While God is preparing vessels for His service they are sometimes filled with what would hinder them in serving God, and God, in His wisdom, has to empty the vessel of what it has acquired before filling it with what is necessary to do His will. Moses, during the first forty years of his life in Egypt, was no doubt being prepared of God for the very important service that was to be entrusted to him, but in those years of preparation he became “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22), but the wisdom of the world can do nothing for God (1 Cor. 1:20; 2:6), so that Moses had to spend forty years in the backside of the desert to be emptied of the wisdom of Egypt. Paul too, separated from his mother’s womb and called by Christ’s grace, had to spend three years in Arabia, so that the vessel might be emptied of what belonged to man’s world. When the vessel is emptied of what would hinder in God’s service, God fills it with what is of Himself so that His will might be done.
Filled with Water
At the wedding feast of Cana of Galilee, when the resources of men had failed, the Lord Jesus provided a quality of wine that was better than anything the guests had tasted. There were six vessels of different capacities that were made of stone, which the Jews used for purification, and these the Lord commanded to be filled with water. Vessels used for purification would be clean vessels, and for His service the Lord uses clean vessels, vessels “unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Tim. 2:21).
For the use of the Master, like the stone vessels of Cana, He would have us filled with water, the water of the word stored in the heart and the mind, and displacing everything that comes from the heart and mind of man. When the vessels poured out their contents they brought cheer and joy to those who were at the feast, for the water, by the grace and power of the Son of God, had been turned into the choicest wine. If we are clean vessels, separate from all contact with defilement, and filled with the knowledge of God’s word, the Lord will be able to use us to bring refreshment, cheer and joy to others.
Filled with the Spirit
John Baptist was to be filled with the Holy Spirit “even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15), and his mother and father both spoke wonderful things as filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41, 67). On the day of Pentecost all the disciples of the Lord were filled with the Holy Spirit as He “filled all the house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:3-4), Peter was filled with the Spirit as he addressed the rulers and elders of Israel (Acts 4:8), and when the disciples prayed, as gathered together after Peter’s address, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:31).
Those were wonderful days, with wonderful testimony to the risen and ascended Son of God by men filled with the Holy Spirit. Even to serve tables, the requirement was of men “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3), one of them Stephen, being spoken of as “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” and “full of faith and power” (Acts 6:5, 8). It was little wonder that Stephen was a special target for the malice and hatred of the enemy, and this because he was a special vessel in which the testimony of the Spirit to a rejected and glorified Christ was given to Israel. It was as “full of the Holy Spirit” that Stephen gave his closed witness, and saw the glory of God and Jesus through an opened heaven (Acts 7:55–60).
We cannot expect to return to the days of Pentecost, or to have the privileges specially granted to Peter and Stephen, but it is still possible for us to be “filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18), and this is given to us as an exhortation. If we are to be filled with the Spirit there must be the refusal of everything of self, of man’s world, and of everything inconsistent with the holiness or of anything that is not of God, cannot be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Christ will only have His true place in our hearts, dwelling there by faith, as we are under the control of the Holy Spirit.
At the beginning, some who were filled with the Spirit spoke and did very wonderful things. The words of Elisabeth and Zechariah were remarkable words, and the deeds of Peter and Stephen were outstanding deeds, but the Lord has not asked us to utter remarkable words, or do wondrous deeds. The marks of being filled with the Spirit are simple marks, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Eph. 5:19–21). Each of these three things can be done by the most simple believer when filled with the Spirit.
The man of the world sings when happy, but he cannot enjoy the things of God that are found in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, nor can he sing with melody in his heart to the Lord. Singing lifts the spirit into the Lord’s presence to engage the heart with Him. Whatever the circumstances of the Christian, he can give thanks for all things, knowing that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to purpose. We are never to submit to what would compromise the honour of the Lord’s Name, but to submit to what secures His will, even if it means setting aside our own judgment.
