When I was a college student, a classmate asked me whether I had been filled with the Holy Spirit. At that time, I wasn’t sure how to answer that question. Now, I know that the Bible tells me everything I need to know about the filling of the Spirit. Let’s ask and answer three questions of the Bible about the Spirit’s filling: Who in Scripture is “filled with the Spirit”? What does this expression actually mean? How can I pursue and experience this filling of the Spirit? Who? The filling with the Spirit frequently shows up in describing believers in Acts at various points in their Christian lives. We are told that believers on the day of Pentecost are “all filled with the Holy Spirit” (2:4). When Peter boldly responds to the Jerusalem leadership who have challenged him for his preaching in that city, he is “filled with the Holy Spirit” (4:8). Later in that chapter, believers pray to God and are “all filled with the Holy Spirit and [continue] to speak the word of God with boldness” (4:31). We are then twice told that Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit (9:17; 13:9). We would be mistaken to conclude that the filling of the Spirit is something that God’s people experience only after Pentecost. Luke tells us that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15). Elizabeth and Zechariah, the parents of John the Baptist, were likewise filled with the Holy Spirit (vv. 41, 67). All this happened before Pentecost. Neither can we say that the filling of the Spirit is restricted to believers alive in the days of the apostles. Writing to the Ephesians, Paul tells the church to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). When we read the surrounding verses, we see nothing unique there to the apostolic generation. This command, like the commands that precede and follow it, belongs to the church in every age. Christians today are to be “filled with the Spirit.” This expression, then, does not describe only apostles in the church like Peter or Paul. It describes all sorts of believers (see Acts 2:4; 4:31; Eph. 5:18). Neither does the expression describe a special, higher blessing that belongs only to mature or consecrated Christians. The expression doesn’t describe a special, higher blessing that belongs only to mature or consecrated Christians. The Spirit’s filling is something the whole church in Jerusalem experienced (Acts 2:4; 4:31). It’s something that Paul expects each believer in Ephesus to pursue and presumably to attain (Eph. 5:18). However, an important and biblical limitation surfaces in Scripture. Only Christians are said to be filled with the Spirit. That is to say, only those indwelled by the Spirit (Rom. 8:9–11; Eph. 3:16) can be filled with the Spirit. What? The filling of the Spirit is the Spirit’s ongoing equipping of the Christian with the grace needed to obey God’s commands. When John the Baptist, Peter, and Paul are said to be filled with the Spirit, it’s in connection with the task God has assigned them—namely, to proclaim his Word. In Acts 4:31, believers filled with the Spirit “speak the word of God with boldness.” The background to this statement is Jesus’s command in 1:8 to bear witness to him. When the Spirit comes in power on the day of Pentecost, believers are “filled with the Holy Spirit and [begin] to speak in other tongues as the Spirit [gives] them utterance” (2:4). They are speaking “the mighty works of God” (v. 11), that is, the redemptive works of God in Christ. The church is bearing witness to Christ in Jerusalem. The constant in these passages is that the filling with the Spirit always has the same purpose or goal in mind: the fulfillment of the commands that God has given his people. In Luke-Acts, that command overwhelmingly takes the form of faithfully declaring Christ’s redemptive deeds. How? How can we pursue and experience this filling of the Spirit? Paul answers this question in his letter to the Ephesians. Notice how he contrasts the filling of the Spirit with drunkenness (5:18). Paul is saying in effect, “Don’t be controlled by a substance (wine), but be controlled by the Holy Spirit.” The verses that follow explain what the Spirit-filled life will look like: singing from a sincere heart songs of praise with God’s people (v. 19), giving thanks to God all the time and for all things (v. 20), and living according to the relational pattern that God has set for his people in the home and in the church (5:21–6:9). Paul’s companion letter to the Colossians helps us to see the principle underlying these various commands. Parallel to the place where Paul tells the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit, Paul tells the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16). In the Spirit-filled life, the Word of Christ indwells richly. The Spirit-filled life is committed to believing the Scripture and to obeying it from the heart. To the degree that Christians’ lives are Spirit-filled, their minds and lives are Bible-saturated. The Spirit-filled life is the life that is committed to believing the Scripture and to obeying it from the heart. Most Christians live quiet and ordinary lives that may not seem significant. Each Christian will face trials, temptations, and loss of one kind or another. The promise and command of the filling of the Spirit encourage us all. We have the Spirit of Christ who equips us to do what we could not do in our own strength—to please our Savior by keeping his commands. And whether tomorrow is ordinary or difficult (or both), our Savior has given us everything we need so that “whatever [we] do, in word or deed,” we can “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17). That’s good news indeed!