Filled with the Spirit by Don Currin

it's a joy to be with you this afternoon uh a great great joy and of course certainly have enjoyed the other conferences since we've had the privilege of coming to norway over the years it's uh been a tremendous blessing we've been greatly edified not only through the preaching and teaching but also through our interaction with many of you and you mean a great deal to us we're so grateful for all the benefits that we have in christ and particularly the benefit of fellowship with his body um very grateful to be here once again we're here by divine appointment uh and that's huge i mean you can't underestimate the fact that god has sovereignly put this together and very grateful for god using bjorn as well as others to put this conference together and i know it's been a tremendous catalyst for encouraging people to seek the lord here in norway well this afternoon or i should say this morning still if you would take your bibles and turn with me to the book of ephesians in chapter number five the book of ephesians in chapter number five uh for those of you who have prayed for me and you've corresponded on facebook concerning my heart issue it just totally took me by surprise back in the latter part of october i mean the heart was fibulating there was just an inconsistency of heartbeat my doctor who was on our board of directors for our ministry insisted that i go to a cardiologist they checked it they ran all kinds of tests radiation dye tests echocardiogram everything came back negative and i thought man you know i'm good to go but i don't know why my heart continues to beat so irregularly and so what they did is the doctor put a monitor on me uh one time during a 24-hour period my heart was beating 200 minutes 200 beats a minute for about seven to ten seconds and so that concerned them so they went in they did a catheter they found out that i had multiple blockages which i thought man i've got my mother's jeans you know i mean those people they have to take a stick in north carolina and beat them to death they live so long and i said i certainly i've got those those genes i i never thought that uh i would have heart problems but anyway they got in there they did uh uh a stent then they had me come back for another catheter and they did some other stents and so i'm feeling good at this time however i still have these fibulations and at times it concerns me but thank you for your prayers i really appreciate uh you believing god on my behalf and my family's behalf during these days i was telling somebody earlier today quite honestly i had a foreboding sense of eternity i thought you know i'm approaching death the sins of time are sinking my life is ebbing away i'm getting ready to face the lord jesus and i thought lord am i really a christian do i really know the effectual work of grace in my heart and so i was very anxious for a couple of days to the point that it almost debilitated my emotional stamina there was a darkness that came upon me in some measure but suddenly i retreated to the predicate work of jesus christ you see friend there is no assurance if you look at your performance and so when i began to recognize what jesus did on my behalf not what i was doing presently in my walk with god concerning my sanctification that's when the peace came so peace does not come as a result of our performance but rather his propitiation and i'm so grateful for what god's done my my life is in the lord's hands quite honestly i've become a little more bold it's emboldened me to speak the truth with even a more cutting edge when i teach or preach these days and so you really don't care any longer what people think about you you're just gonna open your mouth and let it rip okay so that's what we'll do during this session if you would look with me here in ephesians chapter number five let me just read a few verses here concerning this matter the reality of being filled with the holy spirit ephesians 5 to get the proper context let me begin reading in verse number 11. and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret but all things that are approved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doeth make manifest is light wherefore he saith awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead in christ shall give thee light see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil wherefore be not unwise but understanding what the will of the lord is and be not drunk with wine where in its excess but be filled with the spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the lord giving thanks always for all things unto god and the father in the name of our lord jesus christ submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of god that's sufficient let's pray together now father once again we come before you in the strong name of christ lord our weaknesses are to our advantage we seek you and only you we thank you lord for the tenor of this meeting so far for the fear of god for the sobriety of the spirit for the love and the kindness and the grace that permeates lord relationships lord with that said we will not underestimate the prospects of a visitation from heaven lord what greater things could occur here if you would rent the heavens and come down lord would you please come and enlighten our minds give us lord great understanding acute understanding spirit wrought and lord may in this next session the simplicity of this truth of being filled with the holy spirit not only would it be grasp mentally but i pray god that it might be a reality in every heart we ask these things in jesus name amen there is nothing that stands in contrast to the modern church than a individual and a people that are saturated with the spirit as you probably see today there is such a dearth of the reality of spiritual power because seemingly people have grossly neglected the person and the work of the holy spirit when it comes to this matter of filling back three years ago when i was here i did a mini-series