When God fills you with His Spirit, everything changes.
Brethren, I want to tell you about a man who stood before an angry mob with his face literally glowing like heaven itself.
They were about to stone him to death, yet he looked up and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. His name was Stephen.
The Bible tells us in Acts 6:5 that he was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.
But here’s what most Christians miss. Stephen started out as a table server. That’s right. He was chosen to wait on tables in the early church.
Yet something happened to him that lifted him far beyond the ordinary. He became full of the Holy Ghost.
And when that happens, beloved, persecution starts, miracles break out, and your whole life transforms into something supernatural.
Let me tell you what happened when ordinary men became filled with the Holy Ghost, and what this means for you today.
In those early days, the church was growing rapidly.
Acts 6:1 tells us that the number of the disciples was multiplying.
But with growth came problems. The Greek widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.
The twelve apostles faced a critical decision: they could either serve tables or give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.
Listen to what they said in Acts 6:2-4: It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
Notice what they required. Men full of the Holy Spirit. Not just educated men. Not just talented men. Men filled with the Holy Ghost.
Because when a man is filled with the Spirit, it lifts him to a plane above the ordinary.
God does not require a cultured or learned man to fill a position in his church.
What God requires is a yielded, consecrated, holy life. And he can make such a person a flame of fire, baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire.
The multitude chose seven men to serve tables. They were faithful in their appointed tasks. But here’s where it gets interesting. God had a better plan for at least two of them.
Philip was so full of the Holy Ghost that he could have a revival wherever God put him down. Man chose him to serve tables, but God chose him to win souls.
Church, if I could only stir you up to see this truth. As you are faithful in performing the humblest office, God can fill you with his Spirit and make you a chosen vessel for himself. He can promote you to a place of mighty ministry in the salvation of souls and in the healing of the sick.
There is nothing impossible to a man filled with the Holy Ghost. It is beyond all human comprehension.
Let me share something that will show you how God leads when you’re filled with his spirit.
When I was sailing to Australia recently, our boat stopped at Aden and at Bombay.
People came around the ship selling their wares, beautiful carpets and all sorts of oriental things.
One man was selling ostrich feathers. I was looking over the side of the ship watching the trading when a gentleman approached me.
Would you go shares with me in buying that bunch of feathers? He asked. What did I want with feathers? I had no use for such things, and no room for them either. But the gentleman asked again, “Will you go shares with me in buying that bunch”?
Right then, the Spirit of God spoke to me clearly. Do it.
The feathers were sold to us for three pounds. The gentleman said, I have no money on me, but if you will pay the man for them, I will send the cash down to you by the purser. He was traveling first class, and I was traveling second.
But I said to him, “No, please don’t give that money to the purser.” I want you to bring it to me personally, to my cabin.
I said to the Lord, What about these feathers? He showed me that he had a purpose in my purchasing them.
At about ten o’clock that morning, the gentleman came to my cabin. I’ve brought the money he said I looked at him and said it is not your money that I want it is your soul that I am seeking for God.
Right there beloved he opened up the whole plan of his life and began to seek God that morning he wept his way through to God’s salvation.
You have no conception what God can do through you when you are filled with his Spirit. Every day and every hour you can have the divine leading of God.
This is what it means to be full of the Holy Ghost. You know the voice of God, and he directs your steps in ways that will amaze you.
Now, let me take you back to something crucial. The twelve apostles said they would give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
How important it is for all God’s ministers, and that includes every believer to be continually in prayer and constantly feeding on the scriptures of truth. I often offer a reward to anyone who can catch me anywhere without my Bible or my testament. Why?
Because none of you can be strong in God unless you are diligently and constantly listening to what God has to say to you through his word.
You cannot know the power and the nature of God unless you partake of his inspired word. Read it at morning and at night, and at every opportunity you get. After every meal, instead of indulging in unprofitable conversation around the table, read a chapter from the Word, and then have a season of prayer.
The psalmist declares in Psalm 119 verse 11, Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
And you will find that the more of God’s word you hide in your heart, the easier it is to live a holy life.
He also testified that God’s word had quickened him.
As you receive God’s word into your being, your whole physical being will be quickened, and you will be made strong.
As you receive with meekness the word, you will find faith springing up within, and you will have life through the word.
Look at Stephen. He was just an ordinary man, chosen to serve tables, but the Holy Ghost was in him.
Acts 6:8 tells us he was full of faith and power and did great wonders and miracles among the people.
When he spoke Acts 6:10 says, They were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
There was something about this man that was undeniable. The religious leaders could not argue with the power and wisdom flowing through him.
