Is being drunk in the Spirit a biblical experience?

Accompanying this exhortation in Ephesians 5:18, there is the other "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess." If we were set for being Spirit-filled, we should guard against anything that would simulate it without being it. We should never mistake exhilaration for unction. All extravagancies would be shunned, however pleasing to the flesh: a sober, holy, happy devotedness unto Christ, altogether beyond the flesh, would take their place. The natural excitement of wine and the Spirit's power, that takes a man outside of himself, are not to be confounded (see, Acts 2:13-17). They are as different in their origin as flesh and spirit.

The Spirit-filled believer is the subject of an extraordinary uplift. He is carried clean outside himself, centred in Christ, and enabled for the service of God in a power which is more than human. The man who is drunk with wine is carried outside himself in a way that is wholly evil. By the Spirit of God we may be carried outside ourselves in a way that is wholly good.

Though the history, recorded in Acts, shows that in practice the filling of the Spirit was occasional, even with the Apostles, we must not forget that all Christians are exhorted to be filled with the Spirit, in Ephesians 5:18. It may surprise us to find such a thing put in contrast with being "drunk with wine," but the fact is that when wine is taken in excess it assumes control of the man and carries him outside himself. All that is from beneath and is evil. The Spirit of God however can control, and carry a man outside himself, in a way that is good and divine. The very good is contrasted with the very evil. If filled with the Spirit, all that is not Himself and of Him obviously must be excluded.

To the marvellous power given to the disciples, we have seen, people were not indifferent. Mocking on the part of some, earnest inquiry on the part of others, testified to the impressions produced. Neither the mockers, however, nor the devout Jews could offer any reasonable explanation. The Apostles then stood up. All were now to hear what they had to say. And Peter as their mouthpiece expressed himself, addressing especially the home-born Jews. What that movement was not, he first took up. "Full of new wine," the mockers had said, — an easy solution, as they thought, of that strange and startling spectacle which they witnessed. But the charge was readily refuted, and the folly of it demonstrated. The time of day should have made the accusers keep silence — it was but the third hour. Men were not wont to be overcome with wine by nine o'clock in the morning. The disciples were not drunk with wine. They were filled with the Spirit. God then was working, and in power; and in explanation of what the marvel was, he proceeded to cite Old Testament Scripture.

Yet we find in Ephesians 5:18 the exhortation "be filled with the Spirit," and this addressed to all saints in that city, so that evidently it is something that each saint should know and experience for himself and not something only attainable by the few.

The verse in Ephesians 5:18 puts two conditions in opposition to each other: 'And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.' Both conditions speak of influence or government. If I am drunk with wine, I am under the influence of alcohol; I am governed by it. This will be seen in my activities. A person under the influence of alcohol acts and behaves differently from a sober person. I think, the parallel is obvious.

In Ephesians our praise and thanksgiving are to be the result of being filled with the Spirit, and this in contrast with being drunk with wine. Wine, in this connection, while not excluding its literal meaning, is used rather in its typical significance. The Christian is not to be intoxicated with earthly joy, but he is to be filled with the Holy Ghost. It is very noticeable on the day of Pentecost that the multitude mistook the action of the Spirit in the apostles for the effects of wine — showing that the action of wine on the natural man simulates or counterfeits the action of the Spirit of God in the believer. In fact, when any of the early Christians were filled with the Spirit they were lifted up out of themselves, and were used as vessels for the expression of the Spirit's power whether in testimony or in praise. In such a state souls cease to be occupied with themselves; for it is the Spirit's delight to lead out our hearts in the contemplation of Christ, according to that word, "He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." (John 16:14.) Thus lost in the view of Christ, His perfections, excellencies, His worthiness, and His perpetual and tender ministries of love, from His place at the right hand of God, as well as in the anticipation of the joy of seeing Him face to face, and of being for ever with Him, God would have us speak to ourselves (or, perhaps, to one another) in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord. When in such a state it would be impossible for the soul to find a voice for its feelings except in exalted strains of praise and adoration.

The Lord Jesus spoke not only of a new garment, but also of "new wine." Wine is the familiar emblem in Scripture of joy. In Ps. 104:15 we read: "Wine that makes glad the heart of man." Christ has introduced new joys for His people. Everything "under the sun" has been marred by sin. All around us the hiss of the serpent resounds in our ears. Foolish indeed are they who seek to content themselves with things here. Now, Christ has gone up on high, and has entered into that scene where there is fullness of joy, and where there are pleasures for ever more (Ps. 16:10). To that scene of fadeless delight He would lead the hearts of His own to day. Let us not defer the joys of heaven until the present world is no more; let us rather rise upon the wings of faith and live now in the spirit of our minds where we shall find our home throughout eternity. In order that this may be, the exalted Lord has poured out upon us the Holy Spirit from above. He is the living link between our souls here and Christ in His present glory. It is His office to minister His things to us, and to maintain our hearts in perpetual peace and joy. Notice the effect on the day of the Spirit's coming. So full of ecstasy and power were the disciples that some, mocking, said: these men are full of new wine" (Acts 2:13). They were indeed full of new wine, but it was not the vintage of earth. It was the new wine of heaven.

335 Take another point, "Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." I suppose, when filled with the Spirit, the Holy Ghost was acting, and acting immediately, I may say sensibly. Is all this to be laid aside too? Is it wrong to be filled with the Holy Ghost, or wrong to hope that there may be more of it? And this "be not drunk with wine" is wonderfully like "these men are not drunken as ye suppose," when tongues were spoken. I am not adducing this to shew that we are not to look for tongues, but that the notion of denying gift goes much farther than is supposed — that it goes to denying the present acting of the Spirit of God, the being filled with the Spirit, as well as the unity of the membership of the Church of God, which are either dead, or active by virtue of the Spirit in what is called in Scripture gifts, and that eni ekusto, to each one, and called charisma too.

It will be seen that the condition of being filled with the Spirit is only once associated with speaking with tongues, and that was when the Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost. On the other occasions it is variously connected with wisdom and joy, and particularly with the rendering of verbal testimony by the servants of Christ to those who knew not or who opposed the gospel. And so far from the ability to speak with tongues being possessed by the whole assembly, we find that the apostle laid down certain directions for the guidance of those who had received this gift, but who were using it improperly. Paul does not at all contemplate that every one of the saints in Corinth had the gift. The exact contrary is implied when he asks them, “Do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” (1 Cor. 12:30).