THE RIGHTEOUS LIFE
According to Eph 5:18
Being filled with the Holy Spirit
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In the book of Acts 3:1-7 the apostle Peter and John run into a blind man begging for alms on the temple steps there in Jerusalem. His hand was stuck out as they passed by and he did not have enough dignity left to make eye contact with Peter and John. The Holy Spirit led Peter to say to this man,
“Look at us! We don’t have silver and gold but what we have we give to you; in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene walk!”
Peter was led by the Holy Spirit to speak to this man that others had passed by because God wanted to heal him as a testimony to the power and works of Jesus Christ and as validation for the message and ministry of the disciples. Praise you Lord Jesus Christ!
However, later on this same Peter was FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT in Acts 4:8. The witness of the power and the works of Jesus had been made evident before those in the temple through this healing and had now reached those in positions of authority (Matt 10:17-18) as Jesus had promised them. It was now time for the spoken testimony of Jesus to be brought forth. Peter being uneducated and untrained (Acts 4:13) needed the filling of the Holy Spirit in order for the testimony of Jesus Christ to be delivered.
Philo in his writings identifies drunkenness with spiritual folly (cf. De Ebr. 11, 95, 125–26, 154), but he also sees a comparison between it and being possessed by God: “Now when grace fills the soul, that soul thereby rejoices and smiles and dances, for it is possessed and inspired, so that to many of the unenlightened it may seem to be drunkenness, being crazy, or being besides oneself.
Thus the filling of the Holy Spirit not only has an effect on the mind but also the body just as too much wine has an effect on the mind and the body. The mind is under the control of the Holy Spirit and directs the body to do things according to his will. Things that people would not normally do they are enabled to do under the power of the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says the evidence of this filling is speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and giving thanks in your heart in all things because the Spirit is in control of all things that are headed your direction whether good or bad. Let the name of the Lord be praised.
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