Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Take the test!

Are You Filled with the Holy Spirit?
take: The test!
by the late Dr. Bill Bright, Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ
http://www.ccci.org/

Acts 4:31 (KJV)
And when they had prayed,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together;
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the word of God with boldness.

Dear friends:

Here is a real test that will help you determine if you are truly filled with the Holy Spirit.

Do you find that you have a greater love for Christ?
Are you more concerned for those who do not know His love and forgiveness?
Are you experiencing a greater faith, boldness, liberty,
and power in witnessing, and victory in your own life?
Do you enjoy reading God's Word, the Bible?

If you answer yes to these questions, you are filled with the Spirit. Jesus Christ is beginning to express His life and love through and in you.

Remember, Jesus promised that we would receive "power" after the Holy Spirit has come upon us. That power is to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8).

Acts 1:8 (KJV)
But ye shall receive power,
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Most Christian leaders agree with Dr. R. A. Torrey, who said: "I have gone through my Bible time and time again checking this subject and I make this statement without the slightest fear of successful contradiction that there is not one single passage in the Old Testament or the New Testament where the filling with the Holy Spirit is spoken of, where it is not connected with testimony for service."

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit you will have a greater love for Christ, for your fellow man, and for the Word of God, and you will want to share Christ with others. As Paul said in Romans 5:5,
Rom 5:5 (KJV)
And hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Also, the fruit of the Spirit -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22,23) -- will become more evident in your life.
Gal 5:22-25 (KJV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering(forbearance or fortitude),
gentleness(usefulness, moral exellence),
goodness(inner beauty or virtue),
faith(constancy of religious conviction and profession),
{23} Meekness(humbleness), temperance(self-controlled in appetites):
against such there is no law.
{24} And they that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with the affections(afflictions, emotions)
and lusts(longings for that whice is forbidden).
{25} If we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk(to conform in virtue and piety) in the Spirit.

As a Christian abides in Christ, living in the fullness of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is developed and the Christian becomes more mature spiritually. The maturing of the fruit of the Spirit is a lifetime process that goes on continually as Christ-like characteristics are being formed in the life of the Christian. Some Christians give greater evidence of the fruit of the Spirit than do others because of a greater degree of yielding to His working.

The more we acknowledge ourselves to be dead to sin and surrender to our Lord Jesus Christ and His life within us, and the more we allow Him through the power of the Holy Spirit to live out His life through us, the more evident will be the fruit of the Spirit.

Yours for fulfilling the Great Commission each year until our Lord returns,

Bill Bright

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Scriptures to Contemplate-

Rom 8:1-17 (KJV)
There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
{2} For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
{3} For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh{TLB:"destroyed sin's control over us"}
{4} That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
{5} For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh;
but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
{6} For to be carnally minded is death;
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
{7} Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
{8} So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
{9} But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,
if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
{10} And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin;
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
{11} But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
he that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
{12} Therefore, brethren, we are debtors,
not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
{13} For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:
but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body,
ye shall live.
{14} For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God.
{15} For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;
but ye have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
{16} The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God:
{17} And if children, then heirs; heirs of God,
and joint-heirs with Christ;
if so be that we suffer with him,
that we may be also glorified together.

Eph 5:8-21 (KJV)
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord:
walk as children of light:
{9} (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
{10} Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
{11} And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather reprove them.
{12} For it is a shame even to speak of those things
which are done of them in secret.

{13} But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light:
for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
{14} Wherefore he saith,
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give thee light.

{15} See then that ye walk circumspectly{Web=carefully attentive
to all circumstances which may realate to an action or judgement},
not as fools, but as wise,
{16} Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
{17} Wherefore be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

{18} And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess;
but be filled with the Spirit;
{19} Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
{20} Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
{21} Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Acts 11:22-24 (KJV)
Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem:
and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.
{23} Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad,
and exhorted them all,
that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
{24} For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith:
and much people was added unto the Lord.

Acts 6:5-10 (KJV)
And the saying pleased the whole multitude:
and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,
and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas,
and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:
{6} Whom they set before the apostles:
and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
{7} And the word of God increased;
and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly;
and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
{8} And Stephen, full of faith and power,
did great wonders and miracles among the people.
{9} Then there arose certain of the synagogue,
which is called the synagogue of the Libertines,
and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia,
disputing with Stephen.
{10} And they were not able to resist the wisdom
and the spirit by which he spake.

Luke 11:13 (KJV)
{13} If ye then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children:
how much more shall your heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?