One morning in the summer of 1874 in Dublin, Ireland, after an all-night prayer meeting,

British evangelist Henry Varley and American evangelist Dwight L. Moody had a conversation about ministry. In it, Varley said to Moody, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.”

As Moody pondered this statement, he realized this man did not have to be educated, brilliant, or anything else. At that moment, Moody vowed, by the power of the Holy Spirit within him, he would be that man.

Sometime after this, as Moody listened to Charles Spurgeon, something occurred to him – it was not Spurgeon who was preaching and reaching people, but God through Spurgeon who did it. If God could use Spurgeon, why couldn’t and why wouldn’t he also use Moody? [i]

Why couldn’t and why wouldn’t God use us as he did Varley, Spurgeon, and Moody? He can and will, if we learn to surrender to Him. He fills us with the Holy Spirit to become “a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).

Do you want to be used mightily by God? Do you want to see God accomplish through you something only He can do? God can do all these things through the Holy Spirit acting in and through us.

Ephesians 5:18 commands believers, “Be filled with the Spirit.” This is not a suggestion. God expects us to be filled with the Spirit. If we are to live according to the Word and will of God, we must be filled.

Four ways to Be Filled

Ask God to Fill You

“How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13).

As God will give the Spirit to everyone who asks for salvation, He will fill each believer who asks to be filled. We have the Spirit in us but we need to be filled with Him. Being filled with the Spirit means to allow the Spirit to permeate our being. To let Him fill every part of us, our thoughts, attitudes, and actions. And to allow Him to be the guiding influence in our lives. We are filled with the Spirit when we give ourselves entirely over to Him. As we learn to yield our lives to the Spirit and ask God to fill us, He will.

Don’t Grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

The word grieve means to distress and make sorrowful.[ii] When we act contrary to the Word of God, resist the work God is trying to do in us, or refuse to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead, we make Him sorrowful and cause Him distress. In this, the Holy Spirit does not grieve for Himself, but for us. He is sorrowful because He knows that what He leads us to do is ultimately best for us. As we learn to cooperate with Him, we will not be grieving Him and He will fill us with power to accomplish His will.

Don’t Quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Scripture calls God a consuming fire in Hebrews 12:29. When God wants to do something in or through us, the Holy Spirit sparks a flame in our hearts. If we agree with Him and move forward with Him, He fans the spark into a flame.

When we resist His spark, we throw water on it and quench the Spirit. Disobedience is like a fire extinguisher that sprays on the spark of God’s desire in us and quenches it. Sin is like a fire retardant that hinders the spark from igniting. Unbelief is like a firebreak in which there is no fuel to allow the flame to spread. As we remove these from our lives, we will no longer be quenching the Spirit.

Fan the Flame through Faith

Faith is the key to fanning the flame. Remember, being filled is not something we do; it is something we receive. We must allow God to do it in us by believing He can and He will. We don’t have to beg or persuade God; we just have to ask and cooperate. It is His will for us to be filled.

We should respond to Him, to obey Him, to fan the flame, and not quench it.

Let’s decide today that we are going to believe that He can and will use us like the man Varley talked about when he said “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.”

God wants to fill us. He doesn’t just want us to live for Him; He wants to live through us. May we learn to live the Spirit filled life as Paul describes it in Galatians 2:20 –  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

*All Scriptures are quoted from NKJV     

In what area of your life do you currently feel the need to be filled?

How have you seen God demonstrate He power through you?

Do you have any tips for not quenching or grieving the Holy Spirit?

[i] Blackaby, Henry. Experiencing God. (Nashville, TN: Life Way Press, 2007), 27

[ii] Strong, James Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. (Hendrickson Publishers, 2007), G3076.