← Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis
Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis
How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit Every Day | 4 Practical Steps from Ephesians 5:18
00:21:40
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- [00:00]
A
You mentioned a verse at the beginning of your sermon that you say is the most important verse in the New Testament for believers. You want to tell us what that verse is and why?
- [00:09]
B
Verse is Ephesians 5:18. Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Most important verse in the New Testament for the Christian. Because, as John MacArthur says, you can't keep any of the commandments in the New Testament without the enabling, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.
- [00:27]
A
Get practical with us. How do we do that? How do I do that if that's the most important reality of my life as a Christian? How do I do that every single day? Harry, thanks for sitting down. I was listening to one of your messages lately on being spirit filled and walking by the Spirit. You mentioned a verse at the beginning of your sermon that you say is the most important verse in the New Testament for believers. Something Charles Swindall said. This is the most important verse for a Christian in the New Testament. You want to tell us what that verse is and why?
- [01:04]
B
Verse is Ephesians 5:18. Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Most important verse in the New Testament for the Christian. Because, as John MacArthur says, you can't keep any of the commandments in the New Testament without the enabling, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. That's why that verse matters. Or at least that's why you could say it's the most important verse for the Christian New Testament. You can't do anything without the Spirit of God, the power of God and the ability of God.
- [01:34]
A
Yeah, contextually, in Ephesians, you know, one of the things that you highlighted and I've taught through Ephesians, you know, first three chapters are indicative of what God has done. Paul turns this corner in Ephesians 4 and says to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, in light of the fact that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. He made us alive because he's rich in mercy. We're called to walk in unity, to walk in newness of love. Ephesians 5:1. Be an imitator of Jesus Christ. You're talking about these kind of prescriptions to walk in sexual purity, to make the most of our time. And then all of these things, though all of these commands, prescriptions, hang upon what you mentioned in 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit. What does that even mean? You mentioned it when you were preaching that every Christian listening to this cannot get more of the Spirit of God than they already have. And sometimes even we pray this. And I think we're a little bit ignorant of what we're even praying. We say, like, God, fill me with your spirit. What does that even mean? And answer that. And then I want to get into with you, how do we do that? And let's get practical on being filled with the Spirit.
- [02:41]
B
Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think for many Christians, we know Ephesians 5:18, we just don't really know how to apply Ephesians 5:18. The spirit of God comes into our life by the promise of God. When we become a Christian, we have all of the Spirit of God we will ever have. He's a person. He's not divided. He's not partially distributed. He's all in.
- [03:06]
A
Yeah. We don't have a JV version of the Holy Spirit.
- [03:08]
B
No. We have all of him and we need all of him. And he's the presence of Christ. He's the Spirit of Christ. He's the enabler. Without me, you can do nothing. You're preaching on that now. So the Spirit, Spirit of God comes into the life of a Christian, takes up residence there. And the filling of the Holy Spirit isn't about him being in you. It's about you being under his full and active influence. Filled as in under his control. Which is why I entitled my message under the Influence. The contrast of do not be drunk with wine is under the influence. But be filled with the Spirit is under his influence, dominated by his governing presence. Like I'm filled with rage. I'm dominated by rage. We all understand that. That's the flavor and nuance of filled with the Spirit. I'm under his control. I'm under his active influence. He's the leader, I'm the follower. And the New Testament teaching about the life of God is I experience the life of God through the Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God is actively ruling in my life. That's why it's an important command. That's how I do what I do as a Christian.
- [04:22]
A
Yeah. I once heard my friend Eric Thomas say, you can't. And I say it often. You can't live a single moment of faithfulness to Jesus Christ outside of the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's why Charles Spindall says this is the most important verse in the New Testament. You have to be filled with the Spirit. And you've talked about this means it's an everyday, throughout the day reality. Now you have, you call them four valves or four priorities of really defining how we do this because, you know, even I was talking to some of the guys on staff earlier and saying, hey, as much as possible, even just to your own heart, personally remove the Christianese from your life. Because we just say things and we kind of, over time, we become numb to them. It's kind of like a glaze effect, you know, I just want to be filled with the Spirit. What does that even mean? You defined it. It means to be under the influence of the Spirit of God, to be dominated by the Spirit. But get practical with us. How do we do that? How do I do that? If that's the most important reality in my life as a Christian, how do I do that every single day?
