Be Filled with the Holy Spirit (Fr Luka Sidarous, 2019)

Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

The words of Christ, to Him be the glory, to the righteous martyrs, when He informed them that they would be hated by the world, be bound, and delivered to death. What did He say to them? He told them not to worry. “Do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak.” Why? “For it is not you who speak.” (Matthew 10:19-20). Then, who will speak? The Spirit. The Spirit that is in you. Do not worry about facing the world. Why? Because the world, the spirit that is in it, is called the spirit of darkness, the spirit of sin which is against the Spirit of Christ. So, you will not be able to withstand it. You are not able to take it on. But, the Spirit which is in you, is able. This is why St. John writes, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). He told them not to speak. He said, “Do not speak. I will give you what to say. No one will be able to overcome you.” Even in death, they died victorious. They overcame the spirit of the world by the Spirit which is in them. They overcame malice, injustice, darkness, persecutions, and pain. How did they defeat it? Truly, injustice is bitter. How can one accept injustice? The Holy Spirit that dwelt in them transformed for them the bitterness of pain and suffering into sweetness. They rejoiced in suffering for His sake. If we try love Christ from the heart, we will rejoice. We will rejoice in suffering, trials, tribulations, distress, persecution, and injustice. The holy martyrs lived these words in their daily life. They rose up and attacked them without any reason or there being any crime. They did nothing wrong. The first defender of Christianity, Tertullian, was the first one to defend them and say, “Why are you doing this to them? Why are you imprisoning and killing them? Tell me which one of them is a thief, murderer, or adulterer.”

They did not do anything. But, when the spirit of the world sensed that they were against it – undoubtedly light is against darkness, there is no question in that. When the Holy Spirit was revealed in them as light, the spirit of darkness could not bear it. It could not. It cannot! He rose up with all malice and envy! Remember the first martyr of Christianity, Stephen? It was said that they looked at him and saw the face of an angel. He did not do anything. But, when they were filled with the spirit of darkness, they gnashed their teeth against him, rose up against him in great wrath, and stoned him. While he was giving up the spirit, he prayed for them. Who are these people? He said, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” How beautiful is that?! This is why I am saying: what is this way? The way is to be filled with the Spirit of God. We have received the Holy Spirit on the day of our baptism. But, all that is required of us is to be filled with the Spirit – that the Holy Spirit truly be the one that directs you, moves you, guides you, speaks to you, speaks for you, defends you, and you remain silent. “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” Of course, when someone defends himself, He says, “Okay, it’s up to you.”

Be filled with the Spirit! Let the Spirit of God work in you. The Holy Spirit, Christ said about Him that when He comes, He will bear witness for you against the world. The Spirit of holiness – of course, it testifies against the wickedness of the world given that it has become a major disease in the world. Who can testify against the wickedness and filth of the world? Those who are filled with the Spirit of God. You see a person who is filled with the Spirit of God, by his holiness he testifies against the spirit of the world and is victorious over it. Or, a person who is faithful to God. Any one of us who is filled with the Spirit of God testifies against the spirit of the world, its sins, uncleanness, and vanity. This is why I am telling you there is no other way than being filled with the Spirit. How can we be filled with this Spirit? Pray. Pray! Pray what? Pray at all times. Pray without ceasing. Pray without boredom. This is the way to be filled with the Spirit? Yes, of course! Our holy fathers lived the true life of prayer. So, they were close to the saints and bore witness before God against the world. On the same day tomorrow, 51 years ago, a delegate was sent from the Pope, Abba Kyrillos, to Rome to Pope Paul VI, the Catholic pope, and received from him the body of St. Mark. Tomorrow is St. Mina’s feast. Pope Kyrillos VI, that man of prayer, was very close friends with St. Mina and St. Mina would make everything easy for him.^[1]On Pope Kyrillos VI’s relationship with St Mina the Wonderworker, see Daniel Fanous, The Silent Patriarch: Kyrillos VI (1902–1971) (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2019): 26–32. This was obvious in that the day that the relics of St. Mark were received was on the same day as St. Mina’s feast, even though this was not arranged. The Catholics were the ones who arranged everything, we did not decide on the days. On that same day he was celebrating St. Mina, his beloved friend, he received the body of St. Mark. All of Egypt went out to receive St. Mark. So many beautiful wonders and miracles!^[2]The relics of St Mark were taken from Egypt to Venice in 828, and partially returned on June 25, 1968, to mark the occasion of the consecration of the new Coptic cathedral of St Mark in Cairo. See Magdi Guirguis and Nelly van Doorn-Harder, Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2011), 137.

