One of God’s greatest gifts is the Holy Spirit, and it provides
a lifeline to God by which He gives many of His other wonderful gifts. The Holy
Spirit gives a Christian spiritual power and understanding and makes it
possible for us to become more like God and eventually inherit eternal life. So
it is important to know how to receive the Holy Spirit, how to stir it up and
how to be assured that we have it.
How does the Bible say we
receive the Holy Spirit?
Jesus Christ told His
disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit after His death. On the Day
of Pentecost, the beginning of the Church of God was announced with powerful
miracles, and Peter preached an inspired sermon describing how we can receive
the Holy Spirit:
“Then Peter said to them,
‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’”
(Acts 2:38).
Other passages show that
the Spirit is usually given to the repentant believer after baptism when a
minister lays his hands on the person and asks God to give the Holy Spirit (Acts
8:14-17).
Repentance, belief, baptism and the laying on of hands are the steps God asks us to follow today before He gives His Holy Spirit, so if a person has not followed these steps, he or she does not have the Holy Spirit in him or her yet.Repentance, belief, baptism and the laying on of hands are the steps God asks us to follow today before He gives His Holy Spirit, so if a person has not followed these steps, he or she does not have the Holy Spirit in him or her yet.
What does the Bible say we
should do to avoid quenching the Spirit?
In David’s impassioned
prayer of repentance, he pleaded with God, “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from
me” (Psalm 51:11). He knew that if he didn’t keep repenting and seeking God, he
was in danger of an unpardonable sin, for God will not forgive us if we do not
repent.
Paul also gave warnings to
Christians not to grieve, neglect or quench the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Timothy 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:19).
To avoid these dangers, a
Christian must do the opposite. Instead of grieving the Spirit, we should pray
daily to be filled with God’s Spirit, to “walk in the Spirit” (meaning to
follow the lead of the Holy Spirit), and to sow to the Spirit—to grow
spiritually (Ephesians 5:18; Galatians
5:16, 25; Galatians 6:7-8).
Instead of putting out the
fire of the Spirit, Paul encourages us to “stir up the gift of God which is in
you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).
What are some evidences of
the Holy Spirit?
The Bible lists many
things the Holy Spirit enables us to do. Paul wrote that God’s Spirit opens up
our spiritual understanding of things that seem like foolishness to those
without spiritual discernment (1 Corinthians 2:10-14). Through regular prayer
and study of the Bible, the Spirit helps us grow in understanding of God’s plan
and our part in it. It writes God’s laws on our hearts and minds, helping us
internalize God’s way of life and think like He does (Hebrews 8:10). It enables
us to transform or change our minds . Romans 12-2
