“…he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ So they said to him, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 19:2 NKJV)
The scripture above is an excerpt from a story of when Apostle Paul was on a missionary journey in the city of Ephesus, where he met some disciples who had believed in Jesus. He asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit since believing in Jesus and they said, “No; we didn’t even know that there was a Holy Spirit.” This is the case with many Christians today. They believe that the essence of Christianity is believing in Jesus and trying to live right before God, but such a description and idea is found greatly lacking compared to what the Bible shows real Christianity to be. Christianity is a life from God that is lived in the Word of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit!
After receiving Jesus Christ and His work of atonement and reconciliation of mankind to God by praying the Prayer of Salvation, the very next and required step is to receive the Holy Spirit to come and live inside your spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, and He comes to live inside you to not only make you one with God, but to empower you to live the authentic Christian life and to fulfil His special and important work and ministry in your life (Ezekiel 36:26-27). This is what truly changes a person’s life.
Jesus spoke frequently about the Spirit of God who lived and worked in Him (John 14:10). The Holy Spirit is the One who made Jesus who He was. Jesus didn’t perform any miracles or become the wonder that He was to His world and throughout all generations until He received the Holy Spirit. He promised His disciples that, after believing in Him, they would receive the Holy Spirit to come and live inside them to make them all that God wanted them to be (Acts 1:5-8). That’s exactly who and what we need to live the Christ-life.
Maybe you’ve believed in Jesus and what the Bible says about Him and what He’s done but you haven’t heard that there is a Holy Spirit to receive right after believing in Him. Or you’ve heard that there is a Holy Spirit but don’t really understand what that all really means. Well, I hope that after reading this article and those that will follow it, you’ll have a greater understanding of the Holy Spirit and the importance of receiving and having Him in your life.
Without the Holy Spirit, all a person has is religious Christianity; but that’s not what God wants or has given to us in Christ. Without Him, a person can’t even know or understand God in truth (1 Corinthians 2:10). Receiving the Holy Spirit is a requirement if you’re going to live the Christian life that God wants and accepts. Believing in Jesus and receiving Him as Lord of your life is the only thing that qualifies a person to receive the Holy Spirit to come and make His home in their heart.
To receive the Holy Spirit is very simple and easy; you receive Him the same way you received Jesus as Lord of your life—by praying a prayer of faith to God and receiving what you’ve asked for by faith. Jesus said that it’s God’s delight to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luke 11:13). You just say, believing in your heart that God is listening and ready to answer you right there and then, “Dear Father, I thank you that you have made it possible for me to receive the Holy Spirit to come and live inside my heart in Christ Jesus. I ask the Holy Spirit to come and live inside me from this day onwards. Thank you, Father, for giving me your Holy Spirit. I now have the Spirit of God living in me. Glory to God!”
After you’ve received the Holy Spirit, it’s important to know who He is, what He has come to do in your life and to develop a relationship with Him. This is what we’ll be looking into in the following articles.
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