Filled With the Spirit: What the Fullness Is For
Drawn from the teaching of Professor Gary S. Maxey · 2 min read
Paul tells the Ephesians, "Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18). Professor Gary Maxey treats this as a command for every believer. In his book on the Highway of Holiness, he calls it the mile marker of inhabitation.
What the Spirit has promised
Professor Maxey points to Jesus' promise in John 14 and 16. Jesus said it was to the disciples' advantage that he go away, because he would send the Helper. He said the Spirit would dwell with them and be in them. The ultimate work of the Spirit, Professor Maxey writes, is to abide fully in all believers.
He reads Luke, Paul and John as agreeing that the Christian life holds further steps after new birth. If your walk with God has become dry or boring, he says, it means God has great things waiting for you that you may not have found yet.
What the fullness is for
Professor Maxey draws a firm line here. The fullness of the Spirit brings power for ministry, and it also brings the power to be like Christ. He writes that the power given through the fullness of the Spirit includes the power to be more like Christ than was ever possible before.
He does not set one against the other. He says gifts and signs have their place. But the greatest evidence of the Early Church, in his reading of Acts, was not outward signs. It was the transformation of character. They served God, as Luke 1:75 promised, in holiness and righteousness all their days.
An honest approach to terms
Professor Maxey refuses to turn this into an argument over vocabulary. Some say baptism with the Spirit happens at new birth. Others say it follows as a second work. Others place it as a third. He sees no reason to reject any of these positions dogmatically. He worries that a fight over terms may leave a person without an answer to the deeper needs of his soul.
So he asks personal questions. Has the Spirit shown you the depths of your fleshly nature? Have you followed through in total obedience? Have you made a deeper consecration than you knew at your new birth?
What to do
Skip the debate for a week. Ask yourself those three questions, one each day. Where the answer is no, tell God. Then ask him to fill you, and make room by dealing with what he has already shown you.
Drawn from the teaching of Professor Gary S. Maxey.
