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How Can I Be Filled With The Holy Spirit? Sat, 31 Oct, 2009

Introduction

Are there times in your life where you feel you need help with something you cannot do yourself?

To be strong Christians, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

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How To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit?

1. We need to accept Jesus Christ into our lives.
2. We can then invite the Holy Spirit to fill us.

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What Happens When People Experience the Holy Spirit?

• we experience God’s presence.
• we experience God’s power.
• we experience God’s peace.

The Book of Acts is the story of the start of the Church, and filled with amazing instances of people being filled with the Holy Spirit.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled the disciples for the first time, and they felt his power.

²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

- Acts 2:2-4

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In Samaria, the Holy Spirit’s work was so dramatic that the local magician wanted to buy His power!

¹⁴When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

– Acts 8:14-19

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The disciples at Ephesus were able to tell about God and His truths in new and remarkable ways, through the Holy Spirit.

¹While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples ²and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

³So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”

“John’s baptism,” they replied.

⁴Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” ⁵On hearing this, they were baptized into⁶When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. the name of the Lord Jesus.

- Acts 19:1-6

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In the house of Cornelius the Roman Centurion:

⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. ⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. ⁴⁶For they heard them speaking in tongues^[a] and praising God.

- Acts 10:44-46

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• The Holy Spirit’s filling was obvious (vv.44-45)
• Everyone gave spontaneous praise to God (v.46)
• Everyone was given a new language of prayer and praise. This new language is called the gift of tongues (v.46)

What is Tongues?

1. A God-given ability to pray to Him in a new language. It builds up the individual (1 Corinthians 14:2).
2. While the Bible encourages its use (1 Corinthians 14:5), it is not necessarily a sign of being filled with the Spirit.
3. We can use it to worship God, pray for ourselves, and others.

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Can Anything Stop Us From Being Filled?

⁹“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

- Luke 11:9-13

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God want us to be filled all His children with His Spirit, but sometimes we ourselves put up barriers:

1. Doubt – that God would give us such a good gift (vv.9-10)
2. Fear – but God loves us, and His gifts are good (vv.11-13)
3. Inadequacy – we feel we are not worthy (v.13)
4. Unconfessed sin

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Conclusion

It is not enough to talk about being filled with God’s Holy Spirit. We need to give God the chance to fill us. The Bible tells us that we are to be filled – and keep on being filled – with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

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- Ps Timothy P

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