The Holy Spirit Fills Your Soul with His Active Presence

Our New Testament uses three related terms to describe the filling of God’s Holy Spirit in us. They are (in no particular order): Filled with the Spirit (Pneumatos plēsthēsetai); Receive the Spirit (labete Pneuma); and In the Spirit (en Pneumati). All three of these phrases indicate the same thing, which is the continual indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit within an individual in a way that:

• is an ongoing process that’s experienced regularly. (See Ephesians 5:18.)
• includes heightened awareness of the nearness of God and the invisible spiritual realm (for example, Acts 7:55, and Revelation 1:10);
• empowers heightened spiritual authority (see John 20:22–23, and others);
• infuses fresh desire and ability to pursue authentic, daily Christian living under God’s direction, such as loving well (see Colossians 1:8), prayer (see Ephesians 6:18), praise/worship (see John 4:23; 1 Corinthians 14:16), and spiritual wisdom/understanding. (See Colossians 1:9.)

“It is interesting,” the Reverend Billy Graham commented, “that the Bible nowhere gives us a neat, concise formula for being filled with the Spirit. I believe that may be because most believers in the first century did not need to be told how to be filled. They knew that the Spirit-filled life was the normal Christian life.” Amen, brother Billy!

A. W. Tozer adds: “The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for his people.” That just makes sense, and we see it in Paul’s command to “be filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:18. The Greek term for “be filled” here is plērousthe, and it’s in the present tense, which indicates Paul was referring to “ongoing action,” or something that keeps on happening over and over. I have a friend who likes to say it means “be being filled,” although the more proper way to word it would be, “keep being filled.”

So this is what it means when we say the Holy Spirit fills your soul with his active presence: You are in a state of being that’s fully given over, daily, to God’s leadership, guidance, power, and kindness for the ongoing function of your Christian life. In other words, you’re daily giving up control for your righteousness and letting God be God, in charge of your moment-by-moment existence.

The infilling of God’s Spirit in your soul is an extraordinary, everyday-ordinary gift. It’s time we began to enjoy that.