Living on the Edge

Dave Druey: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, how do you know if you're filled with the spirit? Well, here's a clue. When your actions line up with your words and your life is characterized by love and joy and peace and integrity, there's a strong indication that you're filled with the spirit. Now, here's the question: how does it work? That's what we're going to talk about today, how you can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The Christian life was never meant to be about willpower, performance, or simply trying harder. Today, Chip opens Ephesians chapter five and tackles one of the most misunderstood topics in the church: what it actually means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is part of our ongoing series called The New You: Claiming Your Birthright as a Child of God. If you ever miss a program, you can always catch up at livingontheedge.org. Now, here's Chip Ingram with today's message titled "How to Overcome Hypocrisy in Your Heart."

Chip Ingram: The $64,000 question is, how do you deal with hypocrisy in your heart? How does it work where God changes you from the inside out? If you'll turn the page, let's look at that together, and that's basically the topic of our time this morning: how to overcome hypocrisy in your heart. And the answer you're going to find is in Ephesians 5, verses 17 and 18.

Just so you get the flavor and the context, let's pick it up and follow along together beginning in verse 15. He says, "But be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of the opportunity because the days are evil." Here's our passage: "Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." And then he gives us the Lord's will, verse 18: "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."

Notice the evidences when you're filled with the Spirit. "Speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."

And when your life corresponds with the Spirit of God winsomely, lovingly, righteously, compassionately, and with holiness, when you live it out like that, you become the instrument of God that gives an invitation to people that are living in chaos and hurt and pain that Christ is the answer. And so what's at stake here? The context is that how in the world do you live that kind of life where you honestly mimic God and you walk in love as children of light?

The answer to how is verses 17 and 18. And the answer is this command to be filled with the Spirit. So pull out a pen if you would, going to put you to work here a little bit, little Bible study together. Let's do some research in this passage and find out, what's it mean to be filled with the Spirit?

The meaning of filling literally means to be controlled by. When we think of being filled with something, we tend to think of like a pitcher of water or a cup of water, and we pour it in and as it comes up to the top, we say the cup is filled. That's not the picture that you want in your mind.

The idea of this Greek word has the idea of saturation. Allow God's Spirit to so saturate and be in control of your heart and your mind that it will affect your speech, your attitudes, your emotions, and your relationships. And so what I want to do on the top of this page is walk through very briefly the difference between the baptism of the Spirit and the filling.

So follow along. First, baptism does not equal filling; they're two different things. The baptism of the Spirit is the non-experiential, unrepeated work of the Holy Spirit at regeneration. That's the moment that you're saved whereby we're placed in the body of Christ. Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Romans 8:9—I've given them to you, study them.

The filling of the Spirit, by contrast, is the unobstructed or unhindered control or influence of the Spirit upon every believer's life. Baptism of the Spirit occurs only once in each believer's life. Filling in the Spirit is repeated. The baptism of the Spirit cannot be undone. Jot down Ephesians 1:13. By contrast, the filling of the Spirit can be lost. So one results in a new position; the other results in power.

Baptism occurs when we believe in Christ. The filling of the Spirit occurs throughout the Christian life. Baptism, there's no prerequisite except belief in Christ. It's the day that you're saved. Filling depends on yieldedness.

Now, let me walk through one more thing. So Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10, and Acts 19. Those are the four times where the baptism of the Spirit occurs. And what you see in those four is that in each of those times, you have a different response. You have a new group being formed. The Jews came into the body of Christ, Acts 2. The evidence we have is they speak in this other language as an outward confirmation.

Acts 8, you have the Samaritans; they're kind of the half-breeds, half Jew, half non-Jew. Jews and Samaritans hate one another. So what happens is, can they really be a part of God's family? They believe and then Peter and John come down a day or two later and say, yeah, God's in this. And as they bless them, they speak in another language.

Then you have Acts 10, the Gentiles join the church. And when the Gentiles join the church, the pattern changes. There isn't second experience as Peter's talking; they believe and they evidence the speaking in another language. And then you have in Acts 19 some of John's disciples kind of took off on their own and were trying to tell everyone, but while they were gone, the Messiah came and Paul explains to them.

And the point I want to make very simply is that when you look at the baptism of the Spirit, the only time it happens is when there is a new group to be placed in the body of Christ. There is not a uniform idea of them necessarily speaking in tongues. And you'll notice in Acts 2 and Acts 8 it happens after their salvation, but in Acts 10 and 19 it happens at their conversion. And there's a very key role that Peter has as being the leader of the church.

