How to Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Many questions have been asked about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Is it truly God’s promise to every believer for today? If so, Is there any reason why all Christians should not receive it? What are the practical steps we need to take in order to receive this baptism? Can some things hinder us in receiving? How do we know if we’ve received the baptism in the Holy Spirit? What will the result be? Do we really need this baptism in the Holy Spirit, or is it optional?

Since experiences must be based on the Word of God, rather than creating theology from our experience, let’s begin with a small attempt to provide a sound theological foundation. The Bible’s primary text on the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the first and second chapters of Acts, with some reference to Luke’s first volume, the gospel of Luke.

In Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4, Jesus said that he would send what the Father had promised. It is not likely that he repeated his promise in two different settings, but rather that Luke is recording the same instance twice to show the relationship between the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts, which Luke intended to be two volumes of the same work. What must not escape our notice here is that the fulfillment of this promise was imminent. This was something for which they were to prepare now. In Acts 1:5, Jesus made reference to the prophecy of John the Baptist that he would baptize them in the Holy Spirit. While he did not tell them how to prepare for the outpouring or what to expect as evidence when it happened, his message is quite clear that it was about to happen and the implication is clear that they needed to be prepared.

In looking at the example of the apostle’s experience in the book of Acts, several principles of how to receive the Holy Spirit can be noted.

They Waited

In Acts 1:4, Jesus commanded them to “wait for the gift the Father promised” (NIV). No specific time frame was given, although Jesus had promised that it would not be long. The importance of the time of waiting cannot be overstated. It was a time for prayer and soul searching, a waiting to be released for the work that God had called them to do. Stanley Horton notes that their task was “… no human enterprise. They were not to use their own ingenuity to figure out ways to spread the gospel. They were to be led by the Spirit. He would be in charge.” (Horton, What the Bible Says, p. 139). For the Holy Spirit to take charge, they would need to wait for this fullness.

Waiting is a virtue seldom appreciated in today’s society. While some, like Erlie Reyes and Tess Himenez, receive the Baptism with little or no waiting period (interview, September 12 and 14, 1999, respectively), waiting has great merit in the Kingdom and most people find themselves seeking for a period of time. Concerning the disciples period of waiting, Spence says:

The waiting period enabled the disciples to comprehend their needs more fully to examine their own hearts. It provided a better time for getting a better comprehension of their own motives. Attitudes and relationships could be reviewed. It was an opportunity to see their failures with different perspective.

The waiting period was a transition time in their lives. The nature and [sic] their utter dependence on the Lord Jesus and to recall again what He had said in one of his teaching sessions with them, ‘without me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5). Coming to the place where more than mental assent was given to those words was significant preparation. The extent of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is affected far more than we realize by the preparations of the recipients.

(Spence, “The Holy Spirit Outpouring in Acts,” p. 77).

If you have not received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, you should begin to seek it immediately. However, there may be a time of waiting. As Spence mentions above, this is an excellent time to take a spiritual inventory, and perhaps put some things in order in your life or gain some new perspective on spiritual matters. For me, I needed a theological orientation to the things of the Spirit. I was raised in a church where the Holy Spirit was pretty much ignored. While I had read what had happened to the apostles in Acts 2, I saw little reason to think that it would be relevant to my life today. I was wrong, but God was merciful, and gave me the time I needed to sit under some Spirit-filled teaching and gain some understanding.

How you wait and prepare, as Spence mentioned above, is also very important. Erlie Reyes reports that she was hungry for the touch of God, for the moving of the Holy Spirit in her life, after seeking the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of some missionaries (interview, September 12, 1999). Acts 2:1 gives some insight as to how the disciples waited. They waited in expectation of the Holy Spirit’s arrival. They didn’t know how He would come or what the evidence would be, but they believed the words of Jesus that he would send the Spirit. Waiting in anticipation is an attitude that suggests that you are open for the Baptism. Spence adds:

The variable factor in divine visitation is not God; it is man. A time of preparation, regardless of time or culture, enhances confidence and expectation. When the believers in Acts met certain conditions in order to experience an outpouring of the Spirit, the probability became an actuality.

(Spence, p. 77).

