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what ye shall speak". On the contrary, we are told to "study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth"
(II Tim. 2: 15).
Paul was filled with the Holy Ghost, condemned a man and struck him blind but such
miracles of judgment have no place in this dispensation of the grace of God (Eph. 3: 2).
Paul's restoration of sight may have been due to the filling with the Holy Ghost, but after
Acts 28: 28 such healing miracles ceased. Timothy had stomach problems and other
infirmities, and Trophimus was left sick at Miletum (I Tim. 5: 23; II Tim. 4: 20).
Elizabeth "spake out" and Zacharias "prophesied" but in this dispensation the prophets
of Eph. 4: 11 were to lay the foundations (Eph. 2: 20), a job done in the years just after
the Jews were set aside at Acts 28: 26, 27.
I Corinthians 13: 8 states that the gift of prophecy would fail. It states also that the
gift of knowledge, the Acts period of fulfillment of Matt. 10: 17-20, would cease, as
would tongues. Peter and the apostles were filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues,
which was a sign to the unbelieving Jews (I Cor. 1: 22; 14: 21, 22). When that nation
was set aside, the need for such signs ceased and then there is no record of them in the
later epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I & II Timothy, Titus and Philemon).
The only conclusion one can come to is that being "filled (pimplemi) with" and being
"full (pleres) of" the Holy Ghost with the resultant displays of miraculous power is not
truth for today. But what about Eph. 5: 18?
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be ye filled with the Spirit;
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God"
(Ephesians 5: 18).
Here the word translated filled is pleroo:
pleroo: (1) to fill, make full, to fulfil. Passive, to be filled or full (Bullinger). (2) to
make full, to fill to the full; in the Passive voice, to be filled, made full; it is used . . . . .
of believers filled with the Spirit, Acts 13: 52 and Eph. 5: 18 (Vine).
Acts 13: 52 states that "the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost"
but Eph. 5: 18 is not a description of the condition or state of believers. It is a
command, telling them what they should be like: literally, "Be not drunk . . . . . but be
filled up to the full by the Spirit". Commenting on the expression "be filled with the
Spirit", Charles H. Welch wrote:
"To understand this statement it is necessary to understand the use of the Greek verb
`to fill'. Pleroo, `to fill' takes three cases after it. As an active verb, followed by the
Accusative, of the vessel or whatever is filled. As an active verb, followed by the
Genitive, of what it is filled with. As a passive verb, followed by the Dative, of the filler,
and as a passive verb, followed by the Genitive, of what the vessel is filled with.
In the passage before us the verb is passive, and `with the Spirit', en pneumati, is
Dative. This means that the Spirit is the One that fills, and not that the believer is filled
with the Spirit" (In Heavenly Places, page 393).