I want you to know that there is something great and wonderful in the baptism of the Holy Spirit! There is nothing that can compare to this moment in the life of a saint. It is the day that God moves in.
Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is not the finish line of your faith, but the starting line.
This is not a matter of salvation, as we can be saved yet not yet filled. “For as yet He [the Holy Spirit] had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:16-17).
If you have been baptized, you know what I mean. If you desire this baptism, I want to encourage you to keep striving for it. And if you don’t believe in it, I pray that you would at least read my story. Always know that there is more to God than you know.
My story:
For many years I was teaching and preaching in prison ministry. I was most blessed to meet and be mentored by some mighty servants filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet I had no power of the Holy Spirit in me. I could argue doctrine better than I could live it. I could preach on power, but I could not step down from the podium and walk in it.
I was striving to gain something more. I longed to live a life higher than I was able to live. I wanted to have what I saw that others had. I wanted to live as high as I preached. I longed to have a deeper more intimate relationship with the Lord. I wanted to be useful in the Hands of God.
Then there was one day that I will never forget. May we all be blessed to have such a day! I had been doing ministry for several days in a row in prison. I had been teaching and preaching, on what I do not remember. In those days, my teaching was based on human power and so had little power.
I had been fasting from food, was on my third day not eating. Friends, I want you to know, that if you want to get closer to God, you must move further away from yourself. If you are not willing to sacrifice, then what is it you have to give?
I went to a spirit-filled meeting and it was very special. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in this place. I could see the Holy Spirit moving in the man leading this meeting. I will never forget the encounter I had with this man. When he came near me he just breathed out on me and I instantly collapsed and could not get back up. Friends, when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon you, the weight of glory is greater than you can bear.
I cannot explain the theology of that moment, but I felt it as sure as I feel the warmth from the sun. I was overwhelmed by a sense of the Holy Spirit upon me, like a wave of the goodness of God. I can explain this experience no better than I can explain an infinite God. My whole life is divided from before and after this one moment. I lived the verse from Ezekiel 36:27 “I will put My Spirit within you…”.
Friends, we need to stop putting God in a box in how He might move in the life of a saint. I can tell you that from that day forward the Holy Spirit began to manifest in my life in a hundred ways, too many to mention here. On occasion, I will preach or post a blog to tell of some of my experiences. But I don’t want to just tell people how great it is, to be some interesting showpiece. No, I want to help them get there! There are no limits in the resources of God, there is room in the Holy Spirit for us all.
People think if they can become obedient, then they will get filled with the Holy Spirit. No. It is the other way around. When once you become filled by the Holy Spirit, then by His power can you ever be obedient. The Lord promised us, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes…” (Ezekiel 36:27). Our obedience reflects the Holy Spirit in us. Don’t you get it, He causes the obedience. He knew we could not do it on our own.
Friends, if you don’t know if you are filled by the Holy Spirit, let me just say you are probably not. Jesus said there would be power. If there is no power, then that is your sign. Jesus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). The proof of power is power. If you don’t walk by the power of the Holy Spirit, then you are on your own. And where has that gotten you so far?
There is no qualification to being filled other than you are saved, you are willing and you get poured into. This pouring into you is not by the person pouring, it is only through them. The Lord said, “I will put My Spirit within you…” (Ezekiel 36:27). He puts the Spirit in you! Won’t you just let Him?
Argue with me if you will, but nobody can win an argument with a man who has already lived it. And if you don’t have it, oh friend, seek it! There is nothing on earth more wonderful than to have the Holy Spirit reigning in you. It is the devil that fears an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church. And it is the devil that spreads the lie that there is no such filling such that the church would remain powerless.
Don’t you want it? Don’t you long for it? Can’t you sense something is missing? Know that it is God’s will that you would have it. “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. …be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18).
When you are filled by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer just a man or a woman. The greater the yielding to the Holy Spirit, the greater the filling. Won’t you just yield?
If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then stop limiting yourself to only your abilities. Do not lower the bar to your own abilities, but raise it to His. Between me and the Holy Spirit, He can do anything!
And for you ministers who are already filled, if you want to lay hands or breath out that someone may be filled, never think you can cause anything. Stop the processes and just be the utensil in His process. You need to get out of the way! It is the Holy Spirit through you that moves onto the one you are laying hands on. And if you want to do it for your glory, then stop, before He stops you.
Oh, I pray friends, that you would have this great baptism of the Holy Spirit!
Blessings to you,
Paul
Thanks for sharing.
You are most welcome! It is my sincere desire that others would grow in thier relationship to the Lord!
So do you speak in other tongues? Just wondering. 😊💖
Yes, it is a wonderful thing. It is our heavenly language. For those who are against it, they cannot have it. For those that desire it, they desire a good thing.
Forty years ago my life was changed forever/when God stepped in!!!
Oh how I wish everyone would be so blessed as to have what you have! I can only imagine all the stories you have to tell from those forty years!
