If you can’t say, “I am filled with the Spirit, I am walking in the Spirit” and you say, “Well, how will I know? Am I going to see lights going off and music playing and and feel, tingle go up my back?” No. You know, that you have been honest with God and confessed any sins in your life. You’ve been washed clean. And as a vessel that has had the filth removed, it will automatically be filled.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is automatic to the clean soul. The moment your soul is washed, you’re going to be filled by the Spirit of God. It’s not something you struggle for. It’s not something you have to strain for. It’s not anything that you have to do anything except make sure the vessel is clean. The vessel that is in you, Paul talks, you remember in 2nd Timothy Chapter two about in a great house there are different kinds of vessels, some of gold and some of the silver. Some have wood and some have clay. Some of them are vessels of honor, some of them are vessels to dishonor. And then he says, a very amazing thing. “If any man cleanses himself …” from these things, meaning the filth, the defilement, the corruption, “… he will be a vessel of honor.”

You are a vessel and that vessel is intended to be full and your vessel is always full of something. I’m sure you’ve probably had people tell you that, but from a spiritual point of view, we are either filled with the flesh or filled with the Spirit.

Look at it this way. I like the way Tozer said it many years ago. He said, in every soul there are two things. There’s a cross and there’s a throne. Whichever one you take, Christ is going to take the other. If you want the throne in your life, if you want to be in the driver’s seat, you’re putting Him on the cross.

The author of Hebrews, didn’t he talking Hebrews about “crucifying the Son of God afresh” and “putting Him to an open shame?” That’s what we do when we try to take the throne of our life. But when we’re willing to take the cross, guess who gets the throne? What was it Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow after.”

It’s very simple. We have to make sure we’re clean. God has made provision because he’s told us that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” And it it defies explanation. It boggles my mind that so many Christians, if you ask him, “how long has it been since you confess your sins to God?” They can’t even remember. For me, it’s usually 5 or 10 minutes ago. It’s not something you just do once a week. It’s something you do whenever you need it. How often do you clean a glass to take a drink? Whenever it needs it.

You can be in a gathering like this. You look across the room, you see somebody who has some characteristic that just strikes you as off and you pass judgment on them. You don’t realize you just cut yourself off. You just pulled the plug of your spiritual power.



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