So while we do not always understand God’s timetable, the Bible suggests that we do have a part to play. Tanya Jo Shipley, an American lay missionary, and Dr. Arun Sarkar, the dean of the Buntain Theological College in Calcutta, India, reported that they actively sought the Baptism before receiving it (Interviews with Tanya Jo Shipley, September 12, 1999, and Dr. Arun Sarkar, September 14, 1999). I received the Baptism after about two months of studying and seeking. However, there are exceptions. Tess Himenez, who runs a missionary boarding house at her home in Manila, received the Baptism at a conference when someone laid hands on her even though she had only been seeking for a couple of days (interview, September 14, 1999).

The apostles also waited in unity, which is crucial to the flow of the Holy Spirit. Whatever differences there may have been were resolved or at least put aside. I have been in many churches where I did not sense that the Spirit was free to move. It may have been that there was disunity. I have also been privileged to be a part of a church known for its unity and is currently experiencing a wonderful visitation of the Holy Spirit. Before you ask the Lord to fill you with the Holy Spirit, seek to resolve any conflicts that you may have with others.

There may be some other hindrances to being baptized in the Spirit. Abbott lists some common hindrances as “a sense of guilt, a sense of unworthiness, assorted fears, a lack of understanding, confusing terms, a cold spiritual environment, discouragement, lack of faith, lack of intensity, and a tendency to quit short of the total experience” (Abbott, “Helping People Receive the Baptism, p. 172”). All of these, however, can be dealt with biblically and there is no reason to think that one will not receive the Baptism after (or perhaps even before) these hindrances are resolved.

Regarding receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, the following 6 steps, adapted from Abbott, may be helpful.

1. Make sure that you understand and have received salvation.
2. Obedience is important. If you are in a state of guilt and condemnation due to unresolved matters, resolve them and abandon yourself to the will of God.
3. That you are reading this is indicative of your spiritual thirst. Read and meditate on encouraging passages like Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
4. Just ask God to fill you (Luke 11:13).
5. Remember that being filled with the Holy Spirit is like taking a drink (see John 7:37-9). Open your mouth and praise the Lord until the Spirit of the Lord overflows you.
6. Expect to speak in other tongues, an issue that will be discussed later in this article.

(Abbott, p. 169-70) Tanya Jo Shipley, after months of anxiously seeking, relates how the evangelist who prayed over her to receive the Baptism told her to relax, that this is something that God does and there’s no point in getting nervous and tense about it (September 12, 1999). This is a good point, though it doesn’t mean that we should not actively seek the Baptism. Kaye Cole, who was raised in a Pentecostal church received the Baptism at the age of 13, received seemingly effortlessly when someone laid hands on her and encouraged her to speak out “whatever comes into your mouth to speak” (interview, September 13, 1999).

The first principle of receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is to wait, preparing your heart in anticipation of what God will do in your life and removing any known hindrances to the moving of the Holy Spirit. When the time of waiting was completed, they had also prepared for the second principle of receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit:

They Submitted

The period of waiting had prepared them for what would happen next. Acts 2:1 opens the chapter in a note of anticipation. As Horton explains that here, the intent of Pentecost was being completed and the Old Testament prophecies, especially Joel 2:28, were about to be fulfilled (Horton, Acts, p. 29). The upper room in which they met cannot be positively identified, but it may well have been in the temple. The apostles were known to go there to pray (Acts 3:1) and the temple area was large enough to accommodate the crowd that gathered in response to the Spirit’s outpouring.

The sound of the wind and the flames of fire accompanied the Holy Spirit. They may have occurred here as an indication to the disciples that the Holy Spirit arrived. The root words for Holy Spirit in both the Hebrew and Greek referred to “breath” or “wind.” It may be that the sound of wind, though no wind actually occurred, was intended as a sign of the Spirit’s arrival, something they would understand. In the Old Testament, fire was often a sign of the power of God, and it may be here that the presence of the fire was intended to convey to the disciples that the power of God had arrived. However, these signs were not a part of the Baptism itself and were not repeated elsewhere in the book of Acts, suggesting that we should not expect them today. Speaking in tongues, however, is another matter. Speaking in tongues was specifically equated with the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as also mentioned in Acts 10: 39-48; 11:15-18; and 19:1-6. This suggests that Luke is intending to teach us that the early church considered speaking in tongues to be the normal evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. A complete defense of this teaching is well beyond our scope here. In my opinion, others have dealt with it so brilliantly (i.e. Donald Johns, “Some New Directions”), that it is sufficient to say here that there is no reason to expect otherwise today.

