How Do We Receive the Holy Spirit?
We receive the Holy Spirit simply by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior from sin (John 3:5-16). Jesus declared, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (verse 5,6. The believers are all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and they are all given spiritual gifts as the Spirit wills (1 Corinthians 12:11,13).
Christians, who are born from above, are devote to their Father and reflect His nature (1 John 3:1–3; John 8:39, 44). They seek, by His grace, to live above sin (Romans 6:12–16) and do not submit their lives for evil (1 John 3:9; 5:18). The “flesh” and the “Spirit” are opposites. God’s children will not live for worldly pursuits.
The Infilling of the Holy Spirit
The receiving/indwelling of the Spirit occurs at the moment of salvation but the filling of the Spirit is an ongoing process in the Christian life. The Lord continues to fill the believers with His Holy Spirit as they continue to live according to His will. The Bible teaches that the Holy Ghost is “given to those who obey Him” (Acts 5: 32).
The Lord judges people on the grounds of the light they have received or might have received had they tried to know it. Jesus urged the necessity of walking in all known truth. He said, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22). “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains” (John 9:41).
When God’s Spirit convicts a man about a point of truth in the Bible but the man refuses to obey it, he is guilty of practicing sin. Such a man is fighting the Spirit whose primary work is to lead to all truth. This continual refusal to obey God’s voice hardens the conscience and makes it insensitive to the Lord, causing the Spirit to finally withdraw and leads to the unpardonable sin (Mark 3:29).
The Free Gift of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit is a free gift that God gives to all that ask. Jesus said, “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 father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he 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).
All what the citizens of the kingdom of God need is theirs for the asking. What they cannot do in their own strength can be accomplished when human effort is united with divine power of the Spirit. When God’s commands are faithfully kept, the Lord makes Himself responsible for the success of the efforts taken by the believer. Thus, in Christ, there is power to do God’s will, wisdom to resist temptation, grace for growth, and energy for service. Paul declared, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
