PTM WEEKLY UPDATE -- MARCH 23, 2009

Does the Holy Spirit "leak out" of us?
Q. I was at a church service where the pastor was talking about Ephesians 5:18 - "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." He was saying that this passage denotes that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event, but a continual experience. The Holy Spirit "leaks out," so you have to go to God every day and ask for a "refill." Just like a gas tank, you run out of gas and have to have a refuel. Where would an idea like that come from?

A. An idea like the one you describe starts with an inadequate and flawed view of the nature of God. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is three, yet one, three divine persons who are co-equal, co-essential and co-eternal. That is the absolute testimony and teaching of Scripture about the nature of God.

The pastor to whom you have reference evidently does not accept the triune God of the Bible, for he suggests that the Holy Spirit is not a divine person, but rather something like a power, perhaps something (as opposed to someone) like one popular science fiction movie stated, "may the force be with you." In such spiritually weak or even toxic environments, it is not uncommon to hear God the Holy Spirit referred to as an "it" rather than "he" (which is, of course, the biblical example -- see Jesus' clear, absolute reference to the Holy Spirit with the first person pronoun in John 16:7-14).

God the Holy Spirit either lives in us or he does not. We do not need a refill at any spiritual gas station, certainly not where they believe that a refill is only "given" if one engages in theatrics hosted within a particular kind of spiritual address. No, God the Holy Spirit does not "leak out."

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