Human Filling

With no desire to procrastinate, or time to spare, we hasten on with the filling of the Holy Spirit on this Jewish celebration season or time of the Feast of Harvest. Having noted how the Wind of the Spirit, effortlessly, audibly and openly filled the house where Jesus’ disciples were gathered, we continue to see the filling work of the Spirit.

Here is a second reference to filling in this Pentecostal Promise.

Listen! All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2: 4. For those who have memorized this wonderful portrayal of the coming of the Holy Ghost, from the KJV, here it is for you. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

In this filling, the Holy Ghost comes, not as Wind, but as Fire and ensures that every single person, individually receives a tongue of fire, as it were. Tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Each one, individually received a filling. There was no shared filling.

O, the fullness of Spirit-giving! 

I think of those fast food outlets where they fill orders for drinks, orange juice, for example. On the tray are empty cups of all sizes – extra-large, large, medium-size and small – all being filled with juice. The fact is that all are filled, regardless of the planned use of the cup, the colour of the cup or any other manipulated variable. Not one cup is handed out half-full. In other words, if the small cup holds a quarter litre, that is not the determinant for the other cups. No! The measure of each cup is itself, therefore each is filled to size or capacity.

The Holy Spirit filled every single disciple, male and female, according to the capacity of the individual. The Holy Spirit is One and He will do His work in us according to our faith in Him. As your faith is, so will your receiving be. The Holy Spirit fills us all to the fullest. However, understand this fully, as faith is so shall we grow in Spirit.  

There is a third reference to filling, which is most interesting. It’s not as straightforward as the others. Here it is. Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. Acts 2: 13.  You will agree with me that in this context, the phrase, “full of”, also means, to be filled with. Here are mockers, witnesses to the filling of the Holy Ghost in the disciples of Jesus, making fun of them. Here is the testimony of strangers, passers-by, who have been halted, because of what they have seen and have heard. It is most extraordinary and unheard of for uninebriated people to act in such a way. What else will cause all these unknowledgeable, ignorant folk, to speak in such tones? Their mocking statement gives convincing proof to many unmovable facts, three of which I present to you.

God, the Holy Spirit, has made skeptics and mockers, witnesses to His miraculous works in believers in the Risen Christ. These mocking voices, people from all over the world, here in Jerusalem for the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of the First Fruits, where new wine is available, have witnessed an impossibility. These visitors to Jerusalem are hearing, not just people, but Galileans, unlearned men and women, fluently speaking in their native tongues.

Not only that, but in poking fun at what they were hearing, they are saying that the reason for this unusual happening is that these religious people are full of, not just wine, but new wine. These men are full of new wine. We will come to unravel more of that phrase, new wine in a bit. What we are noting, with ever deepening understanding and ever growing belief, is that mockers of the working of the Holy Ghost, bear perfect testimony to the Fulfilling and Filling of God’s Promise of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, many years before, as prophesied by His prophet Joel.

Curiously also, in that one statement uttered by unbelievers, there is also open evidence of the fuelling of the Holy Ghost, or the works of the Holy Ghost. Remember, they are attributing something spectacular, something never heard before, a first time of receiving, if you like, of the fruit or first produce of the Holy Spirit, to Galileans being filled with, new wine.

Tomorrow, we shall spend some gloriously challenging, mesmerizing and mind-moving moments as we keep receiving more about Pentecost for us today.