As I was memorizing Ephesians 5:18 my mind went back to my childhood. My dad did street preaching in Sacramento’s skid row. At a young age I saw drunken behavior firsthand.

The verse says, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” I asked someone what it meant and they said: out of control. Knowing they used to drink I asked if they were ever out of control. They laughed and said, “You are asking an ex drug addict. Of course I was out of control.”

Paul was wanting his readers to see the difference from being out of control to being controlled. When our lives are lived out under the control of the Holy Spirit, then the fruit of the Spirit is evident. Galatians 5:22-23. 

At salvation we receive the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us. Galatians 5:17 says that He will act contrary to our flesh. I like to think of two magnets. A polar force occurs when you try to put them together. They repel one another.