Receiving the Power of God

Acts 19:2 “And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard if the Holy Spirit is being received.””

Referring once again to the Pentecostals Magazine, there is an article by Tim Enloe on How to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Sprit.

For those who have never received I encourage you to listen tonight and apply what you hear from this article.

As I said this morning, many need a fresh infilling, we can’t function the way God needs us to function on a 1970, 1980 or even a 1990’s experience.

The question the Apostle Paul asked the Ephesian believers in our text is relevant for us today.

He asked these Ephesian church people, since you repented of your sins and surrendered your life to Jesus — have you received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?

Paul could just as easily be asking us today:

If you have received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, are you walking in thee fullness of the Spirit now?

Do you pray in tongues, praise in tongues?

Do you make yourself available to manifest the gifts of the Spirit?

How do we do these things?

As Time Enloe points out:

Vulnerability

First of all, to receive from God we must humble ourselves.

James 4:5–10 (NLT) Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the Spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. 6 And He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

1 Peter 5:5b–6 (NASB95) … all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,

Article: We receive from God most often through prayer.

Prayer is a state of vulnerability. Prayer declares, “I cannot meet this need in my life, but I believe God can.”

If you want to be baptized or rebaptized in the Holy Spirit, you need to draw near in prayer.

Our job in receiving anything from God is to become increasingly more vulnerable with Him.

Pray out loud, lift your hands, voice your passion for Him, do not hold yourself back.

Give your best effort to lowering your guard, moment by moment trying to yield more and more to Him.

Raise your voice a decibel or two and lift your hands an inch higher.

You may need to pray vulnerable prayers, expressing how much you need God.

Awareness

After some time of vulnerable, vocal prayer, you will become aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence falling upon you or stirring you deeply.

Jesus is responding as you cry out vulnerably.

Look at what happened to Cornelius and those in his household:

Peter was preaching in Acts 10:43–46 (LSB) “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” 44 While Peter was still speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the word. 45 And all the circumcised believers who came with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter answered,

Cornelius and those in his household didn’t wait for Peter to give an altar call —

they immediately humbled themselves before Almighty God

they called out to God in faith and received the forgiveness Peter was preaching about.

And God, seeing their hearts, went even further and poured out the Holy Spirit on them.

And they willingly, hungrily, received.

God’s presence will not scare us.

We will not be out of control.

We will recognize His presence because we have sensed Him before.

Most likely, your new awareness of His presence will be stronger than usual.

You may sense that He falls upon you, then His presence lifts.

This is not because you have made a mistake; this is a common experience.

You will find that if you choose to draw near in vulnerability again, His presence will fall upon you again.

He is surrounding you with His presence so you will have just enough courage to know that He is with you as you step into the final phase.

Cooperation

Finally, move into a place of cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

You begin with humility and surrender.

You sense the Holy Spirit.

You begin to speak what He puts in your mouth.

As the Holy Spirit is being poured out upon you, you must learn to cooperate with His gentle leading.

He will not make you speak in the supernatural language called “tongues”; you must learn to follow His promptings.

He will nudge you and give you just enough faith to try to speak out loud in the new language, but you must choose to cooperate with Him.

Your goal is to offer your physical ability to speak for His use, not yours.

As long as you are speaking words and sentences you understand in English, Spanish, or whatever language you may know, you will be speaking out of your intelligence.

Your goal is to try to speak out of your Spirit where He is stirring you.

Often, at this point, people begin to experience different types of prompting from the Holy Spirit. Typically, they will get a prompting of some strange sounds or syllables. This is when they should begin to try to speak. If this happens, say the sounds out loud. Your brain will try to talk you out of it, but trust the Holy Spirit’s leading when He is upon you! Sometimes people feel a physical urge to speak, but are not quite sure what to say. Cooperate with this physical prompting; take a step of faith and try to give your raw sound to this inner prompting. You may grunt or sputter for a few moments, but relax and you will find new syllables beginning to emerge. Yield to the new words; let them flow.

You will find that when you begin to speak in this new, unknown language, your mind can still think, and may even begin to try to rationalize what is happening. This is normal. The apostle Paul explained, “For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying” (1 Corinthians 14:14, NLT).

You will not understand the supernatural words you are speaking. It is normal to have a mix of intellectual questions and spiritual sensation. Your brain will not recognize the new language and will likely doubt its authenticity; yet your spirit will be released in a new way, and you will likely sense an inner strength.

From this day forward, you can start and stop speaking in tongues as easily as choosing to yield to the Spirit or not. You do not need to yell or cry; sometimes our emotions connect, and sometimes they do not. Emotions (or the lack of them) do not validate the concrete sign that He has given to you.

Whenever you are praying in the Spirit, you are practicing yielding your voice to the Holy Spirit’s prompting. It will become more natural for you to follow Him in the days ahead.

Struggles

Sometimes it can feel difficult to receive something from God because of our misunderstandings or sense of overwhelming unworthiness. If you feel like you are struggling or that there are a million reasons why you can’t experience this gift, it’s all right. Jesus wants to empower you with His Spirit. He will help you, and He will fill you. As long as you continue to seek Him, He will navigate around any barriers you put up and any hang-ups you have, as long as you continue to pray to receive the gift you don’t feel you deserve. And don’t ever stop seeking to be filled.