“Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” Acts 19:2.
To receive is to be given to, to be presented with, or to acquire. It can also mean to take into one’s possession, or to be bestowed upon. When Paul visited Ephesus, he promised the Jews in the synagogue that he would return to them in the will of God. When arriving in Ephesus, he met 12 men who professed to be disciples. As he talked with them, he realized that their knowledge of the Christian faith (Christ’s teachings) was very imperfect and defective. Paul wondered if they had ever received the Holy Spirit; therefore, he asked them: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? The disciples replied, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit,’” Acts 19:2. These men were disciples of John the Baptist. They should have known about the existence of the Holy Spirit from John, for he had taught his disciples that “the one who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” To be baptized with the Holy Spirit means you will receive extraordinary power, signifying that the day of the Messiah is here with the sign of the anointed one.
“I will pray to the Father and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth; who the world cannot receive because it sees Him not, neither know Him, but you know Him; for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you,” John 14:16-18.
What these disciples did not know was that the Holy Spirit had already been given on the day of Pentecost. “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting,” Acts 2:1-2. When the apostle Paul raised the question of baptism, he found out that these 12 men knew only of John’s baptism. Their knowledge was that the Messiah was at hand, and they had signified their repentance by baptism.
Paul explained all this to them and reminded them that John baptized with the baptism of repentance, but he urged them to believe on Jesus Christ. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul knew that the time had come for them to receive the Holy Spirt.
When you yield your complete person to God, the Holy Spirit will come in. His word, power, miraculous healing, wisdom, prophecy, discernment of spirit, transformation—to think right and to talk right. The Holy Spirit will give you confirmation, confirming that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and are heirs of God. In your commitment to the work of the ministry of Christ’s church, what do you have that others can pattern their life after? When we give, we are empowered, full of faith, winning souls for the kingdom, and pouring out upon all people the full passion of Christ. Have you received it?
