Have you received the Holy Spirit?
“While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples and said to them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” They said to him, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”” Acts 19:1-2
Just then as now, there is an important question for every person who believes in Jesus – Have you received the Holy Spirit?
The Bible speaks of baptism in the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. This is an offer, a privilege, for every believer. The Holy Spirit wants to help us live out the Christian life. Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as the Helper.
If one is born again, saved by grace through faith, then the Holy Spirit already lives in that person. But the question in this case is whether one is filled with the Spirit. Don’t get caught up in church traditions or different denominations’ views on this with the Holy Spirit. Do not exclude yourself from the offer of God that applies to all of God’s children. You can be filled with the Spirit every day.
The Holy Spirit always glorifies Jesus and He wants to help us make visible what is inside us. Both God’s character and power are something that we need the Spirit’s help to manifest.
The believers that Paul met in Acts 19 were baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues and prophesy. They were blessed mightily and became channels of God’s power and abilities.
“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. “If a son asks for bread from any of you who is a father, will you give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will you give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will you offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:9-13
If you have not yet been filled or baptized in the Holy Spirit, then you can be it, right where you are right now. This is something that your heavenly Father wants to give you. To be filled with the Spirit is, as preacher Smith Wigglesworth put it, “a necessary luxury.”
Believe and act on the promises in the verses above from Luke 11 and receive the Holy Spirit.
God bless you.