"Living a Spirit-Filled Life" | May 24, 2026 | Ps Christina Lowery

There's a feeling that's hard to describe. It's the moment when someone emerges from baptismal waters, tears streaming down their face before they can even catch their breath, arms raised in victory while the congregation erupts in celebration. It's sitting with someone whose world has shattered, offering nothing but presence, and somehow walking away feeling fuller than when you arrived. It's that awkward moment when you pray for a stranger and feel like your words are stumbling, yet you watch God move powerfully in their life right before your eyes.

These moments share something profound in common: they're glimpses of heaven invading earth. They're instances when we stand exactly where we're meant to be, doing exactly what we were created to do. And here's the remarkable truth - none of these moments ever feel exhausting. They energize us. They leave us wanting more.

We spend considerable energy planning the perfect summer. We craft bucket lists, schedule vacations, and dream about the rest and adventure awaiting us before routine returns in September. All of this is genuinely good. Rest is beneficial. Adventure enriches us. Time with loved ones matters deeply.

But what if the best summer - the best life - isn't primarily about where you go or what you do, but about how the Spirit of God moves in you and through you?

The Day Everything Changed

Two thousand years ago, something extraordinary happened on Pentecost Sunday. One hundred and twenty believers had gathered together, following Jesus' instructions to wait and pray. They had been doing this for fifty days since Jesus ascended to heaven. They knew something was coming, though they didn't know what.

Then suddenly, a sound like a roaring windstorm filled the house. What looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each person present. Every single one of them was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Notice something crucial: the fire didn't settle on the building. It didn't land on an altar or rest only on the most spiritually qualified person in the room. It settled on fishermen, tax collectors, women from Galilee - all 120 ordinary people gathered there.

This wasn't an accident. It was the entire point.

For centuries, God's presence had been understood to dwell in one location: the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple. Only one high priest, one day per year, could enter that sacred space on behalf of the people. Ordinary individuals never experienced the tangible presence of God.

But when Jesus died, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the world tore from top to bottom. What began at the cross was completed on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit moved out of the building and took up residence in people - ordinary people like you and me.

The address of the Holy Spirit changed forever that day.

Don't You Realize?

Years after Pentecost, the Apostle Paul asked the church in Corinth an urgent question: "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you?"

This wasn't a gentle suggestion. Paul was trying to wake up sleepy, apathetic believers. He was reminding them of something crucial they seemed to have forgotten: the same Spirit that once dwelled behind a curtain now lives in them.

Your body is the temple now. You hold the Holy Spirit's presence. You are the place where His presence dwells.

This isn't metaphor or poetry. It's a literal theological claim about your actual physical body holding the Spirit of God.

The question isn't whether the Spirit is there. If you follow Jesus, He is. The question is whether you're living like He is there.

Closing the Gap

Most believers know this truth intellectually. We understand the Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can affirm that we're the temple of the Holy Spirit. We might even defend this truth theologically.

But there's often a significant gap between knowing something is true and actually living like it's true.

Romans 8:11 declares that "the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you." Let that sink in. The supernatural Spirit that raised a man who had been dead for three days - crucified, mutilated, proven dead by Roman soldiers, sealed in a tomb - that same resurrection power lives in you.

Not just the Spirit who gives you warm feelings during worship. Not just the Spirit who shows up in emergencies. The Spirit who conquered death lives in you right now, on ordinary days, going home with you after church, accompanying you on vacation, present tomorrow morning when you return to work, at the pool, at cookouts, in difficult conversations you've been avoiding.

You're not living on your own strength. You never were. The same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is in you.

Not a Checklist

So how do we close this gap between what we know and how we live?

Our instinct is to create a checklist. Should we pray more? Read the Bible more? Serve more? Tell us what to do!

But that's where we get it wrong. We think if we do more, we'll get more. We imagine that our working and producing and doing brings the overflow of the Spirit.

It's actually the opposite.

More of the Spirit brings the overflow into our working and doing. Being filled by Him - receiving His presence more - that's what causes more to flow out of us. The Spirit is like a fountain that never stops flowing. He's always available. The only thing required of us is that we come and drink from the fountain.

And when we get thirsty again, we come back. Over and over.

Keep Being Filled

In Ephesians 5:15-20, Paul writes: "Be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity... Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts."

In the original Greek, "be filled" isn't written as a one-time event. It's present tense, signifying ongoing action. Paul is saying, "Keep on being filled." Keep coming back to the fountain. Keep drinking.

Being filled isn't a spiritual moment you look back on. It's a posture you live from.

The Greek also implies passive filling. You don't fill yourself. You receive the filling. Paul isn't urging us to fill ourselves with the Spirit. He's urging us to place ourselves where the Spirit can fill us.

This is extraordinary news for imperfect people. In all our mess and chaos, we don't need to do anything to produce His Spirit. We just need to position ourselves continually to receive Him.

And the position? It's worship. Coming as you are - messed up, confused, struggling, grieving, broken - and acknowledging who He is and what He does.

The Invitation

What would change if you actually lived like the Holy Spirit lives in you? Because if you follow Jesus, He does.

Opportunities surround us infinitely. The person stranded on the roadside. The overwhelmed parent in the grocery store. The quiet friend who seems off. There are chances every day to cooperate with the Spirit inside us.

If you've never experienced those moments when you can tell the Lord is working through you, let today be your first day. The truth is, if you follow Jesus, the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you.

You've got the power.

Pentecost isn't just a one-time event or a day on the calendar. Being filled with the Spirit isn't a once-and-done experience - it's only the beginning. You can have it whenever you want.

You don't need a complicated plan or a checklist or special words. What you need is to come with a posture of receiving.

Three simple words: Come, Holy Spirit.

The best summer ever - the best life ever - has everything to do with what you say yes to. Position yourself to receive. Open your hands. Open your heart. Come as you are.

The fountain never stops flowing. The Spirit is always available.

Come and drink.