“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” (Acts 1:8). “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one…. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth…. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified…. I in them and you in me” (John 17:15, 17, 19, 23).
By John David Hicks
Jesus spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit as the promise of the Father. He was not offering us gifts of peace, comfort, or power. He was not offering us joy or guidance. He was offering us His own person, Himself. The gifts and the inheritances are wrapped up in the Giver. Without Him, the gifts are pointless and irrelevant.
Jesus’ prayer for your holiness is found in John 17—that we would be protected from the evil one. His command is to “tarry…until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49 nkjv). His promise of abundant life cannot be separated from the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a doctrine to be debated, but a person to be received. You may have all the right theology, but miss His presence, power, and splendor. When the Holy Spirit indwells you, your life will show the fruits of the Spirit. Without Him, your attempt at spiritual ministry will be lifeless.
Through the years, this experience has been given various labels. Some have called it the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It has also been called the deeper life, power from on high, heart purity, and sanctification. John Wesley called it perfect love. The title doesn’t matter. What is important is the fact that God is more willing to give you the Holy Spirit than you are to receive it (Luke 11:13).
In the Scripture the Spirit-filled life is always one of balance. On the one hand there is the aspect of purity and on the other the filling with power. The danger is that we emphasize one aspect over the other. Both are important.
In my first pastorate, this very discussion arose one day at the city ministerial association. Pastors were there
God is not interested in giving us power to bring attention to ourselves.
from various faith traditions. A Holiness pastor said that he believed that heart purity and death to self were the keys to the Spirit-filled life. The Pentecostal pastor just as strongly pointed out that the power of the Holy Spirit was for witness and service. But as the issue was discussed, they both realized the weakness of just one emphasis. The Holiness pastor said he had people who led good lives, but with no power for witness or service. And the Pentecostal pastor said his group had the power, but there was little emphasis on heart purity.
The real problem is the distortion of the Gospel by both groups. The power that the Holy Spirit gives is the power to live a holy life. God is not at all interested in giving us power to bring attention to ourselves or for our own selfish edification. An emphasis on power by itself can lead to fanaticism and showmanship. On the other hand, an overemphasis on purity can lead to legalism and self-righteousness. That is the mistake made by the Pharisees in the New Testament.
Let me repeat that power in the Scriptures has to do with the Lord enabling us to live holy lives. A holy life always relates to loving your neighbors, to sharing your life in the community of believers. We can’t separate that from the work of the Holy Spirit. Any system of beliefs that causes us to be more selfish, less human, and less like Jesus must be suspect from the beginning.
Jesus prayed for His followers to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and God answered that prayer in the book of Acts when the Spirit fell on the little band of Christians. Their lives were forever changed.
Let’s quickly look at God’s plan for our salvation. In the Garden of Eden, Adam sinned and through him sin entered the human race. From that point on, we all experienced death and separation from God. Our very nature became tainted with original sin, selfishness, or the carnal nature (Romans 8:7). Death and separation, Paul tells us, is the wages or just rewards of sin (Romans 6:23). To be saved from our sins, we must confess our sins—the actions and attitudes that are in rebellion against God. God, in His great mercy, forgives us not because of what we have done but because of what Jesus Christ has done for us on the Cross. Jesus took our sin and death on Himself. We are able to become a new person. In fact, Jesus tells us, the contrast is so stark that it is like being born a second time (John 3:3). We know that He saves us because God sends the Holy Spirit to bear witness with our spirits that our sins are forgiven (Romans 8:16).
When we are saved, the past is forgiven and we have a new start in life. But as we journey as Christians, we will soon find that there is a nature of selfishness still at work in our hearts and minds. Some have called it “the carnal nature”; others have called it “original sin.” The New Testament sometimes calls it “the flesh.” In this usage, do not get it confused with your body. The body is sometimes called the “flesh” in Scripture, but the Greek never refers to your physical body as sinful or carnal.
“The flesh” is the sinful nature of man. This nature with its lusts and its desires fights against God. “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want” (Galatians 5:17). “The flesh” represents the sinful part of human nature that is opposed to the “Spirit” (Romans 6:19; Matthew 16:17). To live “according to the flesh” is to live and act sinfully (Romans 8:4-12). It denotes the character of man going in a criminal direction. Directed by his selfish pursuits, this self-love is at the root of the self-centered things we do, think, and say. Outside of the grace of God, this carnal nature is at work. We have to have things our way.
