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said . . . . ." (Acts 13: 9, 10). The short sharp speech that followed contained the
pronouncement of the blindness judgment upon Elymas.
On four occasions the N.T. records that certain people were "full of the Holy Ghost".
full = pleres: (1) full of, filled with, generally full, complete sufficient (Bullinger).
(2) denotes full, in the sense of being filled spiritually, of the Holy Spirit, Luke 4: 1;
Acts 6: 3; 7: 55; 11: 24 (Vine).
Luke iv 1 records that "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness". There the Lord underwent those testing
temptations which He overcame with three quotations from Deuteronomy.
In Acts 6: 1 "there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,
because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration". To solve this
administrative difficulty the twelve looked for "seven men of honest report, full of the
Holy Ghost and wisdom . . . . . and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the
Holy Ghost" (Acts 6: 3-5). The link between administrative gifts and the Holy Spirit
would not be unknown to those who knew their Scriptures.
Such people as Othniel, Gideon and Jephthah needed wisdom, discernment and
prudence to judge the Jewish nation and "the Spirit of the Lord came upon" them to equip
them with the necessary administrative abilities (Judges 3: 10; 6: 34; 11: 29).
As well as Stephen being "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 6: 5), Acts 6: 8
records that he was "full of faith and power"; again a link between these two is seen.
Acts 7: records Stephen's mighty speech to the high priest and verse 55 states again
that he was "full of the Holy Ghost". He could never have made such a speech if he had
not been.
The last reference to a person being "full of the Holy Spirit" is in Acts 11: 24 where
Luke describes Barnabas, but nothing is said in the context which adds further detail
and this concludes the study of being "filled (pimplemi) with the Holy Ghost" and of
being "full (pleres) of the Holy Ghost". Every occurrence in the New Testament has
been considered and neither of these expressions occurs in any of the epistles, neither in
those written during the Acts period nor in those written after the Jewish nation had been
set aside at Acts 28: 26, 27. Does being filled (pimplemi) or being full (pleres) of the
Spirit have any significance to members of the Body of Christ, a relationship revealed in
those seven epistles written after the close of the Acts period?
Elizabeth, Zacharias, Peter, Paul, Stephen and others were filled with the Holy Ghost
and prophesied or spoke with power and boldness. For those alive in the Acts period this
was a fulfillment of Matthew 10: 17-20, but such a promise was not for this dispensation.
We do the words of our Lord disservice if we try and apply that promise to ourselves.
We are not likely to be scourged in the synagogues! (Matthew 10: 18). Thus we cannot
apply this promise to this age, and this aspect of being filled with the Spirit is not truth
for today. Instead we are told the very opposite. We are not told to "take no thought of