Receiving the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is a Person, like Jesus and the Father. Jesus promised to send us the Holy Spirit after his death and resurrection.
?I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Helper, that he may abide with you forever.John 14:16
Jesus fulfilled his promise and he sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). But before that day, he gave some specific instructions to his disciples so that they would know exactly why the Spirit was going to come upon them.
?And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” he said, “you have heard from me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 1:4-5
John?s baptism had been in water, but he announced that Jesus would be the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit. This means that when we receive the Spirit of God into our lives, we are baptised or immersed into the Holy Spirit. It is a definite experience in which we are conscious of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
?So it is with the Holy Spirit. Being baptised in the Holy Spirit means we are filled as we are immersed into God?s presence. Just as water baptism is how we are initiated into the life of the Church, so Holy Spirit baptism is God?s way of initiating us into the life of the Spirit. But the big difference is this: in water baptism we get out of the water but we stay in the presence of God through Spirit baptism. We continue to be immersed and filled with the Holy Spirit as a lifestyle.
?When we become filled with the Holy Spirit, he naturally overflows out of our life. He equips us to reach out to others with the power and enabling of the Spirit. First of all, this means receiving the gift of tongues just as on the Day of Pentecost.
?And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:4
?The gift of speaking in other tongues, is a wonderful prayer language you can use in your worship and as a means of building yourself up spiritually.
He who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God… he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself
1 Corinthians 14:2-4
?Ask Jesus to baptise you with the Holy Spirit and to give you gift of tongues. Ask Him? today!