Filled with the Spirit.

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

Eph 5:15-20

15 Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

NIV

Being filled with the Spirit has effects on our lives, just as being a drunkard or being drunk on wine has some effects on our lives. However, the Spirit’s effects are very positive with one of those being the fact that when we are filled with the Spirit we will talk with each other with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We need to explore these effects of being filled with the Spirit, but the reason those show up in our speaking with one another is that we are singing and making music in our hearts to the Lord. This is exactly what Jesus said about what comes out of our mouths comes from what is in our hearts. Therefore, we would think as Spirit-fill, believers in Jesus Christ, we would always have music in our hearts aimed directly at the Lord. This would mean that we would have gladness and praise in our hearts, always lifting up the Lord in a song from deep within our inner being. If that is who we are inside, then it would make perfect sense that in our conversations, especially with other members of the body of Christ we would speak about the things of God, speaking scripture into each other’s hearts. However, it is interesting the Greek word, peripateoo has a direct meaning to regulate one’s life, to conduct oneself, and seen as simply to live. Most translations use this word as one another, but the more direct meaning is yourself. Therefore, because we sing and make music in our hearts we are, in fact, speaking to ourselves with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. However, that still would or should mean that music in our hearts would spill out of our mouths and therefore we would speak to each other the same way we speak to ourselves. We would think this singing in our hearts to the Lord would have a dramatic impact on our countenance or the expression of our faces, the way we stand, walk and talk. We have a difficult time understanding how a believer could walk around with a sad face, shoulders slump as if carrying a heavy burden, as though there is no song in their heart, in light of these instructions to be filled with the Spirit and the effects that causes in their heart. We always need to be in the mode of self-examination and make sure we are living in step with the Spirit, and thus filled with music to our Lord from our hearts, and that would bring this gladness to our faces and our steps would be light, and our burden would be easy because we took the yoke of Jesus upon us. That is, we are yoked with Jesus, pulling through life together. What joy that brings to our hearts as He fills us with the Spirit.