What Does Being "Filled with the Spirit" Mean?, Part 2

Bill Meyer: On Tuesday's program, Chuck Swindoll laid the foundation. And today on Insight for Living, he goes deeper. At the heart of this message is one commanding verse written by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5, verse 18. Chuck will draw four observations from the original Greek language that will change the way you think about the spirit-filled life. This isn't theology for scholars; it's direction for every believer who's ever wondered, "How do I live out this command to be filled with the spirit?" Let's open our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5 as we begin with prayer.
Chuck Swindoll: Father, we thank you for the beauty of the earth, and we thank you for the lovely glory of the skies, and for the love which from our birth over and around us lies. Father, thank you for the reminder that your beauty stretches around us and above us, and even because of your faithfulness, within us. Thank you for loving parents who raised us to love you, and thank you for their faithfulness in building into our lives. Thank you for the families you have given us on this earth, and at this time of year, we do pause to express our gratitude. We remember those men and women in uniform in dangerous and difficult places as well as we come to you today. We pray for them, for their families here at home, the families of our allies in this battle. Our Father, we pray that you will hold them close to yourself and take care of them and meet their needs as their hearts turn toward home. Also, our heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline and nurture our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it the freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Forgive us, heavenly Father. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. In the matchless name of Christ, our Lord, we pray, and everyone said, "Amen."
Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into today's topic on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message "What Does Being Filled with the Spirit Mean?"
Chuck Swindoll: In order to enter the Christian life, let's compare it to buying a car. Two things are essential for you to enjoy the car that you buy. First is a set of keys. What the keys are to the car, conversion is to the Christian life. You enter the Christian life through the key, Christ. The second thing you need, and you'll notice it soon after getting the car, is fuel. What the fuel is to the car, the Spirit of God is to the authentic normal Christian life. Now, look at Colossians chapter 2. Just before we get over to Ephesians, look at this second chapter, verse 6. I love this verse because of its simplicity: "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord"—that's the key. That's the key in the ignition that turns on the engine. That's the key that gets you inside. Just as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, that's the key. Now the fuel: "So walk in Him." That's the Spirit of God at work fueling, engaging your life in an authentic manner. The longer I live, the more I place a high priority on authenticity. I don't know of anything that impresses the lost world more than this combination: an authentic life and a joyful attitude. Those things are contagious. Now, turn from here to John chapter 14. Let's do a quick little review on where we've been. John 14, remember, is the conversation that followed the Last Supper. Jesus is with His faithful eleven; Judas has left. Jesus is teaching them about the life yet to come. He tells them in John 14, verse 16—remember, this is at the Last Supper, He's going to be with them only a few more hours—"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever." See those words, "that He may be with you forever." Down in verse 17, we read, "He abides with you and will be in you." So the promise is when you come to Christ, now that we are at the time of the Spirit's working and the Spirit's filling and the Spirit's indwelling, when you come to Christ, you have the Spirit of God living within you. Now look at Acts 1:8. Not only do we have the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling in us, we now have God's enablement. Jesus Christ promised the Holy Spirit—that's the first point. Second, the Spirit of God has now come and lives within us permanently. And the third is the Holy Spirit will come with power. Verse 8: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, even to the remotest part of the earth." One of the great missionary verses. In fact, it's a verse for all believers. We live our lives with an eye toward the world around us. One more turn before we get to Ephesians. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I want you to see what you are as a living, breathing Christian. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 concludes verses 19 and 20 with some terribly important information: "Do you not know," says the apostle, "that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?" What does that mean? Means He resides there. But we are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. When you're operating in the power of the Spirit, you don't operate for your own glory. You're not your own. That means your goal in life is not to get what you want. You're not in life for yourself. You're not planning to go your own way, all of those self-help books tell you. You can become this person, and if you're not careful, your pride takes over. You're able to pull some of that off in the flesh, but you can't take what comes with it. You can't handle the money that comes with a job that pays that well. You can't handle the prestige and responsibility. Look at how many of the professional athletes: they get into the realm of the athletic world and they can't handle the prestige and the money that comes with it. They aren't equipped, many of them. We're not our own. We've been bought with a price. So what are we supposed to do? Look at verse 20, end of the verse, 1 Corinthians 6:20. Because of this, we are to glorify God in our bodies. That's the next thing to put down. We're to glorify God in our bodies. "Lord God, I'm yours. You have gifted me in ways that I