Testimonies of the Spirit Filled Life

The believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:52 NLT).

Dear friends:

Every biblical reference to the filling of the Holy Spirit, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, relates to power for service and witness. Beginning with the day of Pentecost and continuing through the centuries, the work of God has always been accomplished through men and women who were filled with the Holy Spirit — men such as Peter, Paul, and all the disciples.

In more recent times, men like John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, Dwight L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, G. Campbell Morgan, R. A. Torrey, Billy Graham, and scores of other Christian leaders who have been filled with the Holy Spirit have been greatly used to further the cause of Christ and His kingdom. However, the filling of the Holy Spirit is not limited to Christian leaders, but is available to every believer who meets God’s conditions.

Hear what some of these great people of God say about the importance of every Christian being filled with the Holy Spirit:

Andrew Murray: “Men ought to seek with their whole hearts to be filled with the Spirit of God. Without being filled with the Spirit, it is utterly impossible that an individual Christian or a church can ever live or work as God desires.”

Charles G. Finney: “Christians are as guilty for not being filled with the Holy Spirit as sinners are for not repenting. They are even more so, for as they have more light, they are so much the more guilty.”

Henrietta C. Mears: “I believe that it is impossible for any Christian to be effective either in his life or in his service unless he is filled with the Holy Spirit, who is God’s only provision of power.”

Dr. J. Oswald J. Smith: “Read the biographies of God’s men and you will discover that each one sought and obtained the endowment of power from on high. One sermon preached in the anointing is worth a thousand in the energy of the flesh.”

Of course, the Holy Spirit already dwells within every believer, but obviously not every believer is filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. But every believer can be.

Since God commands us in His Word to be filled with the Spirit, we may be certain that He has the power to fill us the very moment we invite Him by faith to do so.

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.

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