The Well
The Well |
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Connecting Hope to the Hurting | |
Thursday
September 4, 2008
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior provinces.
Finally, he came to Ephesus, where he found several believers. "Did you receive
the Holy Spirit when you believed?" he asked them.
"No," they replied, "we don't know what you mean.
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 was to demonstrate a desire
to turn from sin and turn to God. John himself told the people to believe in
Jesus, the one John said would come later."
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. There were about twelve men in all.
Acts 19:1-7
Well, what do you think? Is there one baptism and subsequent baptisms or fillings or not? Has God changed His way of working? Let me simply share my heart.
As I have shared before, I received a filling of the Holy Spirit and the gift of a prayer language in March of 1985. It scared me. I did not understand it and would not allow myself to exercise this gift. However, with this gift came a supernatural desire to serve God and His people. It was a passion that could not be stuffed down for very long.
However, after so many years of pushing down one gift some of the passion to use my other spiritual gifts also diminished. Although I didn't understand it at the time, I was actually grieving the Holy Spirit in me and the flame turned into a flicker, and eventually became snuffed out. Yes, I was saved. Yes, I would have gone to heaven, but I had lost the joy of my salvation and the passion to serve Christ.
When God placed me with a new friend several years ago, she shared about her experience with the Holy Spirit and I shared mine with her. She helped me learn to submit to God and He refilled me and rekindled the Spirit within me. Since that time I have experienced several new fillings. He will fill you as often as you need it. Again, remember the old song, "Fill my cup Lord?" As we allow Him to flow out of us into or onto others we need a fresh anointing ourselves. That is how we stay contagious Christians in His service.
Lloyd John Ogilvie, the Chaplain of the Senate, says, "The first baptism prepares us for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The great need today is for traditional, believing, struggling Christians in the church to receive this baptism of power…We were created to contain and transmit the Holy Spirit. Our Christian life is not fulfilled until we have had an infilling of power. All the things we try to be and do as faithful believers in Christ are impossible until we receive the Holy Spirit's power."
Call it an extra baptism or an infilling – just receive it. As my Pastor says, "You say potatoe, I say potato. It doesn't matter how you say it just put some butter and sour cream on it and give it to me." We should feel the same way about this gift God wants us to receive!
Heavenly Father, I want all that You have for me. Fill my cup, let it overflow, with the fire of Your love, Your precious Holy Spirit. Inflame me to be a true soldier of the cross with the power to hear You and do my part in Your Kingdom.