- [05:21]
B
Yeah. What helped me was to recognize that the verb tense is present active. Right. It's something I do now and I keep on doing it's habitual product or a pattern of my life. Number two, it's passive, which. It's filled and being filled. I'm continually being filled, passive. Meaning I'm the recipient of the action of another. The Spirit of God. The power of God. The presence of God is doing the action. I'm receiving his action. I'm allowing him by opening up the valves of my heart. That's the analogy. So my heart is a vessel. It's an open system. The Spirit of God flows in out of me. The Gospels say, shall flow rivers of water. This he said, referring to the Holy Spirit. So the Spirit of God is the life of God flowing through me so that I experience the life of God. And I love this. I express the life of God. That's the fruit of the Spirit. That's the singing and making melody, speaking psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, thankfulness and helpfulness. The evidence of the Spirit of God in my life. So the big idea is that actively I open. We have four valves in our human heart. Physically. I drew the analogy that like my spiritual heart, I open valves and their actions, their choices. And valve number one, because it's under the influence. He's the leader, I'm the follower. Valve number one is submitting. There is no filling without submitting. Surrendering. I'm under his influence. You walk by the spirit. Galatians 5:18. I'm led by the Spirit. So there's this recognition that I'm following. I'm submitting. I'm surrendering. Galatians 5:25. Since you live by the Spirit, walk by the Spirit. Walk is a different word than in verse 16. It's a military term. It means to stay in step with the Spirit. It's like he's captain calling cadence. Left, right, left, right. About face. Turn left. Face right. It's an act of obedience, but it begins with surrendering. So valve one is surrendering. It's an act of my will. I'm surrendering. He's the Lord. But in the filling context, I'm opening the valve of surrendering my will to his will. Second valve I would argue for is since he's the leader and I'm the follower, I need to listen. He's calling cadence. He's telling me what steps to take. So how do I listen? How do I. How does the spirit of God speak to me?
- [08:02]
A
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- [08:51]
B
family plan Biblically, it's through the word of the Spirit, the scripture. This is God breathed the spirit of God, moved upon men of God in order to communicate the word and will of God. So I like to say you listen to the black and white words of God, the prescriptive, clarifying revelation of his will. So I'm listening to his Word. He's prescriptive in his word. Like, let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth. That's prescriptive. Do it. The Spirit of God is speaking through his Word. So the word of God is my primary source for listening. And so I want to hear it. I want to read it with an ear to listen. God, what are you saying to me about yourself or about myself? What do you want me to do? I'm reading the Bible with an eye and an ear towards that. But there's another aspect of listening. I think it's important is because everything God wants me to say and do is not prescribed in the scripture. There's steps I'm taking in the journey of my life, with the people in my life, the decisions in my life. I need the spirit of God to lead me. So I call these, not the black and white loud leadership of the Holy Spirit, but the whispers, the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It's not black and white. Black and white governs it. Whispers can't ever contradict it. But the prompting of the Holy Spirit allows me to know, hey, I want you to go help that person. I want you to pray with that person. I want you to be generous and give to that need. I want you to walk across the street and help. I want you to whatever the spirit of God leads you to do by the promptings of that agreeing with the word of God, which governs. You're listening for that.
- [10:41]
A
You know, I think sometimes we. People get weird about that type of an idea, like promptings of the Holy Spirit. And this is part of the reason why I wanted to talk with you about it is sometimes we're all about the black and white of, hey, what does the word of God say? And obviously we're Bible people, you know, the sufficiency of scripture. But then there is this element of, you know, you told the story and you can touch on it just of you felt like the Lord put it on your heart to go and pray for some guy. Where was that at?