Being filled with the Spirit comes by way of remaining in prayer. One whose heart is continually lifted up to God, will he not be filled with the Spirit of God? Be filled with the Spirit! When one is filled with the Spirit of God, what is he called? A spiritual person. When one is filled with the spirit of the world, what do they call him? They say he is a worldly person. When you deal with him, you feel like he is of the world. Cheating, lying, deception, lack of truth, beating around the bush, bad language – what is all of this? Who is this? They say he is a Christian. I do not believe it! He conducts himself by the spirit of the world. He says, “Business requires this.” Okay, business requires this, but what does God want? Business wants cheating. If you cheat, then you are a cheater. If you say that business does not allow you to tell the truth or we will go bankrupt, so we will lie. If you conduct yourself by the spirit of lying, then you are a liar. But, when someone lives with the Spirit of God, he can work any job. Believe me, he will be able to perform any task! But the Holy Spirit in him bears witness of the Truth. He is called the Holy Spirit because He is the spirit of holiness and the Spirt of Truth so that the person is bound to the Truth. Lying is darkness. How can one who lives in lies – they say he comes to church every Sunday, communes, and does all of these things, but when you look at his practical life, you find that he is a liar. How can he bear witness to Christ? It is impossible for a liar to bear witness to Christ.

This is why I am saying walking by the Spirit of God will pardon you from a lot of things, lift all your cares and burdens away from you. He said, “Do not worry about how or what you should speak.” It is the first time for them that they will stand before something so big – the council of the Sanhedrin, of the chief priests. The apostles stood before them, they were very poor men. Peter is a fisherman that does not know anything. But, when he spoke, he spoke with the Spirit of God and confounded everyone! Stephen, when he spoke, being filled with the Holy Spirit, they were not able to overcome the wisdom in him. Of course! The words that are from the earth are one thing, but those from Heaven are a whole other. There are so many wise in the world, but when one takes the Spirit of wisdom because of his relationship with God and being filled with the Holy Spirit, he overcomes the whole world. This is the victory by which we are victorious over the world – our faith! You overcome the world. This is why a defeated person will not enter into Heaven. In the seven churches, when He spoke to the seven angels of the churches, He said to each one, “The one who overcomes, I will give him a crown.” But so long as one is defeated by the spirit of the world and its lusts, wanting to go with the flow, this doesn’t work. Each one of us must be victorious. It is written about the martyrs in the book of Revelation that they were victorious and not defeated. The world killed them, but they overcame the world. But Jesus our God, said, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

This is why I am saying: walk in the Spirit. Live by the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit. You will be very close to the saints because the saints were filled with the Spirit of God. St. Mina was filled with the Spirit of God. There is nothing that he worried about according to the words of Christ, “Do not worry.” Do not be afraid! If the Holy Spirit is directing your life, what are you afraid of? If the Holy Spirit is the One who speaks on your tongue, who will be able to harm you if your conduct is good. Who can harm you? The only way is unity with God and being filled with the Holy Spirit. How will life be? It will be the life of a godly person. A spiritual person. In his home? He is spiritual. Isn’t he done with his duties of being a priest, deacon, or whatever else and went home? That’s it, he’ll live his ordinary life. Yes, but he will live it out in a spiritual manner at home, at work, with family, relatives, friends, strangers, and even his enemies. He is a spiritual person. He lives with the Spirit of God. He does not live by his own will, desires, wants, or own wisdom. As St. Paul says, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things”- all those things that I perceived to be high and excellent – “and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). When I felt that all those things I took pride in did not amount to anything in comparison to Christ. This is why I am saying that the only way is being filled. It has been a week since we celebrated the Holy Spirt which descended upon all of us. He descended on the Holy Spirit like tongues of fire. Be filled with the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit.