Filled with the Spirit: Mid-Week Reflection

THE REV. DAVID M. STODDART

"Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). This admonition from Paul, always relevant, seems especially apt in this week after Pentecost, when we remember the Holy Spirit raining down on those first believers like fire and inspiring such joy and energy within them. Of course we want that! The desire to be filled with the Spirit has marked authentic Christian faith for two thousand years. And here’s the good news:

We already have it.

The Holy Spirit is already within us. All that she promises is already ours to grasp: energy, joy, peace, and, above all, love. As Paul writes to the Romans: God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Rom. 5:5).

Because this is true, we can hear the call to be filled with the Spirit in a new way. It does not mean that we need to keep asking God to come to us and give us the Spirit: God has done that and will continue to do that because it is the very nature of God to give himself away in love. What it means is that we can begin to let that Spirit infuse every aspect of our being. I’m not being pious here, as if being filled with the Spirit means talking churchy language and thinking churchy thoughts all day. Rather I am being real: God is the Reality that enfolds us every moment of every day. God is just as much in our workplaces and our bedrooms as God is in our church, always seeking to lead us to greater wholeness and more abundant life. So let God be part of it all: ask the Spirit into that difficult meeting; sit with the Spirit while you sit in traffic; surrender to the Spirit all that feels most hurtful and negative, all the fears and resentments that hobble us. Allow God to be God in all circumstances—and not just when we are feeling religious on a Sunday morning.

Quite simply, we do not need more of the Spirit: the Spirit needs more of us. To be filled with the Spirit is to open ourselves up more and more to the Love which already lives within us. We can do that anywhere and anytime. You can do it right now.