Filled With The Spirit

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:18-20

The Holy Spirit is the prime mover in the application of redemption to us.  This includes our sanctification.  As Paul is writing regarding the practical implications of what it means to be in Christ, he arrives at the statement of our text for today, ‘And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.’  The contrast he makes is between being filled with wine and being filled with the Holy Spirit.  To be filled with wine produces drunkenness, which is excess or dissipation.  Having said that, the statement which Paul is making leads us to the greater point which is to be ‘filled with the Spirit.’  How does anyone become drunk with wine?  They do so, by making use of the available means.  They continue until they are full to overflowing with the wine and the effects it produces.  So, to carry the analogy forward, if we are to ‘be filled with the Spirit,’ we will make use of the means of which God has afforded us.  These are the means which the Holy Spirit uses to take the things of Christ and show them to us.  They include, but are not limited to, ‘speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’  By these means we interact with God by the Spirit who conforms us to the image of Christ.  There is no other path to Christlikeness.  This bring us to joyfully embrace these means He has afforded us.

Our Good and Generous God,
we rejoice that You have bestowed upon us,
an abundance of means whereby we may come to know Christ.
We praise You that the Holy Spirit
makes use of these things,
to show Him to us and
to conform us to His Image.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning