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Posted by Helen on 5/1/2006, 2:08 am, in reply to "Of what significance is the Baptism in HS?`" Acts 2:32-34 cannot mean that Jesus didn’t have the Holy Spirit before he was raised from the dead because Luke 4:1 says that Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost just after he was baptized and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him. John the Baptist also told some of his disciples that Jesus received the Spirit not by measure from God (John 3:34). In John 16:7, Jesus told his disciples that it was advantageous on their part that he go away, because if he didn’t, the Comforter would not come to them because it was Jesus who would send the Holy Spirit. John 1:33 says that Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John 16:7 was a prophetic statement so that they would know on the day of Pentecost that the gift of the Holy Spirit was sent from heaven by their glorified Lord. The only way to find out how New Testament saints were baptized in the Holy Spirit is to read the accounts where it took place. In the accounts in the book of Acts, tongues were the sign. Recognizing that someone is born of the Spirit is not the same thing as recognizing that they are Spirit filled, because the 120 that were in one accord on the day of Pentecost were not only born again, they were the many who were eye witnesses to Christ’s resurrection from the dead, yet; they were not Spirit filled yet; even though Jesus ascended in the previous chapter of Acts. According to Ephesians 1:13, II Corinthians 1:22 & Ephesians 4:30 we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, meaning as with a signet, a private marking. However, Jesus charged that the reception of the Holy Spirit was to endue the saint with power from on high (Luke 24:49), and that there was a power that we would receive that was qualified by Jesus in our witnessing to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). Matt.10-1-8 it says that Jesus gave his disciples power to heal and cast out demons, but did they have the power to be his witnesses to the death? Peter was the perfect demonstration that after being given the power to perform miracles he still denied the Lord 3 times and God did not judge him to not be a believer. It was after he became Spirit filled on Pentecost that he preached Jesus with anointing, saying that the promise of the Father was what those on Pentecost were seeing and hearing and he later went on to a martyrs death. This is the same description given of Steven when he was stoned, him being full of the Holy Ghost as they took his life, and this is not Steven’s initial infilling. Acts 7:55 (KJV) Being Spirit filled is not the act of our becoming saved, it is the anointing, the Greek is charisma, the manifest dunamis, force, power and strength to be His witnesses, not loving our life to the death. ***Helen
64.136.27.228
Hi Traci,
John 16:7(KJV)
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
The teaching that Christians are automatically Spirit filled at salvation is contrary to the evidence after the day of Pentecost where Paul still finds it necessary to send Peter and John to pray for the indwelling of the Spirit with Christian believers (Acts 8:14-15 in Samaria). Again, this is why Paul asked certain disciples he came upon in Ephesus “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed” (Acts 19:1-2). Clearly in these two Biblical accounts, after the initial infilling that happened on the day of Pentecost; the receiving the Holy Spirit is seen subsequent to Salvation without a doubt in scripture.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
1 John 2:27 (KJV)
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
