Receiving the Holy Spirit
And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. (Acts 19:1-6)
We all need to be awakened to the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. Different denominations say different things about the Holy Spirit. Some say Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same. Some say that the moment they believed in Jesus, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. However, this is only partially true. According to the New Testament scriptures, the Holy Spirit is one in BEING with Jesus, but He is a distinct PERSON. The Trinity is one Being - God, but this ONE GOD is made of THREE PERSONS. They are distinct persons, each having different roles in the salvific experience. The Holy Spirit is a distinct person to the Father and the Son, but He is as much God as Jesus is God. He also has a distinct role in salvation.
Therefore, we must treat the Holy Spirit differently. Jesus came as a baby and His mission was to put on a human body to die for the sins of the world. He defeated the grave by rising from the dead, ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. He then sent the Helper, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit to come to earth. When he came, he came like the wind and filled Mark’s upper room. The Holy Spirit had the ability to turn cowardly disciples into courageous lions for the gospel. We are now living in the age of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit didn’t just come once and went back into heaven. He is here to stay and empower believers for the mission to bring Jesus back to the earth. What has started in Jerusalem must spread to the ends of the earth and the Holy Spirit came to empower us to fulfill that mission. To neglect this mission would mean to neglect the very existence of the Holy Spirit and to minimize His role to empower us to finish the mission.
The Gospel is simple, but its not simplistic. We cannot just lump Jesus and the Holy Spirit together and say that they are one. This would greatly distort important revelation for the believer. Therefore, we must treat the Holy Spirit with wholehearted devotion and love, fellowshipping with Him while we have the breath in our lungs until He fully escorts us to the throne room of God and we will enjoy all three persons of the Trinity without any earthly limitations.
Until then, the Holy Spirit has been sent to illuminate our minds concerning what’s being spoken by the Father and the Son and the future plans of God (John 16). Without the Holy Spirit, the Bible would simply be a literature. But when the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds to understand the scriptures, we will become like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, encountering Jesus in every page of the Bible. We need to transition from seeing the Bible as the Word of God to encountering the God of the Word through His Spirit.
When I experienced the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit when I was 22, it completely revolutionized my life. I didn’t even know there was such a Person. Once I experienced the Holy Spirit I was hooked. I became addicted to God’s presence. The Holy Spirit illuminated my mind to understand the scriptures and I voraciously consumed the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation in three months. The book that would make me fall asleep would now awaken my inner being. I came alive.
Since then I’ve seen miracles upon miracles, including a young man named Kevin who set free from depression. When I first met him, humanly speaking, I didn’t have any hope for this man, because he came in depressed and wanted to take his life daily. When I went through a time of deliverance with him, repenting and casting out demons, he shifted from being depressed to becoming filled with supernatural joy. Only God could do something like this.
Once he got filled with the Holy Spirit, he broke out in laughter and after that the Holy Spirit led him to begin to prophesy about the future plans of God. It was beautiful. This was a confirmation to Acts 19, where the disciples in Ephesus, who did not know about the Holy Spirit, upon receiving Him, began to speak in tongues and prophecy. God has not changed.
I believe that fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit and finishing the Mission with Him is the purpose of our existence.
And he said to me, “Son of man,stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
Ezekiel 2:1-2
We need to be awakened to the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. One of the primary ways to have fellowship with the Holy Spirit is to pray in harmony with the Holy Spirit.
When we have a history with God, we will make history with God. We are living in the age of the Holy Spirit. God comes in unusual ways. In the Old Testament, he came down as fire on a mountain. Jesus came as a baby on Christmas. At Pentecost, He came as the wind. You can’t see the wind, but it doesn’t mean it’s not there. You can’t see the Holy Spirit, but it doesn’t mean he’s not here. Just like the wind, we don’t see Him, but we see His effects.
Carnal people live for the present and things they can see and touch, but Spiritual people live in preparation and for realities that are eternal. The Holy Spirit is the one who illuminates our minds to things of the Kingdom of God.
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:8-15)
7 Roles of the Holy Spirit
Convict the World of Sin
Convince us of our righteousness
Judges Satan through those who exercise their God-given authority
Guides us into All Truth
He declares the Future Plans of God
He glorifies Jesus
Declares all that belongs to Jesus and the Father
While we are on the other side of heaven, Satan’s power has been stripped away by Jesus, but it only applies to those who actively receive the provision of the cross and receive the Holy Spirit. For the rest of the world, they are under a heavy deception of Satan. Life is war and the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us to finish the mission - to release the truth of God to the masses and get them baptized in the Holy Spirit.