Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing this hunger for more of God. That desire to be filled and to see His life flow through you is something He Himself puts in the heart that loves Him, and it is right to bring it to Him in prayer.
It helps to remember what Scripture teaches about how the Holy Spirit works. The Spirit is the one who draws a person to Jesus, and the moment you truly receive Christ and confess Him as Lord, the Spirit comes to live within you. That is true for every believer. Your body becomes His temple, and you cannot even call Jesus Lord except by Him. So if you belong to Jesus, you are not empty of the Spirit. He already dwells in you.
But the Bible also speaks of something more than that indwelling. There is a difference between being filled and overflowing. Indwelling is the Spirit within you for your own life and assurance. The baptism with the Spirit, as Jesus described it, is like being immersed, covered, overflowing, so that what is inside begins to pour out. Jesus used the picture of drinking the living water He gives and then having rivers of living water flow from the innermost being, and John explains He was speaking of the Spirit who would be given to those who believe. The point of that overflow is not only an experience from head to foot for its own sake, but an empowering so that the love and life of God in you touches the thirsty world around you.
You do not need to wait or tarry in the way people did before the day of Pentecost. That waiting was for a specific promise before the Spirit was poured out. Once Jesus was glorified and the Spirit was given, that gift was made available to all who believe. Jesus is the one who baptizes, and the Spirit is like the element in which we are immersed. We come to Him in faith and ask to be filled, and He fills.
You also mentioned doing greater things than Jesus because He said so. Jesus did say in John 14 that whoever believes in Him will do the works He did and greater works, because He was going to the Father. He was not saying we would be greater in power or character than He is. He was speaking of greater in extent and reach. While He was on earth His ministry was in one place, but after He ascended and sent the Spirit, His life and message would spread through His people to the whole world. Those greater works are His works continuing through us by the power of the same Spirit.
My prayer for you is that God would make this real in your daily life. Jesus Himself, after the Spirit came upon Him, is described as being full of the Spirit and led by the Spirit, and He is our example. It is the will of God that you be filled and led in the same way, with your mind set on the things of the Spirit, which brings life and peace, and with strength by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh. A life filled in that way does not just feel full inside, it flows outward.
So I pray that the Father would fill you anew today with His Holy Spirit, that you would be strengthened to walk in step with Him, led by Him in every decision, and that out of your life would flow that river of His love and truth to others who need Him. May Christ be seen living in you, and may whatever work He does through you bring glory to Jesus alone. I ask this in the name of Jesus.
It helps to remember what Scripture teaches about how the Holy Spirit works. The Spirit is the one who draws a person to Jesus, and the moment you truly receive Christ and confess Him as Lord, the Spirit comes to live within you. That is true for every believer. Your body becomes His temple, and you cannot even call Jesus Lord except by Him. So if you belong to Jesus, you are not empty of the Spirit. He already dwells in you.
But the Bible also speaks of something more than that indwelling. There is a difference between being filled and overflowing. Indwelling is the Spirit within you for your own life and assurance. The baptism with the Spirit, as Jesus described it, is like being immersed, covered, overflowing, so that what is inside begins to pour out. Jesus used the picture of drinking the living water He gives and then having rivers of living water flow from the innermost being, and John explains He was speaking of the Spirit who would be given to those who believe. The point of that overflow is not only an experience from head to foot for its own sake, but an empowering so that the love and life of God in you touches the thirsty world around you.
You do not need to wait or tarry in the way people did before the day of Pentecost. That waiting was for a specific promise before the Spirit was poured out. Once Jesus was glorified and the Spirit was given, that gift was made available to all who believe. Jesus is the one who baptizes, and the Spirit is like the element in which we are immersed. We come to Him in faith and ask to be filled, and He fills.
You also mentioned doing greater things than Jesus because He said so. Jesus did say in John 14 that whoever believes in Him will do the works He did and greater works, because He was going to the Father. He was not saying we would be greater in power or character than He is. He was speaking of greater in extent and reach. While He was on earth His ministry was in one place, but after He ascended and sent the Spirit, His life and message would spread through His people to the whole world. Those greater works are His works continuing through us by the power of the same Spirit.
My prayer for you is that God would make this real in your daily life. Jesus Himself, after the Spirit came upon Him, is described as being full of the Spirit and led by the Spirit, and He is our example. It is the will of God that you be filled and led in the same way, with your mind set on the things of the Spirit, which brings life and peace, and with strength by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh. A life filled in that way does not just feel full inside, it flows outward.
So I pray that the Father would fill you anew today with His Holy Spirit, that you would be strengthened to walk in step with Him, led by Him in every decision, and that out of your life would flow that river of His love and truth to others who need Him. May Christ be seen living in you, and may whatever work He does through you bring glory to Jesus alone. I ask this in the name of Jesus.