Filled with Joy
Paul and Barnabas had testified faithfully of the Lord to the Jews in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia, and “many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God” (Acts 13:14–43). So great was the work done that “the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region” (verse 49). This was too much for the enemy, who raised a persecution “against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts” (verse 50). We might have thought that the disciples of the Lord, who had but lately trusted the Saviour, would have been down cast at these happenings, but it is written, “the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost” (verse 52).
There is nothing like persecution for keeping the saints of God bright and near the Lord, and it is this that fills them with joy. Divine joy is not to be found in our circumstances here, but in the Lord Himself. Although Jesus was a Man of sorrows He knew what joy was, for we read, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit” (Luke 10:21), and it was when the seventy returned, and when He had been rejected by the cities in which His mighty works had been done (Matt. 11:20–25). This is the joy He gives to His own, even as He said to His disciples, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11).
The Apostle desired for the saints at Rome, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Rom. 15:13). This world’s joy is not lasting, even if it be the purest of nature; and the pleasures of sin are but for a season, and not to be compared with the eternal and heavenly pleasures that are found as the heart by faith is engaged with Christ above. What we have in Christ now, and what the God of hope has promised at Christ’s coming, fills the heart with all joy and peace, lifting us above the trials and sorrows that belong to us in common with all men, and those that the believer is called to pass through for Christ’s sake.
When in prison, for Christ’s sake, Paul knew what would bring joy to his heart, for he wrote to Timothy, “Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of they tears, that I may be filled with joy” (2 Tim. 1:4). If his Master could rejoice in the time of His trials and sorrows, so could the servant, and the coming of Timothy, one like-minded, who had shed tears in sympathy with the Apostle, would fill his cup with joy. What an example this is for us! We are able to find our joy in the Lord, and in His things, and with those who are able to enter with us into the trials, exercises and sorrows connected with the path of reproach and testimony for the Lord.
Filled with Knowledge
If Paul desired that the saints at Rome should be filled with all joy and peace in believing, he was persuaded of them that they were “full of goodness,” and “filled with all knowledge” (Rom. 15:14), so as to be able to admonish one another. It is good to be filled with knowledge, not a mere mental acquaintance with the things of God, or with knowledge that puffs up (1 Cor. 8:1), but with the true knowledge of God and of His Son that leads to a walk well pleasing to God, and that enables us to help the saints of God.
When praying for the saints at Colosse, Paul desired that they “might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. 1:9). Paul then shows how this would affect the saints, enabling them to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” Ignorant of God’s will for us will never lead to an intelligent walk, but the full knowledge of His will for us shows the path we ought to take for His pleasure. Divine wisdom and spiritual understanding are also necessary for this walk, for we not only need divine light, but the spiritual state to walk according to it. These things will also enable us to be “fruitful in every good work,” and to increase “in the knowledge of God.”
Filled with All the Fulness of God
After having written of the mystery of Christ, the unsearchable riches of the Christ, the manifold wisdom of God and God’s eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph. 3:1–11), Paul prayed for the saints at Ephesus, bowing his knees to the Father, and making a number of requests for them. He desired that the Father would strengthen them by His Spirit in the inner man, according to the riches of His glory, that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith, that they might be rooted and grounded in love, and so be able to “comprehend with all saints” the vast extent of the divine treasures of which he had spoken to them. Added to this, Paul would have them know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.
Having all these wonderful things for which the Apostle prayed to the Father, the saints would “be filled with all the fulness of God” (verse 19). What a wonderful fulness there is in the things for which the apostle prayed: Christ dwelling in the heart, the love of God supplying all that we need, the Spirit of God giving inward strength, occupied with the vast sphere of God’s purpose and treasures in Christ, and having the knowledge of Christ’s infinite love. These are surely the things in which the divine fulness consists, the things of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
As occupied with these things, having the suited spiritual strength and state to be engaged with them, we shall surely be filled with them. If we are filled unto God’s fulness there will not be room in the heart, mind and spirit for the things of this world or with anything that would challenge Christ’s right to dwell in our hearts by faith. Moreover, as we are filled with the divine fulness we shall be able to walk for the pleasure of God, and to do His will in regard to all thing for which He has called us.
R. 20.2.71