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We have added new doctrines: Divine Guidance, Knowing the Will of God for your Life: Yielding or Yieldedness to God; Wisdom.

We have updated the doctrine of Alcoholism and Drinking, to add information about recovering from alcoholism or drug abuse.

Doctrines of interest Salvation Is Not By Works; The Angelic Conflict; The Confession of Sins, the Filling of the Holy Spirit; The confession of Sins related to the Filling of the Holy Spirit.

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Current Bible Studies

Date Title Media Links
May  23, 2017 Ephesians, Chapter 5:21, Be Subject to One Another in Fear of the Lord.  Lesson # 17-057 study_watchYoutube    study_listenmp3
May  21, 2017 Ephesians, Chapter 5:20-21, Singing and Praises of Thanksgiving to God, Pt. 2.  Be Subject to One Another. Lesson # 17-056 study_watchYoutube    study_listenmp3
May  18, 2017 Ephesians, Chapter 5:20, Singing and Praises of Thanksgiving to God, Pt. 1.  Lesson # 17-055 study_watchYoutube    study_listenmp3
May  16, 2017 Ephesians, Chapter 5:19, Worship the Lord through Singing. Pt. 2, Principles for Singing Praise to the Lord.  Lesson # 17-054 study_watchYoutube    study_listenmp3
May  14, 2017 Ephesians, Chapter 5:19, Encourage One Another and Worship the Lord through Singing. Pt. 1  Lesson # 17-053 study_watchYoutube    study_listenmp3

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Ephesians Chapter 5,

Next in vs. 18, we have, “but be filled with the Spirit.”

This phrase begins with the strong adversative contrasting Conjunction ALLA that means, “but, yet, or rather.” It sets up the contrast and distinction between being, “drunk with wine,” and being, “filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Then we have, “be filled,” which is the Present, Passive, Imperative of PLEROO, πληρόω that means, “Fill, make full, supply fully, or complete.” In both secular and Biblical Greek, PLEROO the idea of totality or fullness is always present. Thus, the word means “to fill something completely.” We have noted this word in Eph 1:23; 3:19; 4:10.

Eph 1:23, “Which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Eph 3:19, “And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.”

Eph 4:10, “He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)”

PLEROO has four meanings in regard to being filled with the Holy Spirit, (FHS).
1. To fill up a deficiency. The FHS fills up our deficiency of power to execute the spiritual life. We are deficient of Bile doctrine at salvation and the Spirit works within us to fill our soul with God’s Word.
2. To fully possess. The believer must be fully possessed by the Holy Spirit to execute God’s Plan. This kind of possession does not mean we lose all control of our thinking and faculties, but it means to be fully occupied by Him and His holiness and righteousness. That is, we cannot have one foot in sin and one in holiness, we must function 100% in holiness to execute God’s Plan for our lives.
3. To fully influence. The believer is fully influenced by the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit and Bible Doctrine so that he can have capacity for blessing.
4. To fill with a certain quality. The FHS along with Bible Doctrine is the highest quality with which the believer can be filled.

Then we have the object by which we are to be filled, “with the Spirit” which is the Dative case of EN PNEUMA, ἐν πνεῦμα.

EN is the most widely used preposition in the New Testament. There are four basic functions in Greek when EN occurs with the Dative case, as it does here, 1) To denote location, 2) To designate a state or condition, 3) Temporal, to designate time, and 4) Used instrumentally to indicate manner or means, as it is used in this verse, and can be translated, “by or with.” Therefore, we are to filled, by or with, God the Holy Spirit speaking of His total and complete influence over our souls.

PNEUMA can mean, “wind, breath, spirit, soul, self, disposition, spiritual state, a spirit (angelic or demonic), and the Spirit (the Holy Spirit).” Here it means God the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, this is a command to receive the total and complete influence of God the Holy Spirit over our souls in contrast to our emotions, arrogance, Old Sin Nature, and/or sin being in control.