on the person and work of the holy spirit and there those of you that were here remember that i talked about the two fillings of the holy spirit there is a feeling which is ephesians 5 18 be not drunk with wine where in his excess but be being filled with the holy spirit which we are commanded to experience and then there is that sovereign work of the filling of the holy spirit where he comes upon and he enlarges or he induced people from on high for the purpose of making their evangelistic endeavors more effectual you identify that in the scripture as the bible says after they were filled with that type of the filling they spake the word of god with boldness or they spake in tongues or dialects in that particular language that they were communicating the gospel to so there are two feelings of the spirit i believe and we don't have time to go into all that today we're going to basically focus on this first filling or the ephesians 5 18 of the filling of the holy spirit perhaps the greatest indictment on the modern church is what it resorts to when it is lost its supernatural distinctive and what i mean by that is the power and the presence of the holy spirit can i tell you that i agree with ian murray who said that our great need of the hour is not for more apologetics i'm not saying god doesn't use that it certainly has redeeming value but the great need the premier need of our hour is the preaching of the gospel under the anointing of the holy spirit and so with that said today i remember years ago in my quest to understand more of the fullness of god because of my great love and appreciation for church history i would visit a lot of the church sites and homes as well as graves of some of the men and women that made an impact for christ and their generation right here in norway i don't know if you're aware of it or not of the great christian heritage that your country has people like oh halsby and marie munson tremendous missionary others i remember reading recently lloyd jones would come consistently to oslo and do a conference each year and expound the scriptures there because of a bunch of hungry-hearted people in that locale that really wanted more of god so it's interesting there is a rich spiritual heritage here and a heritage that embraced the filling of the holy spirit now i was in carthage illinois and visiting the sight the gravesite of john hyde who was the missionary to india hyde was not a calvinist he was an armenian but a man that was passionately in love with christ he was not a great preacher he did not articulate well on one occasion he spoke at a large bible conference and he stuttered in stanford so much that finally a lady got up and she led the whole congregation better than a thousand more people in a song and sang him off the platform he was not noted for his oratorical skills but he was a man that was passionately in love with christ a man that was besotted of god a man that really loved sinners and saw people consistently come into the kingdom of god but a man that i believe was filled greatly with the holy spirit i remember that day in carthage illinois i went to the historical society which was in the building of the town hall and as i asked about john high the lady says well we have a book that somebody donated you're welcome to look through it and i'd never seen it before and i just began to thumb through this rich biographical sketch of john heights life i found there at the end of this book there were different testimonies of the men that he worked with and one in particular really stood out to me was a young man that accompanied him for a lengthy period of time considering the fact that he died i believe at 29 years of age but the young man gave this testimony of the life of john heights he said i've never met a man i never worked with a man that was more intoxicated with jesus christ than john hyde that's what i aspire to i want to be inebriated with the very spirit and character of jesus and it cannot come without the fullness of the holy spirit have you noticed an abundance of plagues that have infiltrated the church as a result of the absence of the spirit and i might add right along with the truth of god's word we we never in minimize the importance of theology and preaching truth but it's interesting that because of the absence of god's spirit in leading and guiding and teaching and exposing truth today in churches so many isms have come into the church liberalism moralism relativism syncretism mysticism subjectivism all these various isms many many more have invaded infiltrated the church because we have not safeguarded the presence of the assembly where this conscious dependence upon the holy spirit so this afternoon let's look at this matter it's a very simple message because the feeling of the holy spirit friend and understand this from the outset is just as much a work of grace as salvation is a work of grace we are fueled by grace just as we are saved by grace now you may not understand the the magnitude of that statement but friend i tell you something that is huge we are not saved as a result or excuse me field as a result of our own self-improvement it comes as a result of us believing and asking in faith for him to fill us with his spirit so i want to begin i give you just basically three things for us to hang our thoughts on this afternoon first of all it's the nature of the feeling the nature of the feeling of the spirit in ephesians 5 18 once again he says and be not drunk with wine whereas an as access but be feel literally in the greek there is be ye being filled with the spirit now some things that are very interesting to note about this word be filled is a command it is in the imperative mood it is not something that is optional it is not something that we can negotiate it is something that you and i are commanded to walk in to are to enter into the reality of the greek carries the idea that it is as much a command to be filled with the spirit as it is not to be drunk with wine the