Justin Taylor has an informative interview with Graham Cole on his volume He Who Gives Life: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
In response to the question We are commanded to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). How do we do that? Cole states in part:
Paul specifies no steps. So what’s the way forward? I suggest Acts 4 provides a paradigm case. These early Christians gathered in the face of persecution and prayed for boldness to proclaim the gospel. Interestingly they did not pray to be filled with the Spirit. And what did God do? He filled them with the Spirit and they spoke boldly indeed. So I would counsel if you want to be filled with the Spirit, set your heart and life prayerfully on the next step of Christian faith and obedience and you will be filled with the Spirit.
Um. I dunno. In Acts 1:4,5 we read: “While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” In Acts 1:8 the power of the Spirit is promised to them (yes, a power to be witnesses). So, it seems safe to say that they also prayed with the expectation of the Spirit’s coming upon them in power.
Greetings Craig and thanks for stopping by. Good observation here. Acts 1:4-5 does, on first reading, appear to indicate that God’s Spirit is the first instance in a chain of events. However, I wonder if it could be argued that their “waiting” was the condition of the filling?
Just thinking…