Filled with the Holy Ghost!

In both the Old and New Testaments, the Holy Spirit fell upon people in the most unusual ways. People began to praise him in new tongues as the Holy Spirit took full control.

At Pentecost, he came with a mighty, rushing wind, and fire fell. When the Holy Spirit came down, things got shaken up. “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31, NKJV).

John the Baptist preached, “I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16).

Beloved, the Bible makes it very clear: When Jesus comes to you, he desires to baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. The Holy Ghost brings fire: a red-hot, consuming love for Jesus. Why are so many believers hot one minute and then cold the next, never totally yielded, never sold out? Is it because they refuse to let Jesus baptize them with the Holy Ghost?

“When [the Holy Ghost] has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). Could it be that these believers were not convicted because the Holy Ghost had not yet been invited to take his rightful place in them? He is God’s plumb line. Anything that does not measure up to Christ, he reveals, convicts, and empowers us to conform to his Word. Truly, he becomes our comforter in this, because as he convicts us of sin, he empowers us to forsake it. This is true comfort!

The Holy Ghost will never make you do anything stupid, but he may come upon you in such a way that sinners may think you are drunk. He is not welcome in many churches because he is thought to be too noisy, too upsetting, too unpredictable.

So welcome the Holy Spirit, allowing his convicting, refining fire to work within you, and wholly yield to Christ.