Luke records that “the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon”, a righteous and devout Jew. Quoting Tozer, “The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people. There is nothing about the Holy Spirit queer, or strange, or eerie.
“Unless you are convinced that it isn’t an added, unusual, extra, deluxe something that you have to go to God and beg and beat your fists on the chair to get, I recommend that you don’t do anything about it yet except to meditate upon the Scriptures bearing on this truth. You don’t have to persuade God at all. Dr. Simpson used to say, “Being filled with the Spirit is as easy as breathing; you can simply breathe out and breathe in.”
“Before you can be filled with the Spirit you must desire to be filled. Are you sure that you want to be possessed by a Spirit other than your own? That Spirit, if He ever possesses you, will be the Lord of your Life! Do you want to hand the keys of your soul over to the Holy Spirit?
“Again, are you sure that you need to be filled? Can’t you get along the way you are? But maybe you feel in your heart that you just can’t go on as you are. If you feel that there are levels of spirituality, mystic deeps and heights of spiritual communion, purity and power that you have never known, that there is fruit which you know you should bear and do not, victory which you know you should have and have not—I would say, “Come on,” because God has something for you.
“Here is how to receive. First, present your body to Him (Rom. 12:1-2). God can’t fill what He can’t have. Now I ask you: Are you ready to present your body with all of its functions and all that it contains your mind, your personality, your spirit, your love, your ambitions, your all?
“The second thing is to ask (Luke 11:9-11), and I set aside all theological objections to this text. He chooses to have us ask; so why not ask?
“Acts 5:32 tells us the third thing. God gives His Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. Simply live by the Scriptures as you understand them. Simple, but revolutionary.
“The next thing is, have faith. (Gal. 3:2) We receive Him by faith as we receive the Lord in salvation by faith. He comes as a gift of God to us in power. First, He comes in some degree and measure when we are converted; otherwise, we couldn’t be converted. But I am talking about something different now, an advance over that. I am talking about His coming and possessing the full body, and mind, and life, and heart, taking the whole personality over, gently, but directly and bluntly, making it His, so that we may become a habitation of God through the Spirit. (Gems from Tozer)
