Scriptural Foundation: Acts 19:1-7, NIV Paul in Ephesus The Holy Spirit and You November 6, 2005 Dr. Ritch Boerckel 1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. 4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. The book that we have been studying has a one-word title, Acts, and it tells us of deeds and actions. This title appears in many Greek manuscripts. In fact, some of those manuscripts give an even longer title, The Acts of the Apostles. However, many commentators will argue that this book will be more precisely entitled, The Acts of the Holy Spirit Through the Apostles. After all, the work that is described in these pages is super-natural in character and the Holy Spirit is the One who accomplishes these works and deeds and acts as He employs people like Peter and John and Paul and Barnabus and others, to glorify Jesus and to honor His name by expanding Jesus church throughout the known world. The human author, Luke, is most sensitive to this person of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit s involvement in and through the church of Jesus Christ. So, from Luke s Gospel and Luke s account of the history of the church we learn much about the person of the Holy Spirit and much about the ministry of the Holy Spirit among God s people. Luke describes the Holy Spirit, first, as a person and not as a power. That is to say that the Holy Spirit is a he and not an it. This is an important distinction because we are to have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, also, is God Himself, and as such He possesses all of the attributes of God. In Acts 5:3, 4 (NIV), we see a bit of a description that Luke gives us in regard to God the Holy Spirit being a person and being God. 3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." Here Peter is talking to Ananias and Saphirra and here Peter is telling us that we do not lie to a force and something that is an impersonal object, but we can only lie to a person. Again, Luke is telling us that the Holy Spirit is a person and He is God Himself. Luke not only describes the Holy Spirit s personality, but he also describes the Holy Spirit s work among God s people. He begins this account in Acts 1:4-5, 8 (NIV) before Jesus has ascended and He tells His disciples:
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. From Acts 1, we find Luke recording the ministry of the Holy Spirit at work, powerfully, through God s people to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is one of the reasons why this book that we have been studying is so important. An understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is essential for Christian living. If we do not understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our own lives we will not do well in our progress in the faith. Every blessing of God that we enjoy depends upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit strongly at work within us. If we wish to be members of God s people and God s family we must depend upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If we wish to know more of God s person we must depend upon the ministry of God s Spirit. If we wish to have power to overcome sin in our lives as sin tests us we must depend upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If we wish to find guidance to direct our lives, and security in the assurance of our salvation, we must depend upon God s Spirit. The good news is that if you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and personal Savior, if you have received the salvation that God offers in Jesus then you live in a very privileged age. No other portion of God s family has been blessed with as many of God s blessings as you and I have received in this present age; not in the day s of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not in the day s of David and Solomon, not in the day s of Elijah and Elisha, not in the day s of Mary and Joseph, and of John the Baptist. None of these received as many of the blessing of God, or were as full of the blessings that God offers in Jesus, as you and I have in our day. In Acts 19 we are introduced to twelve faithful disciples who are almost totally ignorant of the Holy Spirit and His ministry. These faithful disciples were very much like Old Testament saints and they knew about the ministry of John the Baptist, but that was about all. All of this takes place in the city of Ephesus as we see in Verse 1, NIV, 1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples Ephesus was a port city in Asia Minor and was a very important city in that day. Paul, as you may remember from our study in Acts 18:19-21, had already passed through Ephesus and Paul, upon receiving the request to remain in Ephesus, he told them that he could not stay and had to leave, but he promised that if the Lord wills it he will return. Paul left Ephesus for Jerusalem and his sending church in Syrian Antioch and began his 3 rd Missionary Journey. The first place he goes is to this city in Asia Minor. One of the reasons why Ephesus is so very well known, even in our day, is because of the temple to the goddess Diana, or the goddess Artemis, depending upon whether she is called by her Greek or Roman name. This temple was magnificent; it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In Verse 2, NIV, Paul asked the disciples, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" Luke calls the men disciples and he uses this term loosely; he doesn t mean by the title that they are Christians. In fact, we know that they are not Christians from the basis of how they answer the question. They have not received the Holy Spirit and they didn t know the Holy Spirit exists in Paul s acts of ministry in the church. They had received John s baptism and they are very much like Apollos, whom we studied in Acts 18, who understood that the Messiah was coming but didn t know that the Messiah had
