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Do I have the Holy Spirit?Have you ever wondered whether the Holy Spirit lives in you or not? I know I have! When I became a Christian the whole concept of the Holy Spirit was baffling to me. Well willing Christians tried to explain it to me, and they came with all sorts of terms: Baptism in the Spirit; receiving the Spirit; filled with the Spirit etc.
Who has the Holy Spirit?
The bible seems to be pretty forward and simple. The Bible teaches that anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour receives God’s Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. Listen to Ephesians 1:13-14
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
That is just awesome, isn’t it?
Only Real Christians have the Spirit of God
When I just became a Christian I had a good friend, Richard. He was the type of guy who liked to keep things simple. He said that when a person makes a chicken-coop and decides to live inside that coop, together with the chickens, it doesn’t make that person a chicken. He would than ask me what would make that person a chicken. On which I obviously answered that one needs to be born out of a chicken to become one…
I know, I know, first there is the egg and then the chicken needs to sit on it for 28 days… But you get the picture right?
This is why Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:6-7
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Paul emphasised this by saying in Romans 8:9
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
The Spirit Unites us as Church
Groups like the Jehovah Witness, pride themselves in unity. Not because of the Spirit but because they all, throughout the world, believe exactly the same teachings (or at least they ought to), they all have the same program on the same Sundays, and they all perform the same rituals. That is not the unity the Bible refers to. It might be nice when we all agree on church traditions and secondary doctrines, but in the end, this mostly leads to having a select group of ‘holy’ people who dictate what and how you have to practise your faith.
This is not what the Bible teaches us. No, the unity in Christ’s church is through the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:12–13
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Again, this is so cool! Drinking of the Spirit is a figure of speech for receiving the Holy Spirit at salvation.
John 7:37-39
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Confusion
So, someone who gives his or her life to Jesus to be saved will be sealed with the Holy Spirit. This is basically the answer! If you are real with your faith in Christ, you have received His Spirit. The Spirit is your mark, your stamp of approval, and also He, the Spirit, is the one that attaches you to the body of Christ, which is His church.
But many believers are mixing ‘having the Holy Spirit’ with ‘being filled with the Spirit.’ Receiving the Holy Spirit happens at the moment of your salvation, and that’s why I said that all real believers have the Holy Spirit in them because they are a child of God.
However, being filled is an ongoing process in the life of a Christian, or at least it should be ongoing.
If we read Galatians 5:16-26 we read several to-dos, we need to
- Walk in the Spirit,
- being led by the Spirit,
- and live in the Spirit.
These to-dos are really analogues or parallels of this theme, which we can find throughout the New Testament, namely being filled with the Spirit.
Being filled is also part of what Christians mean by discipleship. It is allowing the Holy Spirit, who came into your life during your conversion, to do His work in you. Allowing Him to make you more and more like the One you Follow, Jesus Christ your Saviour!
Ephesians 5:18-21
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Baptism in Fire and Power
Sometimes you come across these kinds of expressions right? Preacher who teach you that you really need to have this ‘second’ baptism of the Spirit. This baptism will cause you to speak in tongues, speaking in unknown languages. It will empower you to do great things. It will give you the courage to speak boldly like Peter did on the first Pentecost day. It even sometimes comes with the so-called ‘falling in the Spirit.’
I wanted that, and I heard the preacher say that if you didn’t have these outward signs you might not even have the Holy Spirit. I wanted to experience to ‘fall in the Spirit.’ So, one evening I was all powered up and ready to receive. For safety reasons, I decided to stand in front of my bed because there was nobody around to catch me if I would fall.
“Lord God! Please give me your Spirit!”
Nothing happened…
Again: “Lord God! Please give me your Spirit!”
Again, nothing happened, only this tiny thought popped up. It said: “You already believe that I can do miracles. You already know I am powerful. That’s enough for you to know!”
Was it the voice of the Lord, or was I making this up myself. Honestly, I do not know, and I do not mind. Fact remains that I indeed already believed these things and the only thing I was trying to do here was seeking sensational things.
I read the Bible, and found out that I was already sealed with the Holy Spirit at the moment of my salvation. The only thing I had to do now is trusting Him and allowing Him to work in and through me.
Enabling
Caleb Corneloup from the video channel called ‘iThinkBiblically’ came with a short and good video in which he said that the Spirit empowers Christians to be bold.i I’ll will play a bit for you because he does explain something which is very important for us to know.
…
Now, brother Caleb is talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I think that he means that this is at the moment someone becomes a Christian. In other words, the moment the new believer gets the seal from God. It might be that he sees this baptism as something which happens later, but I don’t think so because he uses the first Pentecost events as an example.
Either way, it doesn’t really matter for what I try to explain here. There are those who burst out in glorifying God when they receive the Spirit. There are also numerous Christians who never really noticed the exact time or date when they received the Spirit, but they do experience the presence of the Spirit within them. Like the first apostles, they allow the Holy Spirit to completely fill them. By allowing this they are empowered and controlled by the Spirit. They experience rehabilitation, they want to obey God in everything, and they feel bold enough to witness and share the gospel. Also, they feel much stronger in resisting sin.
In Acts 4 we see the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees in action. They were pretty angry that the disciples talked about the risen Jesus. What do you do when you are angry, right capture the culprits and lock them up…
The next day, the rulers, the elders, the scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and many others came together to question these nasty disciples.
Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, started to give an answer of the hope that was in Him.
Then in Acts 4:13 we read that
they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
The leaders couldn’t really do much, so they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John just replied bravely that they could not stop telling people about what we have seen and heard. Not long after we see what the Holy Spirit did through them after the arrived home.
Acts 4:31; 33
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
Conclusion
To have the Holy Spirit is the sign of all born-again Christians. If you really are a follower of Jesus you will receive the Holy Spirit, whether you right away notice or not, that doesn’t really matter.
What does matter though, is that you need to allow the Spirit to fill you! This is the process of being a disciple who gets discipled.
The moment you receive the Holy Spirit is at your conversion, and it is meant to be the seal which says you now belong to God. Also, it brings you into God’s family, His church.
Being filled will help you to be equipped for your task within the body of Christ, which is His church. Allowing the Spirit to work through you, and to control you, will give you the power to be a witness of Christ in whatever situation.
Tell me What you Think
So, tell me what you think about this topic. I am looking forward to hearing from you, but please keep it brotherly.Follow
Check out the description of this video. There you’ll find a link to my Odysee channel. You can also check out my video channels on GabTV, Flote, and Bitchute, and my other social media. Also, you’ll find a link there to both the Dutch and English transcripts of this video.Support
Finally, thank you very much for your prayers and support! You can look in the description of this video or on my website to find out how you can help me. God bless you, thank you for watching, and Lord willing we’ll see each other in my next video!
Endnotes:
i iThink Biblically, “How To Know You Have The Baptism of the Holy Spirit” Odysee.com, uploaded by @ithinkbiblically (Caleb Corneloup), 25-12-2022, <https://odysee.com/@ithinkbiblically:3/how-to-know-you-have-the-baptism-of-the:e?>, accessed 28–12-2022.
