Baptism in the Holy SpiritSample

The receiving of the Holy Spirit

To understand the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we will first look at the event where you receive the Holy Spirit.

Because there is such a thing as the ‘receiving’ of the Holy Spirit and the ‘baptism’ in the Holy Spirit. This plan will be about the latter, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which transforms our lives. But the moment we say ‘yes’ to Jesus from an upright and repented heart, the Holy Spirit comes into us as the ‘resurrection power’, you receive Him. It is He Who makes us into a new person (2 Corinthians 5:17). So this is what happens first.

In this way, we ‘receive’ the Holy Spirit ‘in us’, when we give ourselves to Jesus by repenting.

The ‘function’ of the Holy Spirit ‘in you’, is that He takes your old nature out of you and makes you into a new person, equal to Jesus. He seals that ‘new you’, so that no sin can come in there again. The Holy Spirit will be in us forever (John 14:16-17).

There are many things that the Holy Spirit does in you. These are a few:

1. He bears witness that you are God’s child (Romans 8:16)
2. He helps you in your weaknesses (Romans 8:26)
3. He comforts you (John 14:16)
4. He leads you in the truth (John 16:13)
5. He teaches you and helps you to remember (John 14:26)
6. He teaches you to be free (2 Corinthians 3:17)

And there are other functions of the Holy Spirit ‘in you’.

This is all so that you can grow ‘inwardly’ as a child of God and get to know Him better and better. Because of this, you can be led by Him more and more.

Aside from these functions of the Holy Spirit ‘in’ you, there is also something called the Holy Spirit ‘over’ you or ‘on’ you.

It is often seen as one big thing, but it isn’t. We will discuss this further tomorrow.