Receiving the Holy Spirit

Acts 1:8 says,

But you will receive [dynamic] power, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Then Acts 2:38 says,

Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

These are well known Scriptural passages. They are about the power of the Holy Spirit, and in this lecture that is what I want to talk about.

We need the power of the Holy Spirit. Why? To be witnesses to Him, to spread His Word and to extend His Kingdom in the earth.

Ezekiel and the Dry Bones

In the book of Ezekiel, we read an account of Ezekiel and the dry bones. I am sure most people know this passage.

The Scripture tells us that Ezekiel was brought in the Spirit to a valley that was full of bones that were left from people that had died. As Ezekiel looked at these bones he asked the Lord,

“Can these bones live?”

Bring People into the Body

Then the Lord told Ezekiel to do two things. Firstly He said,

“I want you to preach to the bones.”

You might think, “That was stupid! He had to preach to the bones? What good would that do?”

But Ezekiel preached to the bones. And when he did that, those bones started to come together. The skin came on them, and there was a whole valley full of dead bodies. They weren’t bones anymore. They were full bodies, but there was no life and no power in them.

This is a picture of the Church, which is the Body of Christ. The bones are a picture of the lost, and God has sent us out to go and preach to the bones; to say to them,

“Bones, listen to the Word of the Lord.”

When we speak the Word of the Lord to the bones, they come together into the Body. When we preach to the lost they come together into the Body. They are perfectly formed bodies, but they have no life.

Fill Them With the Spirit

It is not enough to bring them into the Body. We have to give them life. So God told Ezekiel to do a second thing. He said,

“I want you to speak to the wind.”

The Word wind in the Hebrew is the same as the word for spirit. God said,

“Speak to the Spirit and say, Spirit, come and breathe on these bodies. Breathe on them and fill them.”

Ezekiel spoke to the wind which is a picture of the Holy Spirit. The breath of God came down on those bodies and breathed life into them, and they stood up, a mighty army.

Can you see the picture? We have been preaching to the bones and that is good. We have been bringing them into the Body and getting them born again.

But then we leave them to rot. They just lie there. They come and just sit in the chairs every Sunday, but they have no life. They need power and we also need the power. Jesus said,

“When the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you will get power.”

It is just like He told Ezekiel, to call to the wind and to breathe upon those bodies.

Why do we need the power? Because without it we will not be able to do what Jesus told us to do.

The early disciples had the best training that you could get. They had three years Bible College with Jesus. But when Jesus was taken to be crucified, they ran away and hid. They were great big bold men. Not!

They needed power, and that is why Jesus said to them,

“You go and wait in Jerusalem. Don’t do a thing until the promise has come and until the power has come upon you. But when the power has come upon you, then you will go out. Then you will be witnesses to me and you will spread my Word throughout the earth.”

Are we any better than the disciples? Can we do it without His power? No we cannot, so we need the power.

Do you have the power? Well some people haven’t got the power, so I am going to share with everyone.

I want to start firstly by sharing what you need to know before you get the power.

Steps to Getting the Power

How do you get the power? Where do you look and where do you start?

At the beginning I shared the Scripture about what Peter told the people on the day of Pentecost. He told the people where to get the power. They came to him and said,

“What must we do?”

Maybe right now you are saying,

“I want the power. What must I do? Tell me what to do so I can get it.”

If you are asking that question, I am going to answer it here.

Repent

Step number one is to repent. What does repent mean? It actually doesn’t mean what you think it means. Does repent mean that you must be sorry for your sins? I am sure you think that is what it means.

Actually that is not what repent means. So what does it mean? Repentance means to change the way you think. It is a change of your mind. It is an attitude; a way that you think. That is what repentance is.

You may have to repent of your sin and you might have to repent of something else. Perhaps you need to repent of the way you have viewed the Holy Spirit.

You may have grown up being told that God does not move that way anymore. Maybe you have been told that what the apostles had has gone now, and you have believed that. In your mind you are thinking,

“This is not for me. I can’t have this. It has been done away with.”

You have to change your thinking.

Perhaps you have looked at other people who have received the power of the Holy Spirit and have said,

“That is wonderful. I wish I could have that, but maybe God doesn’t want me to have it, because He doesn’t give it to everybody.”

You will have to change your thinking, because while you are thinking that way you will never get it. You must repent and change your mind. You must get rid of the old way of thinking.

This is the first step that you must take before you will know God’s power.

Be Baptized

Peter said that you must repent, and yes he was speaking about coming to the Lord first. Repentance means turning from the old way that you lived. After that he said that you must be baptized, and then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You might be saying,

“I have repented and I have accepted Jesus as my Savior. But why should I be baptized? I was christened in the church and I was also confirmed. I was baptized when I was a baby. Why must I be baptized again?”

Because God said that you must. He said,

“Repent and be baptized, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

You might say to me,

“I can’t understand why God won’t give me His power.”

But you won’t change the way you think. You refuse to be baptized in water.

You might say, “Does that mean that I cannot receive God’s power, unless I am baptized in water?”

No, you can receive God’s power without being baptized in water. It happened with Peter when he was preaching to Cornelius. While he was preaching to him and his household, the Holy Spirit fell and they were filled with the Spirit.

What is the first thing Peter then did? He said,

“We are having a baptismal service now!”

What Baptism Is

Baptism is important. It doesn’t make you go to heaven and it does not save you. It is only an obedience to the Lord and it means to bury the old life. Baptism is taking the old ‘you’ that has died and burying it.

Imagine that you have a family member that has died and you say,

“I don’t feel like burying them. I will just strap them on my back and carry them around with me wherever I go.”

It is going to smell after a while. People will be pulling a face when they are around you and saying,

“I don’t want to come near you.”

That is what you are like if you don’t want to be baptized. You are carrying a dead person around with you. We must bury him or her. And as soon as you throw off that dead weight you will get some extra energy.

You are going to get some more power and you are going to be free. You are going to have the energy to do what God wants you to do. Then His power will come upon you and you are going to go and do big things for God.

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