This series highlights the radio teaching of
Dr. Donald R. Hubbard on Ephesians 5:18
Dear Reader see below for proceeding installments to Rev.Relic's series on the filling of the Spirit
"If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything"
Motto of the Fountain of Life
Part 2 of 6
SPS: 1st) to examine the filling of the
Spirit from the vantage of its Essence,
our Experience, and the Evidence; 2nd) to demonstrate it as
orthodox teaching; 3rd) to demonstrate that doctrines about the Holy
Spirit and Jesus are interrelated.
Text: Ephesians 5:18: And be not drunk with wine, which is excess,
but be filled with the Spirit.
As we go into the Scriptures we
pray to the Lord for fairness, humility and respect.
1. Essence of Filling of the Spirit
Ephesians 5:18 commands us to
be filled – this is the essence, the absolute foundation of filling with
Spirit; this is where it begins.
PERSPECTIVE AND
SCRIPTURE
Perspective is an
important element in understanding anything.
A meteorologist in Pittsburgh, looks up into a clear night sky and sees
a bright full moon setting in the west.
At the same time a meteorologist in Honolulu looks into an overcast sky
and sees a reddish moon rising in the east.
The same moon, the same time, the same absolute position in space, the
same profession yet two different perspectives offer two very different
interpretations for weather forecasts.
Perspective is vitally important in understanding the Bible. For example in 1 John 1:8 the Apostle says
that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us.” Yet in 1 John 3:9 John states
that “whoever is born of God doth not commit sin.” In chapter 1 John presents
man from the perspective of a temporal fallen man who lives in the present time
on earth and through original sin is in bondage to his fallen nature and sins
daily, and desperately needs a Savior.
In chapter 3 John presents the same man from God’s perspective. The LORD sees the regenerated man who even
now lives in eternity and through Jesus death and resurrection is free
eternally from sin and because of Jesus God “Hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). That man is now, today, eternally present in
Jesus and sharing in Jesus’ life and that man can no longer sin. The same man from two perspectives yields two
true yet different meanings.
Paul uses the verb “be
filled.” From God’s perspective the
incoming, infilling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit are complete and
continual. This seems to be the biblical
view which we shall examine. From human
perspective the incoming is complete, however the indwelling and the infilling
are variable. This seems to be the
popular understanding. And this variable
perspective is commonly used as a teaching analogy. Humanly speaking we view infilling as a
mechanical act of daily refilling a drained or empty vessel. Viewing the infilling this way, as a variable
process, provides useful analogies or language of accommodation to explain the
operation of the Holy Spirit, although the analogies are not entirely biblical
nor accurate. We soon shall look at some
of them to see their strength and perhaps weaknesses.
Essence is what a thing
is. The essence of words is their
meanings. Meanings are determined
through definitions terms and usage in language. The rules of language form grammar. Every profession has its distinctive and
nuanced vocabulary, for example Baseball has fair and foul, strikes, squeezes,
steals, runs and walks. Terms in their
proper setting become important. There
is a way of reading the Bible for all its worth. There is a scripture vocabulary formed when
words pass through rules of grammar; meanings are clarified and terms are
defined. Our term to consider is
“in-filling” our word is “be filled.”
Three Divisions from
grammar:
All Greek verbs have mood a tense and a voice (rules of grammar).
-be filled: Imperative mood: this mood means a command to be obeyed.
-be filled: Present tense: this is the idea of a continuance to be
observed – day after day.
-be filled: Passive voice: It is it a control to be received, which is
outside of ourselves.
Yesterday’s filling (infilling)
will never suffice for today’s ministry and today’s filling will never supply
tomorrow’s challenges. [*Side note on
perspective: see below] That is why the
filling is continuous. But why is a
filling today or tomorrow necessary if we have Holy Spirit already? The phrase ‘being filled daily’ is a
convenient way, language of accommodation, to express our daily need. We do not fill or un-fill ourselves with Holy
Spirit because “be filled” is a passive control. We live in a continual state of repentance
and surrender. We repent every day. Nonetheless, yesterday’s repentance does not
suffice for tomorrow’s sin. We surrender
every day. Nonetheless, today’s
surrender does not supple tomorrow’s challenges. Likewise we are filled always, but today’s
filling will never supply tomorrow’s challenges. Our daily surrender and God continuous
infilling are very intertwined.
What is our daily surrender? Dr. Luke reports it quite clearly in Luke
9:23: Jesus said this, “If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
me.” That is the clear and concise
report we have come to expect from Luke.
What is denial of self? Modern
versions such as the New Living Translation or the Message offer free
renderings of Jesus’s words in more intimate and perhaps more relatable
words.
Consider my free rendering of Dr.
