Fill 'Er Up!!!

When I was a kid, we didn’t go to the gas station.  We went to the filling station.  We would drive up.  Someone would walk out and come to our window.  My dad would say, “Fill ‘er up!!!”  Sometimes, when I was lucky, I got to stick my thumb up and tell the attendant to fill the car up.  It didn’t take much to thrill me when I was three and four years old.

Sunday I wrote about how avoiding getting drunk and being filled with the Holy Spirit can be accomplished by…..being filled with the Holy Spirit.  That was a pretty circular way of saying that’s how you do it.  I admit that.  Today I want to tell you how I think you get filled by the Holy Spirit.  This is the only way that I figure that you can really do this.  Are you ready?  It’s not a big secret.  It’s right there in the Bible.  It’s not in Ephesians where I was the other day.  It’s a couple of letters over.  Here it is.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you

That’s it.  Straight out of Colossians 3:16.  It’s that simple.  It’s that hard.  Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.  How can I say that?  How can I say that being filled with the Spirit happens through letting the word of Christ richly dwell within you.  Look back at Ephesians for a second.

What happens when we are filled with the Spirit?  There is speaking to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.  There is singing and making melody in your heart.  There is giving thanks for all  things in the name of Christ.  There is mutual submission.

What happens when the word of Christ richly dwell within you?  There is teaching  and admonishing each other with wisdom with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.  There is singing with thankfulness in our hearts to God.  Whatever you’re doing you do in the name of Christ and give thanks through him to the Father.

Now I may be wrong, but I think Paul was thinking the same things when he wrote both of those passages.  I don’t think Paul saw any difference between being filled with the Holy Spirit and letting the word of Christ richly dwell within him.

So that’s my answer!!!  How do I fill up on the Holy Spirit?  I fill up on the word of God.  I eat something that is more than bread.  I drink from the fountain of living water.  I am filled with the Holy Spirit.

Fill ‘er up!!!

What’s keeping you from being filled with the Holy Spirit?  Are you letting the word of Christ richly dwell within you?

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