Having been taught that the gifts died with the apostles, I needed a little time to accept that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the corresponding gifts are for today. I needed time to realize that these gifts would only pass away when that which is perfect comes, which is no doubt a reference to the Second Coming rather than the completion of the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). When I was convinced that the gifts were for today, the next step was to convince me that I needed the Baptism personally. Once the Lord accomplished that, I began to earnestly seek, and when I sought, I found.

Acts 2:4 says that “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (NIV) Here is a combination of humans moving in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, both taking their respective roles. Concerning the Holy Spirit’s role, Stanley Horton reminds us that this is a divine visitation when he mentions that “… the words did not come from their minds or thinking. The Spirit gave them utterance which they expressed boldly, loudly, and with obvious anointing and power” (Horton, Acts, p. 33). Evangelist Robert Abbott notes the human element in this with the person involved willingly participating in speaking in other tongues, under the Spirit’s guidance, even though what they say is supernatural (Abbott, pp. 171-172.). There is no contradiction here. The words “they began to speak” suggests the role of the disciples while the words “as the Spirit enabled them,” suggests that the Holy Spirit was working in cooperation with their spirits. We must be careful, however, of pressing this combination too closely. Erlie Reyes, among others, says that she did not have control of her tongue when she was baptized in the Holy Spirit (interview, September 12, 1999).

I will never forget my experience in this regard. One day, believing that the Holy Spirit would just take over my mouth and lips if I simply invited him to do so, I laid back on my bed, opened my mouth, and just lay there waiting. What happened? Nothing. It may just not have been God’s time, but I didn’t receive the Baptism until I understood that I had a role to play by speaking as the Spirit gave me the words.

The apostles received the Baptism simultaneously, but Horton is correct in saying that while they “were all filled at the same moment, the filling itself was an individual experience” (Horton, What the Bible Says, p. 139.). I received it in the basement prayer room of a church in San Diego. Kaye Cole, missionary to the Philippines, received it in the altars of her home church in Birmingham, Alabama (interview, September 13, 1999). While many receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit in some form of prayer meeting or worship service, you can receive it anywhere. Some have received it in their homes. One man received it while driving down the highway and missed his exit by nine miles! The place doesn’t matter. It’s the attitude of the heart that counts!

In Acts 2:1-4 and 10:44-47 no one touched the person receiving the Baptism. In Acts 8:1-25, 9:17-18, and 19:1-6, however, God used someone to lay hands on the recipient. While this is not necessary, it does have Biblical precedent. Paul (now David) Yonggi Cho writes that if you want to receive the Baptism you can receive it, even if your own prayer is weak, when a Spirit filled brother or sister lays hands on you (Cho, The Holy Spirit, p. 120). I received when someone laid hands on me, and I have laid hands on others for the same purpose. Others have also testified to receiving when someone laid hands on them.

When we wait and submit we will be filled, bringing us to the third principle of receiving the Baptism:

They Were Empowered

Acts 1:8 is very clear that the baptism is an empowering for service. Before Jesus was resurrected, the disciples met behind locked doors for fear of the Jews (John 20:19). When the apostles submitted to the Holy Spirit, they received the power that Jesus spoke of in Acts 1:8. With the power of God coursing through their spirits they were ready to take on the world.

Now, being full of the Holy Spirit, Peter stood before a crowd of at least 3,000 and preached the gospel. Infused with the power of God they took to the streets of Jerusalem and preached Christ, not fearing the wrath of those whom they recently feared. On at least two occasions, some of the disciples were called before the Sanhedrin, the quasi-political religious council that ran the daily affairs in Jerusalem, for preaching as they did. Far from cowering, they were fearless. Cho writes that the baptism in the Holy Spirit gives “believers the power of God to preach Christ” (Cho, p. 103.). Taylor’s assessment that empowering for service is one of the main reasons to receive the Baptism is right on target (Taylor, p. 47).

Erlie Reyes, a seminary student, said that receiving the baptism changed her life from being rather shy and timid to being a firebrand for Christ (interview, September 12, 1999). Arun Sarkar, who believes that receiving the Baptism is essential for ministry, reports that the baptism gave him the assurance of his call to the ministry (interview, September 14, 1999). Kaye Cole said that it was a turning point in her relationship with the Lord. The Holy Spirit lit her on fire for the Lord. Though shy, she began witnessing to people and getting active in her church (interview, September 13, 1999).

