Fear God and give glory to him. Rev. 14:7.

The Holy Spirit is God's best gift to us. What happens when the Holy Spirit possesses our lives? How can we tell whether this fullness of the Spirit is of God or of Satan?

We must not seek the fullness of the Spirit from wrong motives. Power from God is not anybody's possession. God cannot give us spiritual power unless we know how to use it and unless we are fit for it. We must desire to be filled with the Spirit for one supreme purpose: to give glory to God. If self motivates us, God will surely withhold the gift. We cannot be filled with the Spirit while we are filled with ourselves.

We need first a true cleansing of our hearts and lives. "When he [the Comforter] is come, he will reprove the world of sin" (John 16:8). Our hearts may partially belong to God and yet not be clean. The Holy Spirit first convicts us of sin, then cleanses us. To be empty of self and sin is the first requirement for being filled with the Spirit. If we are filled with one thing, we cannot at the same time be filled with something else. To be partially controlled by selfish motives means we cannot be fully controlled by the Spirit. The fullness of the Spirit is not some temporary excitation of the mind, some passing emotion. This calls attention to people, not to God.

The Holy Spirit's presence brings glory to God. His name is love, whose doctrine is truth, whose essence is purity, whose character is like Christ. The cleansing of the Spirit is from ugliness to beauty, from gross pleasures to eternal values, from stale worship to genuine devotion, from anxiety to peace, from hate to love, from disobedience to obedience. The whole life is purged, harmonized with God. In all of these there is no seeking for power and self-exaltation. There is no passion for public display.

To glory in His truth, His righteousness, His love, His kingdom, and His coming, this was the atmosphere that the apostles breathed as they were filled with the Spirit. They knew themselves to be nothing. The closer they came to the power of the Spirit, the less they talked about it. To God was the glory. God will not share His glory with another.