already come and died upon the cross, was buried, arose again on the third day, and ascended into Heaven and sets His Spirit upon the world. Here were these disciples, these followers, these learners which is what disciple means, and Paul asked them the very important question: Have you received the Holy Spirit when you believed? Paul is going to spend three years in this city and much of his instruction is going to relate to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We know that because we have a letter that Paul will later write to his church at Ephesus. We are going to look at this letter as we discover four specific ministries of the Holy Spirit active in the life of every believer. The first ministry is this: the Holy Spirit baptizes those who are His. It may be more correct to say that Jesus baptizes those who are His with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the One who does the baptizing and this is the topic of Acts 19. Remember the question that had been asked of these twelve Ephesians: Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Paul s question is also vital for and for me today because the receiving of the Holy Spirit always accompanies genuine faith. If a person has not received the Holy Spirit then they are not saved from the wrath of God, they have not been redeemed, and they have not been made children of God. This is very clear throughout many portions of the Bible and one of those is Romans 8:9, NIV, 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Nothing could be clearer when Paul says that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. The Bible also teaches that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ do not know God, as in Jude 18 and 19, NIV, 18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. Believers are described as having the Spirit and unbelievers are described as having not the Spirit. This is a very important question for us to answer: did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? This question is of utmost importance with solemn implications. How would you answer this question as it is pressed to your life? The implication behind the question is that those who have received the Spirit when they believed know it. The Holy Spirit is the author of spiritual life and if, when you believed, you did not have any life of the Spirit given to you then your believing is a dead believing and a dead faith. It is not real article. This is how we know that we belong to Jesus Christ: if we have the Spirit of Jesus and if we have been given by Him and through Him. Notice that the question is not, Did you pray the Sinner s Prayer? Paul could have come to these twelve Ephesians and said, Let me ask you a question, when you believed, did you pray the Sinners Prayer? He did not ask them that question because there are many who have prayed the Sinner s Prayer who have not received the Holy Spirit. It is possible to pray a prayer without genuine repentance and without genuine faith and the Scriptures tell us that many in fact do. Here is the real question that we have to answer, When we believed did we receive the Spirit of God? Jesus baptizes all who are His with His Spirit. We have to ask the question, What does it really mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit? This is a question of great controversy. It is appropriate for this last instance in which a people group, a segment of the church, is baptized with the Holy Spirit and receives the Holy Spirit, that we take some time to study this issue.
Most of our charismatic brothers and sisters would answer this question quite differently than we do. I need to generalize a bit when I speak about charismatic theology and as I describe what charismatic theology teaches because there are some variances among charismatics in regards to the baptism in, or with, the Holy Spirit. In general, charismatic theology teaches us that baptism with, or in, the Holy Spirit is something that happens in the life of a believer after, and subsequent to, a conversion. Subsequent to, or after, one being adopted into the family of God, one being forgiven of their sins, one having new life in Jesus, and one receives forgiveness, then sometime after that one can expect to receive what is often described as the Second Blessing : the baptism with, or in, the Holy Spirit. In charismatic theology there are two categories of Christians. The first category would be those who have been born again but who have not yet been baptized with, or in, the Holy Spirit. These have the forgiveness of sin and a home in Heaven but they lack spiritual empowerment. Some would teach that they lack spiritual empowerment to live unto holiness and to be Christ-like. Others would say that they lack spiritual empowerment to be effective, or powerful, in ministry and in their service for Jesus. None-the-less, those who are in this category, those who have been born again but have not yet been baptized in the Spirit lack something in their spiritual experience and they are deficient in some way and they need something more. The second category that charismatic theology teaches us is the category of those who have been born again and, also, have received baptism in the Holy Spirit. The reception of the Holy Spirit is accompanied by the gift of speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is the outer sign that one has been baptized with the Holy Spirit and this spirit baptism catapults the believer into a whole new level, a higher plane of Christian living, and immediately into spirituality, into holiness, and into the power for service. In charismatic theology there is a great longing to possess, as you can imagine, this baptism with the Holy Spirit because