I stumbled onto this quote in one of my classes this week, and it will not let go of me. “It is clear that it is possible to be a Christian without being filled with the Holy Spirit.” John Walvoord.
It is a sad reality in every church that there are believers who will not yield to the work of the Spirit in them. I know that there have been seasons when it has been a sad reality in my own life. Romans 6:12-13 emphasizes the choice that every believer gets to make for themselves.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
To yield to the Spirit is a moment-by-moment choice. The more the believer says “yes” to God’s instructions in His Word, the more the Spirit fills the believer. As John the Baptist put it, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” John 3:30
I have never heard a sermon on Bezaleel. You can find his name mentioned in Exodus 31, and 35-38. As the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness, God gave Moses precise instructions to build a Tabernacle that would travel with them. Bezaleel was filled with the Spirit of God to carry out these instructions with beauty and creativity. God’s Spirit filled several men and women to help Bezaleel. The entire congregation willingly and sacrificially gave to the work until they had to be restrained from bringing any more. One man’s yieldedness became contagious throughout the camp!
After having turned aside to worship the work of their own hands in the form of a golden calf just a few days prior, this was a marked difference to the worship that God required. Joy, purity, and gratitude marked the fullness of God’s Spirit at work within His people in direct contrast to the sensual, shame-filled pursuit of their own lusts just days before.
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
Romans 12:3-8
Paul points out in Romans 12 that God’s people are granted differing gifts to complete the body of Christ in which they are placed. God’s Spirit enables each believer, like Bezaleel, to fulfill a need in their local church. In yielding to the Spirit within us, we are enabled to accomplish the work that God created us to do. What we are enabled to do by the Holy Spirit will be marked by His fruit; namely, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 6:22-23.
There are two weaknesses the believer must avoid. Like the Israelites who attempted to create their own form of worship, we must be aware of making worship about how we feel or think it is. How it must grieve the Holy Spirit when we try to worship God how we please. Ultimately, this type of worship leads to emptiness. It leads to little or no eternal outcome. See Philippians 2:12-16.
Secondly, we must avoid stealing God’s glory when He does His work through us. Like Bezaleel’s tools, we are merely instruments in the hands of the Master Artist. He is accomplishing an eternal work of glory, and the fact that we get to be a part of that is awe-inspiring. Humility is the only way to be filled with the Spirit.
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
James 4:6
If there is something God is nudging you to do in His local church, may I encourage you to “say yes” to His calling. Every “yes” to God is a “yes” to His Spirit’s filling and is a “yes” to His glory on display.
The conclusion of Bezaleel’s story can be found in Exodus 40:34-35.
Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
What will you choose to do with the gift and calling of God in your life? I pray that your life and mine will be full to the overflowing of His Spirit at work until God calls us Home. May we not arrive in eternity to realize that we spent our entire life without the fullness of God’s Spirit at work within us.
His Song in the Night 