Luke. “If you want to follow Jesus,
realize that He is driving the bus, not you.
Put your selfish ambitions on the shelf and rethink all those petty
things that you want, you desire, you have to have. Life is tough. Don’t hide or run away from suffering, grab
that cross daily and put it on your shoulders; carry it as you follow Me. By doing this you learn to focus on Me always
and you gain true life.” This daily
denial is surrender. This daily
surrender is the daily infilling of the Holy Spirit in us. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are interrelated
together in the Trinity and also interrelated in their mutual ministries to us.
Brethren, Jesus is not advocating
masochism. It is abnormal to want to
suffer or love to suffer. It is abnormal
to want to inflict suffering. Jesus is
telling us to embrace Him and not to fear the suffering because the Holy Spirit
gives the strength to bear the suffering.
[*SIDE NOTE and PERSPECTIVE on the flow of the Spirit. Yesterday’s infilling will never suffice for
today’s ministry. Brethren, humanly
speaking that statement indicates that yesterday’s filling will run out and
tomorrow we will need more, or a new infilling.
That indicates change in the infilling from day to day. That is precisely what I am trying to say is
an incorrect analogy. Here again
perspective is very important. Let’s use
the example of a river.
Heraclitus (600 – 540 B.C.) is
credited with being the 1st philosopher to incorporate the word
Logos into the understanding of reality.
However, he is most famous for teaching, “Whatever is, is
changing.” For him the basic structure
of the Universe was Process. Everything
is in a state of flux. Change is the
eternal condition of the universe. He
used the example of a river. You can
never put your foot twice into the same river. The instant you remove your foot the different
water from upstream replaces the water you touched. Some of the bank has eroded downstream. It looks the same but it changed. You are not the same second from second
because you age.
Parmenides of Elea (510 – 440
B.C.) For him the basic structure of the
Universe was Substance. His famous
observation was, “Whatever is, is.” This
means that if the universe exists, there must be an Absolute Being or absolute
being. If something is changing it is
not “being” is it becoming. If
everything is becoming, it is not being.
And if it is not being, it is nothing.
Parmenides perspective on
substance helps to explain the infilling of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a process, not a
material thing that changes or is becoming.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is not a process it is a part of His
Being. The Holy Spirit is Being and
therefore changeless. The infilling is
always there and because God is ageless, His ministry is ageless; the infilling
flows into and through us but it is never new or old it just always is. It is flowing but never changing. Perhaps a better expression for the ministry
is that it is eternally living rather than eternally flowing. End of Side Note.]
It is not that our filling yesterday
will not suffice for tomorrow, it is that we fill or un-fill ourselves with our
own ego daily. What on earth am I
talking about? Inactivity quenches Holy
Spirit in us. It is not that we don’t
have Holy Spirit in full, or that we get less and less until Holy Spirit leaves
us. It is that spiritual inactivity
encourages the rule of our carnal human nature to increase, while it encourages
our surrender to God to decrease. Inactivity
magnifies our carnal self against God.
We may quench being 25% yielded to God to being 15% yielded or, God
forbid, to 0% yielded. All the while,
Holy Spirit indwells us and works with us to get our attention again. The Holy Spirit will never desert us, but it
is we who desert the Holy Spirit. If we
daily pray, “Lord fill me with more of the Holy Spirit.” we show a desire to
get the Holy Spirit. If we pray, “Jesus,
take more of me” we show our serious desire for a relationship with Jesus
because we are willing to give of ourselves rather than get for ourselves.
Paradox: God gives what we already have.
Surrender: God knows when we have surrendered in our
hearts. He will not parse words or
quibble about meanings when we earnestly pray, “Lord fill me with your Holy
Spirit.” He “will fill” and we reflect
Jesus when our prayer is in the spirit of surrender to Jesus. However, if there is little surrender in
our hearts, even if we want desperately do a wonderful work, and even if we
eagerly and very earnestly pray, “Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can
build a cancer research center,” we can expect disappointment. Good motives or good works do not trump
surrender of self to God.
As we study this essence of the
filling of the Spirit of God, it is important that we understand what it means,
how it manifests itself, and how we are individually filled with the Holy
Spirit of God. Let’s make sure we
understand our definitions and apply them in a consistent way. And that will keep us from error.
As groundwork for understanding
the essence of filling we need to clarify terms. Dr. Hubbard pointed out that in Christianity
today there is a confusion of two important terms.
Confusion of two terms:
A. The baptism of the Spirit.
B. Filling with the Spirit.
Frequently there are sincere
Christians who confuse these two terms.
The moment we begin to confuse the baptism of the Spirit with the
filling of the Spirit we open the door to confusion and uncertainty. Our series concerns filling with the spirit
as in Ephesians 5.
