After Jesus completed His ministry and returned to heaven, His apostles continued the work He had personally begun while on Earth. These men would have to carry an unpopular gospel to a hostile world. They would have to face years of persecution, ridicule and finally, for most, even martyrdom! The apostles would need faith, courage, strength, encouragement and wisdom. They would need the love, patience and endurance to follow in Christ’s steps.
The apostles would also need to recall the lessons Christ taught them. Jesus therefore said to them shortly before His trial and crucifixion: “I am not going to leave you alone in the world—I am coming to you” (John 14:18, Phillips translation). Christ would continue to teach and support the apostles, but not in the flesh. His Father in heaven would miraculously empower them in their efforts to spread the true gospel.
Christ told His apostles that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to them. It would bring to remembrance all that He taught them (John 14:26) and would impart the power they needed to be His witnesses to the world (Acts 1:8). The record of the New Testament shows this is precisely what happened.
Yet Christ did not limit the help of the Holy Spirit to the apostles alone. You too can have the power that will enable you to live the way of life leading to peace, happiness and eternal life in God’s Kingdom. God stands ready to impart spiritual strength and understanding through the gift of His Holy Spirit—if we will only comply with the conditions outlined in His Word.
Let’s understand what the Holy Spirit is and how you may receive it.
What the Holy Spirit Is
Spiritual qualities and entities seem unreal to most people. And no wonder. The spirit world is invisible, not discerned by any of the five senses. We can learn about the spiritual realm only by what is written in the Bible. God’s Word reveals a great deal about His Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not a third person of a limited trinity. (Request our free reprint article ”The Plain Truth About the Trinity Doctrine”). It is the power and energy of the God Family, as well as the very nature, life and mind of God—not another spiritual entity!
What is God composed of? John 4:24. Do the Father and Christ have definite form and shape? Genesis 1:26; John 14:9; Revelation 1:13-16.
Comment: Both members of the God Family are composed of divine, immortal spirit essence. Yet the Father and the Son have definite shape. From one end of the Bible to the other are references to the shape and the various parts of the bodies of both members of the God Family. The Father and the Son both have a head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, arms, fingers, torso, legs and feet.
Man was created in the image of God. But unlike God, we are composed of perishable physical matter. We do not have eternal life inherent within ourselves as does the God Family (John 1:4).
What is another important attribute of God? Psalms 99:9. Is there anyone as holy as God? 1 Samuel 2:2. Are human beings naturally holy? Romans 3:10-18, 23; 8:7; Jeremiah 17:9.
Comment: The word holy, as used in Psalms 99:9, means pure of heart or free from sin. The two beings presently composing the God Family have a sinless, holy, spiritual attitude and mind. The Holy Spirit therefore expresses the very mind and character of God.
What are some of the characteristic attributes of God’s Spirit? Isaiah 11:1-2. What additional characteristics, or “fruit,” does the Holy Spirit manifest? Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Timothy 1:7.
Does God’s Spirit fill the entire universe? Psalms 139:7-8; Jeremiah 23:24.
Comment: The Spirit of God, like matter, exists in various states. It not only has form, composing the members of the God Family, it also flows out from them as power and energy to accomplish their will throughout the entire universe!
Is the Spirit of God the power by which God—the ultimate Source of all power—created all things? Jeremiah 32:17; Psalms 104:30. How did God use His Spirit of power to bring His various creations into being? Psalms 148:1-5. (Notice the word commanded in verse 5.) Also read Psalms 33:6-9 and Genesis 1:1-3.
Comment: Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son and fills the entire universe—much like air is present everywhere on Earth. The Bible clearly shows that God’s Spirit is the instrument, or means, by which the God Family creates! Christ, the Logos or “Word” of the God Family (John 1:1-3, 14), “spake, and it was done” by God’s Spirit.
It was by the Spirit of God that the creative energy of God was transformed into the physical creation we see around us (Hebrews 11:3). And it was by the power of God’s Spirit that He renewed the surface of the Earth (Genesis 1).
Is the very creation all around us mute testimony of the miraculous creative power of God? Romans 1:20. (Read Job 26:7-14 for more vivid illustrations of God’s infinite power. You can also read chapters 36:22 to 42:6 to see how great the power of God really is!)
How does God sustain and rule His vast creation? Nehemiah 9:6; Hebrews 1:2-3; Psalms 66:7.
Comment: God sits at the controls of the entire universe, so to speak, ruling and sustaining everything by the awesome power of His Spirit!
How You May Receive the Holy Spirit
Is the Holy Spirit a gift from God? Acts 10:45; 2 Timothy 1:6-7.
How readily did Jesus say God will give us His Holy Spirit if we ask for it? Luke 11:10-13. But how do we know God will hear us when we ask Him in prayer? 1 John 3:22.
