According to the epistles of Paul (under the gospel of the grace of God), being “filled with the Spirit” is a continuous, practical reality of allowing the already-indwelling Holy Spirit to control and empower the believer’s daily life by faith—not an automatic, one-time, or dramatic event like the fillings associated with Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.
Paul’s Teaching in the Epistles
The primary command appears in Ephesians 5:18: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” This is a present passive imperative (“keep on being filled” or “be continually filled”), contrasting the controlling influence of wine with the controlling influence of the Spirit.
It is not about receiving more of the Spirit (believers already have Him permanently—Romans 8:9; I Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 1:13–14) or seeking a second experience. Instead, it means yielding to the Spirit’s control so that He permeates and directs the believer’s mind, will, emotions, and actions.
Immediate results follow in Ephesians 5:19–21: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in the heart to the Lord; giving thanks always; and submitting to one another. This parallels Colossians 3:16 (“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”), showing that Spirit-filling is closely tied to the Word of God governing the life.
Related teaching includes:
Paul never presents filling as universal or automatic for all members of the Body of Christ in this age. He exhorts and prays for believers to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, the fruits of righteousness, and all the fullness of God (Colossians 1:9; Philippians 1:11; Ephesians 3:19).
The Spirit indwells by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ; daily appropriation of His help by faith enables victory over sin and practical godliness. Bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19–20), so the goal is that they function as such in reality.
Paul’s gospel of the grace of God for the Body of Christ in the present dispensation, carefully distinguishes this from the events of Acts (particularly Pentecost). At Pentecost, believers “were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4) as a factual result of the baptism with the Spirit, fulfilling kingdom promises to Israel (Joel 2; Ezekiel 36) and producing miraculous signs, boldness, and even communal living (“all things common”). This was a sovereign act tied to that prophetic program, not primarily the result of superior personal godliness.
That program has been superseded. Paul teaches a different baptism: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body” (I Corinthians 12:13)—the Spirit’s work of placing believers into the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ (Jews and Gentiles reconciled in one body by the cross—Ephesians 2:16) did not yet exist at Pentecost in the same sense.
Paul never says all members of the Body are filled as a matter of fact (as at Pentecost). Many early churches (e.g., Corinth, Galatia) showed clear evidence of not being filled, as Paul’s corrective letters demonstrate. Sign gifts and the Pentecostal pattern have ceased (I Corinthians 13:8), and practices like selling all possessions are not for today (cf. I Timothy 5:8).
Today, under pure grace:
According to our Apostle Paul, being filled with the Spirit means living under the controlling influence of the indwelling Holy Spirit by daily faith and obedience to the Word, resulting in Christ-like character, thanksgiving, mutual edification, and practical righteousness in the dispensation of the grace of God. It is ongoing, not a crisis experience or a return to Pentecostal conditions.