Effects of Spirit

What do people have in mind when they think about being filled with the Spirit of God? How do they think that Spirit will make them feel, cause them to act, empower them to do or be?

Why would the Spirit of God cause a person to be or act any differently that it caused Jesus to act and live, the attitude of Jesus as best described in Philippians 2? If our notion of the effects of God's Spirit pouring into our lives looks anything different than the effects on Jesus' life as described there, then we are likely deceived about the whole idea of being filled with His Spirit. We are really longing to be filled with some other spirit, which is a rather frightening revelation I would think.

Why are our assumptions about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days so different from the descriptions of the fruit of the Spirit and the character and attitude of Jesus mentioned above? Why do we have ideas related to the outpouring of the Spirit connected with suddenly having lots of authority, power to work miracles, compelling thousands of people to join our denomination or all the other subtle self-serving scenarios that run around in our imaginations when we think of receiving the Holy Spirit? It seems to me that many, if not most of our assumptions about what our lives might look like under the influence of the Spirit are tainted with selfishness which is the exact opposite of what described the life of Jesus. What goes here?

When people go to churches to be 'filled with the Spirit', what are they really seeking? Most often it seems they are looking to feel good, to experience excitement to liven up a boring, dull or depressing life outside of church. Many look to church as an escape from the terrible things they are experiencing in their home life, work life or social life. Yet in heaven's perspective there is no difference between church life and all the other lives we are involved in. The Spirit of God will not come to just make us feel good for a few minutes when we insist He show up for us on demand in church. Jesus stated clearly that when the Spirit comes He will convict us of sin and judgment and righteousness. He also will not contain His presence to just our religious times but will invade every area of our existence and challenge us to face the inner confusion we have been hiding from much of our lives. If this is not our experience in our encounters with the Spirit, then very likely we are interacting with a counterfeit spirit and are in danger of deep deception.

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