As I was growing up, I went to several different kinds of churches. I am thankful for each of them and for the powerful spiritual impact they made in my life; but, looking back, I now realize that none of them taught me that I could have more of (or be filled to a greater measure with) the Holy Spirit. Or, if they did, then maybe I just missed it. As I recall it, at least, I was told that I had received the Holy Spirit upon my salvation and needed nothing else. That is to say, that there was nothing more. Yet, the tense of the verb that Paul uses in our passage for today makes it abundantly clear that we are to be continually (and, therefore, repeatedly) filled with the Holy Spirit. In fact, In Ephesians 3:19, Paul prays that these same Ephesian Christians would be “filled with all the fullness of God.” Why would he pray that for Christians if they had already received all that there is to receive of the Holy Spirit upon their salvation? In other words, why would they need to be filled, if they were already full? 

The disciples of Jesus (Peter included) were already Christians on the day of Pentecost and, yet, as we saw in our study yesterday, on that day, they were powerfully and transformationally filled by (and with) the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:4) Later, while Peter was standing before the Sanhedrin, he was again, “filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 4:8) And then, again, later, when Peter and the church gathered together in prayer, they were all “filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 4:31) That’s three post-salvation fillings for Peter and two for all of the other disciples and followers of Jesus, and we haven’t even made it past Act 4. Okay, you get the point: the filling, and resulting fullness, of the Holy Spirit is to characterize our lives as followers of Jesus! (Cf. Acts 6:3, 11:24). Those “fillings” and their resulting “fullness” (together with the power, gifting, boldness, obedience to Jesus, intimacy of relationship with Christ, etc. that God purposes to bring through them) are to be desired and pursued. Bottom line: there is more! In fact, since God is infinite, there is always more! 

As we look for analogies, we might think of a glass filled with water. But that’s actually not a good analogy. Why? Because, at some point, that glass is full and can’t receive any more. In his Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem seeks to solve this by giving us the still imperfect, but much better, analogy of a balloon: something that keeps expanding to receive more; and then, more; and then, more; of the breath, in our case, of God himself. God wants to fill us: to give us more and more and more of himself! So, let’s pursue that “more” together!