grammar in the greek word here once again to reiterate is be ye being filled now we know that according to first corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13 that there is one baptism we are baptized into the body of christ by the spirit at the moment of our conversion but there are many feelings there are many feelings of the holy spirit by which he takes us and he begins to manifest in our lives through the fruit of the spirit the character of jesus christ secondly though not only is it a command to be obeyed it is from the greek word pleros which is in the passive tense or the passive voice it implies friend that we all we have to offer to god is emptiness in other words real christianity especially spirit royal christianity is a christianity by which we are being acted upon we're not making it happen we can't produce spirit fullness in and of ourselves it is something that only god can produce in us listen carefully it is also the greek word here in the present continuous tense once again as i've already said there's not just one but the need for multiple feelings of the holy spirit it is for control it is furthermore for walk and worship our walk with jesus christ the expression the effectual expression of our devotion to the son of god this certainly is enhanced when we are operating under the control of the holy spirit but it also bears the fruit of the spirit which is none other than the character of jesus christ now why does he say fruit and not fruits of the spirit because you see friend when you're filled with the holy spirit all nine of those virtues of the spirit feel life are manifested in you you don't pick and choose you don't experience some to the exclusion of the others but everyone is revealed maybe not to the extent extent that others are but every one of these fruits not fruits but fruit of the spirit is manifested in your existence in your walk now it's interesting this term used in the new testament is more adjectival it means full of the spirit the verb there in the original language plea means to make full or make feel once again emphasizing that we are being acted upon we do not determine it we cannot prepare for it we cannot do certain steps in order to attain it is something that god does for us this was certainly the case when the apostles told the brethren to seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the holy spirit and wisdom acts chapter 6 and verse number 3 whom the apostles were seeking to establish in thy carnal ministry their goodness which by the way was a fruit of the spirit and wisdom were linked to their spirit fullness it is what you could expect to find true of these men in any situation as being normally characteristic of them should you come upon them unexpectedly so this is the nature of this fullness of the holy spirit it's for the purpose of walk and worship secondly though another important factor in this matter of being filled with the spirit what does it endeal he said now brother don you you mentioned a minute ago it's something that god does is there no part on our parts is there nothing that we're to do listen even though the greek word is in the passive tense which means once again we are being active own it does not mean passivity it doesn't mean that i just sit back and wait for something to happen it means that i cooperate i collaborate it means friend that i have a disposition of dependence now here are some of the watch words that you begin to experience and by the grace of god we cultivate as we look to god to fill us moment by moment with the holy spirit first of all it's desperation desperation you remember there in john chapter 7 verse 37 through 39 which i think you can draw a very solid application from even for the believer and the bible says in that last day that great day of the feast jesus stood and cried out saying if any man thirsts let him come unto me and drink he goes on to say he that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water you see the problem today in christendom friend is we are not thirsty for god we're not desperate for him i mean raven hill said it best when he said the reason that we're not filled with the holy spirit is because we're content to live without it i need it in my marriage i need to keep my speed under the speed limit on the highway i need it when it comes to patience with my children when i say it i'm talking about the fullness i'm not referring to him the holy spirit but i need his fullness i need his control here's another watch word to look for in your life and to cultivate is trust he that believeth on me he that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water i ask you today are you believing on him we so enoughly move into a state of unbelief in our lives let me tell you how this works for me i asked god to fill me with the holy spirit by faith sometimes and especially i remember in the early days of my christian life it seemed as if there was a manifestation of emotion i felt peace i had a sense of joy but the older and older i walked with the lord the more it seemed like the emotions began to die off therefore all that was required was trust it was like stepping into into a jacuzzi have you ever gotten into a jacuzzi before the first time you remember all the swirling the powerful swirling of the water the sensation the relaxation the emotion of that moment that you experienced and then you got into it the third or the fourth or the sixth time you didn't feel the swirling as much it didn't have that tantalizing affirmation like it had before you weren't as refreshed but still the flow was there the feeling was gone but the flow was still present it's the same way with the feeling of the holy spirit we pray and we ask god fill me once again with the holy spirit fill me before my day and now in my christian life rarely do i feel the emotions rarely do i have the feelings but guess what i must believe he that believeth out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water another