And all I want you to see from that little chart—we can develop it more at another time—is simply this: the book of Acts gives no normative pattern for how gifts and the Spirit's filling work together. You can't make one there. You can't say it happens afterwards; half the time it does, half the time it doesn't.

The baptism of the Spirit has to do with God building his church. Nowhere in the New Testament, in any of the epistles that are teaching about how to live out this faith, are we ever commanded to receive the baptism of the Spirit. Never is there any correlation throughout the New Testament that when you have the baptism of the Spirit, you're necessarily going to speak in another language.

But that doctrine among my—I mean, people that I love deeply—my mom and dad came to Christ through the Pentecostal movement. So there's no axe to grind here. But you can spend a lot of your life and energy chasing an experience, thinking that when I speak in another language or when I have this moving spiritual experience, then I'm filled with the Spirit. You can know when you're filled with the Spirit when the fruit of the Spirit is being manifested in your tongue, your thoughts, your attitudes, and your relationships.

And my heart goes out because I've been on that journey where you go from meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting trying to get more of the Holy Spirit. Listen carefully: you have all the Holy Spirit you will ever get, and you don't need any more. He doesn't come in installments. When you prayed to receive Christ, the Spirit of God came into your life. You didn't get 77% of him and another 23% to be named later. You got all of him. The question will be, what we'll find in just a minute, is does he have all of you?

Now, back to our main topic. What I want to talk about now is how does it work? Four principles to help us get there. Number one, the issue, as I said, is not getting more of the Holy Spirit; it's him getting more of you.

And I came up with a little picture. There's actually a booklet called "My Heart Christ's Home" that was instrumental, written by Robert Munger. And the picture that I came up with in my mind that really helped me is this picture here: the Spirit-filled life. Do you see the furnace down there in the corner? Do you know what HS stands for? Holy Spirit, good.

The furnace is in a house. Okay, what's the furnace do? The furnace creates heat, and then do you see all those little blocks? Those are the vents. Imagine those as the vents in your house. When the furnace creates the heat, it goes through a duct system and there's a vent in each room. If the duct vent is open, what happens? The heat out of the furnace comes in, and the more heat, it begins to change the atmosphere of the room, right? It begins to exert influence over the entire room.

But if the furnace is going, it can go very, very strong, but if the duct is closed, say in a closet, or if the duct is closed in the family room, or if the duct is closed in the workroom, the heat of the Holy Spirit can go in different parts of your life but appear to really not impact some others.

The issue is not getting more of the Holy Spirit. When you pray to receive Christ, he is in you. His power is available. The same that raised Christ from the dead is available. Here's the issue: the issue is allowing him beyond the prayer room and beyond the private thinking, and to open every duct as God leads you and to allow the Spirit's influence to begin to take control in every area of your life.

And that's why some of you and some of us have met people—and this is true of your life to a degree, it's true to my life to a degree. Have you ever met someone and you prayed with them and there was a real sense, man, they are really in touch with God? And then you saw them maybe at work or in a ministry setting and you thought, man, I mean, this is authentic, God is really working.

And then have you gone home maybe and just got lunch with them or something, you think, whoa, this guy treats his wife worse than a dog, you know? Or there's a lady in a similar situation, and I mean she is just cold and mean and harsh with her kids, but boy, can she teach Bible study. And you look at that and you think, man, what's going on here? In your life and in mine, we are at various levels allowing the Holy Spirit's control.

And sanctification or walking with God, becoming more holy, living like a child of the light is incrementally opening the ducts to every area of your life, including the closet—the stuff that no one knows about, the stuff that's too painful to look at—where you literally open the duct and let the Holy Spirit begin to deal truth and life and love and forgiveness and restoration. And then what happens is the change happens from the inside out and then outside this thing you are, this house, you begin to exhibit the characteristics of Christ in more and more every situation. And so the issue of being filled with the Spirit isn't getting more of him; it's him getting more of you.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll hear more from Chip in just a moment. If you'd like to go deeper in today's study, visit us online at livingontheedge.org. There you'll find Chip's full teaching library, small group resources, and the free daily discipleship tool to help you grow all week long. You can also download the Chip Ingram app free on iOS or Android. Now, back to today's teaching.

