Ephesians 5:18 offers an amazing alternative to getting drunk on alcohol or high on drugs. Instead, we can overflow with God’s Spirit and that’s an out-of-this world experience that produces “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” as well as “peace that passes understanding.” There’s nothing like continually basking in the incredible fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and experiencing the astounding gifts of the Spirit throughout the day (1 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Letting the Holy Spirit flow “out of your innermost being” is extremely inebriating. That’s why, when 120 of Jesus’ disciples began to overflow with the Spirit and flooded out of the Upper Room into the street while whooping it up for Jesus, many people thought they were drunk. My view on Christians drinking alcohol is, who needs wine when you can be drunk with the “new wine” of the Holy Spirit and ‘rejoice in the Lord always?”

So how can you live under the influence (LUI) of the Spirit? How can you get and stay tipsy in God’s Spirit?

1) Ask. “You have not because you ask not.” Continually ask God to fill you up with the Spirit. I like to ask Alexa to play “Fill My Cup, Lord” and then sing along with my whole heart. Whew! Then I soon begin to feel the Spirit moving in my soul!

2) “O, taste and see that the Lord is good.” The Holy Spirit needs to be experienced, not just theologized, surrendered to, not defined. Read the Bible every single day with a humble, open heart. Read it like a love letter, not like a textbook. Also check out: “Experiencing God” by Henry Blackaby.

3) Go with the Spirit’s flow. Through your conscience and through His “still, small voice” the Holy Spirit prompts people to say and do things. If you resist His promptings, you’re disobeying God. If you begin to obey the nudgings of the Spirit, even when you would rather disobey them, you will soon begin to experience spiritual inebriation.

4) “Stir up the gift that is in you.” If you are a genuine Christ-follower, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, even if you have “left your first love.” Continually fan the embers of God’s Spirit into an ongoing raging fire in your heart. Get pumped up for Jesus!

5) When people get drunk together, they call it partying. Party in the Holy Spirit like the first Christians did on Pentecost. Gather with one or more other Christ-followers and begin to celebrate, rejoice, and praise Jesus together. Go with the flow of the Spirit together as you listen to the Spirit and then say and do what He tells each of you to say and do.

6) “Quench not the Spirit.” Don’t let anything put out the Spirit’s fire in your heart. Seek to avoid sin, but if you slip into a sin, quickly repent and let the living Jesus restore you to His amazing presence. (See 1 John 1:9 and Romans 8:1)