«　WEEK 8　DAY 5　»

　　Eph. 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit,

　　1 Cor. 12:13 For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.

　　The human spirit is more important than the human body. This is why Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit.” To be drunk with wine is to be filled in the body. Here it says that we should not be filled with wine in our body but that we should be filled in spirit. We need to be filled with Christ unto all the fullness of God (1:23; 3:19). Today all the riches of Christ are included in the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). To be filled in our spirit is to be filled with the essential Spirit. The essential Spirit is the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit is the Spirit of reality as the realization of Christ, referred to in John 14:17.

　　The inward filling of the Spirit is different from the outward filling of the Spirit. The outward filling of the Spirit is far less precious than the inward filling of the Spirit. Hence, after the book of Acts the word for outward filling is not used in the twenty-two Epistles from Romans to Revelation. Instead, inward filling is emphasized.

　　1 Corinthians 12:13, says, “For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body...and were all given to drink one Spirit.” Here the conjunction and indicates that to be baptized and to drink are two matters. To be baptized is to be filled outwardly, and to drink is to be filled inwardly. Therefore, the Pentecostals are mistaken in neglecting the distinction between the two.

　　I stayed in Shanghai after the second World War. From time to time I ministered in Nanking. At that time there was a saying in the region around the lower Yangtze River. The saying was, “In the morning the skin encompasses the water; at night the water encompasses the skin.” When a person drinks tea in the tea house in the morning, his skin “encompasses” the water. When he goes to take a bath at night, the water encompasses the skin. They believed that if one practiced this, he would surely be healthy. After I heard this saying, I found it to be very good and meaningful. The skin encompassing the water is a picture of the inward filling, and the water encompassing the skin is a picture of the outward filling. If you want to be a healthy Christian, you have to be revived every morning. This is the skin encompassing the water. You also need to receive the outward filling of the Spirit when you go out to labor for the Lord at night. This is the water encompassing the skin. The Pentecostals make these two “encompassing” into one “encompassing.” As a result, many of them get too deeply immersed in water and drown.

　　Those in the Pentecostal movement also talk about confession, but they wrongly teach people that confession must be accompanied by speaking in tongues. The Bible never says that we must speak in tongues to be filled with the Spirit. Today people are hungry and thirsty for God. Thus, those in the Pentecostal movement use tongue-speaking to attract them. Because the Pentecostals lack the truth, they encourage people to pursue after tongue-speaking. Actually, in many cases their so-called speaking in tongues is not genuine. They simply ask people to roll their tongue and speak out anything that comes to their mind. As a result of this practice, they are not filled with the Holy Spirit. They are not even filled with the evil spirits. They are filled only with themselves.

　　On the one hand, this fellowship is meant to help you by giving you the proper way to pursue the filling of the Spirit. On the other hand, it is meant to give you an inoculation. When you speak to people concerning the filling of the Spirit, they may say, “We also talk about the filling of the Spirit” and may ask you, “Do you speak in tongues?” If you do not know how to answer them, you will be poisoned by them. You must be clear that the filling of the Spirit has two aspects—an outward aspect and an inward aspect. The outward aspect is mentioned only in Acts, but in the Epistles from Romans to Revelation, the inward filling is emphasized because it is the more important aspect (Vessels Useful to the Lord, chap. 7).