Chip Ingram: Second principle is that we're never told to seek an experience or a gift as an evidence of being filled with the Spirit. I'm all for spiritual gifts, I believe God uses them greatly. I'm all for big experiences; I want as many as God will give me. Just make sure that your gifts and experiences—don't equate those with whether you're filled with the Spirit or not, or you'll spend your whole life seeking experiences rather than focusing on the Lord.

Third, probably most important, the conditions for being filled. There's conditions; there's three conditions to allow to open those ducts so the Spirit of God is working in your life. Condition number one is obedience, yieldedness, dedication.

The apostle Paul, after teaching who we are in Christ for 11 chapters, in chapter 12, verse one of Romans said, "Therefore, I urge you, beloved brothers, in light of God's mercy, that you present, point in time, your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your reasonable or logical sense of worship."

And then look at verse two: "And do not be conformed to this world." Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, operating under the flesh, but what? "Have your mind transformed by the renewing of your mind that your life or lifestyle might prove or demonstrate what the will of God is, which is good, acceptable, and perfect."

And so what you see is the way the Holy Spirit works and fills you, he will transform your thinking, your attitude, your mind, your worldview, your perception. In fact, you want to really know how to get filled with the Holy Spirit? Let me show you a chart. As I was reading through the New Testament, I came upon a very interesting passage in Colossians 3.

Ephesians and Colossians were what are called twin epistles, written about the same time to two different groups. Look at the parallels. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you." Now let's look at the parallels between being filled with the Spirit and being filled with God's word.

When you're filled with the Spirit, what's true of you? Speaking to one another in hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs. When you're filled with the word, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Does anybody see a parallel here?

When you're filled with the Spirit, singing, making melody in your heart to God. When you're filled with the word, singing with thankfulness. See the parallel? When you're filled with the Spirit, always giving thanks for all things. Filled with the word, giving thanks through him to God. When you're filled with the Spirit, submitting to one another. When you're filled with the word, whatever you do, do all in the name of Jesus; submission implied.

And then after that, both epistles talk about what relationships and family and children look like when you're filled with the Spirit. Do you see the parallel between being filled with the Spirit and being filled with the word? The Spirit doesn't do some mystical work where he just changes you. He uses the raw material of God's word.

Even Jesus said what? "Man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Let me tell you something up front: if you are not in God's word on a very regular basis—not just to read it, but to read it, to think about it, to digest it and obey it—you will not be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is impossible. The raw material of the Spirit of God is the word of God. It's so that you can have your mind renewed every morning or every night or both, so that the Spirit of God can put truth in your mind and you'll know the truth and truth will set you free.

The first condition of being filled with the Spirit is obedience to God and to his word. The second condition is an undefeated life. And that doesn't mean perfection. What I mean is when you know about sin, I'm sitting in the parking lot, I just sinned, I blew up at my kid, God has convicted me. I got a choice: I either repent of that sin or I say, "You know what? I'm tired. He deserves this. I know I was wrong. Get in there, have your music practice. I'm a pastor. The heck with you, kid."

I've quenched the Spirit. I got news for you: the spiritual fruit is not going to be born until I deal with that. I either apologize to him, confess to God—the word is repent. The word repent means just to have a change of mind. I was wrong, this is wrong behavior, this is not godly. Repent, seek forgiveness, be restored, ask him to fill me afresh.

If you're involved in activities that you know are wrong, you will not be filled with the Spirit. If you're involved in a relationship that you know is sinful, you will not be filled with the Spirit. If you're not handling your money in a way that God has made clear to you you should handle your money, you will not be filled with the Spirit. If you're watching material or reading material that you know doesn't honor God and you have this twinge of guilt and you know it's wrong, if you keep doing it, you will not be filled with the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:30 and 31, notice what it says: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Don't grieve him, don't make him sad. This is about a relationship. What's it say? "Get rid of all bitterness and rage and anger and brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."

Then I love the next verse: "And be positive, kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another," how? "Just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Condition number one, obedience to God and his word. Condition number two, an undefeated life; that means you deal with known sin. Condition number three is a dependent life, John 15.

It's the picture of the vine and the branch. It's this dependency that you need God. It's practicing the presence of God. It's talking to him as you're getting dressed and when you're shaving and in between times and while you're driving the car. It's this link all the time of, "I need you."

