Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we're all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Costi Hinn, and on today's episode, I want to answer some excellent questions that you have asked on the filling of the spirit. Even with some basic social media posts. And the previous episode, it's really eye-opening to see how many questions come up and how many confusing things we've been taught about the spirit and his work. Maybe you're a person who has been taught well about the filling of the spirit, but you find yourself in a lot of conversations trying to offer clarity, or maybe you're somebody who has not been taught very well, or you're not really sure what the filling of the spirit is compared to the baptism of the Holy Spirit or what it all entails. This episode and these answers are going to be especially helpful for all of us in those ways. I'm really thankful as always for your candid feedback and your willingness to ask me anything. And so it's been a joy to answer these questions. Let's jump right in. The first one is this Isn't the filling of the Spirit a one-time thing? That's a great question and an easy one to answer, not to belittle your question, but to say the scriptures make this really easy. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the one-time thing. The filling of the Spirit is the ongoing continuous thing. First Corinthians 12 13 makes it really clear for us that we have all been baptized into the body. We've all been made to drink of one spirit. There's one baptism, but Ephesians 5.18 represents the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is a continuous thing. There is a verb used in Ephesians 5.18 that literally translates be being kept filled. That would be a continuous action. It's something that is of great influence over us, meaning the Spirit is over us, influencing us. We're submitting to the Holy Spirit. That continues. It's the opposite of drunkenness, which Paul brings up in Ephesians 5.18. And so really simple, really clear, baptism is one time. Filling is ongoing. One thing to clarify as well, you might get confused about this. You say, well, at Pentecost, hold on a minute, Costi, they were filled, the book of Acts says, but they were baptized to, you know, how how does that all work? Well, you have to remember that Pentecost was the birth of the church. It was the beginning. Pentecost was the flame of the church, if you will, being lit and burning bright. So all at once, even though the disciples were already following Jesus and entrusting him by faith, there was then the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus says in Acts 1.5, go to Jerusalem, wait, the Holy Spirit's going to come. He's going to baptize you. And then in the book of Acts, of course, chapter 2, when that happens, Luke records that they were all filled with the Spirit. And so very unique. Obviously, we are not the disciples, we are not the apostles. We were not following Jesus first with him in his ministry, watching him die, watching him ascend. We were not a part of that. The disciples were. The birth of the church was not while Jesus was on the earth. You might think, I've never thought of that before. Well, think about it for a moment. Pentecost was the moment the Spirit came. That was the beginning of the church. So they were all baptized into the body. They were all made to drink of one spirit in that moment. So to clarify some confusion there as well, some people often get that convoluted. They just need to remember when the church started. So everybody was baptized and filled in that moment and throughout that time. And then there was ongoing filling, if you will, as people were under the influence of the Spirit. Number two, should we pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit? I'm of the mind that we ought to. Why? Well, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is never sought, it's never really prayed for. Nobody really presses into it or leans into it or whatever kind of phrasing you might hear today. Even when the apostles are told by Jesus what to do, they're told to go and wait in Jerusalem. They weren't sitting there in the upper room, you know, calling down the Spirit, calling down fire, saying, Fall on us, Holy Spirit, fall on us, like you'll hear in services or even songs today. They were just doing what Jesus told them to do. The Spirit came, and in a sovereign work, He came and baptized them, and He filled them. Furthermore, it's never commanded that we be baptized in the Holy Spirit or by the Holy Spirit. That's a sovereign work of God. He does it. We don't have any part in it, if you will, or some response to it specifically, whereas we're commanded to repent and believe, and we would respond to God in that sense, or we might even pray, Lord, help us in our unbelief, like the disciples did. We're commanded to be filled with the Spirit. But in the same way, we're not commanded to be baptized. When Ephesians 5.18 says, be filled with the Spirit, it's a command. Well, I believe that there is wisdom in praying for the Spirit to fill us and to help us walk in his ways and to enable us to bear fruit. That's Galatians 5.16, all the way through verse 23. Some might say, Well, God is sovereign. You know, he fills us. No need to pray about it. I would push back and say, God is sovereign and he will do it. But if I'm commanded to be something, I'm gonna need his help because it's his power that is gonna enable me to do that thing or be that thing. So we ought to pray. But here's the real kicker. We are commanded to be filled, and guess what? We don't do the filling. So my prayer and your prayer isn't Holy Spirit help me to fill me. Holy Spirit help me to be filled and to go get filled. Oh no, no, no. It's Holy Spirit, please fill me today for service, obedience, faithfulness, and fruitfulness for the glory of Christ. You need him to do the filling, you need his help to obey the command to be filled. So pray to that. And number three, and this is a big one. Does the filling of the spirit mean speaking in tongues? No, it does not. While the book of Acts does have instances in which people are filled with the Spirit and they speak in tongues, those were very specific purposes, like, for example, being a sign to the Jews at the time. They were blown away that the Gentiles were getting the same spirit because they thought they were it. And that was a sign that God was grafting in other people groups. The filling of the Holy Spirit led to speaking in tongues and people being empowered to spread the gospel in other languages to new people groups. And so you have this empowerment for gospel ministry. It was not an all-time command to speak in ecstatic utterances as many charismatics do today, nor was it a guarantee that tongues would be the evidence of the Spirit's filling. After Paul's command to be filled with the Spirit, we are actually given a major clue into what will come out of us if we're filled with the Spirit, and it is not ecstatic tongues. He says, after Ephesians 5 18, to be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. None of that is tongues. You can't make that mean tongues. It means what it says. You're going to be singing and praising God and making melody with your heart to the Lord, not ecstatic utterance. And then he says, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. So when we are filled with the Spirit, we will sing, worship, praise. We're going to be thankful. We're going to be encouraging to others in the Lord. We're going to be submissive to other believers. That's what verses 22, all the way through chapter 6, verse 9 says, when Paul brings up all these relationships that are impacted by people who are spirit-filled. Your marriage, husbands and wives, your parenting, children, your workplace environments. He goes through all of it and in the church together. That when we are spirit-filled people, the love of God, the praises of God, prayers unto God, and a submissive spirit comes out of us. So we need to not make it about speaking in tongues. We need to be very careful to ever equate the filling of the Spirit with a tongues experience as if that were the pinnacle, brothers and sisters, obedience to Christ and a submissive heart thriving in the body and in our relationships that are listed in chapter 5 and 6. That is the real pinnacle, if you will, of the Spirit filling us. Finally, how is it that we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit? But the Bible teaches that we've been baptized by the Spirit and we're the temple of the Holy Spirit as soon as we're saved. This is such a great question, and I'm going to take some more time on this one. So let's make sure we understand each truth as the Bible teaches it. First, yes, you are always the temple of the Spirit. You are always sealed with the Spirit as a believer. You don't get a second class citizenship card and have to pray for the filling to get the quote real first class status. Ephesians 1 13 to 14 explains very clearly that you are sealed by the Spirit, that He's a pledge and you are set. He is the seal of promise. First Corinthians 6 19 to 20, among other passages, will refer to the believer as the temple of the Spirit. Listen, that is not going to change. No matter what. You could be a believer who has had a really rough day today. You've lost your temper, you've thought some wayward thoughts, you have sinned. And even though you've confessed that sin, you just think, man, I didn't really walk by the Spirit really well today. Well, that doesn't mean you are not baptized still, that you're not sealed still, and that you're not indwelt. See, that would be the second thing I want to point out. The filling of the Spirit is not the same thing as being indwelt by the Spirit. Romans 8 9 says, anyone who does not have the Spirit does not belong to Christ. Well, if you belong to Christ, you have the Spirit indwelling you. He indwells every believer and baptizes every believer, every believer. He has sealed every believer. So when you're converted, you have the spirit. So then what does it mean then to be filled? And why pray that he would fill you? And why seek to obey the command to be filled? Well, the spirit's filling is his control over our lives. It's being immersed in him, doing his will, walking in his power, and living according to the spirit and not the flesh. That's Galatians five, sixteen, and seventeen. That's why Ephesians five fifteen to seventeen actually refers to the will of God. So Galatians five, sixteen, and seventeen will contrast walking by the Spirit and then the deeds of the flesh, and then of course the fruit of the Spirit follows. But then Ephesians 5, 15, and 17, these parallel passages on the Spirit's work helps us understand the will of God. Listen to what Paul says. He says, Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of every moment you have, your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, he says, but understand what the will of the Lord is. This is the verse before Ephesians 5.18 when he says, And do not be drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Ephesians were possibly being foolish, unsure what the will of God was, getting drunk and or surrounded by drunkenness, along with the false worship that was happening at the temple of Artemis. So what were they to do? Be filled, be being kept filled. They needed