More Than Mostly Full

When Ephesians 5:8 shows up on the open page and says, "...be filled with the Spirit,"  one of the first thoughts is that to be filled means there is room for naught else.  When a coffee cup is full, it is full.  There is no room for more coffee, or anything else.  While the image is faulty in that a cup can be filled with many different substances until there is room for nothing else, the Scripture is clear that the Apostle is talking about a single vessel being filled, not with many things, but one thing.  According to the image presented by Paul, the Holy Spirit does not share the heart, the soul of our being.  Instead, He seeks to fill it completely with Himself.

He is either given permission to control the essence of who we are, or we are still hanging tenaciously to that control.   Indeed, this is the issue of the Spirit filled life.  The issue has to do with submission to the authority of the Holy Spirit.  It is about the surrender of our agenda, our wishes and wants, our ambitions and goals to Someone other than ourselves.  The Spirit filled life is about living with a willingness and a desire for our life to be used in whatever way God wishes for the sake of the Kingdom.  This is what enabled Paul to write, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have."  (Philippians 4:11). This is what enabled Jesus to pray in those last hours on the Mount of Olives, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not My will but Yours be done."  (Luke 22:42).   

To be filled with the Spirit is to live with such an attitude of abandonment to self that we live content praying for "whatever You want to do and whenever You want to do it."  It is an easy thing to sit midst the congregation of God's people and nod affirmatively about the importance of being filled with the Spirit, but still another thing to so empty our heart of what we want that the Holy Spirit has not partial control, but absolute control.  Ephesians 5:18 calls us to nothing less than being completely His.