The Spirit

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

THE SPIRIT

Acts 19:1-7
19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. 4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. 
NIV

Here is another case of people who believed in the Lord Jesus as the Messiah or the Christ, the one who died for their sins and gives them eternal life but they knew nothing at all about the Holy Spirit. This in itself is proof that the Holy Spirit does not come upon people, or dwell within people just because they are saved or saved and baptized in water. These people had accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and they had followed him in baptism but they had absolutely no knowledge that the Holy Spirit even existed. Now we do not know that Paul took them back to the river to re-baptize them but we do know that he laid hands on them and when he did the Holy Spirit came upon them and the evidence of that happening was in their speaking in tongues and prophesied. Now we might be able to excuse the tongues as the Greek word means to speak in a language unnaturally acquired. That is to say if they normally spoke Greek in Ephesus these mean might have spoken out in Hebrew or perhaps some language from another foreign land. But it is recorded they also prophesied and that Greek word means they spoke about something that could only be known by divine revelation. What we learn here is what we have already known and experienced. This baptism of the Holy Spirit, this event which is separate from salvation, this moment the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us will cause a change, a reaction in us which is beyond human abilities. Once this happens can we ever go back to that moment before the Holy Spirit came upon us? We have to say, no for we know that he comes to reside within forever, which means he does not leave nor forsake us. This should mean the Holy Spirit would cause us to speak in a language we have not naturally acquired and that we will have truths revealed to us by the Divine. We should be living with the power of the Spirit and not simply living as humans who believe in God. Do we dismiss this as for just then and not now? How can we do that and not dismiss all the other things which happened then. If we dismiss this as just for them, than we should dismiss salvation as just for them and not for us. If we accept one truth in the Bible for us today, we need to accept all truth in the Bible which includes the Spirit.