- [11:08]
B
Yeah, it was a motorcycle shop, of course.
- [11:11]
A
And you just, you said, hey, you saw him, and you're like, I just want to go pray for that guy. Or was there something.
- [11:16]
B
Well, no. In the process of me pursuing the purchase of a motorcycle, he communicated that his mother was dying and in the Northeast and he was going to fly there. And I just, I'm a Christian. I said, well, listen, I know that's really hard and I would love to pray for you. And I was prompted, you know, I mean, you know, when you pray for a motorcycle salesperson. So it was Harry, in my heart was, you should pray for him. Why wouldn't I pray for him? I know what that means, and I know what he needs. And so that's not contradicting the black and white clear prescription of the scripture.
- [11:52]
A
I think sometimes we get so caught up on the language of our. That people employ, like God told me. And you're like, what do you mean God told you? You know, and that we almost ignore the very real reality that God does put on the heart of his people, like something that's Unique to the situation at hand. You know, it doesn't say, go, Harry, go talk to Bob. Chapter, verse. But that's what you're calling a. Listening to the Holy Spirit as He gives direction.
- [12:18]
B
Yeah, you would not hear me use. God told me to pray for you. Yeah, but you would hear me say, I believe God would want me to pray for you. I believe God is prompting me to pray for you. I'd like to pray for you. I believe God is. I mean, this has happened so regularly in my life. We could talk the remaining time and tomorrow about the hey, I want you to give this to so and so you have it. They need it. Give it to them. And I mean, it's no audible voice. Is it inconsistent with the Scripture? It is not. I use the metric. If it's not selfish, if it's sacrificial, if they need it, and I have the sense that God wants me to do it, I'm doing it. If it doesn't disagree with the Scripture, I'm doing it. And I have enjoyed the awareness of and the fruit of the following, of the prompting of the Holy Spirit. You cannot do this without the boundaries and the clarity of prescribed revelation. The Bible rules. I want to say that plainly. It's more than it is sufficient, but it's also authoritative. You can't violate it. But the Spirit of God is a person, and I'm a person in relationship with that person. And I'm listening to his leadership because everything. Should I buy it? Not buy it. Should I walk across. Your life is populated with decisions you make. And I'm in an active, intimate relationship with God and I need for his leadership. I need to enjoy his leadership.
- [13:59]
A
So those cover two valves and submission. Just the will. Right. Of just kind of laying down, submitting. Yeah, we need to be under his influence to be under his influence. We secondly need to be listening to the word of the Spirit and to his voice as he prompts us and directs us in accordance with his revelation. Hit us with number three.
- [14:18]
B
Number three is obvious. It's obeying what he's saying. So whatever that is, prescriptively or by prompting, I'm doing it. To obey is better than sacrifice. To honor God, you need to obey the will of God. And if he's talking, listening means I'm following. So that's simple. It doesn't need to be extrapolated. If God said it, I'm doing it. If he's prompting me as I just described, I'm committed to doing it. And the fourth valve, which follows from the obedience valve is I'm trusting. I'm doing what I'm doing out of faith because I may or may not see the fruit of that obedience. I'm without faith. It's impossible to please God. To obey is better than sacrifice. And the sacrifices, the things that I do that God has honored with are the things I offer to him by faith. I'm trusting and believing that he's going to use this action to bring glory to him, good to them. And I'm going to argue blessing to me.
- [15:19]
A
Yeah, you at the end of your sermon, when you were preaching through this, you had this acronym. Not everybody knows you're an aspiring guitarist. I know. I know you as a hobby guy. Harry will get onto something and he'll latch and you're learning guitar.
- [15:34]
B
I am.
- [15:36]
A
Talk to us just kind of about the. Because you talk about these realities not just being kind of like morning habits. You know, you look at yourself in the mirror and say if you feel it's this, you call them every day and throughout the day realities. Then you had kind of like a series of questions that you likened to guitar strings. Just that help you kind of think through this on an ongoing basis.
