What is the Spirit-Filled Life?
For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3 NLT).
Dear friends:
Have you ever wondered just what is the Spirit-filled life?
For one thing, it is not just nice religious terminology. It does not describe some eerie, intangible, heightened state of spirituality. To the contrary, the Spirit-filled life is full of substance. It is a real, tangible, down-to-earth life, the way Jesus was down-to-earth. In fact, it is the only real life.
The Spirit-filled life is nothing less than the Christ-filled life. The Spirit-filled Christian is one who, according to Romans 6:11, considers himself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. In a very real sense, the Christian gives up his life, his spiritual impotence, defeat, and fruitlessness for the power and victory of Jesus Christ. This is what the great missionary statesman Hudson Taylor referred to as the “exchanged life.”
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are filled with Jesus Christ. We no longer think of Christ as One who helps us do some kind of Christian task but, rather, Jesus Christ does the work in and through us. Christ does not want us to work for Him. He wants us to let Him do His work in and through us. This is the glorious experience that the apostle Paul knew, as he described in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (NIV).
Our body now becomes Christ’s body to use as He wills; our mind becomes His mind to think His thoughts; our will is now controlled by His will; our total personality, time, and talents are now completely His.
Paul goes on to say, “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Think of it! Can you grasp what this means?
If you yield your will to God the Holy Spirit and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is, in fact, in control of your life, moment by moment, you are in for a great adventure. The Lord Jesus Christ will begin to draw scores of lost men and women to Himself through your yielded, Spirit-filled life.
Yours for helping to fulfill the Great Commission each year until our Lord returns,
Bill Bright
About the Author
The late Dr. Bill Bright was Founder and President/Chairman Emeritus of Campus Crusade for Christ, an organization which began as a campus ministry in 1951 and now has more than 27,000 full-time staff and up to 500,000 trained volunteer staff in 196 countries in areas representing 99.6 percent of the world’s population. In the past 50 years, Campus Crusade for Christ has seen approximately 6 billion exposures to the gospel worldwide. The film, “JESUS,” which Bright conceived and funded through Campus Crusade for Christ, is the most widely translated and viewed film of any type ever produced. Since its use began in 1980, the film has been translated into 839 languages and viewed or listened to by over 5.7 billion people in 228 countries. Dr. Bright was also the author of more than fifty books. Dr. Bright recently co-founded Global Pastors Network to “Touch, Teach and Train” a group of 5 million new house churches around the world 24/7/365 at http://www.globalpastorsnetwork.org.
Copyright © 2003, Bill Bright. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