thing another factor in this experience is humility humility in james chapter 4 verses 6 through 7 but he giveth more grace wherefore he says god resists the proud he gives grace unto the humble submit yourselves therefore to god humility it's coming under all that he has for me and all that he wishes me to do i offer no resistance i ask him to take control and i submit accordingly there is a factor of confession and cleansing james chapter 4 and verse number 8 cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts ye double-minded and what is confession friend in a very simple way but yet profound in reality confession is getting in the witness box against yourself are you willing to tell the truth about yourself the whole truth and nothing but the truth when god puts his hot finger of conviction on an area in your life that is a pocket of resistance a contrary area of rebellion are you willing to acknowledge it before god accordingly and believe that the blood of christ is sufficient to cleanse you from that sin at the moment we never want to underestimate this next one and that is the asking part somebody said that if you shoot at nothing you'll hit it every time do we ever really ask god to feel with the holy spirit perhaps some of us are intimidated to ask maybe you've had an experience that you would align with the pentecostal movement or the charismatic movement you say well i don't want to go there so i don't ask at all i'm afraid of this so-called spirit filled experience but let me remind you something friend the security of the believer is not a baptist doctrine it is a bible doctrine election is not a calvinistic doctrine it is a bible doctrine and the fullness of the holy spirit is not a charismatic doctrine it is a bible doctrine we desperately need to ask jesus said in luke 11 and verse 13 if he being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall the heavenly father and the greek word once again is keeps on giving without measure the fullness of the holy spirit to them that ask him now obviously you can't be filled with the spirit unless you have the spirit first john chapter 3 and verse 24 and romans 8 and verse 9 we receive the spirit at the moment of conversion but just because he inhabits us does not mean that he controls us and this is why we desperately need to ask we ask and we ask in faith and we ask again and again furthermore we ask continuously luke 11 and verse 9. it's interesting right there in that same context where he said if you being evil know how to give good gifts he said i say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you and once again the greek word is a continuous seeking and asking and knocking so as not to be denied now once again let's kind of balance things for a moment i can't make it happen but i'm saying that this is my disposition it's one of a person that is desperately in need for god to come and help you see once again passive tense speaks to our neediness my weakness my desperate need to be helped so with all that said here's a third point and this is what i really want to emphasize this morning that brothers and sisters i hope will be a great help to you i mentioned a while ago that we are saved by grace you must understand because if you do not it will be a very frustrating walk with god that you are also filled by grace you say now what does that mean well first of all the text here in ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 presupposes that this work is a work of grace no preparation no performance on our part in the strength of our own flesh determines this experience it is not required therefore listen delaying is not necessary can i tell you something when i was in bible school and after bible college going from church to church doing what we call in the united states revival meetings we would have hours of prayer following the service sometimes on saturday night we'd have a half night of prayer or all-night prayer and beseeching god to pour out the holy spirit it didn't happen now please with that said understand i'm not minimizing that second filling of the holy spirit with the spirit my sovereign order my divine design is poured out upon a people that's happened in the history of the church but here i am pleading with god to send forth his spirit and waiting and agonizing and condemning myself and sometimes confessing the same sin over and over again thinking that it was in my preparation that would move god to come and to fill me with the holy spirit the feeling once again i reiterate of the spirit is as much a work of grace as believing the gospel is a work of grace therefore here's the exhortation ask him to fill you now not when you get home not when you get back to your room but ask him to fill you now he is able now because his willingness to fill you is not contingent upon what you do what you manipulate your weighting your introspection your condemnation can i be honest with you i need the holy spirit in order to be filled with the holy spirit he said now what do you mean by that i can't see sin in my life properly i can't discern from those things that stand between me and the savior and impede the fullness of the holy spirit without his help so i need the fullness of the holy spirit to walk in the fullness of the holy spirit now watch this it is a bad analogy that so many preachers have used i included over the years of the cup and so it was taught that the way that you prepare for the cup to be filled by god is you must take the initiative and many times the pain-staking steps to empty the cup i ask you a question how much grace is in that you have reverted back to the works of the law rather my heart now is lord fill me with the holy spirit that i might properly see anything in my life that would impede your flow through me put your finger through the fullness of your spirit the control of the holy spirit on those things in my life presently that would impede the power of grace through my preaching so i need the fullness of the holy