Before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the disciples were weak, vacillating, and full of doubt with the carnal fear of men. They quarreled over who would be the greatest in the kingdom. When trouble came and Jesus was arrested, the disciples left and went into hiding. Peter at first cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant and later that night denied he knew Jesus.
But after the experience of Pentecost, the disciples had a new boldness and confidence in their faith. They preached to thousands in Jerusalem. Peter was able to overcome his lifelong prejudices and take the Gospel to the Gentiles. The infilling of the Holy Spirit had come and made some definite changes in their lives.
When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes into your life—all of Him, not just a part of Him. When you are filled with or baptized in the Holy Spirit, you do not get more of the Holy Spirit. More accurately the Holy Spirit gets more of you. Ephesians 3:20-21 explains this: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” The Holy Spirit is in you, but you have to release Him. He must have unchallenged control of your life. It’s one thing for God to give the Holy Spirit in His fullness and another thing for you to receive Him.
Paul describes two kinds of Christians in 1 Corinthians 2:14 to 3:4, the carnal man and the spiritual man. The carnal man has a divided loyalty and the
A man working without the anointing
of the Holy Spirit has no oil for his machinery.
mindset of the world. The apostle James refers to this situation as “double-mindedness.” A carnal believer still has these two natures warring against one another in the same personality. The flesh and the Spirit are each fighting for control. Although it may seem strange that a Christian would be carnal, this is consistent with Christian experience.
Choosing to live with carnality will result in a dissatisfied, disappointed, and disobedient life. Disaster and failure will be the norm of your life. God will give you what you want. You cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). The carnal man will live with unbelief and with that comes fear, anxiety, frustration, and failure. Defeat and sin will dominate your daily walk.
The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus came to set you free from the flesh (1 John 3:8; Romans 8). The Bible often uses the term “sanctification” to describe this experience. “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified”
(1 Thessalonians 4:3). Sanctification means “set apart for the use of God, cleansed for service.” It was used in the Old Testament to distinguish ordinary and common objects from objects that were reserved for worship in the temple. Things that were dedicated to the service of God were “sanctified.” When God accepted them, they were cleansed for service. On the outside they looked the same as the ordinary objects, but they had a different purpose in life.
To be sanctified for God’s use is nothing that you can do by yourself. It is all God’s grace at work in your life. By an act of consecration, when you make yourself available for God’s use, He sanctifies you and you are cleansed for service (Romans 6 and 8). God has never given Himself in His fullness to an unsurrendered will. But with surrender and obedience, God imparts His fullness.
Paul lays this out for us in Romans 6:16-19, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God…you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness…. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”
You must decide to offer yourself to God as a “slave to righteousness.” That decision will influence not only your life, but the lives of your family and friends, your church, and eventually your destiny. It will affect your success or failure in God’s eyes.
A cartoon showed one man pushing and another pulling with all their might an old wagon—with square wheels. The wagon was piled high with round wheels. That’s an illustration of our trying to work in the flesh. For all our effort, we won’t get very far. But when we use what is so graciously provided, the going is much easier.
Certainly, the spiritual man will face difficulties, persecution, pain, and physical death, as all men do. We don’t use the filling of the Spirit as an attempt to evade life and its problems. Sanctification is not a trip to the Bahamas. Following Christ may mean hardships and its own set of troubles. It may mean going to the slums of Calcutta instead of Nassau. The difference is inward—it is the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit (John 15:5; Philippians 4:13). “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
God promises a life of victory for the spiritual man (1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 John 4:4). This doesn’t mean you can’t sin, but by the grace of God you are “preserved blameless” at His coming, and you will be “presented faultless” at His appearing (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Jude 24). John Wesley said, “All believers are forgiven and accepted, not for the sake of anything in them, or of anything that ever was, or can be done by them, but wholly and solely for the sake of what Christ has done and suffered for them” (Works, 5:239). Christ’s righteousness is bestowed and faith is imputed for righteousness. Christ has “become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Paul tells us to “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). In other words, “count” on it being a done deal. You can take it to the bank. Some have struggled with “Holy Spirit insecurity” wondering if they really “got it,” wondering if they really “have their all on the altar.” Yet Paul tells us that we can have confidence that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5).
We can walk boldly in the Spirit, not because of anything we have done but by the confidence of His work in us. As you count your surrender done and complete, this new consciousness opens up within you with a new power that governs you. You are now free in Christ and able to fulfill God’s commands.
