The Filling of the Holy Spirit

I asked this question to one of my friends, (Rob) "I know that the Holy Spirit lives in me, but what is the difference between when we are saved and when we pray for the power of the Holy Spirit?" I wanted to share his answer to it with you. I know my upbringing and I also know what I learn in church today, it is different. I just wonder if we are missing out on the incredible power of the transforming Holy Spirit. This is what Rob shared with me.

I ask the Holy Spirit to fill me up frequently, usually every day. The Lord will lead individuals differently in the specifics of how this happens, but for me, I will sit down with my Bible and ask the Lord where to read and to fill me up with His Spirit. I go to whatever book or page number I hear or sense, and began to read very slowly... I may read one sentence. I may read 2 chapters. But as I read, He begins to fill me. I often leave the conscious world as I soak in His presence... an outsider might think I am napping. I'm not! His presence comes upon me and pours into me over a span of time... usually an hour or so.... when He is finished, I am filled and ready to face the day. For me it is like having a freshly charged battery in my phone or flashlight. I have the power to face the day ahead of me.

You will see in scripture that there are instances when someone like Stephen is clearly full of the Spirit. I don't think anyone stays full of the Spirit, rather we are exhorted to keep on being filled with the Spirit. In some way as we live, this filling with His presence is expended or used. It is also like an oil lamp which keeps on needing to have oil added to it. It can be full today, but after a full day of burning, it will need to be re-filled tomorrow. 

As I recall, we prayed for you to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the initial experience that a person has with the pouring out of the Spirit's power in our lives. This is a different experience from being saved, as I think you understand. Many Christians don't understand this and therefore must slog through their lives without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. The enemy tries to keep Christians in the dark or afraid of this experience so that they will not have the Spirit's power changing them and the world around them. 

So, to recap:
Stage 1: After a person is saved (has received Jesus Christ as his or her Savior), he or she needs to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that power will be flowing through them and motivating them rather than the thoughts like, "I really should be a better person. I really should witness to Bob. I really should read the Bible more, etc..." All that "should" stuff has no lasting value. But when the Holy Spirit starts flowing through a person, he or she will bear lasting fruit. 

Almost Jesus' last words to the apostles were you are going to be my witnesses to all the world but go back to Jerusalem and WAIT until the power comes. Just like Jesus was crucified and resurrected 2000 years ago and we now are invited to receive Jesus as our Savior, so the Holy Spirit was poured out 2000 years ago (40 days later on Pentecost) and we are invited to receive His pouring out on the earth or baptism so that we can have His power flowing through us.

If you want to see how important it was to the apostles that those who were newly saved also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, carefully read Acts 8:4-17. And remember that this is 6 chapters after Pentecost. It wasn't enough that the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2 to forever and automatically empower all Christians with His power. Each believer needs to receive that baptism just like each believer needs to receive Jesus' actions to save us.

Stage 2: We regularly need to ask for the Spirit to fill us up again. Galatians 5:18 makes this so clear. Your Bible may or may not fully translate the Greek verb but I took Greek and know that it should say, "Keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit." Most translations will say, "Be filled with the Spirit." This is correct in a way but also open to misunderstanding. Some have mistakenly thought it meant to be filled one time and you're good forever. But if you look at the sentence before, it says, "Don't be drunk with wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." No one reading the first part would think that Paul meant don't get drunk on wine one time but be filled with the Spirit one time. It's clear that he means ongoingly don't get drunk on wine but instead ongoingly be filled with the Spirit. Don't get drunk on Friday but be filled with the Spirit on Friday. Don't get drunk on Saturday but be filled with the Spirit on Saturday... etc... So, yes, we need to get filled up regularly... ongoingly... sometimes I've needed to stop a second time in a day to get re-filled because I burned a lot of oil in my lamp earlier in the day... there's no rule as to how often, which is why I say ongoingly, which probably isn't a word according to my spell check, but you know what I mean. 

Also, I will say that the Lord is a daily God. Give us today our daily bread. Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart. Don't worry about tomorrow for today has enough troubles of it's own. So I tend to think in terms of daily being filled up with the Spirit. Again, that isn't a rule, but I think it often is the case.


As I reread your question, I realize that I could also address your specific question of the difference between when we get saved and when we pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. There are actually 3 different conditions: 

1. I believe that when we get saved, the power of the Holy Spirit is focused on us to open the eyes of our hearts to the reality of the Father's love for us expressed in the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. His power enables us to repent and turn to Him so that we are now saved.
   
2. When we receive the baptism of the Spirit, we are in a sense acknowledging that our power is not enough and we realize that the Holy Spirit has been sent to the earth to pour through individual believers so that they can usher others into salvation and the Kingdom. In this case it is the first time the Spirit's power flows INTO us and can therefore begin to flow through us. When we got saved, His power acted upon us to bring us to the Father. Now we are joining the ranks of Peter through whom the Spirit flowed, saving 3000 on the day of Pentecost. It is our initiation as a conduit of His power.
   
3. Finally, our ongoing request for being filled up is recharging that reservoir of His power in our lives so that we can continue to be conduit of His power. "I emptied the reservoir today so I'm going to need a re-up tomorrow so that He can continue to pour out through me."