The Baptism in the Holy Spirit (9): The Baptism in the Spirit in Acts (1)

There is a 2-fold experience of the Holy Spirit: (1) WITHIN and (2) UPON. (1) The Spirit WITHIN is for ourselves, our own life of holiness with God, whereas (2) the Spirit UPON is to empower us for ministry. Jesus (our example) was (1) born with the Spirit WITHIN but was not anointed with power until (2) He received the Spirit UPON Him at His Baptism, when He entered into His supernatural ministry. We see the same 2-fold pattern with the first Christians. (1) On the evening of His resurrection. Jesus breathed on them, saying “receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22), so this is when they were born again and received the Spirit WITHIN. But, they had not yet received the full experience of the Spirit, because He then started to prepare them to receive the Spirit UPON (Luke 24:47-49, Acts 1:4-5,8), which happened 50 days later on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). This 2-fold anointing of the Spirit comes from the very nature of our love relationship with the Lord (1John 4:7-8,19, Romans 5:5, Matthew 22:37-38, Deuteronomy 6:5, 1John 2:15-16). Flowing out of our love relationship with God should be a commitment to glorify His Name and help Him fulfil His mission in the earth; to be alongside Him in His work, and partner with Him as a co-labourer. Until the foundation of our love relationship with Christ is laid in our lives, our work for Him is an idol. We can substitute our ministry for loving Him, and end up serving Him in the flesh, rather than in the Spirit. When our love for the Lord is established as the first thing in our life, He can bring us into our ministry, without it becoming more important than Him. We must always keep Him as our first love, and not allow anything to become a substitute for our love-relationship with Him. Then, when we are ready, He will reveal His mission to us and cause us to dedicate ourselves to Him to do our part in fulfilling His mission on the earth, as part of our expression of our love for Him. God loves us and wants us to fulfil our full potential, and release all the gifts He has given us. So, when we dedicate ourselves to Him to fulfil His work, He anoints us with His Spirit UPON. His Hand comes UPON us to empower us to do the Great Commission and He releases spiritual gifts to flow through us. This way, we serve God in the newness and power of the Spirit, rather than from our soul (Romans 1:9, 7:6, Acts 1:8). The Samaritans also received the Blessing of the Spirit in 2 Stages. When Philip preached Christ to them, they received the Gospel and were saved and baptised (Acts 8:5-8,14,16, Mark 16:16), so they received the indwelling Spirit (Romans 8:9). They had the Spirit WITHIN, but not the Spirit UPON (Acts 8:14-16). This proves there is a 2-stage experience of receiving the Spirit WITHIN and UPON. Thus, the Baptism in the Spirit is a separate experience that follows after Salvation. When the apostles laid hands on them, they received the Spirit upon (v17). This came with outward evidence, because Simon (the magician) saw they had received the Spirit and offered money for the power to baptise people in the Spirit (v18-19), but Peter rejected his request (v20-21), saying: “you have neither part nor portion in this MATTER (‘logos’ = ‘word’ or ‘utterance’).” This confirms the outward evidence displayed by the Samaritan believers was praying in tongues. In Acts 9, the Apostle Paul also experienced a 2-stage reception of the Spirit: (1) He was SAVED when He met Jesus, and called Him Lord (v3-6a), and Ananias called him ‘brother’ (v17). For the next 3 days he was blind, while waiting for the Lord’s instructions (v6b-9). God told Ananias to go to him (v10-16), who laid his hands him to receive his sight and be FILLED with the HOLY SPIRIT (v17,18). So, (1) was saved on the road to Damascus, but (2) only filled with the Spirit 3 days later. So, Paul also had a 2-stage experience, and when he was filled with the Spirit, he spoke with tongues (1Corinthians 14:18, Acts 2:4). In Acts 19:1-6, the Ephesians also had a 2-stage experience. First, Paul asked them: “Did you RECEIVE the HOLY SPIRIT when you BELIEVED?” (v2). This question in itself proves Paul believed in the 2nd Blessing. Their answer revealed they had not even heard of the Holy Spirit, so they could not have received Christian Baptism (Matthew 28:19), which brought into question if they were even saved. In fact, they had only received John’s baptism (v3). Then Paul preached Christ to them (v4), and they believed and were saved and baptised (v5), but even then, they had still not yet received the Spirit UPON, for that only happened afterwards, when he laid hands on them. Then “the HOLY SPIRIT came UPON them, and they SPOKE with TONGUES and prophesied” (v6). The Spirit comes upon us to empower us to prophesy, to testify to Jesus, and share the Gospel under the inspiration of the Spirit (Revelation 19:10), so God's power goes forth from us as we speak.