along with it comes freedom from the power of sin, the struggle that one would have with temptation, and a new power for Christian ministry. There are a couple of positives, and they are good things, that come out of charismatic theology that I should mention. First, there is a genuine desire to recapture the vitality and the power that is described in the Book of Acts. All through the Book of Acts we have read about this vitality that is behind God s disciples. People who were timid become amazingly bold. People who struggled with sin are now walking with purity and a transformation of life. My friend, you and I must become like charismatics in this; that we ought to have this passion for this vitality that we read about in the Book of Acts. We should desire for God to be powerfully at work within us and through us and we should believe that God does this yet in this present age. The second positive that accompanies charismatic theology is this: there is a willingness to humble themselves and to pray for God s blessings. They recognize that they need God s blessings in their lives and may we also be captured by such a desire for God to bless us that we would be like Jacob, wrestling with God and unwilling to let Him go until He blesses us; yearning for His blessing and praying for more of His grace in our life. That is a good thing: to desire such blessings from God and I believe that God honors it. But, we have to ask the question: is charismatic theology correct in its understanding of the Bible and in its understanding of baptism with, or in, the Holy Spirit? What does the Bible teach in regard to baptism with the Holy Spirit. In our study we have seen four different instances in which Jesus baptizes groups of people. These groups of people are four distinct and separate groups culturally. The first group we saw was in Acts 2 and the first instance is the inception of the Holy Spirit baptizing many people at the beginning of a new age and that begins with Jewish believers in Jerusalem. Jesus promised this in Acts 1:5, NIV, when He said:
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Then in Chapter 2 (NIV), we see that the disciples have been waiting and they have been in prayer specifically for whom to replace Judas Iscariot among the Twelve, 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. There are three observations that I want to make concerning this first instance. First, all disciples experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem that day. There weren t some disciples and some believers who received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and some believers who did not. All of them received it. The second observation is that the tongues that they spoke with were foreign languages; they were not ecstatic utterances. The third observation that is important for us is that there is no indication that these disciples were praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, they were waiting, as Jesus told them, in Jerusalem, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit came suddenly upon them as an act of God s sovereign grace. In fact, after this point we will not even find believers waiting, in any sense, for the baptism of the Holy Spirit; they are not praying for it and they are not doing something to find it, but rather God s sovereign grace imparts His Spirit to people. Not once in all of the New Testament are believers exhorted to seek after the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is very crucial to our understanding and especially for one who believes that in itself is the key to understanding the Bible. The second group people who receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit are Samaritan believers we see in Acts 8:14-17, NIV, 14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Here we see that Peter and John go to check this out because they can t believe that God would do the same work in Samaria. We must remember that there were huge dividing walls between Jews and Gentiles and between Jews and Samaritans. This is the observation: all of the Samaritan believers received the Holy Spirit at the same time. There were not two categories of believers in the Samaritan church: one category of people who have believed and have been baptized, and the second category of people who believe but have not yet been baptized. We might ask the question: Why is it that the believers in Jerusalem and the believers in Samaria received the baptism of the Holy Spirit after coming to faith in Jesus Christ? The answer is to understand the Book of Acts and that the Book of Acts provides for us a transition between the Old Testament and the New Testament. There had to be a day in which the Holy Spirit came and that was after Jesus left. There were believers before Jesus left and at some point they had to receive the Holy Spirit. We cannot expect to have the exact same sequence of events occur today that occurred initially to the church. We can say that we understand what occurred for Jerusalem but still wonder about Samaria. The church was so divided culturally that God saw fit to bring apostles, Peter and John, to Samaria to have an eye witness account that they received the Holy Spirit just as the people in Jerusalem did for the purpose of bringing unity into
