What Is Filled By The Spirit?

What is the filling of the spirit? Please, just, you know, be patient with me. It will get very clear towards the end, after 10 hours, okay? I promise you, after 10 hours. What is the filling of the Holy Spirit? It's a question.

Filling of the spirit is for the building of the human being. Filling of the Holy Spirit is to do with building the human being. There is a very beautiful verse, St. Paul, he writes it with absolute clarity in 1st Corinthians 12.13. St. Paul in 1st Luke is talking about here in Chapter 4. He says, 1st Corinthians 12.13, For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit.

Wow! For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. Therefore, filling of the spirit is baptism of the spirit. Baptism of the spirit.

There are some beloved Christians, and I'll call them beloved, I love them. There are some beloved Christians who do not understand what is really the baptism of the spirit. Baptism of the spirit is the birth of the church.

Baptism of the spirit is the birth of the church. My beloved, I'll ask you this question. Please be with me.

I don't want to lose you. I ask you this question. Now this question is in the general sense.

Don't tell me specific areas. It is in general sense. When the baby is born, when a baby is born, is the baby born missing an arm or a leg, or is the baby born complete? Isn't it? When the baby is born, it's born complete with all the members that make up the body.

True? Absolutely. But what happens? Now this baby that is born complete, what does this baby need? It needs to grow and develop. That's what it needs.

It doesn't need an arm, it doesn't need an eye, it does not need a nose, nothing, no leg, no nothing, because it was born complete, perfect. So but what it needs one thing, it needs to grow. True? Therefore my beloved, when the church was born on Pentecost, and that's when the church of Christ and the New Testament was born, on the 50th day, which 50th in Greek means Pentecost.

Pentecost means 50th. So when the church was born on Pentecost or on the 50th day, the church was not born incomplete, it was born complete like the baby is born complete. Trust me, it's going to get clearer as we go.

Now why? So that none of us think for a moment that when we are baptized today, after 2026 years gone by, so that when somebody is baptized today, they don't fall into this mistake and think that now the Lord Jesus, let's say this person was baptized, the Lord made him the hand, and the other one was baptized, he made him the leg, and the other one was baptized, he made him the nose, the eye, and the rest of the members, and the Lord as if he started gluing all these members together to make up the body now. No, the body was born complete with all the members on Pentecost, 50th day. So now my beloved, the church is complete from the moment she was born on Pentecost.

But when the baby is born, what do we do? We make the baby grow, isn't it? And how do we develop that baby and make it grow? By feeding the baby, so as the church needs to be fed in order to grow. The church does not miss any hands, legs, or members, but it needs one thing, it needs to grow from a baby to a mature figure. So now, see my beloved, some will come and say, will ask this question and they don't even understand what they're asking, they will come and ask you, have you received the baptism of the Spirit? Have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit? What do you mean being baptized by the Holy Spirit? See, if somebody comes and asks you, have you received the baptism of the Spirit or have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? You say yes.

And if they ask you when, say when the Holy Spirit descended as tongues of fire on the 120 people in the upper room. On that day, I received the baptism of the Spirit. Because the baptism of the Spirit is the filling of the Spirit, which is the birth of the church.

So there is no such thing as, are you baptized with water or are you baptized with the Holy Spirit? Are you on fire? Relax, baptism of the water, you receive the Holy Spirit and you should be on fire thereafter. So there is no such thing as baptism of water, one thing, and baptism of the Spirit, another sort of concept. No, baptism of the Spirit is the birth of the church.

When was the church born? On Pentecost, the 50th day. And when were we all born? On the day the church was born. Because just like the baby is born with all complete body, so was the church born with complete body on Pentecost.

I'll come to it more and more. I can see you're still saying, where is the bishop trying to lead us to? Now, my beloved, the Holy Spirit does not give birth to the church every day. Because birth is only once.

You don't get born every day, do you? You only get born once and that's it. After you get born, you need to grow. That's all you need.

You don't need to be born again and again and again and again and born again. No, my beloved, birth is only once. Now, later on in the near future, we'll do topics about the sacraments of the church, so you understand.

I'll bring you biblical references. I'm not talking out of my own thinking. I'm talking out of the Gospels, the Holy Bible, and the Church Fathers, which are so vital.

Church Fathers, the only strike of them ever. Now, my beloved, the Holy Spirit does not give birth to the church every single day. As soon as you believed in the Lord, you become a member in the mystical body of Christ, which is the church.

The church is the body of Christ. As soon as you believe in the Lord, you become a member in that mystical body or in that church. And as long as you are in the faith, therefore, you have been baptized into one body.

Saint Paul says it, 1 Corinthians 12 13. As long as you're in the faith, you've been baptized into one body. You have joined the body of Christ, in other words.

And at the same time, you have become a member in the one body. So as long as you are in the faith, you have joined the body of Christ. And the body of Christ, Saint Paul says, the church is the body of Christ.

So the moment you're in the faith, you've joined the body of Christ. And at the same time, when you join the body, how did you join the body? You join the body as one of the members of the body. This body has many members.

One is a fingernail. The other one is a finger. The other one is the hand.

The other one is the leg, the eye, the nose, the ears, the mouth, the lips, the tongue, the heart, the kidneys, the lungs, the veins, the blood. All of these members come together, make up the body. So we became, we joined the body and we became members in the body of Christ.

Now, what does that mean? I'll make it more simple. I'll go to the doctor. I say, G'day Doc.

G'day Doc. And then he says, G'day Bishop. And then the doctor holds my hand and he says, Oh, by the way, Bishop, this hand of yours was born before your leg.

Would that work? Can the doctor say that this hand was born before the leg? Of course not. Why? Because when I was born, the hand, the leg, and all the other members were born together at the same time because the baby was born complete. So all these members were born together as one body at the same time.

And when the body started growing, when the body started developing, guess what? All the members grew together and developed together at the same time. So there is no one before the other. No one before the other.

Now, what does this mean? There is a lot of questions today and the word what will be mentioned a lot today. What does that mean? That all of us grew together. This means, my beloved, that when Simon Peter entered in the body of Christ, guess what? You also entered with Simon Peter at the same time.