How to be filled with the Holy Spirit has little to do with holy rollers, raving pentecostals, or crazy charismatics. It’s not an ecstatic emotional thing. It’s simply something you need—to walk daily with the Lord in the Spirit. But it is radically misunderstood by many believers.

I was just watching a teaching about getting filled with the Holy Spirit, by a godly man who knows the Lord well. More than that He knows the Bible far better than I do. But as a classical evangelical, he has little knowledge of being spirit-filled. He actually said that the Bible does not tell us how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he went on a fifteen minute explanation of how he handles the process. That’s typical of believers who restrict the Lord to speaking through the written words in the Bible. That limitation is a major problem. Ask the Lord to speak to you. He will, in many ways. In many situations.

I’m just finishing lunch. So, I ask Yeshua for the anointing [to be filled with the Holy Spirit] again as I go back to work on this page.

It’s much more simple than that. What I am talking about is receiving the empowering of the Holy Spirit. You need this help daily, often many times a day. It is a two-step process. The first step I have written about a lot. You will discover it is a theme of mine.

• Step one: Ask the Holy Spirit to show you all your sin. if He shows you anything, repent, and ask for forgiveness.

This is not something you do once, like you did to meet Jesus. This is a normal part of the daily housekeeping of your soul. I normally teach this as the first step to getting the anointing. But that is just using different words about getting filled with the Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus came to do —baptize each of us with the Holy Spirit. This is an immersion in the Holy Spirit.

What makes it difficult for many people is that they expect some kind of emotional thrashing about. Hogwash! You will probably not feel anything different. In fifty years, I have never felt anything when I asked to be filled with the Spirit, or when I ask the Lord for the anointing. Part of it is that in my druggy days, I was governed by what I felt and experienced. The drug rush radically changed my understanding about feeling things like this. I was addicted to those feelings. I needed them to function among people. I suspect that feeling nothing is the Lord is being merciful to me. If I felt a rush every time I asked for the anointing it could be detrimental to me. I formerly had an addictive personality. Getting addicted to feelings is often sin.

Feelings have nothing to do with it

So, you ask to be shown your sin and then you repent and ask for forgiveness. At that point you are clean and sin-free —until the next time you sin. I know this goes against standard evangelical doctrine. But it is Biblical truth.

 So, now that you’re clean — how do you get filled with the Holy Spirit?

• Step two: Ask the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit, or you can ask for the anointing.

That’s it! He did it. You accept that by faith and proceed with what you are doing. It doesn’t matter if you feel anything or not. You ask, He does it, every time.

But what about all the pentecostal or charismatic wild emotional displays?

There are people like that all over the place. If that bothers you, you better never go to a football game. (It’s why I don’t do that or go to concerts or megachurches and so on.) Their emotional outbursts have nothing to do with the empowerment you asked for. I’m an Episcopalian and I like things decent and in order. (Yes, I’m still very sad that the Episcopalians and the Lutherans are often in rank apostasy to the extent that I can no longer attend that kind of church.) I have strong feelings about that. But asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit has no feelings for me.

A SHORT NOTE IN CONCLUSION

Yes, I am a charismatic. I’m still not comfortable in emotional pentecostal meetings or church services. I pray in tongues a lot [using my private prayer language that is part of being filled with the Spirit]. I worship the Lord often while I am writing. Praying in tongues, or better yet singing in tongues, in worship is a normal part of my life. I have been used by the Holy Spirit to manifest almost all the gifts of the Spirit listed in I Corinthians 12. Words of knowledge, words of wisdom, prophecy, and supernatural faith are a major part of my life especially when, like now, I am doing what I was designed to do—create and design writing pieces, or graphics, or whatever. I’m called as a creative: artist, designer, writer, teacher, and so on. It’s what Jesus designed me to be, and I love it. As an 80 year old widow, I do it from the time I get up to the time I go back to bed—about 12 hours a day. I do it to relax and have fun. My dog thinks I’m strange.