Empowering Of The Holy Spirit: The Spirit Is Upon Us And Within Us

In the old Testament the occurrence of the Holy Spirit coming upon is quite frequent. We only have time to deal with the NT today. In all the given instances the Holy Spirit comes upon the people of God to empower them, not for spiritual regeneration but for empowerment for ministry.

Let’s stop there with the Spirit upon and let’s understand the Spirit within first.

The Spirit Within For Character Change.

Last week we saw tat the Spirit comes upon us for regeneration

But he also comes upon us for Sanctification

1Cor. 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

Rom. 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

John 14:17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

This is, as we spoke of last week. The spiritual fruit that ones bears

as God changes our character from who we are – to what he wants us to be. So we have the Internal work of the Holy Spirit and the External work of the Holy Spirit.

Internal – to change our character and bear spiritual fruit.

External – to give us power for ministry.

What about when the Bible speaks of being filled with the Holy Spirit?

If you look at your sermon outline, you will see the Greek word pletho

And the Greek words pleroo and pleres. These are words, when translated into the English mean filled. But we need to look to the original text to have a greater understanding of being filled with the Holy Spirit

Pletho (plh/qw) = Filled, charged, loaded, stuffed, moved. Short Term Action - Results in action. It can be used for other things than the Holy Spirit. When used so it is used for temporary filling. We filled the jar with water. We filled the boat with fish, our boat isn’t always filled with fish though some friends may lead us to believe this. No it is a temporary thing. The same when it is used to refer to the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!

Acts 4:31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Acts 13:9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?

In each of these instances, the people in question are already Christians, they are regenerated, in the process of being sanctified and here they are being filled with power for ministry. The Holy Spirit comes upon them in a special way and they are able to do what they could not do on their own. It is supernatural. How could all of these people in the Bible do these things? Speak the right words, have such wonderful insightb e so bold in the face of danger? By the filling of the Holy Spirit.