How did this happen?
He was filled with the Holy Spirit. And when you are filled with the Spirit, you will know the voice of God. You will do great wonders. You will speak with wisdom that no one can resist.
Let me tell you about a meeting I was holding where the Lord was working and many were being healed.
A man saw what was taking place and remarked, I’d like to try this thing.
He came up for prayer and told me his body was ruptured in two places.
I laid my hands on him in the name of the Lord and said to him, Now you believe God.
The next night he was at the meeting, and he got up like a lion. He announced loudly, I want to tell you people that this man here is deceiving you. He laid his hands on me last night for rupture in two places, but I’m not a bit better.
I stopped him right there and declared, “You are healed.” Your trouble is that you won’t believe it, but what happened next will shock you.’
He was at the meeting the next night, and when there was opportunity for testimony, this same man arose.
Listen to what he said: I’m a mason by trade. Today, I was working with a laborer, and he had to put a big stone in place. I helped him and did not feel any pain. I said to myself, How have I done it?”
I went away to a place where I could strip and found that I was healed. I told the people, Last night, this man was against the word of God, but now he believes it.
It is true. Jesus declares in Mark 16:17-18, These signs will follow those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
All through the power that is in the name of Christ.
It is the Spirit who has come to reveal the Word of God and to make it spirit and life to us.
Now here’s something most Christians don’t understand. The moment you are filled with the Holy Ghost, persecution starts.
It was so with the Lord Jesus himself. We do not read of any persecution before the Holy Spirit came down like a dove upon him in Matthew 3:16.
Shortly after this, we find that after preaching in his hometown, they wanted to throw him over the brow of a hill.
It was the same with the twelve disciples. They had no persecution before the day of Pentecost. But after they were filled with the Spirit in Acts 2, they were soon in prison.
The devil and the priests of religion will always get stirred when a man is filled with the Spirit and does things in the power of the Spirit.
Listen carefully. Persecution is the greatest blessing to a church. When we have persecution, we will have purity.
If you desire to be filled with the Spirit, you can count on one thing: persecution.
Matthew 10:34-36, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies will be those of his own. household.
The Lord Jesus came to bring peace, and soon after you get peace within, you get persecution without.
If you remain stationary, the devil and his agents will not disturb you much.
But when you press on and go the whole length with God, the enemy has you as a target.
But God will vindicate you in the midst of the whole thing.
Let me share one more powerful testimony. of what happens when you’re filled with the Spirit.
I had been preaching in New York and sailed one day for England on the Lusitania.
As soon as I got on board, I went down to my cabin. Two men were there, and one of them said, well, will I do for company?
He took out a bottle, poured himself a glass of whiskey and drank it, then filled it up for me. I never touch that stuff, I said.
How can you live without it? he asked.
How could I live with it? I responded.
He admitted something heartbreaking. I have been under the influence of this stuff for months, and they say my inside is all shriveled up, and I know that I am dying. I wish I could be delivered, but I just have to keep on drinking. Oh, if I could only be delivered. My father died in England and has given me his fortune. but what good will it be to me, except to hasten me to my grave?
I said to this man, Say the word, and you will be delivered.
He asked, what do you mean?
I declared, Say the word, show that you are willing to be delivered, and God will deliver you.
But it was just as if I was talking to a wall for all the comprehension he showed.
I said to him, “Stand still. I laid my hands on his head in the name of Jesus and cursed that drink demon that was taking his life.
He cried out, “I’m free! I’m free! I know I’m free”!
He took two bottles of whiskey and threw them overboard, and God saved, sobered, and healed him right there.
I was preaching all the way across the ocean. He sat beside me at the table.
Before this, he had not been able to eat. But at every meal, he went right through the entire menu.
You only must have a touch from Jesus to have a good time. The power of God is just the same today. To me, he’s lovely. To me, he’s saving health. To me, he’s the lily of the valley. Oh, this blessed Nazarene, this king of kings, hallelujah.
You people who are seeking the baptism are entering a place where you will have persecution.
Your best friends will leave you, or those you may consider your best friends. No good friend will ever leave you. But it is worth it.
You enter into a realm of illumination, of revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost.
He reveals the preciousness and the power of the blood of Christ.
I find by the revelation of the Spirit that there is not one thing in me that the blood does not cleanse.
I find that God sanctifies me by the blood and reveals the effectiveness of that work by the Spirit.
Being full of the Holy Ghost means a life of deep, inward revelation, of transformation.
From one state to another, of growing in grace and in all knowledge, and in the power of the Spirit.
