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Those familiar with the international Capernwray Bible schools probably know the name Major Ian Thomas, their founder. Ian embraced Christ as Lord and Savior at around age 12, and by his teenage years he was passionately telling everyone he met about Jesus.
Thomas wrote, "I was a windmill of activity until at the age of 19, every moment of my day was packed tight with doing things." Yet after years of preaching and personal evangelism, he was struck by a sobering realization: despite all his effort, not one person had come to faith in Christ as a result of his influence.
"The more I did, the less happened."
He was exhausted, physically and spiritually, and felt there was no point going on. But one evening he got on his knees, poured out his heart to God, and recalled scriptures he had memorized. He realized he had been busy trying to do for Christ what only Christ could do through him. That night, he surrendered his life — and his need to be filled by the Holy Spirit — to the Lord.
From then on, Ian lived each day trusting that the Holy Spirit was living the life of Christ through him. The very next Sunday, speaking to the same group of boys as before, this time trusting the Spirit to speak through him, thirty boys came to faith in Christ. For the next 70 years, countless others were impacted by the Holy Spirit working through him.
Maybe you can relate to Ian's story. You love God and want to make a difference, but despite your efforts, you feel like nothing is happening — you're just putting in time.
If that's you, Paul's words in Romans 12:2 apply: your mind needs to be renewed by the Word of God. The Bible says you need to be filled with the Spirit. You may feel insecure, fearful, and inadequate — your old nature says, "I can't." But God's Spirit in you says, "I can."
Before we can live the supernatural, Spirit-filled life, we need to be freed from anything that hinders us. Scripture spells out three requirements for being filled with the Spirit:
In Acts 2, Peter is preaching to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost:
"The people who heard his message were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'"
To repent means to change your mind — specifically about two things.
If you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you need to surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 6:
"No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve both God and money."
"Money" here represents all the gods we tend to worship — possessions, savings, position, fame, even the people we love. Trying to serve two gods is like trying to serve two bosses or go in two directions at once — it leads only to exhaustion, frustration, and bondage, what James calls being "double-minded."
Jesus never hid the cost of following him. In Luke 9:24 he said that whoever wants to save their life — live for the good life — will ultimately lose it, but whoever loses their life for him actually saves it. The question is: do we really believe him enough to hold everything with an open hand and follow him as Lord wherever he leads?
Repentance also means recognizing that without Christ we are spiritually dead and separated from God — that God hates sin because it is rebellion and because it is destructive. We cannot fix our own spiritual condition through self-improvement. Our only hope is Christ and what he accomplished on the cross.
Repentance is a change of mind that produces a change of behavior. Over time, people around you will notice you are different.
This is exactly what happened during the Welsh Revival in the 19th century. Marriages and families that had been in disarray were restored. Criminal activity nearly stopped — police had almost nothing to do. Along the coast, workers returned stolen tools and equipment to shipyards in such numbers that the shipyards posted a sign forgiving anyone who returned what they'd taken, urging them to simply keep it.
A similar transformation is seen in journalist and author Lee Strobel, who described himself before conversion as profane, angry, and harsh. Only months after becoming a follower of Christ, his five-year-old daughter Allison told her mother, "Mommy, I want God to do for me what he's done for daddy."
When we genuinely repent and make Jesus Lord, our families, coworkers, and neighbors begin to see Jesus reflected in us. Paul says that when we repent in this way, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and begin to live the supernatural Christian life God intended.
Have you genuinely repented to the Lord in this way?
In Acts 5, the apostles are warned by the authorities not to teach in the name of Jesus. Peter responds that they must obey God rather than human beings. Notice verse 32: the Holy Spirit is given "to those who obey him." When our heart's desire is to follow and obey Jesus, we will be filled with the Spirit.
Water baptism is a testimony to the world that we love and follow Christ. To be clear, salvation does not hinge on baptism — Ephesians 2:8-9 makes clear we are saved by grace through faith alone. But the Bible commands us to be baptized, and if we refuse out of pride or fear of what others think, we need to ask ourselves whether we are truly following Jesus. Willful disobedience is sin, and sin blocks the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Sin is like ice or junk in your water pipes — if you want the water to run freely, you have to clear it out.