In the 19th century, evangelist D. L. Moody led more than one million people to Christ. His life changed when he heard a preacher say, “The world has yet to see what God will do with, and for, and through, and in, and by the man who is fully consecrated to Him.”
Moody remarked, “He did not say a great man, nor a learned man, nor a smart man—but simply ‘a man.’ I am a man, and it lies with each man himself whether he will or will not make that entire and full consecration. I decided I would try my utmost to be that man.”
Moody testified that although he was a Christian he had no power in his life and ministry. Two godly Methodist women in his church were praying for him. One day he asked them, “Why don’t you pray for the people?” They answered simply, “You need the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Moody was perplexed by this response. He said to himself, “Don’t I have the largest Sunday school and congregation in Chicago? There are some conversions. I am satisfied with things the way they are.”
The women kept praying and continued talking about the fullness of the Holy Spirit. He finally asked them to explain their concern. Then they knelt and prayed for Moody to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit. A great hunger came into his soul that he could not explain. His soul cried out to God as never before. The hunger increased until he felt that “I did not want to live any longer if I did not have the power for service. I kept crying out for God to fill me with His Spirit.”
Some time later, walking along Wall Street in New York City, it happened—an experience almost too sacred to describe. Moody’s testimony is that God revealed Himself in such a way and he had such an experience of His love that he had to ask the Lord to stay His hand. His life and ministry were changed. His sermons were not really all that different, but a new power was on him and hundreds were converted.
Some Christians think they are wasting time if they wait on God for the power of the Holy Spirit. There is so much work to be done. So they work hard without any anointing and without power. A man working without the anointing of the Holy Spirit has no oil for his machinery. Without the lubricating power of the Holy Spirit, the machinery will break down and the work will become toil.
Moody went on to affirm his belief in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you are a Christian and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is living in you. But I call to your attention that many Christians have no power for service. Without exaggeration, I would say that 19 out of every 20 professing Christians are of no earthly account in building up Christ’s kingdom, and most are standing in the way. They have eternal life but have settled down and have not sought the power of the Holy Spirit.
Moody firmly believed that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride, selfishness, ambition, self-seeking, and everything else that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill us. But until then, there is no room for the Spirit of God. Before we pray that God would fill us, we need to pray that God would
When everything is turned out that is contrary to God, then the Spirit will come and fill you.
empty us. When everything is turned out that is contrary to God, then the Spirit will come and fill you.
All of us need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. “Don’t rest day or night until you possess it. If that is the desire of your heart, God will give it to you when you hunger and thirst for it. You must say, ‘God helping me, I will not rest until I have been endued with power from on High!’” The command of Scripture is to tarry until you are clothed with the power of God (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4).
Years ago when the Philadelphia ministerial association wanted a city-wide evangelistic crusade, D. L. Moody’s name was brought up. One minister objected, “We’ve had Moody before. Why do you want to invite him again? Does Moody have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”
“No,” replied another minister, “but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on D. L. Moody!”
That’s the secret of the Spirit-filled life. The Holy Spirit must have a monopoly on you.
This baptism of the Holy Spirit is lived from the inside out—by God’s power, not yours. “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
How do you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Let me lay out the steps as clearly as I can:
First, believe that God’s promise of the fullness of the Holy Spirit is true. He cannot lie. He has given His word (John 17:20). When you see your need and when you hunger and thirst for the fullness of God Himself, you will find it (Matthew 5:6). God has promised.
Second, surrender everything to God. Consecrate yourself by wanting Him and His will more than anything, turning everything over to Him, including yourself (Luke 22:42). As you give up having your way and depending on your performance, you admit your inability to live the Christian life. In effect you resign, giving up your efforts to take control. Your part is the consecration of your total being.
Third, receive the Holy Spirit by faith (Acts 15:9). Faith is simply trusting Him. I can offer you my Bible as a gift, but unless you reach out and take it, it is not yours. God offers you the Holy Spirit. Receive His gift, then get up and do what you could not do before in the power of the Spirit. Power is given only to those who need it and will use it. The Spirit-filled Christian exists by mission as fire exists by burning.
Fourth, God’s part is the sanctification. The life of holiness includes a lifelong process of spiritual growth and being continually refilled with the Holy Spirit. We keep filled with His Spirit in part by obeying God’s word on a daily basis. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9).
“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” (Acts 1:8). “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13).