I’ve never been drunk before.  Ever.  So, I can’t really tell you from personal experience what that’s like, but I’m sure many of you could tell me.  It’s interesting that the Apostle Paul takes drunkenness as an analogy of how we should be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18.  This made me think, “What happens when a person is drunk and how does that compare with being filled with the Spirit?”

People drunk on other “spirits” might have the following:

• Released inhibitions.  I’ve heard of people doing things while drunk that they would never dream of doing when sober.  That must be why guys love visiting bars to pick up women, hmm?
• Change of personality.  Some people become more vocal when they are drunk and get louder than they would be otherwise.
• Loss of control.  People under the influence of alcohol are not able to do the things they normally could, like drive a car, perform tasks, and even walk a straight line.

Let’s just take those three and compare them to being filled with the Spirit as Paul suggests.  A person filled with the Spirit might:

• Release their inhibitions and do things they normally wouldn’t do like, witness to strangers, use a spiritual gift, and serve outside their comfort zone.
• Change their personality and act more like Jesus than the devil.  Instead of getting angry, impatient and unkind, they might release the fruit of the Spirit (Gal . 5:22, 23) from within.
• Lose control and allow God to have more control over their lives.  Rather than asking, “What should I do?” a person might ask, “What would please God in this situation?”

These are just a few things I thought of that happen to a person under the influence of the Holy Spirit?  Can you think of some others?  This weekend (Nov 10) we launch a new series called SPIRIT that will look into this topic and more over the next four weeks.