to understand what the will of God was. The will of God was that they be filled. They were already believers. They were already baptized in the Spirit. They were already indwelt by the Spirit. They were sealed by the Spirit, but they were still told to be filled. So sometimes you might be confused. You hear this language about the filling of the Spirit, and you think, hey, now I'm always filled. I don't have any less or more. I'm always this or always that. And that is true in the sense that you're always indwelt by the Spirit. You're always baptized in the Spirit, and you are always sealed by the Spirit. But the idea of being filled, why did He command them to be filled if they were always filled? See, being filled is it's a yielding, it's an obedience. There's a submission to the Spirit and to the will of God. When one is filled, they're under his influence. You're going to be thankful, worshipful, loving towards others, praising God in all circumstances, praying without ceasing, and establishing healthy relationships within your marriage, your parenting, your work life, and your church life because you're a submissive person in all the right ways. You're not submissive to sin. You're submissive to God. You're a joy to be around, you're a joy to fellowship with, you're a joy to work with and to live with. That's what Ephesians 5 verses 22 into chapter 6 all unpacks. The spirit-filled life is going to look like that, and it's going to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Are you always patient? No. Are you always self-controlled? No. Are there times where believers are grieving the Spirit of God with their sin? Yes, with the way they talk. Absolutely. This is why Ephesians 4, verses 29, he says, let no unwholesome words come out of your mouth. He tells them then to stop grieving the Holy Spirit. Well, are you still present, active, ongoing verb, be being kept filled by the Spirit? Well, no, you're not in that moment. You're walking according to the deeds of the flesh. You're acting like the world. And so you need to come back to a point of submission. This is why we confess sin. And so a prayer for the filling of the Spirit, when you have been wallowing in your sin or being a distracted believer, would be the same kind of prayer that matches the command in Ephesians 5.18. You would say, and I would say, Holy Spirit, help me in my weakness. I have been sinful. My mind has been wayward. I've been distracted. I've not been living with eternal perspective. I've been short-tempered. I've been impatient. I'm not being sensitive to my wife. I'm not being respectful of my husband. I'm being disobedient. I'm tempted to this and that, all that. You would confess that to the Lord, like 1 John 1.9 tells you to. Then you would ask the Spirit to work in you and to bear fruit in you. You'd say, I know that I'm a blood-bought saint. I know that you have baptized me. I know you've sealed me. And I know you indwell me. And like the Ephesians and like the Corinthians, I'm a little messy right now. I'm off the course. I'm sinning. And I need your help. Will you fill me and bring me under control once again? To walk in your will, not according to the deeds of the flesh. I hate my sin. I don't want my sin. Fill me and bring me under your control. I want to submit to you. I want to submit to those that are in my life, and I want to walk in a way that is pleasing to you. Bear your fruit in me. That is the proper biblical, theologically accurate way to pray for the filling of the Spirit. Notice what it is not. It is not a calling down of fire. It is not repeated phrases and meaningless repetition. It is not some charismatic or Bethel-like service where you shout, you know, more Lord, more Lord, more Lord, on and on, like Heidi Baker and some of these teachers that just repeat weird phrases and they enter into some euphoric experience. The music drones on, and three hours later, people are crying, weeping, and rolling on the floor, and they say they're being filled with the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, the word is so clear. So even when we pray for it, we're not praying for some ethereal experience. We're praying the word of God and for the will of God to be enacted in our life. I hope that makes more sense as you understand that you always have the Spirit and the differences between the baptism of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit. That the filling of the Spirit will not always mean speaking in tongues, and even in the Bible, of course, today, tongues, we understand those to have been known languages. It's not the ecstatic utterance of today. And that the filling of the Spirit is not a one-time thing like the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but it is an ongoing, be being kept filled thing that can keep happening in your life. That's all we have time for today. I hope that helps you further. And again, thank you for asking those questions, for wanting to understand the Spirit's work. Please know I'm writing a book on the subject titled Knowing the Spirit, and it's due to come out next summer. It will have answers to everything you can think of when it comes to the Spirit of God and his work from the Scriptures. And I'm really excited and hoping that book serves you and the body of Christ in a faithful way. I'll keep you posted about release details, and most certainly we'll make sure to give copies away on the podcast and social media. Thanks for listening to the For the Gospel Podcast to check out free resources on numerous doctrinal topics or to give and help us keep producing more resources. You can go to forthegospel.org. 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