the body. This is not designed to describe for us a normative, or normal, experience for believers throughout the church ages. The third group is Gentile believers in Acts 10:44, 46, NIV. We remember the story of Cornelius talking to Peter. It was the first time that the Gentiles received the message. 44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Again, here is the observation: all of the believers who were present received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the same time and this took place immediately after their conversion, not days or weeks or months subsequent to it. Acts 10 is more descriptive of what the rest of the New Testament describes that happens to you and to me. The fourth group is now in Acts 19. Here were Old Testament believers, believers who understood the Old Testament and who understood a bit of John the Baptist s teaching; they were baptized through John the Baptist. In Verse 2b, and following, NIV, we read, They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. 4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. Paul told them that what they needed to do was to believe in something that had already taken place in the past; that Jesus came as the Messiah, He died on the cross, He was buried, and He rose the third day. Upon hearing this Gospel they trusted in Jesus Christ and they were baptized in name of Jesus. The assumption that is behind Paul s question is this: when a person receives salvation they receive the Holy Spirit. That is the reason why Paul asked, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Paul was discerning when their faith was complete and they found out that it was not and that they needed more truth and more teaching. All of the disciples of John received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the same time and no one was excluded. There was no interval between receiving salvation and receiving the Holy Spirit. There are three key questions to answer before we move on from this ministry of the Holy Spirit to the others. First, are there two levels of Christians: one category with greater spiritual blessings than another? The answer the Scripture gives to that question is: No! Ephesians 1:3, NIV, says, 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. There is no place in the New Testament, or in the Bible, where God makes this separation and distinction between the body of Christ. In fact, it is this two-class view of spirituality that I believe is so harmful about charismatic theology, because it presents to us an idea that the church is divided, that there is a we and a they, there is an us and a them. Us are in this category and we have the higher plane,
and then there is them in the other category and they are on the lower plane. What does this breed? It is going to breed pride, jealousy, and ultimately conflict. This is happens in the church at Corinth and this in one of the reasons why there was so much division. The second question we might ask is: have all believers been baptized with, or by, the Holy Spirit? The answer to that question is: Yes! This is the assumption behind Paul s question that if you believed with fullness and a genuine way in Jesus Christ, then you will have received the Holy Spirit. But more than that, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, NIV, this is what God tells us: 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Baptism with, or in, the Holy Spirit occurs at salvation, in an instant, by God s Grace to all who believe. The third question to answer is: what does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit? It means that Jesus Christ ministers to His body by immersing us in the Holy Spirit so that we receive the Holy Spirit in a personal relationship and that this Holy Spirit comes to us to indwell in us and places us into Jesus Christ and into His body. He connects us with Jesus and with all who are in the body of Jesus. This is what it means to be baptized. We are placed into the body. We are permanently joined to Jesus Christ Himself, and we are immersed with the Holy Spirit. This is a once and for all act that is not to be repeated. There is one application to draw. God provides us with this Holy Spirit so that we might receive power for effective witness, and when we witness for Jesus we never witness alone because we have been immersed in the Holy Spirit. God s Spirit then bears witness through us so as to change even the darkest of hearts and what an encouragement that is for us in our witness. The baptizing work of Jesus, with the Holy Spirit, gives every believer access to an effectiveness in evangelism. Not every believer avails themselves to the power of God because of sin and grieving the Holy Spirit and other things keeps us from accessing what God has for us, but because we are baptized in the Holy Spirit we have one faith, one Lord, and one baptism because of that. Each one of us, regardless of our personal talents, can be miraculously and amazingly used by God to bring the Gospel to our world. Let us look at the other three ministries of the Holy Spirit. God s Holy Spirit also seals those who are His. It is more accurate to say that God seals us, those who are His, with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV, Paul says, 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. The big idea is this: if you have received the Holy Spirit you will not loose it. The Holy Spirit is our down-payment, a guaranteeing that we, one day, will be ultimately saved from the presence of sin. As God begins His work of salvation in us now the Holy Spirit seals up in such a way that we are now God s. We are owned by God and the transaction, while it has not been fully discovered and realized, because we yet have that day when we will ultimately see Jesus Christ and become like Him and be freed from even temptation, while that has not yet happened, it is as sure as though it has because all of those who have salvation have been sealed by God s Spirit in such a way that it is irrevocable and irreversible. The Holy Spirit is God s down-payment and the dominate idea behind God s sealing us with His Holy Spirit is ownership and security; that we are secure not because of what we do now throughout the rest of our lives to keep us in Christ, but because of what God has already done for us.