I so desire the Power of the Holy Spirit to help me live a clean, blameless, spotless life without wrinkles or blemishes. I can not live this way on my own. I am powerless without Him the Holy Spirit.
Well I can tell you from my experience, that it was only by the power of the Holy Spirit in me that I could sustain a life of obedience. I could never do it on my own before. I wrote a few blogs on this subject, hope you might check them out. One was called “The Power of God”. Another is called “Holy Spirit Power”. Hope you get a chance to check them out!
This I believe to be the truth !
It’s also something that I seek to grab hold of myself.
Thanks for sharing this powerful truth in a way anyone can understand it and rightly using the Word of God.
Thank you so much Roger! I am so blessed to receive your words of encouragement! I want you to know that this is absolutely something you can take hold of, or maybe it is better described as the Holy Spirit will take hold of you. Thanks again, you blessed me just at the right time.
Pray for me I want to Walk in the Spirit Galatians 5:16 as I listened to your messages He Has You!
I know God find you on utube to open My Eyes and heart and mind to receive it!!!!
To God be all glory for you
Showing me what I am missing in my life so I can be all God has created me to be!!!
Thank you Linda! I taped those many months ago and they did not get very much activity. I stopped taping until I could start doing with video, so hope to do that soon! Thank you so much for your kind words. But I am just a servant surrendered to Him, He gets all the credit.
How do I receive it? Must I fast? Pray until I receive?
Pray for me that I would receive it. I need Jesus. I want all of who he is.
Oh praying now for you Kelsey, that the Lord Jesus would make Himself known to you. I pray you would get a Bible and get into the Word every day. And that you would pray to the Lord Jesus, and just tell Him your heart. Don’t ever try to sound right, but real. I pray that you would have this baptism of the Holy Spirit, and your life would never be the same again. If you can, check out my facebook site https://www.facebook.com/Hehasyou/ as i put daily devotionals there and we can message. Blessings to you! Paul
Hi Kelsey, now this makes me want to write a “how to”. But there is not a single how to. Each of us has their own journey. It is in the journey where the Lord will grow us each in our own way. Just press in. Surrender your life to Him. Pray always. Get into a church family. Read the Word. It takes time to grow, that is ok, we gain strength during the growing time. If you can read some other blogs here, they are a collection of many guides on getting nearer to the Lord. There is one on fasting, I find fasting to be crucial. But it is more than the act, it is the heart, for we can fast and not have it pleasing to the Lord. I am going to be praying for you.
I liked this post and your About page.
The Holy Spirit has been my Faithful Companion for many blessed years!
Praise the Lord he is yours too!
Thank you Gail! We have such a precious gift in the Holy Spirit! It is such an honor to meet you. When I read your testimony my spirit leaped knowing how much your story could impact so many in this world. Praying for His hope to pour out through you into a hurting world that so desperately needs our Lord and Savior!
May it be all that He hoped in it. He can do anything! Praise God! Praying for you too, Brother. He loves you!
Thank you so much Gail! You are such a blessing, this is just the message I needed to hear!
Praise His Holy name! <3
Thank you Gail! We have such a precious gift in the Holy Spirit! It is such an honor to meet you. When I read your testimony my spirit leaped knowing how much your story could impact so many in this world. Praying for His hope to pour out through you into a hurting world that so desperately needs our Lord and Savior!
Paul……. Exactly my experience of many years ago…. To be filled with the Holy Spirit IS the beginning and the continuing…. There are so many misunderstandings about and misaligned teaching on and an unhealthy fear of the Holy Spirit. Oh, how I pray that the “blinders” be removed from the spiritual eyes of followers of Jesus and they would open the Scriptures to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal who He is and reveal the depth of who Jesus is as He promised…
Thank you so much for posting this Stan! There is so much against it because there is so much of the natural still reigning in the minds of believers. The natural always opposes the spiritual. It is crazy, that there is such a great opposition to the power of God that comes from those in the house of God. And they justify themselves thinking they are doing the church a favor, but the result is they leave the church powerless. Oh, how much I want to take my gloves off and shake things up on this topic!
thanks for your posts some one called Joyce Maver recommended me to your posts and they have been of help to me so much i have been in prison and now am trying to start a new life
Thank you Robert! You have a great blessing with Joyce, she is a mighty warrior for the kingdom! I was blessed to be in prison ministry, both inside and to help some post release. There is no better advice I could give, but to stay in the Word, and to get connected with some strong believers. Praying for your great success in your new life!
Wow, beautiful and powerful🙌🏻💕 Just this past Tuesday, I spoke in tongues for the first time. It is my most recent blog. Thank you so much for sharing your story, thank you Jesus!💛
Thank you so much! And that is so wonderful that you are now flowing in your heavenly language! It is a sweet gift that we can treasure, mostly in our alone time with the Lord, and sometimes with other like-minded believers that share is this sweet gift. There is still as much contention around it today as there was in the first century. But one cannot argue against a gift once realized. Blessings to you on your journey of faith!