- [15:53]
B
Yeah, I think the big idea that I wouldn't want anybody to miss filled with the spirit is an all day walk. Right. It's now and throughout the day. I have a musician friend here in Nashville that's caring enough to help me. And one of the things he said to me, he's a professional musician, he said, listen, when you pick it up, the guitar, tune it. Because things happen throughout the day, humidity, temperature, just stuff that the guitar will go out of tune. And so you need to tune it every time you pick it up. I borrowed that analogy and make the stage of my life upon which I am living my life for the glory of God. I liken it to the fact that I'm a musician and I'm holding a guitar and I need to tune it and I'm playing a set or a concert and my life, that's what it would be. Analogously. And I need to make sure my guitar is tuned before I play. And then even as my ear listens, as I play. Because you've seen musicians stop and twist the tuners to adjust the sound because they realize it's not a good sound, it's not a tune sound. So I use the six strings of the guitar, acoustic guitar, analogously I call it Philip and tune up. And the tune up is what I do throughout the day. The low E string, which is the top string, the low E is everything. Is everything submitted to God. The A string, which is right below it. Is there anything out of line in my life? Anything I need to confess? I'm tuning by evaluating the quality of my spiritual condition. So is everything on the altar submitted? Is there anything out of order? The next string is the D string. Do it or no, excuse me. The D string is direction, discerning, what God wants me to do. Then the G follows that which is go do it. So direction, discernment. What is God saying? G, go do it. Am I doing what God is telling me to do? That's a question I would ask, what are you asking me to do? And am I doing it? Then the next string after that is the B string. Believe, Believe God will use it. That's the trust. And then finally the high E. And I like it's high E is the experience. Am I experiencing the life of God? And am I expressing the life of God? The high E is the experience of the life of God and the expression of it. So I do that little metric, tune up everything, anything, direction, discernment. Go do it. Believe God for it. And am I experiencing the life of God? And am I expressing the life of God?
- [18:50]
A
Maybe just lastly, on this idea of experiencing the life of God, sometimes we talk about being filled with the Spirit so you can obey, and that's right and biblical. But you want to be filled with the Spirit under his influence. You just touched on it to experience this level of intimacy with him. Maybe just touch on that as we close. Why? You know, the privilege? I mean, you're a guy that I've been working with you every day for years. You live in communion with God. Why is it so important? And why is it such a privilege to be filled with the Spirit more than something we ought to do but should want to do? Because of the experience you just touched on.
- [19:30]
B
It's a great question. The Spirit of God is the agent that provides the ability for me to have a taste of the life of God. It's the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control. That's the life of God expressed in me and through me. So why it's so important is eternal life is the life of God experienced through the person of God as I walk with God. Galatians says it also secures freedom for me so that I can overcome the obstacles to the life of God. My flesh, the world, the enemy. So the privilege is to be in communion with God in a way that allows me to experience his life. Life. He's the fountain of life and allows me to express that life to others. It is to flow in me and through me. And there's no joy like that. There's no hobby that can secure that. It's both a privilege and it's life giving and life impacting. I mean, that's why Ephesians 5 sits where it Walk wisely. Make the most of your time. Why? The days are evil. The people need the life only a Christian can bring. Well, then you need the spirit of God to affect the life of God. For the good of people. For the glory of God. Yeah. That's why it's important.
- [21:03]
A
So good.
- [21:04]
B
I'm trying to learn. I'm not saying I'm an expert, I'm not. But I'm committed to growing in a rhythm. And I would say this part of what I'm trying to learn is the rhythm of that. The rhythm of fill up and tune up, fill up and tune up, fill up and tune up. So that I'm in an awareness of the presence of God. And I'm walking with him. I'm listening because I can get distracted.
- [21:28]
A
Well, Harry, that's so good. Thank you. Thank you so much.
- [21:31]
B
You're welcome. Thanks for having me.