18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Be filled with the Spirit is an imperative command yet many are not filled because they are unwilling to acknowledge their need for His infilling. The human heart can be so proud and so carnal; if only we would humble ourselves before God and confess our need, what a difference that would make.

We must obey His command to be filled with the Spirit. We must be honest before God, with true humility and honest confession, then victory is assured! We must get alone with God and settle this matter before Him. Make a full confession of the need to be Spirit filled.

A reason that some are not filled is because of an unwillingness to become empty to be filled. Before we can be filled, we must be the kind of people that God can fill with His Spirit. We must be HOLY. We must be willing to live a life of SANCTIFICATION AND SEPARATION from the world.

God’s anointing is reserved for the holy. Some are not filled because of an unwillingness to forsake sins. There must not only be a willingness to separate from sin, but to rid ourselves of sin. 

2 Corinthians 7:1 b

1 Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Are you willing to get alone with Him now and resolve this matter?

We must deliberately remove from our lives those things that are displeasing to the Lord and unclean in His sight; whether they are sins of the flesh or hidden sins of the spirit.

ASK the Lord to fill you with the Holy Ghost. We ask the Holy Ghost to fill us and, by faith, we believe, and He does!

A pastor was visiting an old farmer when the farmer asked him how to receive the Holy Ghost. The pastor looked at he farmer's hog pen and had a moment of inspiration. He said, "You need to get in that hog pen and roll around in the mud and then ask God to give you the Holy Ghost." The farmer said, "Why pastor, I could never do such a thing!" The pastor said, "You don't have to...you just have to be willing to!"

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to be filled with the Spirit?

Acts 5:32

32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

“When you strip it of everything else, Pentecost stands for power and life. That's what came into the church when the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost.”

― David Wilkerson, The Cross and the Switchblade

“The Spirit did everything on the Day of Pentecost and afterwards. It was the Spirit who gave the boldness, the wisdom, the message, and the converting power.”

― Andrew Murray

Bethlehem was God with us, Calvary was God for us, and Pentecost is God in us.

―Robert Baer

Pentecost offers a chance to confess our failure to live by the Spirit and to ask the Lord to fill us afresh with His power.

―Mark D. Roberts

My brethren, do you believe in the Holy Ghost?…Have we such a reliance upon the Holy Ghost? Do we believe that, at this moment, He can clothe us with power, even as He did the apostles at Pentecost? Do we believe that, under our preaching, by His energy a thousand might be born in a day?

―Charles Spurgeon

Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.

―Corrie Ten Boom