How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?
The Alpha Course has three teaching on the Holy Spirit – very Trinitarian! The first two – Who is the Holy Spirit and What does he do? Our third one – How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?
Pastor and Writer Francis Chan wrote: ”Christians can never lose the Holy Spirit , but His filling is something we should constantly pursue.”
When we read Acts, we often read of disciples of Jesus being filled with the Spirit, not once but more than once. In Acts 2, the disciples are filled. Then at the end of Acts 4, again the same disciples are filled… We see the Spirit come at Pentecost, we also see the Spirit come upon people as they listened to Peter preach, and we see also how a recent convert to Christianity (Saul), is prayed to be filled, as if it is something natural and regular to do when praying for a new Christian, or perhaps any Christian.
Paul himself in Ephesians 5, in the midst of all his teaching on discipleship, marriage relationships, parenting, spiritual warfare, says: ”Be filled with the Spirit.”, (Ephesians 5:18). The Greek is in a present continuous tense – so the meaning is ‘go on being filled with the Spirit, daily, always.’ He describes our Christian lifestyle, and says part of that, part of our role, is to ‘be filled’ – to pursue the filling of the Spirit.
Our brief video shares more.