All believers begin their Christian life with the Holy Spirit controlling the soul. We receive the filling of the Holy Spirit simultaneously at the moment of salvation along with the six other ministries of the Holy Spirit. We can never lose the other six, but we can lose the filling of the Holy Spirit through sin, evil, and human good. To be filled with the Spirit is to have the Spirit controlling our soul, fulfilling in us all that God has planned for us. Because the body is the headquarters of the old sin nature, the Holy Spirit sets up His headquarters in the body for counteraction. The battlefield is the soul. By the filling of the Holy Spirit God controls our soul, preparing us for moving forward in the midst of enemy fire. The battle is a constant, everyday affair. It never ends, it never stops; it is never over until we are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord.

 

GAL 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

 

In no way could we ever fight this battle alone; in no way could we ever fulfill God’s plan without His supernatural power. The Filling of the Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity if the Christian is to realize any success at all in the spiritual life. The Christian faces superhuman requirements which can only be fulfilled through the superhuman power made available by God the Holy Spirit.

 

EPH 3:16. That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

 

This function of the filling of the Holy Spirit is designed to provide the believer with the ability to learn and apply doctrine, equipping us to be faithful ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, representing Him to a lost and dying world.

 

JOH 16:13-15 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore, I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.”