We receive the Holy Spirit through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we believe that he died for our sins and that he rose from the dead, at that moment we are born again. At that very moment we receive the Holy Spirit. A Christian who has not received the Holy Spirit does not exist. There are three verses in the Bible that clearly show us that:
- “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” – Romans 8:9
- “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” – 1 Corinthians 12:13
- “In him (who is Christ) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” – Ephesians 1:13
You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit
However, receiving the Holy Spirit when we become believers is not all. After our conversion we can and need to be filled with the Holy Spirit again and again. The presence of the Holy Spirit is meant to be an overwhelming presence in our lives. Jesus ‘promises‘ that you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, with the surprising result that ‘you shall receive power’. Acts 1:8 bears witness to this. But we are not always equally filled with the Holy Spirit. As we get busy in everyday life, and especially when we begin to drift away from God, even in small things, we begin to lose the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, even about the apostles, we read that they were not only filled once with the Holy Spirit, but they needed to be filled again and again. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came in power upon them. In Acts 4:31 we read that, after prayer, they were filled again in a time of special need.
What happens when you receive the Holy Spirit?
Many different things happen when people are filled with the Holy Spirit. When we read the New Testament, several things stand out.
- God gives courage to proclaim the Gospel (see, for example, Acts 1:8, 4:31, 7:55)
- God gives the desire to be praised (see, for example, Acts 10:46, Ephesians 5:18-20)
- God gives the desire to obey him (see, for example, Acts 5:29-32 , Galatians 5:6 )
- God often gives a word of prophecy and works miracles (see, for example, Acts 11:28, 13:2, 13:9, 19:6)
fight for more
Clearly, it is a good desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Lord wants us to strive to receive more of the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12:31). We are even ordered “to be filled with the Spirit” ( Ephesians 5:18 ). So how does that happen? It is not mechanical, because it is God who fills us, and we cannot command it. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is God’s grace, not our achievement. However, there are several things we can do:
- Live in obedience to God. When we live ungodly lives, we grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:25-32) and we will not experience the power of him in our lives.
- Pray with the expectation that God will perform miracles and with the willingness to be used by Him (see Acts 4:28-31).
- Proclaim the Gospel. When we read that people were filled with the Holy Spirit, they are often busy preaching the Gospel, or about to preach it (Acts 7:55, 9:17-20, 11:23-24, 13:9). God does not give his Spirit for us to enjoy in private, but for us to serve in public.
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