Are repentance, belief and baptism initial steps in our obedience to God, after which He is bound to keep His promise to give us His Holy Spirit? Mark 1:14-15; Acts 2:38; 5:32.
Comment: Notice the stress placed upon obedience, upon submission to the will of God—to the law of God. God will give His Holy Spirit only to those who have demonstrated—both by attitude and actions—that they have truly repented and want to obey Him.
Repentance means to turn around and go the other way—to forsake all of your ways which have been contrary to God’s law, and turn to God’s way, which is the way of obedience to His law. All must repent of rebellion against God and begin to literally OBEY His Word. To learn more about repentance, request our free booklet Repentance Toward God.
After belief and sincere, heartfelt repentance, the next step toward receiving the Holy Spirit is water baptism. Baptism is an outward symbol of our repentance of our old sinful, disobedient life—of our complete departure from our old sinful way of living—and of our willingness to obey God in every way.
Once you have taken these steps, then you are unconditionally promised the Holy Spirit after prayer and the laying on of hands by one of God’s ministers. God has bound Himself to perform His part if you first perform yours.
The Spirit and God’s Church
Once we have truly repented, been baptized, and have been begotten by God’s Holy Spirit, do we automatically become part of a body? 1 Corinthians 12:13. What body is Paul talking about? Verse 27; Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18.
Comment: In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul has drawn an analogy between the human body and God’s Church. He is speaking about being baptized—put into—the spiritual body of Christ, or Church of God, by God’s Spirit.
Therefore, joining a group that calls itself a church—having one’s name on the membership roll of some group—does not make one a member of the Church Jesus founded. We cannot become a part of the body of Christ by simply deciding to attend church services.
What determines whether or not a person is a member of the Church of God is the begettal of the Holy Spirit. Those who have not received God’s Spirit are simply not a part of the body of Christ—they are not real Christians! (Romans 8:9).
But after we are baptized and begotten by God’s Spirit—what then?
What did Christ commission His ministers to do for those He has put in His Church? Matthew 28:19-20; John 21:15-17; 1 Peter 5:1-3. (Notice the last three words of each of the three verses in John 21 cited above.) For what purpose are God’s ministers to “feed” Christ’s “sheep”? Ephesians 4:11-15.
Comment: God has set His called and chosen ministers in His Church to “feed the flock” so they may grow spiritually. God’s true Church is the spiritual mother (Galatians 4:26 and Hebrews 12:22-23) of all who have been begotten by His Holy Spirit. Just as a human mother feeds her begotten child within her womb, God’s children are nourished with spiritual food within His Church. And as the human mother carries her unborn baby in that part of her body where she can protect it from physical harm, God’s Church also protects the begotten children of God from spiritual harm, such as the false doctrines of false ministers. It is critical, therefore, to identify God’s one true Church. Our free book Malachi’s Message will prove where it can be found.
Spirit Must Be Used and Renewed
Is it enough to just receive the Holy Spirit and associate with God’s Church, or must the Holy Spirit be put to use? The example of the Church of God in Corinth in Paul’s day will serve to illustrate.
Were the members of the Corinthian church begotten by the Holy Spirit? 1 Corinthians 3:16. Yet were many of them not really showing the fruit of God’s Spirit? Verses 1-3.
Comment: There was strife and arguing, debating, contention and division among the Corinthian brethren. These are some of the “works of the flesh” mentioned in Galatians 5:19-21. We need to understand why the Christians at Corinth were manifesting these unspiritual characteristics.
Must the Holy Spirit be put to use? 2 Timothy 1:6-7.
Comment: Even though the members of God’s Church at Corinth had the Spirit of God, they seemed to have forgotten the fact that God’s Spirit must be used and drawn upon to produce its fruit. They were producing works of the flesh—doing what comes naturally—simply because they were not stirring up the Spirit of Christ and drawing on it to produce the results of the mind of Christ! (Philippians 2:5; 1:11).
Another obvious reason some were acting carnally was because they also lacked a supply of the Spirit of Christ.
Does one receive all at once enough of the Spirit of Christ to last as long as he lives, or must the supply be replenished daily? Philippians 1:19; 2 Corinthians 4:16. Also notice Jesus’s profound analogy in John 7:37-39.
Comment: The Spirit of God, which is administered by Christ, is active—dynamic! It is a moving force that can’t be bottled up within you. Jesus compared it to living water that comes into you, and then flows out from you in obedience to God. It circulates like electricity in a complete circuit—from God, into you, and then out from you manifesting the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and then back to God.
Since the Spirit must flow into and out from us, then obviously it must be continually supplied. Therefore, the supply of the Holy Spirit must be renewed in us daily by asking God for it in believing prayer (Luke 11:13).
To put it in the vernacular, our spiritual battery must be continually charged up. We must daily plug in to the power source. That source of the Holy Spirit is GOD!