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Receive
the Holy Spirit
One Good Thing Leads to Another
by
Pastor John Hamel
“And it came to
pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having
passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain
disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye
believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether
there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them,
Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily
baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they
should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ
Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them;
and they spake with tongues and prophesied.”
(Acts19:1-6)
The Apostle Paul
lived and Pastored God’s flock in a city called Ephesus for two
years. Paul, of course, was also used by the Holy Spirit to write the
majority of the New Testament. This should tell us that he knew what
he was talking about when it came to the things of God.
While Pastoring in Ephesus, he came in
contact with some of John the Baptist’s disciples. They believed all
John had preached about Jesus the Messiah, but they had not yet heard the
full Message of the Gospel. They knew nothing about the Holy Spirit
Who had come into the Earth at “Pentecost” many years earlier. (Acts
2:1-5) They apparently knew about the Good News of
Jesus but they had not heard the additional Good News. Paul explained
there was another experience after the salvation experience called the
“Baptism with The Holy Spirit.” They hadn’t heard of it. I’m sure
Paul explained the experience to them something like this.
Once you accept
Jesus as your Savior by saying, “Jesus, You’re my choice”
(Romans 10:13) you come back
into a position of right standing with God. (2Corinthians
5:21) At that
time you receive a “measure” of the Holy Spirit’s power. I compare
this to a glass filled to the top with water. Now, because you are a
vessel cleansed by Jesus’ Blood, you qualify as a dwelling place for the
Holy Spirit in ALL of His “fullness”. This is when you really receive
power from God to live life victoriously.
I compare this subsequent experience to taking that glass filled with
water that I mentioned and dropping it down inside of a pitcher filled with
water. Now the glass is both FILLED and IMMERSED, or
“baptized” in the water.
This is what
happens to the Born Again Believer who receives the Baptism
with the Holy Spirit. They become both filled with and immersed in
power. This is a Baptism of Power reserved only for
Believers in Jesus.
How about
you? Have you said, “Jesus, You’re my choice” in order to come back
into union with Creator God? Because if you have, you can now pray,
“Father, fill me with the Holy Spirit and Power, in Jesus’ Name.”
This is an experience that will radically change your life. You will
receive power in prayer that you never knew
before.
Once you have asked
the Father to fill you with the Holy Spirit and Power read these
Scriptures: Acts 2:1-4; Acts 10:1-44; 1Corinthans 14:1-40; Jude
20 and Isaiah 28:11. Being Born Again is a good thing. But God
wants you to know that one good thing always leads to another. In
this case it leads to the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. It’s a gift
just waiting to be received.
When the Holy
Spirit comes upon you, you'll know it because you'll begin to worship God
in an unusual language that you've never spoken before. Those words
will come right up out of your "belly" (spirit) just like Jesus
said in John 7:37. That is your new prayer language called "Tongues." I call it "A
hotline to Heaven." It's a language
that Satan can't understand so he can't
interfere with it. It's a language that only God can
understand. (1 Corinthians 14:2,3; Romans 8:26-28)
By yielding your
tongue to this supernatural prayer language, God is actually praying
through you. When God prays through you, it NEVER goes
unanswered. So yield yourself to this supernatural gift no matter
what kind of negative talk you've heard from others about this God-given
gift. People criticize the Baptism with the Holy Spirit as evidenced
by speaking with other tongues because they do not know what the Bible
teaches about it. They have simply been taught wrong. People who are down on speaking with
other Tongues simply are not up on the Bible.
You have now been
properly taught. Give God your tongue by yielding to this prayer
language and you'll see things happen supernaturally
that you had never even considered before. Try it. You'll like
it.
Check out some of
our other teachings on the Holy Spirit at our Faith Building Bible Study
Centre.
Then get under a
Holy Spirit filled Pastor who has
had this experience and believes that … ONE GOOD THING LEADS TO
ANOTHER!
Be Blessed ... John and Barbara
Hamel
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