This may sound strange to those who have not yet received the Holy Ghost.
Being BAPTIZED with the Holy Ghost/Spirit means a person has received the Holy Ghost/Spirit permanently.
And this baptism occurs when a person puts their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.
Gal 3-
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?
5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
Being FILLED with the Holy Ghost/Spirit means it has pushed everything else out until there is no room left for anything else (like SIN).
Please quote any verse that teaches this.
Instead, being filled with the Holy SPIRIT means being under the influence of the Spirit. This is where the fruit of the Spirit comes from.
Throughout Acts, we find believers doing great things when filled with the Spirit. It's the difference between accomplishing things in your own power (will power of the flesh) and the power of the Spirit.
A common mistake among those who have been BAPTIZED with the Holy Ghost is to claim they are FILLED with the Holy Ghost.
Agreed. Unless a believer is keeping "short accounts" by confessing their sins per 1 John 1:9, they are out of fellowship with the Lord and cannot be filled with the Spirit. Once cleansed and purified (1 Jn 1:9) by through confession, the believer must submit or yield to the Spirit in order to be filled. It is a command to be filled; Eph 5:18 - Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
So you see, the comparison is between what the believer is being influenced by; alcohol or the Spirit.
So, how does one submit or yield to the Spirit? First, the believer have confessed all known sins up to that moment. Then, since being filled is a command (imperative mood), which is God's will for every believer, we must ASK to be filled. 1 John 5-
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that
if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And
if we know that he hears us—
whatever we ask—
we know that we have what we asked of him.
iow, God hears those believers who are in fellowship with Him, which is through confession of sin which cleanses and purifies. Then, by asking for the filling of the Spirit, the believer is yielding or submitting to the Spirit and "we know that we HAVE what we asked".
Psa 66:18 - If I
regard iniquity in my
heart, the
Lord will not
hear me:
This is why the believer must confess their sins; so that the Lord will hear.
Yet a person who is FILLED with the Holy Ghost will not be sinning... because there is no room in them for sin. (People claim this more often than it is true.)
To clarify, when one is under the influence of the Spirit, they WILL NOT sin. However, Paul also commands that believers will NOT grieve (Eph 4:30) or quench (1 Thess 5:19) the Spirit.
So unless the believer is filled with the Spirit, everything the believer does is by the power of their own sinful nature (willpower). It may look good to others (morality) but it stinks to God.
Isa 64:6 - But we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as
filthy rags; and we all do
fade as a
leaf; and our
iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us
away.
hint: "filthy rags" is literally "used menstral rags". That's how stinky our human good produced from our own sin nature smells to God.
Being BAPTIZED with the Holy Ghost is a singular event that you keep forever.
Being FILLED with the Holy Ghost is currently only temporary because we can (and soon do) allow other things (like the desire for old habits) to enter in.
Correct.
Ephesians 5:18 hints at the relationship between what we fill ourselves with, and what results will be. We need to realize that whatever we fill ourselves with is going to yield a corresponding change in our actions/behavior.
True. And, we can just as quickly lose the filling by shifting our focus on "things below" rather than "things above".
So... how can we be FILLED with the Holy Ghost/Spirit?
First, if you haven't been BAPTIZED with the Holy Ghost/Spirit, you need to seek Jesus until that happens.
To be specific, a person needs to recognize that Jesus is fully human and also the Son of God, Deity. They need to believe that His death on the cross was for them and that He promises eternal salvation to all who believe in Him for it. John 3:15,16, 6:40, 20:31.
Then, once you have been BAPTIZED with the Holy Ghost/Spirit you need to USE IT. We need to pray in the Spirit once we have received it. Jude 21 commands us to build ourselves up in faith and keep ourselves in the love of God by praying in the Holy Ghost.
We can only "pray in the Spirit" when we are in fellowship through confession of sin.
Those who have been BAPTIZED with the Holy Ghost/Spirit will likely understand what that means.
Not necessarily. Everyone needs to be taught these spiritual truths. It doesn't come naturally.
Those who have not been BAPTIZED with the Holy Ghost/Spirit probably don't know what praying in the Holy Ghost really is. (I also make allowance that some simply have not been taught to use what they have been given.)
Exactly.
Lastly, there is another meaning of filled/full that also needs to be recognized. That is the idea of being full/filled to capacity. This acknowledges that every vessel has a capacity limit based on its "size". When God gave Solomon the vast amount of wisdom, it is also stated that God gave him "largeness of heart" so he could retain it.