The Holy Spirit may be in a believer, and yet not controlling the life. This is the meaning of the exhortation to Christians in Ephesians 5:18: “Be filled with the Spirit.” These believers were born of the Spirit and sealed with the Spirit (Eph. 1:13), yet there was the possibility of their not being filled with the Spirit. This is the meaning of the charge, “Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal 5:6). There was a possibility of walking after the flesh. So in Romans 8:4 Paul declares that the righteous requirement of the law is “fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” This is the life of victory, lived in the power of the Spirit. And this is the life which a believer may effectually hinder by his own will in keeping from yielding to the control of the Spirit, whose control means the manifesting of Christ. The Christian who is ready to yield completely to Christ may in the very moment of yielding trust Christ for the fulness of the Spirit, knowing that His fruit in life and service is now being produced. The simple condition of surrender and faith for victory is what gives the Holy Spirit sway in the life. What relation has such a crisis of the fulness of the Spirit of regeneration? Is it a crisis that necessarily must follow the crisis of the new birth? The answer is clearly given in Galatians 5:25. “If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.” If we have eternal life by the miracle work of the Holy Spirit, by that same miracle power let us live our daily lives moment by moment. There would not need to be a crisis after conversion if we stayed in the place of abiding where we started, in full surrender and trust. The message of Galatians 5:25, in terms of the Holy Spirit’s work, is precisely the message of Colossians 2:6 in terms of Christ: “As ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” In normal regeneration the child of God is not only born of the Spirit, but filled with the Spirit. Thousands testify that in that moment their heart was filled with love, the fruit of the Spirit was produced all at once in the life. God’s plan is that such a life should abide in Christ, walking in the Spirit. Only one thing can interrupt such abiding and that is assertion of self, which is sin, or walking after the flesh. It is because sin has entered that Christians need the crisis to get back to where they were, or where they might have been, in the moment of regeneration. It is Jesus the Baptist who baptizes with the Holy Spirit those who believe in Him, the Saviour. And it is Jesus, the Son of man, who is glorified by the Holy Spirit as He manifests Him in the life yielded to His control. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Hold o’er my being absolute sway. Fill with thy Spirit, till all shall see Christ only, always, living in me. INDEX TO SCRIPTURES USED. PAGES.