spirit to walk in the fullness of the holy spirit and once again friend thoroughly the cup fullness is control lord afresh by faith i ask you to fill me take control of my life and i ask now you know what he does regardless of how i feel by faith he fills me with the holy spirit i'm filled i'm feeling now the sprung prospects of being filled now [Music] comes as a result friend of grace therefore listen i do not have to wait until i feel adequate well i just don't feel like i'm a candidate to be filled with god it doesn't matter how you feel or i feel so unworthy or i'm not to a point where i'm satisfied that i'm empty enough to be filled or i don't know if i really know brokenness to the extent that i need to to be qualified as a candidate to receive the fullness or i certainly have no confidence that i've covered every base when it comes to my penance there's still got to be something in here somewhere i mean that i haven't repented of friend god only requires you to confess what he's made you consciously aware of there are secret sin yes there are secret faults yes but whatever god has made you aware of is what he expects you to confess accordingly but it's amazing to me that when i ask for the help of the holy spirit he reveals things in my life that i could never have seen in my own ability introspective ability to see and feel like i needed to confess to be filled i need to be filled so i might properly see and confess accordingly those impediments to his fullness in my life listen to this statement roy hessian who wrote the book the calvary wrote said the spirit's fullness is not the reward of our faithfulness but god's gift for our defeat it sounds like grace that sounds like it's not abused grace friend it's amazing grace now i remember roy hessen years ago told me personally he said brother don calvary only makes the fullness of the holy spirit one step away you don't need to beat up on yourself you don't need to listen to the condemnations of the devil just by faith ask god to feel you you're filled your field now what if something comes to light as soon as you feel the holy spirit has come and now he's reigning there so to speak in that fullness and he shows you something friend as long as i keep saying yes and obeying him i walk in the spirit the minute i withdraw i disobey is the minute that the spirit no longer controls me do you understand do you understand calvary only makes it one step away i don't need to tarry any longer than it takes for me to acknowledge that i've sinned against my god and the blood of jesus christ his son is sufficient to cleanse me from every sin that's good news that's good news because that's grace the command to be feel presupposes that we can ask now it is a work of grace not self-efforts one of the great dangers in the christian life friend when you begin to journey by grace is is always this relentless temptation to default to performance remember that you always want to make it happen fall back in your own cleverness your own self-determination your own tendency to improve yourself you cannot do it apart from grace let me close with this there was a lady who wrote the hymn her name was mary shackleton listen to the lyrics i think this best describes what i sought to convey this afternoon but though i cannot sing or tell or know the fullness of thy love while here below my empty vessel i may freely bring o thou who art of love the living spring my vessel feel now listen to this i am an empty vessel not one thought or look of love i ever to thee brought but i may come and come again to thee with this the empty sinner's only plea listen now thou lovest me it's grace not me beating up on myself bruising myself listening to all those hounding accusations of the evil one friend listen i come as i did to christ by faith and was born from above i come now by faith to receive the fullness of his spirit our ultimate and only basis for being filled by his spirit is his love it is not my merit but his mercy that obtains the blessing if i should measure my worthiness by how sincere i am in my confession how contrite i am in my repentance how broken i am over my sin then when can i know i am capable enough to receive god's fullness so i close it is not my groping and self-pity self-introspection and self-condemnation that makes me accounted for such blessing as the fullness of the holy spirit it is his grace it is by his love alone that i obtain the fullness and guess what when it's of grace then god gets all the glory and it's not me saying look what i've done to prepare look at the all-night prayer meeting i was a part of not minimizing that but you see from the vantage point is i'm moving from a grace position not from a law or a self-improvement position i hope this helps really hope it helps let's pray so father we don't want to revert back to the works of the law lord certainly lord the galatian syndrome having begun in the spirit are you now made perfect in the flesh oh god my prayer is been this proud and stiff-necked eye help me help me to bow the neck and die beholding him on calvary who gave himself for me and lord as the poet or the songwriter put it oh to be safe himself o lord o to be lost in thee oh that it might be no more i but christ that lives in me father thank you that the fullness of the holy spirit is a work of grace all we need to do is in humility desperation we ask and we ask in faith and we ask now so father once again i pray for understanding give your people understanding give me greater understanding lord that the christian life is most pleasing to you when we're being acted upon and lord remind us that passive tense christianity does not mean that we're passive we should keep on believing and keep on obeying and keep on pleasing the savior in all that we do in jesus name amen

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Don Currin

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Length: 44min 57sec (2697 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 21 2021