would've never expected, and I thank you. I'm here to serve you. And may my service be for you, and may it be authentic, and may it bring honor to your name. I reverence your name, O God." Now, in order for the gears to be engaged, for the fuel to be used that God supplies, there must be the filling of the Spirit. Ephesians chapter 5. So turn finally, if you will, this last turn to Ephesians chapter 5, and let's spend the rest of our time here. Isn't it important to remember that we are not our own? Isn't that a healthy reminder? Someone attended a Michael W. Smith concert recently and passed along a statement that Michael made in that concert, and I love it. He said this: "God is still God, and I am still not." I love that. God is still God, and I am still not. So in order for me to live the life God would have me live, I need His fuel. I need His empowerment. I need Him to lubricate the gears. I need His control. So you're looking at Ephesians 5, and we'll not go through all the chapter but begin at verse 15. We begin with a very helpful and necessary reminder: be careful how you walk. I would say that to every Christian. Part of the reason is you want to glorify God, so that takes care. Pay attention. Listen to His word. Come to Him in prayer. Seek His help. Furthermore, you're being watched. You and I don't think about that much. If we did, it would drive us nuts. It really would. We'd be uneasy if we knew how many people watched us. I never cease to be surprised at occasions when people walk up to me and speak to me. I may be in a grocery store. It's one of those late-night trips, and you're not dressed like you ought to be dressed and you think, "Well, nobody'll be there that knows me." And I walk in and two charter members greet me as the door opens, and I get inside and a little girl walks up. "Hi, Pastor Swindoll." I'm like, "Hi." Thinking, "Why didn't I look a little better than this?" Or sometimes if I'm acting up, somebody sees me. Cynthia and I did a cruise together, and she'd really ticked me off on the plane, and I tell you, I sat in the plane under fair amount of control. And finally, I lost it. So we're getting ready to get on the cruise ship, and I said to her, "Step over here a second." And so I just dressed her down. I set her straight. I got everything out of my system. And I turned around and about 75 people coming on the cruise with us stood there and said, "This is Chuck Swindoll?" Cynthia said, "Yeah, that's who that is right there. That's the real. That's the real Chuck Swindoll." Be careful how you walk. Be careful what you say. But you know what should bother me more than 75 people who were shocked? If they knew me better, they wouldn't be, but were shocked that day. Is that it grieved the Holy Spirit. That's no way to talk to my wife. That's not what I should've been doing. I wasn't careful how I walked or with what I was saying. And so what's needed is wisdom. Not as unwise, but as wise. And so that's very important that we let wisdom take over, not just knowledge. Furthermore, when you're under His control, verse 16, you make the most of your time because the days are evil. And God knows that's true. We make the most of your time. And next, we discern the will of God. "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Now wait a minute. How can I, how can you, walk as you ought to walk? How can you be wise when you tend toward being less than wise? How can we make the most of our time? How can we understand the will of the Lord? Well, we need His empowerment, enablement. That's what the next verse is all about. Now, we've come to the place where I want you to really concentrate. Listen to me. I don't know of a more important verse in the New Testament for the Christian than Ephesians 5:18. No exaggeration. Probably no more important verse for the lost person than John 3:16: "God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should never perish but have everlasting life." That's for the lost person. This is the verse for the believer, because this tells you how to live an authentic, empowered life. Pay close attention. It begins with a command. There are two commands in the verse. The first command, negative, is: don't get drunk with wine. Now why not? Because that's dissipation. When you're drunk with liquor, when you're drunk with alcohol, then you lose control. And it isn't a pick-me-up; it's a depressant. You wind up depressed and debauched and you hate yourself, and others around you lose respect for you. Don't get drunk. The Scriptures are full of command a command like that. But there's a positive command on the heels of that: rather than getting drunk with wine, for that's dissipation, second command: be filled with the Spirit. I want to analyze that almost to the point of being tedious, but I want our teaching to be accurate. That's rule one when we come to the Scriptures. So allow me to point out four factors that you may or may not know up until this moment. I want you to know it before you leave today. Look closely from the last part of verse 18: "Be filled with the Spirit." First, it is a command. This is called the imperative mood. It is imperative. It is a command. It isn't a nice option. It isn't a suggestion. It isn't a casual idea. It is a command directed to us from the Lord Himself. It's in the imperative—a straightforward command. Do this. I would even say each day of your life, it is a command to obey. If you will, every morning before your day starts, fulfill this command, obey this command: be filled with the Spirit. So I'm to be engaged in some way. Second factor: it's a plural. Y'all. All y'all be filled with the Spirit. Okay? It's for all y'all. It's a universal command. There's no special segment, no unique group that qualifies to be filled. If you're a believer, you get fuel in your tank. You're able to drop that thing into gear and drive. If you don't, it's your problem; it's not God's. The fuel is inside, remember. You're engaging the gears. So it's plural for all of us. Look at the third factor: it's passive. It's called the passive voice. Be filled. Be filled. One of the translations renders it well: "let the Holy Spirit fill you." So I take it that when we begin our day—this is what I do and