconsistent with the quiet course of ordinary life.
The suddenness of the outward manifestation has been linked with the idea of being filled with the Spirit. Many believers thought it was a blessing only possible to a very few. Christians felt as if they could not venture to fix their hopes so high. And if the blessing were given to them, they felt it would be impossible in their circumstances to maintain or to manifest it. However, this commandment is indeed for every believer today. The promise and the power are also for every believer.
The first condition of all filling is emptiness. A reservoir is a hole, an empty place waiting, thirsting for the water to come. Any true, abiding fullness of the Spirit is preceded by emptying.
There is one more aspect in which this fullness comes to our faith. God loves to appear in lowly and unlikely ways to clothe Himself in the garment of humility that He wants His children to wear. The kingdom of heaven is like a seed. “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field” (Matthew 13:31). Only faith can know the glory there is in its smallness.
It was this way in the dwelling of the Son on earth. It is this way in the indwelling of the Spirit in the heart. The Spirit asks to be believed in, even when nothing is seen or felt. Believe that the fountain that springs up and flows forth in living streams is within you. Believe even when all appears dry.
Take time to retire into the inner chamber of the heart, and then send up praise and offer worship to God with the assurance of the Holy Spirit within. Take time to be still and let the Spirit Himself fill your spirit with this most spiritual and heavenly of all truths—that He dwells within you. His temple, His hidden dwelling place, is in our lives, deeper than we can see and feel. It is not in the thoughts or feelings first.