For the last two weeks, I was preaching on knowing and receiving the Holy Spirit. During the last message, I mentioned that there are at least two different ways we are to receive the Holy Spirit. The first time relates to our salvation, when we are born again as Christians (John 3:3-8), and the second one relates to Christ anointing us as His witnesses (Acts 1:8).
The disciples received the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed on them on the day of His resurrection (John 20:19-22), yet they still had to wait in Jerusalem for what we call the baptism with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). The first time the believers received the Spirit of God, they did not speak in other tongues, and that is what can happen in the born again experience of becoming a Christian. Whereas, when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit we find that they “began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). There is a clear distinction between these two experiences.
The first time the disciples received the Holy Spirit was on the very day in which Jesus had risen from the dead. During His earthly ministry, Jesus had been initiating the New Covenant, but the day of Christ’s resurrection was the first day when New Covenant salvation could actually take place. That was because to be saved through the gospel you must ‘declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead’ (Romans 10:9). That confession of faith became a reality from the day Jesus rose again.
When Jesus did rise from the dead and stood among His followers, they believed in His resurrection, and therefore Jesus breathed on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. The experience of being born again, or saved, means that you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe in Christ’s resurrection, but that is not the same as being baptized in the Holy Spirit with the gift of speaking in other tongues.
There are cases in the Bible where people were born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit at the same time (Acts 10:44-48). They got the full package all at once, but then there have been cases where people have been believers for a long time and yet didn’t know that they needed to be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7). I hope that helps you to understand the biblical truth that you have received the Holy Spirit as a born again Christian, but then you should also be baptized in the Holy Spirit so that you can speak in other tongues.
God bless you as you seek to know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit more intimately.
Pastor Matthew
