Filled Once, Stirred Always

1 Timothy 4:14 “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.”

As I have already stated, it is normative for the church to experience displays of God's power, and the New Testament is full of such accounts. One of the main ways that God's power is manifested in the church is through the laying on of hands. The passage of scripture above is an example of such an account. In this example, the eldership, which included the apostle Paul, laid hands on Timothy to impart a spiritual gift to him, and that gift was identified through the prophecy given at the time. As that gift was imparted to him, it is more than likely that the tangible power of the Holy Spirit came upon Timothy to confirm the impartation—that is, he would have been filled with the Holy Spirit, and he in turn would have displayed some form of physical reaction to that anointing. The pattern remains the same, however: it was the Holy Spirit who decided when to impart the gift to Timothy, and Timothy experienced the power of the Holy Spirit for the express purpose of operating in the gift he received.

 Ephesians 5:18-20 “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,  (19)  speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,  (20)  giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What about the passage of scripture quoted above, where the apostle Paul admonishes the saints to be filled with the Spirit? Many use this passage to encourage the saints to seek multiple "fillings" of the Holy Spirit. However, that is not what the apostle Paul is saying at all, for he does not tell the saints to seek to be filled with the Spirit, but rather to continue being filled with the Spirit. In other words, those who have been baptized with the Spirit are already filled, and all they need to do is rekindle the flame of the Holy Spirit that is already within them. The apostle Paul tells us in this passage how to remain filled with the Spirit: by speaking to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. In fact, the saints should always carry the anointing and have the fire of the Holy Spirit burning within them. They can do this themselves; they do not need to go to someone else to "fill" them with supernatural power. Many saints continually experience the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon and within them, and I can attest to that truth, for the tangible anointing of the Holy Spirit never leaves me.

2 Timothy 1:6-7 “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  (7) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

We have seen in scripture that the Holy Spirit can be imparted in one of two ways: either directly from heaven or through the laying on of hands. Paul's disciple Timothy evidently received the baptism of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands, for in the passage of scripture quoted above, the apostle Paul reminds Timothy that he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of Paul's hands. We know that the gift of God that Paul is referring to in this passage is the Holy Spirit because he goes on to explain to Timothy what type of Spirit the gift of God is, saying that Timothy did not receive a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. Paul uses very similar language in the book of Romans to describe the Holy Spirit when he says that we did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). In the above passage of scripture, we see the apostle Paul advising Timothy exactly how to be filled with the Spirit, for he tells Timothy to stir up or rekindle the Spirit that was already in him. We are expected to do the same thing.

As already mentioned, there is no scriptural evidence for the saints to seek multiple fillings of the Holy Spirit. So if it is unscriptural, why do so many believers seek after it? The answer lies in the physical manifestations that can accompany the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the previous section, we established that there was one manifestation consistent in every account of the baptism of the Holy Spirit: the gift of speaking in tongues. Once the saints have received the gift of tongues, however, they do not seek to be filled again so that they can speak in tongues, because they already have that gift and can use it whenever they choose. We also saw that the Spirit did specify another manifestation in one instance, which was the spiritual gift of prophecy. Thus, the Spirit implied that it is scriptural for the saints to seek spiritual gifts through encounters with the Holy Spirit (although it must be emphasized that most believers will receive only one spiritual gift). Other manifestations, such as laughter, were only implied in these encounters but were not specifically mentioned, as prophecy was.

If these manifestations were recorded in scripture, then it would be entirely scriptural for the saints to seek them just as they can seek after spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1). Because these other manifestations are not recorded in scripture, however, it is therefore unscriptural for the saints to seek them through encounters with the Holy Spirit. People crave the supernatural, however, and so when they have been exposed to these manifestations, they will continue to seek them unless they are taught correctly. Saints get into error when they seek to be filled with the Spirit so that they can experience the various manifestations of the Spirit. It is at that point that they open themselves to being accommodated by unclean spirits. The reason is that the saints are now operating outside of scripture, and so these saints begin to experience manifestations that are demonic in nature and not the Holy Spirit at all.

Ministers of the gospel who encourage believers to seek these experiences open the saints to encountering demonic spirits, and indeed these same ministers are used by the devil (some complicit while others in ignorance) to introduce the church to these demons. Ministers of the gospel who are able to produce these manifestations in their meetings on call are not operating under the anointing of the Holy Spirit but are being used by another spirit. Many of these ministers hold what they call "soaking" meetings, "impartation" meetings, or "catch the fire" meetings, which are all designed to attract people to have encounters with the supernatural. Although the manifestations in their meetings are definitely supernatural, which they attribute to being the work of the Holy Spirit, it is in fact the work of demonic spirits. We saw earlier that the apostles Peter and John were examples of the Lord's ministers who could impart the Holy Spirit purposefully to those who had not yet been filled. These same apostles, however, never held specific meetings to impart the Holy Spirit purposefully to saints seeking to be filled again, and there is a reason for that.

Michael E.B. Maher

Holy Spirit Encounters

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