Now what believers should seek, or claim as that which is their priviledge, is the habitual condition--always to be full of the Spirit.
This does not necessarily suppose any wonderful experience of joy, ecstacy, or consciousness of power; but a sense of nearness, of childlike confidence, of constant and entire dependence on the Lord. It gives us a sense of His indwelling.
If we are "full of (the) Holy Ghost," we shall find, as special difficulties arise, and special calls for service come to us, that there will always be that "filling," or momentary supply, which will enable us to triumph, to witness, to serve, or to bring forth fruit, as the case may be, according to His will. And it is when these fillings come that we overflow.
This abiding condition of being full of the Spirit,, should characterise every child of God at all times and in all circumstances. It is not a privilege that belongs only to a favoured few, nor is it something to be expected only at certain seasons, and under peculiar circumstances.
The normal condition of the believer may be illustrated by a vessel filled with water to the brim. This does not render him independent of further supplies, nor does it make him self-satisfied. On the contrary, to be thus "full" is to be conscious of one's own utter insufficiency, and the necessity of God's sustaining and renewing grace, moment by moment. It is the soul who is "full of the Holy Ghost" who really looks up, and trusts with childlike simplicity, for the momentary supply.
From "The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life"
by Evan H. Hopkins