have done for years—"Lord, I am yours, and I place myself at your disposal. I ask you to move through me and to work through me and to do your work because of me. Carry out, carry it out on this earth through my vocal cords, through my hands, my feet, my life." I even wrote out a prayer years ago. This is the way it went: "I am in the process, Lord, of fulfilling your will. Fill me with your spirit. I want to glorify your name. I belong to you. I pledge my allegiance to you today. Enable me in my walk to have the discernment to walk in obedience, not disobedience; to sense wrong when I encounter it and stay away from it. Keep me strong when temptations come. Guard my tongue from saying the wrong thing or saying too much or speaking too quickly. Enable me to restrain outbursts of anger. Lord, help me in my walk. Fill me with your spirit. Take my eyes, my tongue, my emotions, my will, and use me, Lord, because I want to be under your control all through this day." Now, it's passive in the sense that I can't fill myself. I'm relying on Him to fill me, which is the reason for the prayer: "Lord, you take over. Fill my life today. Take charge. I have some tough decisions I need to make. May your Spirit work through me in making those decisions. I have some relationships that are strained. May your Spirit guide me as I try my best by your strength to work through those broken and strained relationships." Now fourth, it's in the present tense. So that says keep on doing it, continually be filled, frequently, habitually, regularly. It isn't a once for all, as I said earlier, a super-high experience never to be reached again. This is dropping the gear in drive and staying there. Continually moving under the power and the authority and the control of the Holy Spirit. I was facing a very difficult task not too long ago. I remember driving in my truck to the destination where I'd be dealing with this, and I prayed on the way. I prayed out loud—no radio, no music. It was quiet inside the cab. I said, "Lord, I'm not sure what I'm going to encounter, and without your help, I'll be in way over my head. Take over. Fill me with your words, give me the right response, hold back any reaction that would be inappropriate. Let me speak with wisdom and with grace. Let me be your voice in this situation." I prayed something like that. That is because it's in the present tense, and I knew regardless of the day or the time, it was time to put her in gear. If you drive a stick shift, then you know what I mean. You are forever putting in the clutch and putting it in another gear, putting in the clutch and dropping in another gear. That's like the filling of the Spirit. So you may be right now saying, "Lord, I want to be filled by you, I want to be used by you." Two hours from now, you may need to pray that again. Lord, we want to stay on speaking terms, and I want to serve you and I want to speak for you. Speaking of that, let's look at the results, and there are four of them right here in the same passage. Wonderful thing about the Bible, if you read it closely enough, you'll see that it answers many of its own questions. Like a question is: what will be the result of being filled with the Spirit? What happens when I pray that kind of prayer and the Lord hears it and the Lord completes it, answers it? Yes. What does He do? Well, the first thing that occurs is that the Spirit's filling affects my speaking. We are on speaking terms with our brothers and sisters when we are filled with the Spirit. Here's the second result: the Spirit's filling gives me a melodious heart. A melodious heart. By the way, a melodious heart is never a grumbling heart. Never a grumbling heart, which brings us to the third. Look at verse 20: "always giving thanks." It's another result. The Spirit's filling makes us thankful. You're giving thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. And there's another, there's a fourth: and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Mutual submission. Remember the first word: mutual submission.
Bill Meyer: Four results of a spirit-filled life: meaningful speech, a melodious heart, genuine thankfulness, and mutual submission. Each one a quiet but unmistakable mark that the Spirit of God is at work. And next time on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll will bring this compelling study to its conclusion. He's answering the common question, "What does being filled with the Spirit mean?" It's message number 10 in a 12-part series called "How Great is Our God." To learn more about our heavenly Father and His amazing character traits, be sure to access the helpful resources from Insight for Living. We have the encouraging Bible study workbook and the CDs or MP3s that accompany this series. You can find them along with a special bundle of related resources at insight.org/offer. I'm also excited to tell you about a brand-new resource for families. If there's a child between the ages of 10 and 12 in your life—perhaps a son or daughter, a grandchild, a niece or nephew, or maybe a student in your classroom—we've created a book you'll want to pass along. Insight for Living's beloved audio series, Paws & Tales, has entertained and inspired families for years. And now, for the very first time, the adventures of Wildwood come to life in print. The Overcomers is a rich 300-page novel filled with wholesome adventure, memorable characters, and stories that quietly but powerfully reinforce God's love and His plan. Something dark is brewing in Wildwood, and Pawpaw Chuck and the gang are about to face their greatest challenge yet: learning that faith, prayer, and standing together are stronger than any darkness. You can purchase this brand-new book, The Overcomers, by calling 800-772-8888 or go online to pawsandtales.org. And when you order a copy today, it'll arrive with a map of Wildwood to make every chapter feel even more real to your kids. Call us at 800-772-8888 or go online to pawsandtales.org. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues to define what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, "What Does Being Filled with the Spirit Mean?" was copyrighted in 2008, 2009, 2016, 2019, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.