Paul equates sobriety with being wise and the yielded heart that lives inside the will of God, which is achieved by being filled with the Spirit that results in praise overflowing from the heart, which we will see in vs. 19. As we noted in the first half of this passage, Paul exhorts the early church believers not to resemble the drunken false god worshippers of the pagan Gentile world. Instead of being filled with wine, believers are to be filled with the Spirit of God. That is, instead of the discoveries of the false god’s “divine will,” in their bacchanalian rituals to which the drunken priests of Dionysus/Bacchus would articulate, the believer should be wise and understand what the will of the Lord is by being filled with God the Holy Spirit.

So we have our contrast and analogy: the filling of the Spirit produces spirituality; the filling of spirits produces drunkenness. When a person is drunk, wine controls, or literally the Old Sin Nature controls the soul. Yet, when a person is filled with the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit controls the soul.

Before we address what it means to be “filled with the Holy Spirit,” we first need to know who the Holy Spirit is.

God the Holy Spirit

1. Who is God the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity and is just as much God as is God the Father and God the Son. The word “Trinity” is an English derivation from the Latin “Trinitos.” The word is found nowhere in the Scriptures, it was coined by a 3rd century AD theologian by the name of Tertullian. He used this to describe the relationship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Up to that point there was no clear understanding in the church of the doctrine of the Trinity. It is a technical theological word that designates God as one in essence but three in person; but three co-equal, co-infinite, and co-eternal persons. The Holy Spirit shares equally, infinitely and eternally all of the same essence and attributes that the Father and Son share. The Holy Spirit is ONE with the Father and Son as God, but is a separate person with a separate personality, Cf. Isa 48:12, 16; Psa 139:7-10; Mat 28:19; Acts 5:3-4; John 1:33; Luke 1:35; 3:21-22; Eph 2:18; Rom 8:2; Heb 9:14.
Essence of God for Word 04 30 17

Deut 6:4, “Hear O’ Israel, The Lord is God, The Lord is one.”
YHWH ELOHENU, YHWH ECHAD

Mat 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

The attributes that make up the essence of God, including the Holy Spirit, include: Sovereignty, Righteous, Justice, Love, Eternal Life, Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Immutable, Veracity. God is holy, perfect, merciful, kind, integrity, caring, infinite, immense, spirit, light, self-existent, faithful, good, unity, one, etc.

The deity of God the Holy Spirit is emphasized by the fact that He is identified with Yahweh in Acts 28:25, which quotes Isa 6:1-13. Also Heb 10:15-17 cf. Jer 31:31-34. Titles of deity are used for the Holy Spirit. He is called Spirit of God, Spirit of Jesus, and Spirit of Yahweh. The Holy Spirit is also associated with God the Father and God the Son on equal terms in Mat 28:19, the baptism formula which equates the three as one in essence. He also has personality. He has the attributes of personality in terms of intellect and will, 1 Cor 2:10ff; Isa 11:2. The Holy Spirit performs action of personality. He guides believers, Rom 8:14. He commands, Acts 8:29 (Philip). He witnesses, John 15:26. He is the one who intercedes for the believer, Rom 8:26. He proceeds from God the Father throughout all eternity.

This third person of the Trinity is given the title “Spirit” primarily, which is the Hebrew Noun RUACH, רוּחַ and Greek Noun PNUEMA, πνεῦμα that are translated, “wind, breath, spirit, soul, or life.” Yet, many times it is accompanied with the term “Holy.” “Holy” is the Hebrew Noun QODESH, קֹדֶשׁ‎ meaning, “apartness, holiness, sacredness, or separateness,” and the Greek Noun HAGIOS, ἅγιος meaning, “holy, consecrated, unapproachable, perfect, pure, or upright.” The term “Holy” indicates for us things pertaining to the third person of the Trinity, as He is a separate person within the Godhead who reflects the attributes of God and enables them in man. Interestingly only three times in the Hebrew Old Test. do we have the title “Holy Spirit,” but in the Greek New Testament we have it over 90 times.

