Thought 124
The Promise of the Father
Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come to be the counselor and the empowerment of His disciples after He left (John 14:16, Acts 1:8). This coming occurred during the baptism of the Holy Spirit the Early Church experienced in Acts 2.
The Holy Spirit is received when you accept Christ as your Savior; but being baptized with the Holy Spirit gives you empowerment beyond what you received at salvation—this empowerment is given to do great things for the Lord, not to promote yourself. As evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Early Church spoke in tongues, that is, in a language that they did not comprehend: they spoke as the Spirit directed them in a language unknown to their natural minds (Acts 2:4). Speaking in tongues is still evident, it wasn’t just for the Early Church.
Read Luke 11:11-13 and Acts 1:1-8, 2:1-47.
You can receive the Holy Spirit and the empowerment He gives like Peter and the believers in the book of Acts. All you need to do is have faith. Ask the Lord for this gift and believe.
A word of advice: Even though you ask, you might not receive immediately, but have to wait. There have been many others who have received the Holy Spirit the first time they asked the Lord for Him, but some do not. YOU have nothing wrong with you if you haven’t received, some people wait years to be baptized in this way, so don’t become discouraged and keep asking and believing God for the Promise of the Father – it is a gift that HE wants to give you (read Luke 11:11-13 again if in doubt).