Let’s look at the differences in
the two terms.
Baptism of the Spirit: Luke 3:16: John told the Pharisees that he baptized with
water, but one would come who would baptize with Holy Ghost (Spirit) and with
fire. He said this to contrast his
ministry with that of Jesus.
Turn to Acts 1:5: The disciples are commanded to wait in
Jerusalem. Notice that Jesus did not
baptize with the Holy Spirit during His ministry. Baptism of Spirit will differentiate His
ministry from John’s.
Acts 1:4-5: “For John truly baptized with water, you
shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.” Jesus said this at His ascension. Notice the time element. It was just before Jesus was to be seated at
the Father’s right hand.
Filling of the Spirit: Pentecost was the day the Church, the body of
Christ, began. Acts 2:1-4: “And when the day of Pentecost had come they
were all together in one accord; men and women, apostles and disciples, young
and old but together in one accord.” The
evidence of their lives up to and including being in that room that day was
that they had submitted to Jesus. There
was a sound from heaven as of a rushing wind; tongues of fire; and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit gave them utterance.
Was the baptizing work of the
spirit the rushing sounds, speaking in tongues or visible tongues of fire? No!
For example: tongues are a gift
of the Spirit such as healings and prophesy (1 Corinthians 12:7-10). Gifts are not the infilling, they accompany
the indwelling as God chooses to give them.
Winds were used before as a sign of the Spirit in Jeremiah (49:36),
Daniel (8:8) and Zechariah (2:6). Sights
and sounds are not the infilling, they were signs of the special incoming. Then what is the baptizing work that occurred
when the body of Christ, the Church, began?
From Dr. Hubbard: “Now the baptizing work of the Holy
Spirit is that work whereby, according to 1 Cor. 12:13, He takes the unsaved
sinner and places that sinner in the body of Christ. The act that happened the moment that you
received Jesus Christ as Savior, that act whereby the Spirit of God took you
out of the dominion of darkness, had you born again, and placed you into the
body of Christ, that act spiritually is the baptizing work of the Holy
Spirit. We are, therefore baptized by
the Spirit of God into one Body.” I
sense that the incoming of the Holy Spirit is the mechanism or cause activating
the Baptism of the Spirit. And the
Baptism of the Spirit is the effect caused by the incoming of the Spirit.
1 Cor.
12:13: “For by the one Spirit, all were
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or
free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
Sinners are
placed into the body of Christ. That
act, spiritually, is the baptizing work of Holy Spirit. The baptizing work has three acts to it. He
puts me into the body of Christ. He
makes me your brother. And brethren, He
makes you my brother. He made us one
through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and we are ONE in CHRIST.
Dr. Hubbard
continued, “There is no command in the Bible to be baptized with the Spirit of
God. You will search in vain. The reason why is because at the moment you
believed, the moment you trusted Christ as Savior, then at that moment you were
baptized into the body of Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Since it is that fact that made you accepted
in Christ, Baptism of the Spirit is not a secondary or repetitive work of
Grace. It is that act of God that took
the believing sinner and placed him in Christ.
And thus it becomes positional for me and for you.” The sense of this is: you are not repeatedly placed into and out of
the body of Christ. You are placed into
the Body once for all. Therefore the Baptism
of the Spirit occurs once for all.
New Testament
scholar Dr. Mike Morrison with Grace Communion International wrote in
2001: “The Bible does not command any
believer to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Instead, every believer is encouraged to be
continually filled with the Holy Spirit.”
(35 Beliefs of the Grace Communion PG 22)
Dr. J. Vernon
McGee, on Eph. 5:17-18: Thru the Bible
1983, Vol. 5, page 265. “A believer is
never commanded to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, but we are told that we
are baptized into one body.” (1
Cor.12:13)
We differentiate baptism of the
Spirit from being filled with the Spirit of God.
The Essence of Filling with the Spirit of God:
You have this command to be
filled in Ephesians 5:18 and it is a command to be obeyed. Are you filled, today, with the Spirit of
God? Do you say, “I am filled with the
Holy Spirit…maybe…I guess I am.” Are you
unsure? Uncertainty will make your
spiritual experience feel like those dry bones.
Recap of part 2:
Perspective is an
important element in understanding anything.
Yesterday’s infilling will not suffice for tomorrow’s challenges. We need the Holy Spirit daily. The Holy Spirit fills us continually. Our carnal ego hinders access to the Holy
Spirit.
The next topic is
the study of essence of the infilling from the three divisions of grammar.
BE FILLED:
Imperative mood: as command to be obeyed.
Present tense: continuance to be observed.
Passive Voice: It is a control to be received.
Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor
Fountain of Life Church
2021 Old National Pike
Washington, Pa 15301
A congregation of Grace Communion International
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