“We began to sing, 'Come Holy Spirit! Fall fresh on me.' We sang this song over and over and over again. The harmony was pretty cool, but my wife and I kept thinking, 'when is the Spirit going to come? Isn't he here yet?' It led me, a trained and ordained LCMS pastor to question whether the Spirit was really given in Baptism, like I confessed and had been taught to believe, or even in his Word.” Marcus J Mackay in Logia, vol XVII, number 4, page 66.

A Pentecost quandry? For a moment, set aside the song referenced above. Instead, turn to these words from LSB 498, “Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest. And make our hearts Your place of rest. Come with your grace and heav'nly aid and fill the hearts which you have made.” Can't the same question be put to these words? Hasn't the Holy Spirit already made our hearts His place of rest? Did the Holy Spirit fill my heart at Baptism or is there (shudder) a second baptism? Am I in need of a refill? Am I a quart low?

A quick check in a concordance revealed that nowhere is the phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit” or “full of the Holy Spirit” used to describe the Spirit's work of conversion. They are not phrases used to describe the Spirit's work of bringing people to faith. But they are phrases that most often preface a person's specific action or speech. Here is what happens when a person has been filled with the Spirit: Elizabeth proclaims to Mary, “blessed are you among women...” Zachariah prophesies. The disciples begin to speak in tongues. Peter addresses the crowd. Disciples speak the word of God boldly. Jesus begins his ministry. Stephan addresses his opponents. Barnabas encourages.

Perhaps we get a better understanding of the phrase when we consider these similar phrases: “filled with awe,” “filled with joy,” “filled with grief.” Those phrases can also explain words or actions that precede or follow in the text. Whether it was joy, grief, awe, wisdom, wonder, or amazement - they were the dominating factors that precipitated the words or actions described at the time. To suggest that in these settings “fullness of the Spirit” is permanent brings trouble, for not everything Elizabeth or Zechariah ever said came from the Spirit. To say that various people were filled or were full of awe, grief, or the Holy Spirit is to say that each of those factors was responsible for what was said or took place at that specific time, not to describe a permanent condition.

The introit for the Day of Pentecost begins: “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love.” If one is thinking conversion, then those words don't make a lot of sense. The faithful are the faithful already by virtue of the Holy Spirit's work in them. But if we are talking about asking that the Spirit be the chief power and motivator in our daily life, well, that's different and appropriate. A Pentecost hymn verse speaks about this aspect of the Spirit's indwelling: “O let it freely burn till worldly passions turn to dust and ashes in its heat consuming.” “Let holy charity mine outward vesture be and lowliness become mine inner clothing – true lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part, and o'er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.” So you can put your dipstick away. To have been filled with the Spirit is to have acted, thought, or spoken in a way that came from the Spirit's motivation and power.