THE BAPTISM VERSES THE FILLING

There are several differences between the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Filling of the Holy Spirit, but there is one crucial similarity: they both only happen to a child of God. When a person believes that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, and he believes it enough to tell others (Rom. 10:9-10), he is born again (Jn. 3:3-8), saved (Rom. 8:24), adopted (Rom. 8:15), regenerated (Titus 3:5), and he is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13). Notice all genuine Christians have experienced the Baptism of the Spirit (see also Gal. 3:26-27). And, notice that it happened in the past. Christians are never told to be baptized in the Holy Spirit; the fact that they are Christians means they already have been.

The Filling of the Holy Spirit is entirely different. A Christian may be totally under the control of the Spirit one minute, and then be totally void of His influence the next. The perfect example is Peter. In Matthew 16:16-17, Peter correctly identifies Christ as "the Son of the living God." Jesus told Peter God had revealed that knowledge to him. Moments later, Peter was rebuked for listening to Satan (Matt. 16:23). Apparently Peter had a habit of "leaking," as we see by comparing Acts 2:4 with 4:8.

Christians are commanded to be filled by the Spirit; the Greek tense used indicates that one is to "keep on being filled." This command is also found in Ephesians 5:18. Another way of saying it is found in Paul's letter to the Galatians, where he tells them to "walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:16, 25). Evidence that a person is filled with the Spirit is found in the verses in between. "But the fruit (evidence) of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (v. 22-23).

Evidence that a Christian is not filled by the Spirit is also found listed in the verses in between: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such" (v. 19-21). In other words, sin. When a Christian sins (not if, but when), he grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30). In order for the person to once again be filled with righteousness, he must confess his sin (1 Jn. 1:9). A believer is either walking in sin, or he is walking in righteousness (in the Spirit) - there is no "gray area."

So, the bottom line is that a believer is baptized into Christ once, but the number of "fillings" he experiences is limited only by the length of his life. I guarantee that the longer the Christian lives, the more times he "will leak." For those who believe they "have no spiritual holes in their bucket," they are deceiving themselves and they are calling God a liar (1 John 1:8, 10). If you have been baptized into Christ, keep on being filled!