So, how do we know that Elizabeth really was filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, it’s not because she engaged in ecstatic speech, or experienced involuntary muscle movements, or passed out. No, today’s passage points in a different direction, toward the heart of what it really means to draw close to God.

In the first place, we notice that the Holy Spirit always agrees with what God has already revealed to His people. For even before Mary had a chance to say anything to her cousin, Elizabeth knew everything Gabriel had already said: that the Lord had spoken to Mary (verse 45), and that Mary would have a baby Who would at the same time be the Lord (verse 43).

So, what does that mean for us? Simply that we can always rely on what God has already said in His inerrant, written Word to help us determine the truth of anything that purports to be a message from God (see I John 4:1). Because God never disagrees with Himself, any message from any spirit that disagrees with the Bible certainly didn’t come from the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, both Elizabeth and John make it clear that those who are filled with the Spirit of God always believe what God has said. The unborn baby John was so filled with joy at the certainty of the coming of Christ that he leaped while he was still in Elizabeth’s womb (verse 41). And of course Elizabeth was so sure of what the Spirit had revealed to her that she gave her little cousin such an elaborate, and even reverent blessing, complementing Mary for the same sort of absolute faith in God’s Word.

But most importantly, everyone who is filled with the Spirit expresses a proper relationship with Christ. After all, Elizabeth calls Jesus, “my Lord” (verse 43), and Paul reminds us that “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (I Corinthians 12:3).

So, let us rejoice that God has spoken to His people, and that the written Word bears perfect, infallible witness to the Living Word, Jesus Christ. And just as Mary and Elizabeth did, let us submit ourselves to our Lord’s Word and will, today and every day.

Luke 1:39-45 (NASB)

39 Now at this time Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country, to a city of Judah,
40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.
41 And it came about that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42 And she cried out with a loud voice, and said, “Blessed among women are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
43 “And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.
45 “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”