The life and mind of Christ are renewed in you with constant revelations of the might of his power. It is the only kind of life that will enable us to stand.
I have seen some who have been suffering for years, and when they have been filled with the Holy Ghost, everything of their sickness has passed away.
The Spirit of God has made real to them the life of Jesus, and they have been completely liberated from every sickness and infirmity.
They brought Stephen before the council, and God filled his face with a ray of heaven’s light.
It is worth being filled with the Spirit, no matter what it costs.
Read the seventh chapter of Acts, that mighty prophetic utterance by this holy man.
Without fear, he tells them in Acts 7:51, You, stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and gnashed their teeth at him.
There are two ways of being affected at the heart. Here they gnashed their teeth and cast him out of the city and stoned him.
On the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2:37, when people were pricked at the heart, they cried out, what shall we do? They took the opposite way.
The devil, if he can have his way, will cause you to commit murder. If Jesus has his way, you will repent.
And Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven.
Acts 7:55-56 declares, But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of God.’
Oh, this being full of the Holy Ghost, how much it means!
I was riding for sixty miles one summer day, and as I looked up into the heavens, I had an open vision of Jesus all the way. It takes the Holy Ghost to give this.
Stephen cried out in Acts 7:60, Lord, do not charge them with this sin.
As he was full of the Spirit, he was full of love, and he manifested the very same compassion for his enemies that Jesus did at Calvary. Brethren,
Here is where most Christians fail. They settle for being saved but never press in for the fullness of the Holy Ghost.
They are content to serve tables when God wants to make them flamethrowers for the kingdom.
They are satisfied with ordinary Christianity when God offers supernatural power.
I want to challenge you today. Stop resisting the Holy Ghost. Stop making excuses. Stop being afraid of what people will think.
Most Christians will never experience this power because they are unwilling to pay the price of persecution.
They are unwilling to be considered fanatics.
They are unwilling to let go of their reputation and their comfort.
But let me tell you what happens when you are filled with the Holy Ghost.
You will have divine leading every single day.
You will speak with wisdom that no one can resist.
You will see miracles, the sick healed, the bound set free, the lost saved.
You will have boldness to witness anywhere, anytime.
You will have power to live a holy life.
You will see heaven opened and Jesus himself revealed to you.
This being filled with the Holy Ghost means much in every way. It means constant filling, constant quickening, a new life continually.
Oh, it’s lovely. We have a wonderful gospel and a great Savior.
Will you let him have your will? Will you let him have you? If you will, all his power is at your disposal.
John 7:37-38, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
If you will but be filled with the Holy Ghost, you will have a constant spring within.
Yes, as your faith centers in the Lord Jesus, from within you shall flow rivers of living water.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that you would baptize every person reading these words with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Fill them to overflowing with your Spirit. Give them boldness like Stephen. Give them divine leading. Give them power to heal the sick and cast out devils.
Break the chains of fear, religion, and mediocrity.
Let them be witnesses of your resurrection power. Let rivers of living water flow from their innermost being. I curse every spirit of unbelief, every demonic hindrance, every religious spirit that would keep them from this glorious infilling.
Fill them now, Lord. Baptize them now. Make them flames of fire for your glory. In Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
I believe with all my heart that as you’ve learned what it means to be truly full of the Holy Ghost today, you’ve been activated into a new realm of supernatural living.
The understanding you’ve gained about divine leading, spiritual power, and the persecution that follows true Spirit-filled Christianity is already working in you to create holy dissatisfaction with ordinary Christianity.
Refuse spiritual mediocrity and acknowledge one area where you’re going to press in for the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Your declaration will start in motion, the spiritual state of settling for less than God’s best today.
Here’s your practical application. Start every morning by declaring, Holy Spirit, lead me today.
Always keep your Bible with you.
Read a chapter after every meal and pray.
Ask God to fill you afresh each day and expect Him to give you divine appointments where you can minister in His power.
But here’s a question that might challenge everything you think you know about being filled with the Spirit.
Do you have the Bible evidence or just an experience?
What if you’re convinced you’ve received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but God has something more?
Something that lines up perfectly with Scripture?
How can you know for certain that what you have matches exactly what the Apostles received on the day of Pentecost?
What is the undeniable proof that settles all controversy and gives you unshakable confidence that you have the real thing?
What are the three biblical witnesses that prove the genuine baptism of the Spirit?
Receiving this revelation will transform your own understanding from religious certainty to scriptural evidence, and having the Bible backing for your experience is the only thing that will keep you immovable when critics and doubters come against what God has done in your life.
By Smith Wigglesworth