When is the Holy Spirit Received?
When is the Holy Spirit received? And if the Holy Spirit lives in all believers, why does the Bible teach that we also need to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit? Do we need to receive the Holy Spirit more than once?
When is the Holy Spirit received? And if the Holy Spirit lives in all believers, why does the Bible teach that we also need to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit? Do we need to receive the Holy Spirit more than once?
Well, it’s true that believers receive the Holy Spirit once they are born again. All believers belong to God, and all who belong to God have the Holy Spirit.
But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) (Romans 8:9, NLT)
Because salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit, it should be clear to us that the Holy Spirit is present in our lives at the very moment of salvation.
Why then are we told in Scripture about the baptism with the Holy Spirit? Why would the believer need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit if the believer already has the Holy Spirit? To answer this question, we must understand that man’s being has three aspects:
Body, soul, and Spirit.
Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NLT)
Your body is your earth suit, the means by which you interact with this world. Your soul is the realm of decision - mind, will, emotions, personality. Mind - what you think. Will - what you desire. Emotions - what you feel. Personality - how you behave. Your spirit is the part of your being that is already in perfect union with God. Your Spirit desires as God desires, because your spirit is joined with the Holy Spirit.
But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. (1 Corinthians 6:17, NLT)
All spiritual growth, then, is not a matter of obtaining more from God but of manifesting what is in your spirit to your soul and body. In your spirit, you are complete. In your spirit, you know God. In your spirit, you are one with the Lord. The Holy Spirit lives as one with your spirit. The spirit is perfect. The soul and body are being perfected.
Now, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit is to be immersed in and overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. Think of a ship. A ship stays afloat because though it is in water, the water is not in it. It’s not until the water floods the inside of the boat that it sinks and becomes baptized.
When you were saved, you received the Spirit. When you become baptized with the Holy Spirit, you release the Holy Spirit. He flows from within your spirit and floods the soul and body. He rises from the inner man (the spirit) and floods the outer man (soul and body).
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:38, NASB)
The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not a matter of you getting more of the Holy Spirit; it’s a matter of the Holy Spirit getting more of you. The baptism with the Holy Spirit isn’t rain from Heaven; it’s a flood from within. The spiritual waters in which you are baptized don’t come from the outside in, but from the inside out.
The waters of the Holy Spirit overflow from your innermost being (your spirit) and flood the soul and body. The Spirit within you transforms, emboldens, and empowers the outer man (soul and body). The greater the surrender, the greater the flow. He’s received at salvation, released from within at baptism.
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How to Pray in Tongues: 4 Keys
I’m going to give you three simple, Biblical keys to speaking in tongues, but it’s important to know that this gift is not something that can necessarily be taught. All I can do is give you the Biblical truths that will help position you to receive, but only Jesus can baptize you with the fire of the Holy Spirit accompanied by the gift of speaking in tongues.
Perhaps you’ve been asking the Lord for the gift of speaking in tongues but have been frustrated with the gift not manifesting. The Word of God holds the key to your breakthrough in this area. What I am about to share with you, I have seen work for thousands of sincere believers who were looking for this gift to manifest in their lives.
I’m going to give you three simple, Biblical keys to speaking in tongues, but it’s important to know that this gift is not something that can necessarily be taught. All I can do is give you the Biblical truths that will help position you to receive, but only Jesus can baptize you with the fire of the Holy Spirit accompanied by the gift of speaking in tongues.
Here are three keys to releasing the gift of tongues:
#1 Request
Yes, it really is that simple. You must ask God for the gift. And when you do ask, you don’t need to worry about receiving another spirit, because Jesus promised this:
“You fathers—if your children aske for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people 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 11:11-13, NLT)
#2 Realize
Once you’ve requested the gift of the Holy Spirit accompanied with the evidence of speaking in tongues, realize that you’ve received it. Don’t doubt it. Don’t debate it. Don’t question it. The gift is in you now, even if it hasn’t manifested yet.
