Four Simple Words

All that has gone before is by way of soul preparation for the divine act of infilling. The infilling itself is not a complicated thing. While I shy away from “how to” formulas in spiritual things, I believe the answer to the question “How can I be filled?” may be answered in four words, all of them active verbs: (1) surrender, (2) ask, (3) obey, and (4) believe.

Surrender: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:1, 2).

Ask: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).

Obey: “We are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him” (Acts 5:32).

Complete and ungrudging obedience to the will of God is absolutely indispensable to the reception of the Spirit’s anointing. As we wait before God we should reverently search the Scriptures and listen for the voice of gentle stillness to learn what our heavenly Father expects of us. Then, trusting to His enabling, we should obey to the best of our ability and understanding.

Believe: “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Gal. 3:2).

While the infilling of the Spirit is received by faith and only by faith, let us beware of that imitation faith which is no more than a mental assent to truth. It has been a source of great disappointment to multitudes of seeking souls. True faith invariably brings a witness.

But what is that witness? It is nothing physical, vocal, or psychical. The Spirit never commits Himself to the flesh. The only witness He gives is a subjective one, known to the individual alone. The Spirit announces Himself to the deepest part of our spirit. The flesh profiteth nothing, but the believing heart knows (see John 6:63–69). Holy, holy, holy.

One last thing: Neither in the Old Testament nor in the New, nor in Christian testimony as found in the writings of the saints as far as my knowledge goes, was any believer ever filled with the Holy Spirit who did not know he had been filled. Neither was anyone filled who did not know when he was filled. And no one was ever filled gradually.

Behind these three trees many halfhearted souls have tried to hide like Adam from the presence of the Lord, but they are not good enough hiding places. The man who does not know when he was filled was never filled (though of course it is possible to forget the date). And the man who hopes to be filled gradually will never be filled at all.

In my sober judgment, the relation of the Spirit to the believer is the most vital question the church faces today. The problems raised by Christian existentialism or neoorthodoxy are nothing by comparison with this most critical one. Ecumenicity, eschatological theories—none of these things deserve consideration until every believer can give an affirmative answer to the question, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” (Acts 19:2).

And it might easily be that after we have been filled with the Spirit we will find to our delight that the very filling itself has solved the other problems for us.

This devotional was adapted from the book The Deeper Life: Go Beyond Knowledge to Experience Spirit-Filled Living by A.W. Tozer. Click here to purchase your copy and continue your study.