“In March 2015, a well-meaning Frenchman was so intoxicated he was found trying to resuscitate a rubber dinghy, believing it to be a dying person.
Police officers discovered the 22-year-old in a shipyard in Brittany, northern France, giving the dinghy mouth-to-mouth and heart massage.
The would-be-hero believed that the dinghy was a dying person, as reported by The Telegraph, and had even called the emergency services asking for an ambulance to rush to the scene.”1
People do stupid things when they are drunk. Some of us do silly things when we’re not, but that is a story for another day.
The Bible says, “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18 NLT). What Is the Holy Spirit?
What does being filled with the Holy Spirit mean? How does that make our lives better, as opposed to ruining them? Let’s explore the New Testament concerning being full of or filled with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus returned from being baptized in the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit led him into the wilderness for the devil to tempt Him (Luke 4:1, Matthew 4:1). Being full of the Spirit didn’t eliminate adversity but empowered Jesus to overcome it.
The early church sought reliable men to run a food program. Not just anyone qualified. Who did?
They selected seven men full of the Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3), suggesting that being full of the Spirit and wisdom are qualifications for every ministry.
Stephen was one of the seven. He was full of faith and the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5).
Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit when he saw God’s glory and Jesus standing at God’s right hand (Acts 7:55). Reporting that to his adversaries only worsened his precarious situation.
The Jewish religious leaders dragged him out of the city. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died. Being filled with the Spirit empowers us to forgive those who hurt us (Acts 7:60).
Barnabas was a good man with a strong faith and was full of the Holy Spirit. The evidence of God’s work in Antioch filled him with joy. That is another evidence of being full of the Spirit. We value what the Spirit values.
Barnabas encouraged the Christians to remain true to the Lord, and many people came to faith in Jesus there (Acts 11:23–24). God uses those full of the Spirit to encourage others spiritually and as channels to bring others into His family by grace through faith.
Those who follow the Spirit don’t follow their sinful natures anymore. He leads them to victory over sin’s power in their lives (Romans 8:4).
Unusual wisdom and intelligence were associated with Joseph’s being filled with the Spirit of God (Genesis 41:38).
God filled Bezalel with His Spirit to give him the wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts to oversee the construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 35:31).
The Spirit of God filled Daniel with insight, wisdom, and understanding (Daniel 5:14). Micah was filled with the Spirit of the Lord which filled him with power, justice, and strength to fulfill his assignment to boldly declare Israel’s sin and rebellion against God (Micah 3:8).
John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit before he was born to empower him to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry (Luke 1:15).
His mother Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit to proclaim to Mary, Jesus’ mother, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” (Luke 1:41–45 NLT).
Similarly, John’s father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit to speak the prophecy recorded in Luke 1:68–79.
After the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, He returned to Galilee filled with the power of the Holy Spirit for His teaching, preaching, and healing ministry (Luke 4:14).
Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit that erupted into a prayer of thanksgiving to His Father for revealing spiritual truth to the childlike while hiding it from those who imagined themselves clever and wise (Luke 10:21).
On the day of Pentecost, those in the upper room were filled with the Holy Spirit enabling them to speak in languages they had never learned about the wonderful things God had done (Acts 2:4ff).
Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit to explain boldly to the religious leaders how he and John healed a crippled man by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom they had crucified (Acts 4:8ff).
The early Christians heard Peter’s story and prayed for boldness to preach God’s word. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and preached boldly (Acts 4:24–31).
God sent Ananias to minister to Saul to regain his sight and to be filled with the Holy Spirit for the ministry for which God chose him (Acts 9:17).
While ministering in Paphos, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit and looked Elymas, the sorcerer in the eye and predicted God would strike him with blindness which He did because he was perverting God’s true ways (Acts 13:9ff).
After Paul and Barnabas were driven out of Antioch of Pisidia, the believers they left behind were filled with joy, and the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:52).
The Apostle Paul wrote, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (Romans 8:14 NLT).
The Holy Spirit empowers God’s work on earth from constructing the Tabernacle to preaching God’s word boldly. Whatever our ministry, the Holy Spirit is the source of power. Without that power, we cannot. Without our cooperation, God will not. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
God has empowered me to write “His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength.” It’s a free evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship eBook. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead more than 2,550 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 7,805 people. I invite you to check it out.
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