“…how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
It’s that simple. I know that may be hard to believe sometimes, but that’s why you need to…
#3 Relax
No, I don’t mean relax in the New Age sense. I mean that you need to stop overthinking everything. I can tell you this: if you’re a sincere believer who is asking the Lord for this gift, then there is only one thing that is blocking the gift from manifesting through you. It all comes down to this: ego. It’s self.
While you’re praying for the gift to manifest, you’re likely thinking and asking things like, “Is this just me? What if I get a demon? What if I upset God because this isn’t for me? How do I know this is really God? Everyone is looking at me. I’ll probably look silly. This is weird.”
Stop cluttering your mind with questions, doubts, and insecurities. Are you going to look silly? Probably to some. But you’ll have to get over that if you want the fullness of what God has for you.
Make no mistake, this is the issue: self and ego. Your own overthinking is getting in the way. If it doesn’t work for you, if what I’m teaching you right now in this blog doesn’t work for you, and you’re a believer, this is why: it’s the overthinking and doubting. No matter how many times you try, it will always come back to that. So until you decide to stop allowing the overthinking to block the flow of the Spirit, you won’t receive. You might say, “Well, I’ve tried too many times and it never works for me.” But that’s what I’m trying to teach you. It hasn’t worked because you keep overthinking it. You must…
#4 Release
Just release the sound.
The Holy Spirit isn’t go to come up to you, physically grab your tongue, and begin moving it around. It’s not going to be something outside of your control. Paul the Apostle used all of 1 Corinthians 14 to teach you how to control the gift. Why would he instruct the Church to control the gift if the gift couldn’t be controlled? It’s up to you.
So what do you do now? Ask the Lord to give you the gift, realize that you can trust Him to give you the gift, relax and stop overthinking it; and then release the sounds. You may ask, “Is this just me?” And, yes, it will be - but only in part. The Holy Spirit will see your faith, and He will add His meaning to the sounds you surrender to Him.
Praying in tongues is like starting you car. You have to turn the key, but the engine will move the car. Just turn the key. Give Him sounds, and you’ll know by faith that He will take it from there.
Stop doubting. Stop analyzing. Release the sound of faith now. Receive your prayer language.
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How to Receive the Holy Spirit
That’s a very interesting portion of Scripture. The believers mentioned had never even heard of the Holy Spirit. They had already believed the gospel. They were already born again. Yet they had never heard of the Holy Spirit. So how can this be?
How do you receive the Holy Spirit? The answer is that you receive the Holy Spirit by being born again. From the very moment you are saved, you are Spirit-filled.
Romans 8:9
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
The Bible makes it perfectly clear that one cannot belong to God as His child unless that one has the Spirit of God. Salvation and the Spirit go hand-in-hand. If you are saved, you have the Spirit. If you have the Spirit, you are saved. The infilling of the Holy Spirit and born-again experience occur simultaneously.
So then what of this second experience? What does it mean for a believer to receive or be baptized with the Holy Spirit?
Acts 19:2
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
That’s a very interesting portion of Scripture. The believers mentioned had never even heard of the Holy Spirit. They had already believed the gospel. They were already born again. Yet they had never heard of the Holy Spirit. So how can this be?
How is it that the Holy Spirit can be received at salvation and then received again?
To understand this, you must understand that you are a spirit, who has a soul, that lives in a body.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
Body. Soul. Spirit. At salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your spirit. At baptism, He flows from deep within your spirit to affect the outer aspects of your nature. Jesus Himself confirmed this truth.
John 7:38
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’”
At salvation, we receive Him. At baptism, we release Him. The baptism of the Spirit is not rain from Heaven, it’s a river from within. The baptism of the Spirit isn’t about you getting more of the Spirit; it’s about Him getting more of you.
So you receive the holy Spirit into your spirit through putting your faith in Jesus and being born again. It is then that you become one Spirit with Him. And you receive the Holy Spirit into the soul and body, into your daily life, into your every moment, through obedience and surrender.