Devotions from the Heart: Being Filled

by Derek Gitsham

"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:4

This verse is written in the context of the
events of the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost
was in the calendar of God and the words
of the Apostle Peter, in Acts 11:15,
‘a beginning’; a spiritual starting place.

As much as the Apostles had been used by
the Lord in the three years of His ministry,
they had only known Jesus after the flesh.
Now they were going to know Him after the
Spirit. We are told in the Gospel (John 1:33)
that Jesus was to be the Baptiser in the
Holy Ghost. Peter records this about Jesus in
Acts 2:33: ‘therefore being by the right hand
of God exalted and having received of the
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath
shed forth this which you now see and hear.’

Our verse in Acts 2:4 does not record that
they were baptized in the Holy Ghost, but we
know they were by Jesus words in Acts 1:5.
‘John truly baptized with water, but you
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence.’ He spoke these words in
His resurrection. The reason for the omission
of the phrase "Baptism in the Spirit" is quite
simple. Baptism is the means, being filled was
the result.

God baptizes men in the Holy Ghost to get them
filled with the Spirit, and then to go on being
continually filled by the Spirit, who now dwells
within them. This could not be possible without
the indwelling of the Spirit in their lives.
Now it was possible to live a life filled with
the Spirit every day. When we think of baptism
in water, we put people in to the water and lift
them out again. These are pictures of death and
burial and resurrection coming up out of the water.

In the Baptism of the Spirit, Jesus baptizes us
into the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost into us.
He immerses us into the Spirit, not to lift us
up out again, but to stay immersed in the Spirit.
This is what is meant by being filled with the
Spirit: staying immersed. Everything began by
men being filled with the Holy Ghost, filled
with God. It took a filling to get everything
moving in the Acts, it will take the same today
in His people. Let God have you, and fill you,
then watch.