Received the Holy Spirit

Galatians 3:2 Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. (NLT)

We have it much easier than the original disciples almost two thousand years ago. No we don't, you say! They got to walk with Jesus. He was right there to teach them.

That is all correct, but... They did not have the Holy Spirit. Jesus was the only man who did and this is where His divine authority and power came from. Before He went off to be crucified and die for the sins of all mankind, He promised His first action when He got to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father was to have the Father send the Holy Spirit, the comforter to live in each believer.

Here in Galatians we see Paul teaching on receiving the Holy Spirit. He does not come to abide in us because of the works we do. There is no waiting period to have Him with us. We received Him the moment we believed the message of Christ; the moment we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior; the moment we became born again.

That moment in time is our Upper Room experience. Our spirit man is reborn and the spirit of Christ comes to reside. We are a new person in the spirit beginning a journey under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Mark 16:15-18 And then he told them, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved...These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will... speak in [tongues]... They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed."

What we do not necessarily have at this point in time is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The evidence of which is our prayer language. How do we receive this baptism? Let's look at what the Bible says about that.

Acts 19:1-7 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul... found several believers."Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" he asked them. "No," they replied, "we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." "Then what baptism did you experience?" he asked. And they replied, "The baptism of John." Paul said, "John's baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus." As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied...

Believers have the Holy Spirit and see fruit in their lives. Their character begins to change and what pleased them before is replaced with other interests. Their friends notice the changes and see Jesus in their behavior. Once baptized in the Holy Spirit, as Paul gives evidence to in Acts, they begin a new level of communication with God the Father through their prayer language.