Other things happen as a result of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that are related to this empowerment. For me, the Bible became a new book as the Holy Spirit gave me insights I had never seen before. Also, the Lord set me free to be myself, and I realized that wearing false masks was not necessary for pleasing Him. Tess Himenez said that prayer became easier for her (interview, September 14, 1999). Along this vein, Phil Taylor, an Assemblies of God pastor writes:

The baptism in the Holy Spirit leads to a renewing of worship and praise to the Lord, a new dimension of prayer and intercession, a deepened understanding of the word of God and its application to our life, a deeper understanding of our place in Christ and of His power at work in His church, and a heightened boldness to witness and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world.

(Taylor, p. 49)

Notice that every one of the elements mentioned by Taylor is connected to being empowered for service. New dimensions of prayer, intercession, and a deeper understanding of the Word of God serve to strengthen the empowering given to us for service in God’s Kingdom. The baptism in the Holy Spirit gave Erlie Reyes a more intense desire for more of God and gave her greater boldness in her witness (interview, September 13, 1999).

The Bible commands us to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This is not an option. We would do well to heed the warnings of two respected Pentecostal leaders lest we think that being baptized in the Spirit is not important. The late G. Raymond Carlson, former General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, wrote that “if the Holy Spirit is not allowed to actively direct the operation of the church by controlling the lives of its members, the church will have lost its dynamic” (Carlson, p. 33). Kaye Cole shared with me that as a child, the altars of her church were open after every service, and people went into the altar expecting to meet God there, and were not disappointed. It was in this environment that she received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and eventually went to the mission field. Later in our interview, she bemoaned the fact that many churches in her fellowship, the Assemblies of God, no longer open the altars after every service.

Tanya Jo Shipley reported that environment in her church was also conducive to the moving of the Holy Spirit, the pastor often preaching on issues related to the Holy Spirit or at least mentioning that the Spirit was free to move in the service (interview, September 12, 1999). The moving of the Holy Spirit from one generation to the next is not guaranteed. By our example, we can and must teach every generation what it means to be full of the Holy Spirit and power.

The second warning comes from Dr. Yonggi Cho, the pastor of the world’s largest local church: “Christians today are not powerless, sick, and spiritless because they are not born again, but because they have not received the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the tremendous power of God for service” (Cho, p. 103). But we can receive the Spirit’s fullness, we can walk in the power of God and we can be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is for every believer. If you have not received it, you certainly can. Why not prepare your heart now, using the steps mentioned above? The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is for YOU! Are you willing to submit to Him? Are you willing to be embarrassed before others and completely abandon yourself to the will of God? Then there is no reason that you should not receive. But remember that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is given for a reason. God wants to empower us to be His witnesses. And what a wonderful empowerment it is!

PR

Bibliography

Abbott, Robert. “Helping People Receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit,” pp. 168-73. In Conference on the Holy Spirit: A Condensation of Plenary Sessions and Seminars of the Conference on the Holy Spirit in Springfield, Missouri, August 16-18, 1982. Vol. 1. Gwen Jones, ed. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1983.

Carlson, G. Raymond. Spiritual Dynamics: The Holy Spirit in Human Experience. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1976.

Cho, Paul (now David) Yonggi. The Holy Spirit, My Senior Partner: Understanding the Holy Spirit and His Gifts. Almonte Springs, FL: Creation House, 1989.

Cole, Kaye. Interview. September 13, 1999.

Himenez, Tess. Interview. September 14, 1999.

Horton, Stanley M. What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1976.

—— The Book of Acts. The Radiant Commentary on the New Testament. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1981.

Johns, Donald. “Some New Directions in the Hermeneutics of Classical Pentecostalism’s Doctrine of Initial Evidence.” Pp. 145-67. In Initial Evidence. Gary B. McGee, ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991.

Reyes, Erlie. Interview. September 12, 1999.

Sarkar, Arun. Interview. September 14, 1999.

Shipley, Tanya Jo. Interview. September 12, 1999.

Spence, Robert. “The Holy Spirit Outpouring in Acts.” Pp. 76-81. In Conference on the Holy Spirit: A Condensation of Plenary Sessions and Seminars of the Conference on the Holy Spirit in Springfield, Missouri, August 16-18, 1982. Vol. 1. Ed. Gwen Jones. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1983.

Taylor, Phil. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit: A Pentecostal Perspective. Tulsa, OK: Published by the author, 1992.