In the New Testament times a wax seal was used to indicate that a business transaction was finalized, much like the documents that we sign at the closing of a property. It is true that, for most of us, we haven t paid the last payment on the house when we take ownership. The last payment hasn t been realized yet, but none-the-less the documents have been signed and secured. With God, who is the owner now, this is a down-payment and it is a guarantee that God will not revoke on the agreement that He made with anyone who has given this down-payment the Holy Spirit. The application is in Ephesian 4:30, NIV, when Paul tells them, 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. He is telling them that since they have been sealed by God they have been made secure so why would they grieve Him and why would you sin in such a way as to grieve the One who has secured for you favor in Heaven forever and ever. The motivation to move away from sin and from rebellion in our hearts is not primarily because of the threat of punishment through the Law, but rather it is the motivation of the graciousness of God on our behalf. We need to desire to honor the One who loves us so much that when we obey God, not so that we might secure in Him, but we obey God because we are secure in Him. Don t grieve the Holy Spirit because He is the One who sealed you in your life forever and ever. The third ministry is that the Holy Spirit fills those who are His. Ephesians 5:18, NIV, tells us, 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit and the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit are often confused and thought to be identical, but they are not. The baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place at conversion. It is a once and for all times event and it is irreversible. The filling of the Holy Spirit is a command and a call upon God for us to submit our lives to Him everyday. It is repeatable. Everyday that we get up we have a decision to make, Will I live a Spirit-filled life or will I not? We are commanded to be filled with God s Spirit everyday as a part of our obedience. What does that mean? It means that we must constantly decide to give control of our lives over the God s Spirit and it is a conscience act. We get up in the morning and we say, Self, you are going to run your own life. We might not conscientiously say that, but that is the natural default setting of our sinful nature. When we get up in the morning and we don t yield our control over to God s Spirit guess who is in the driver s seat: it is us and we are driving the car that day of our lives and God says to us, No, turn the keys consciously and actively over to My Spirit and say, Spirit, I am not responsible enough to drive the car on my own. I need you to control me. I need you to fill me. I need you to direct the course of my life and I will submit to you. Friend, do you know what the Holy Spirit can make you? This is amazing when we begin to grab hold of this obedience of submitting our lives to the control of God s Holy Spirit. It can cause a person who is angry to become patient. It can cause a person who is filled with lust to be satisfied. It can cause a person who struggles with covetousness to be content. It can cause a person who is filled with worry and anxiety to be at peace. Do you know what the Holy Spirit of God can make you? It is amazing and it is offered to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit and His filling. The last ministry is that the Holy Spirit speaks to those who are His. Let s look at Ephesians 6:17, NIV, 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
In Acts 4:25, NIV, God says that David spoke through the Holy Spirit. Does the Holy Spirit speak to us? Absolutely, yes! It is vital that we listen to God s Spirit today, yet we are very confused by how we are to listen to God s Spirit. If I were to say, Church, we are planning a conference entitled, Listening to God, what would you suppose we would cover in that week-end conference? I believe your assumption about what that conference is going to cover is quite different from the assumptions that evangelical Christians had several fifty years ago as to what that conference would cover if they saw the same title. Today we would think that Listening to God would be about prayer, silent meditation, and listening to that inner, small, silent voice. Fifty years ago, Listening to God would be about Bible study and how we can discern the will of God through His Word. How does the Spirit speak to us? I don t deny that there are not some of these inner promptings, but what I do deny is that that is the primary, the main, and the clear way that the Holy Spirit speaks to us. How does the Holy Spirit speak to us? We have His Word, the Word of God. This is the sword of the Spirit. The Spirit speaks through His Word, and what is interesting is that many who say they want to listen to God don t have the commitment and the time to say that they want to study the Word of God to find out what God s Spirit is saying. Rather, they would go to a more mystical and experiential view of Christianity, when God s Spirit is spoken so plainly and so clearly in His Word. This Book is living and it is active so God does speak very specifically to our lives through His Word but we cannot expect to set aside the Word of God and say, God, I am listening, because God has already spoken through His Son and the record of His Son is written for us in the Word of God. Study the Book. In conclusion, have you received the Holy Spirit when you believed? If you look at me and say, Pastor, I don t know, I would urge you to call out upon God afresh in your life and say, God, I need a life that only You can impart and I know that only comes through Jesus Christ. I am not depending upon a prayer I pray. I am not depending upon some religious exercise. I am depending only upon your graciousness to provide for me what You promised through Jesus Christ. God is a gracious God and He is generous with His Spirit. Call upon Him in brokenness and in faith and in repentance. If you say, Yes, I have received the Holy Spirit, then let us yield to His authority and live under His control so that God might have a monopoly upon our lives.