The Filling of the Spirit

Thanks to my friend, Adrian Warnock, for drawing attention to yesterday's morning message at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson! And I was both relieved and delighted to find that Adrian and I concur on this important matter of Christian life and experience.

His post reminded me that I did not spend much time during the message in providing you an exegetical and biblical theological argument for my minimalist definition/description of the filling of the Spirit. This whole issue is complex and fascinating, but the core matters relating to it are both clear and important.

So, just to be clear, by filling of the Spirit, I take Paul to be referring here (in Ephesians 5:18b) to an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all believers, which has the effect of assuring and maturing, forming character, making the heart a suitable habitation for Christ, and producing Spiritual fruit. Paul wants and expects all believers to experience this ongoing filling, to long for it and to depend on it.