Psa 51:11, “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” The permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit that the Church Age believer enjoys was not a reality for Old Testament saints. Only a few O.T. saints were indwelt by the Spirit like David, (which we call the enduement of the Holy Spirit), because those who were, could lose the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Isa 63:10-11, “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them. 11Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them.” God put His Holy Spirit not only on Moses and the 70 elders, Num 11:17, but also filled others such as Bezalel and Oholiab, Ex 31:3, 6; 35:30-35.

2. The Person of the Holy Spirit.
a. Scripture is quite clear that the Holy Spirit is a separate and unique person of the Trinity. He possesses and exhibits the attributes of a person in that He has intelligence. He knows and searches the things of God, 1 Cor 2:10-11; He possesses a mind, Rom 8:27; and He is able to teach people, 1 Cor 2:13. He shows feelings. He can be grieved by the sinful actions of believers, Eph 4:30. And He has a will, as seen in the distribution of spiritual gifts to the body of Christ, 1 Cor 12:11. He also directs the activities of Christians, Acts 16:6-11. Since genuine personality possesses intelligence, feelings, and will, and since we see in Scripture that the Holy Spirit has these attributes, He must be a Person.
b. In addition, He exhibits the actions of a person as He guides us into truth by hearing, speaking, and showing, John 16.13; He convicts of sin, John 16:8; He performs miracles, Acts 8:39; and intercedes on our behalf, Rom 8:26. These are activities which an influence or personification could not do, but which Scripture shows the Holy Spirit can do.
c. He also receives ascriptions which would be given only to a person, in that He is someone to be obeyed, Acts 10:19-21; He can be lied to, Acts 5.3; He can be resisted, Acts 7.51; He can be grieved, Eph 4:30; He can be blasphemed, Mat 12.31; He can be insulted, Heb 10.29. To think of acting and reacting to an influence in these ways is quite odd.
d. As a person, the Holy Spirit relates to other persons including; the apostles, Acts 15:28; to Jesus; John 16:14; to the other members of the Trinity as equal to them, Mat 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14. The Holy Spirit, even though a spirit being, is as real a Person as the Father, or the Son, or as we are.

3. The Holy Spirit is God.

Not only is the Spirit a Person, but He is a unique Person, for He is God. Proofs of personality are not necessarily proofs of Deity; but proofs of Deity are also proofs of His personality. If God is a Person, and if the Spirit is also God, then He is a Person also.

a. Names and titles for God the Holy Spirit. He is called:
1) The Spirit of God, Gen 1:2; Mat 3:16.
2) The Spirit of the Lord, Luke 4:18.
3) The Spirit of Yahweh, Judges 3:10; Isa 61:1.
4) The Spirit of the Lord God, the Spirit of the living God, 2 Cor 3:3.
5) My Spirit, Gen 6:3.
6) The Spirit of our God, 1 Cor 6:11.
7) The eternal Spirit, Heb 9:14.
8) The Spirit of glory, 1 Peter 4:14.
9) The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Rom 8:2.
10) The Spirit, Eph 4:3.

b. Five titles reveal the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Son:
1) The Spirit of Jesus Christ, Phil 1:19.
2) The Spirit of Jesus, Acts 16:7.
3) The Spirit of Christ, Rom 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11.
4) The Spirit of His Son, Gal 4:6.
5) The Spirit of the Lord, Acts 5:9; 8:39.

c. There are titles that reveal the nature of His ministry:
1) The Spirit of glory, 1 Peter 4:14.
2) The Spirit of life, the agent of regeneration, Rom 8:2.
3) The Spirit of holiness, Rom 1:4.
4) The Holy Spirit, Mat 1:20ff, the Holy one, 1 John 2:20.
5) The Spirit of grace, Heb 10:29.
6) The Spirit of grace and supplication, Zech 12:10.
7) The Spirit of adoption, the one who brings about our adoption into the royal family of God, Rom 8:15.
8) The Helper/Comforter in John 14-15, which indicates His role as nourishing, guiding, strengthening, and assuring the believer in his spiritual life.

It is through the Holy Spirit that God reveals His Word, 1 Peter 1:20-21. He is called the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord, Isa 11:2.

Isa 11:2, “And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”

In John 15:26. He is called the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the Word according to 1 Cor 2:12-16.