The Holy Spirit’s Instructions – Part 1
David W Palmer
Jesus gave us the first New Testament “heads up” on the vital importance of worship, when he said that God “seeks” worshippers who will worship him in spirit and in Truth (John 4:20–24 NKJV). In the book of Acts (15:16–17), the Holy Spirit revealed that God also wants to restore/rebuild David’s tabernacle. The purpose he gives—among other things—is to energize evangelism. In the epistles, we see the Holy Spirit clarifying and expanding on what he and Jesus said; he gives us at least six directives. The first is found in the following passage:
Be filled with the Holy Spirit … speaking, singing, giving thanks, and submitting!
(Ephesians 5:18–21 NKJV) “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, {19} speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, {20} Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; {21} Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”
Here, the Holy Spirit gives us several very important directives—instructions if you like:
(b) “Be filled with the [Holy] Spirit”
I genuinely feel I need to emphasize that this is a directive from the Holy Spirit. You could say that it’s an edict or command from the Lord Jesus Christ to us. He commands us to be “filled with the [Holy] Spirit”; so this is something he expects us to take responsibility for. How can we do this? Isn’t he already in us? How can we be more filled with him if we have already received him? After all, he is infinite.
The New Testament records many instances of people being “filled with the Holy Spirit”: John the Baptist, Elizabeth, Zacharias, Jesus, the 120 at Pentecost, Peter, and Paul. After Acts 2, when they were all initially “filled with the Holy Spirit,” the term is used to describe special manifestations of the Holy Spirit that enabled spirit-filled believers to do extraordinary things. For example, when freshly filled: Peter spoke powerfully, convicting the Sanhedrin; Paul declared “blindness” over an opponent of his gospel preaching; and all the believers “spoke the word of God with boldness.” (See: Acts 4:8, 4:31, and 9:17.)
These manifestations happened as the Spirit willed. So why is, “Be filled with the Spirit,” given to us as a directive? After all, God wouldn’t command us to do something over which he has not given us the right to exercise our will (See: 1 Cor. 12:11). The context in Ephesians 5 clarifies. After the edict to “be filled with the Spirit,” the Holy Spirit gives us a list of things that are under the control of our will. If we obey them, they will keep us ready for the Holy Spirit to use us—as he wants and when he wills to.
(c) “Speaking”
The third directive in this passage is: “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” This is clearly something we can do—by his grace. We should simply choose to receive this as a command from our Lord; it is not optional. If we are fully willing, the Holy Spirit will enable us to do it. Even if we are not good singers, God’s word still includes us because he says, “Speaking …”; even if we do not consider ourselves to be singers, we can simply say the words of the “psalms,” etc., to one another.
Today, I challenge you to begin putting this whole list into practice. Live in a way that positions you to be fully available for the Holy Spirit to “fill” as he wills, by: speaking the words of psalms, etc., singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks in all situations, and submitting.
If we do as he directs in this passage, we will be ready for him to operate through us as he wills. Today, he might give you a prophecy for someone, use you in tongues and interpretation, manifest his gift of healing through you, work a miracle by you, use you in special
