Let our young converts be fully instructed and fully equipped with the glorious Fullness provided for them by the gracious Father, and we will hear less about backsliding.

Illustration of man following his footsteps in circle; life concept

It is most instructive to note how exceedingly anxious the early Christians were, that, as soon as a man was converted, he should be “filled with the Holy Ghost.” They knew no reason why weary wastes of disappointing years should stretch between Bethel and Peniel, between the Cross and Pentecost. They knew it was not God’s will that forty years of wilderness wanderings should lie between Egypt and the Promised Land (Deut. i. 2).

When Peter and John came to the Samaritans, and found that they were really turned to God, their first concern was to get them filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts viii. 15). When Ananias came to the newly-converted Saul of Tarsus, his first word was, “Jesus … hath sent me, that thou mayest … be filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts ix. 17). When Paul found certain disciples at Ephesus, his first business with them was to find out if they had “received the Holy Ghost” (Acts xix. 2).

These early teachers did not wait for a few months or years till the young converts had be


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If it is a sin for a Christian to be drunk, it is just as surely, truly, really, a sin not to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

“Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18) is a command to be obeyed, a duty to be done. Many of God’s people are acknowledging that they did not know that “Be filled with the Spirit” was a command; but it is, and there is no excuse for not knowing. You will notice that in Ephesians 5:18 there is a double command, a negative, “Be not drunk,” and a positive, “Be ye filled.” The positive command is as authoritative as the negative, and was binding on just as many of those Ephesian Christians as was the negative command.

Now what was true for those believers there in Ephesus in the long-ago is equally true for all believers on God’s footstool to-day. Is it a sin for a believer today to disobey the command, “Be not drunk”? and is it then a virtue to disobey the equally authoritative command, “Be ye filled”? If it is a sin for a Christian to be drunk, it is just as surely, truly, really, a sin not to be filled. We are commanded and expected to live a Spirit-filled life, to be filled, not with


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