Galatians 5:16 says, "Walk or live by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh." Notice it's a walk; it's a you take a step and stumble, you take a step and stumble. God understands. This isn't about perfection; this isn't about having it all together. It's about obedience to God and his word, it's about dealing with what he shows me, and then living with this sense of dependence, like a child to a father.

And the final one here is, remember this is not mechanical, it's relational. This is not about, "Okay, I want to be filled with the Spirit, three chapters a day, one at night. Let's see, I'm going to pray for 7.5 minutes. Dear God, I love you, I love everyone, bless the world. Good deeds, I'm going to do two good deeds today, and oh, I got a track, I'm going to tell someone about Christ. Here, have you heard about Christ?"

Go try that when you think about building a relationship with another human being. What do you do? Time, commitment, conversation, listening, scheduling time away to be together, a connection of the heart. Does it involve discipline? Sure. Do you always want to spend time with someone you want to get close to? You don't always feel like it, but you do it, but it's not about legalism or rules; it's about a heart relationship.

The best picture I can give you is just, I'm committed to building an intimate relationship with my wife and with my kids. But, you know, it's not like, "Okay, Mondays I give her candy, Wednesdays I send her flowers. Hi honey, how are you?" It's not mechanical. Do we set aside Fridays, a date each week? Yes. Do we commit to every day having a time where we really talk? Yes.

Do we sit down and do some planning about what we're going to do with our money and our time? Yes. Do we plan a couple three weekends a year to get away together? Yes. But it's about your heart. It's about wanting to be close.

And God longs to be close to you. He wants to fill you with the Spirit. He wants to saturate your life with his love and his joy and his peace. But before you walk out the door, you are at the fork in the road. You can be run by you, or you can yield to the Spirit of God right now and begin a journey of being filled with the Spirit. And it will change your heart, and you will increasingly become less and less hypocritical. Just privately talk with God and just ask him. Ask him, "God, if you'll show me the first step to be filled with your Spirit from what I've heard today, I will do it." You pray that and sit quiet, and he will show you.

Dave Druey: This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and today's message titled "How to Overcome Hypocrisy in Your Heart." You can revisit or share this lesson anytime at livingontheedge.org. What Chip unpacked today cuts right through the noise. You don't need more of the Holy Spirit; he came in full the moment you placed your faith in Christ. What can really change is how much of you he's been given access.

Think of it like a house with a furnace in every room, but some of the vents are closed. The power is already there; the question is whether you've yielded the rooms. As Chip explained, living in ongoing connection with God is like a branch drawing life from the vine. It's not mechanical; it's relational.

If you want a resource to help you build that kind of daily connection, Chip's brand new devotional, "Growing Deeper in Christ: A 365-Day Journey to True Discipleship," walks you through exactly that. A few focused minutes in scripture each day, one step of obedience at a time, letting these truths move from your head into your heart. Make your first gift or sign up as a monthly partner today, and we'll send you a copy as our thanks. Visit livingontheedge.org. You can also call us right now at 888-333-6003 or write to us through the mail at Living on the Edge, PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30302. And if you want more of Chip's teaching on your own schedule, the Living on the Edge podcast has every single message ready to go. Search for Living on the Edge wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe today. Now, here's Chip Ingram.

Chip Ingram: Today we spent the entire program making clear the distinction between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Few issues among modern Christians have caused more confusion and more struggle about how the Spirit works and what happens when. With that said, some of you may have tuned in a little bit late. And this is so important, I want to walk through and review what the Bible teaches it means to be filled with the Spirit, okay? Track with me here.

One, the issue is not getting more of the Holy Spirit; it's him getting more of you. Remember that? Number two, we are never told to seek an experience or a gift as an evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. What we know is the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not an experience, not a gift.

Third, there are specific conditions laid out in scripture that tell us must be present in our lives to be filled with the Holy Spirit. First, obedience. We need to be obeying what we know is true. Second, an undefeated life. And by that we meant dealing with any known sin. And third, the key to experiencing the filling of the Holy Spirit is a dependent life, a John 15 abiding life of the word of God and prayer operating back and forth.

And fourth, the key perspective is this is relational; it's not mechanical. The filling of the Spirit is a relationship with the person of God. It is the living God dwelling in you and you allowing him to take over more and more control so that what comes out of your life, your mouth, your heart, and in your relationships is the Spirit of Christ living through you.

Dave Druey: I'm Dave Druey, and next time Chip Ingram continues our series, The New You, with a message about the surprising antidote God has designed for hypocrisy. That's next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.