Sin doesn't remove the Holy Spirit from your life, but it restricts his influence and power. As 1 Thessalonians 5:19 says:
"Do not quench the Holy Spirit" — do not put out the Spirit's fire.
Whether it's pride, jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness, uncontrolled temper, greed, laziness, materialism, or sexual immorality — habitual disobedience chokes out our witness and all the Spirit wants to do through us.
This isn't about perfect obedience. As 1 John 2:6 says, whoever claims to live in Christ must walk as Jesus did — yet only Jesus lived perfectly. What God looks at is the direction of our heart, not the perfection of our life. When our heart's direction is aimed at obeying Jesus, even when we stumble, we remain in good standing with him, and the Spirit empowers us to keep walking in obedience.
Paul describes this total surrender in Galatians 2:20:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Being "crucified with Christ" means dying to our self-centered nature — not erasing our personality. When Christ is at the center, you're still fully yourself; only the orientation changes, from pleasing yourself to pleasing him.
In Ephesians 5:18, Paul writes:
"Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."
Just as a person filled with alcohol is under its influence, to be Spirit-filled means being under the influence and control of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit takes control only to the extent that we release control and yield to him.
This is not a once-in-a-lifetime event. The Greek tense in "be filled" is a present imperative — we must continually be filled. Personally, beginning each day in prayer — asking forgiveness, surrendering afresh, and asking to be filled and used for God's glory — has made a real difference in living with peace, joy, and impact, regardless of personal weakness or insecurity.
Jesus addresses this directly in Luke 11:13:
"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
Just as you received Christ by faith when you first believed, you are filled with the Spirit by faith. You don't need to beg, bargain, fast all night, or wait for a physical sign. You simply ask him and trust him.
So the question becomes: Are you prepared to meet God's conditions? Is Jesus the object of your highest affection? Are you done flapping your spiritual wings in your own strength, and ready instead to soar under the power of the Holy Spirit?
Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that I have been trying to run my life my way, and that as a result I have sinned against you and others. Lord, I repent of my pride, my self-sufficiency, and I ask for your forgiveness. I have counted the cost, and come what may, I willingly surrender my life to you right now. I declare you to be my Savior, Lord, and King. I give you freedom to do whatever you want to do in and through my life. I invite you to take control of my life now. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as you commanded me to be filled, and as you promised in your word you would if I asked in faith. In faith, Lord Jesus, I ask that from this moment on you would take control of my life and live your supernatural life in me and through me through the power of your Holy Spirit. I pray this in the name and authority of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer from your heart, then on the authority of God's Word you can know you are filled with the Holy Spirit. You may have felt a rush of emotion, and that's wonderful — but don't make emotion the test. Believe it happened because you asked in faith. People experience being filled differently, so don't measure yourself against someone else's experience. Instead, look to the life of Jesus Christ, who was full of the Holy Spirit — let him be your example of the Spirit-filled life.
Dr. Bill Bright once told of a photo in Life magazine showing the devastation of a Midwestern tornado. In the center of the picture was a telephone pole with a plastic straw driven straight through it. How could something so flimsy pierce something so rugged? The straw had no power of its own — it was empowered entirely by the force of the tornado.//
The weakest of God's children, when utterly surrendered to the Spirit of God, is empowered to accomplish the supernatural.
In our divided and morally confused world, people are asking, "Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Peter and Paul?" Friends, he lives — and he is still able to do far more than we could ask or think. But he has chosen to do it through you and me, his children of faith, fully yielded and filled with the Holy Spirit.
The same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago is in you right now, living his life supernaturally through you. If you live daily in humble dependence on his grace, he will use you to touch lives, bring hope to the hopeless, and healing to the hurting — changing the world through you, one life at a time.
You may not feel impressive, but God in you is impressive. Walk that way. Live that way. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, resides in you.
