Christianity has brought us many traditions. The teachings and practices in Christianity are just traditions. Even the exposition of the Bible is based on traditions. These traditions frustrate believers from understanding God’s desire according to the original intention and revelation of the Bible. Most believers have a preconceived idea concerning the filling of the Holy Spirit. Some think that this involves a miraculous experience or a special physical feeling. Hence, if such things are absent, they question the authenticity of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Others think that the filling of the Holy Spirit involves being filled with power, holiness, and love. These concepts are only half right; they are not absolutely wrong or absolutely right. We must completely give up our previous understanding, comprehension, and impression concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, our understanding will be veiled.
God created us in His own image so that we would be His expression (Gen. 1:26). We are God’s vessels to contain Him so that He may be expressed through us (Rom. 9:23). God chose us and predestinated us before the foundation of the world so that we would be conformed to the image of His Son (Eph. 1:4-5; Rom. 8:29). At a certain point in time the Lord called us. Then we believed, began to call on His name, and prayed, “Lord, I am a sinner. Thank You for dying for me on the cross. O Lord! I am weak, and I need You to rescue me.” Whether we called on Him or prayed, the Lord Jesus entered into us. When the Lord came into us, He filled us in our human spirit.
After being saved, the filling of the Holy Spirit involves the Lord’s filling every part of our being. Since we are vessels of God, the Lord desires to fill us completely. On the day that we first called on His name, the day we were saved, His desire was to enter into us in order to fill us completely. However, we were not ready for such a complete filling, because there were many other things that filled us. The Lord Jesus, however, is very accommodating. He will fill whatever space we are willing to give to Him. He will occupy whatever part of our being that we give to Him. If we do not want to open to Him, there is not much that He can do, because He depends on us. His desire is to occupy us, but we are reluctant to cooperate with Him. It therefore takes a long time for Him to fill every part of our being. He desires to enter into us and occupy our whole being; hence, we were created to be His vessels. However, this requires our cooperation. This cooperation is our consecration.
Without our cooperation, the Lord has no way to occupy us, because there are too many things within us. Some of the things within us are filthy, evil, or corrupt thoughts and covetous intentions. We all have such thoughts and intentions; no one is absolutely without them. Some people have more evil thoughts and intentions, and others have less. This is the first category of things that occupy us. The second category of things that occupy us is not evil, but the things in this category usurp us. These things include our future, education, jobs, and relationships with others. Although these things cannot be considered evil, they usurp us and occupy us. We should be occupied by the Lord, but these other things continue to occupy us.
There is a third category of things that occupy us. This category consists of what we are: our person, personality, self, old man, and ego. If we can still say that we want this or do not want that, our consecration is not thorough. We are still filled with the “I”; we are still the person. These three layers usurp us: sinful things, the world, and the self.
Once we believe in the Lord, we are saved, and the Lord enters into us. However, the Lord has not yet filled our inner being because of these three layers of things within us. The first layer consists of sins, the second layer consists of things other than the Lord, and the third layer is the self. In other words, these things fill us up; we are filled with sins, the world, and the self. Consecration is our willingness to give ourselves to the Lord and tell Him that we are willing to cooperate with Him to deal with our sins, to remove the things of the world, and to deal with our self, that is, that we want Him to be our person. This will enable the Lord to fill us.
The experience of every believer after consecration differs. Some believers experience indescribable joy that causes them to be beside themselves. There is no need for others to encourage them to praise; they spontaneously praise the Lord. Other believers do not sense any change in themselves. The different experiences are not important. What is important is whether or not we are consecrated. As long as we are, this is sufficient. After consecrating themselves to the Lord, some believers immediately experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit; they are so full of joy that they can dance and praise the Lord with Hallelujahs. However, after a few months they may become cold and backslidden. Other believers do not have any such experiences after their consecration. But still the divine life begins to grow in a steady way within them.