How to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

There is no mechanical procedure involved in receiving the Holy Spirit. It is a gift given by God to an open-hearted and hungry believer. It is not necessary to have a deep theological understanding of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to receive it. The Gentiles at Caesarea had almost no understanding of the Holy Spirit when they received. If you have read through the topics here you have more than enough theological background to receive it.

Here are some suggestions on how to receive God's promise for you.

1. Surrender. Yield your whole heart to God, desiring to live righteously and to forsake all sin.¹ But don't think that you have to become holy enough to earn the Holy Spirit. It is a gift of God (Acts 8:20)--you will never become worthy of it.

2. Ask God, and keep asking regularly until you receive.
   • Luke 11:9-13 "Keep asking" (Amplified)
   • James 4:2 "You have not because you ask not..."
   • Acts 1:14 "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication..."
3. As you ask, believe that God desires to fill you and will do so.²

4. Don't seek tongues or an experience. Seek God, but be willing to speak in other tongues.

5. Don't try to manipulate God or copy a mechanical technique; simply worship God and offer your all to Him.

6. Don't attempt to work up emotion or to suppress emotion--yielding is a passive surrender to the will of another. Many Christians receive the Holy Spirit after they quit trying to receive by their own efforts. Surrender and faith are the keys to receiving, not technique and duty. Open your heart in adoration to Jesus. Trust Him. Desire to be entirely possessed by Him. Expect to receive the Promise of the Father.

7. Realize that you do not have to seek or pray for a certain protracted period of time to be eligible to receive. But also realize that you cannot force God to give you the Holy Spirit just by trying to talk gibberish. God's part is to fill us, our part is to ask. Jesus told us to keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking.

   Some have prayed for many months and even years before they have received. Others received it the first time they prayed. Some have even received it before they knew what it was! I have seen people filled and read the accounts of others being filled. In all my experience I have never detected a correlation between the length of time spent seeking and the righteousness of the person seeking. Some great men of God have had to pray for a long time to receive. I know of 2 people who were drug addicts and had been saved all of 5 minutes before being Spirit Filled.

   The 2 things I tell people regarding how long they have to pray before receiving is;
   1) It will take as long as it takes for you to be filled (not too profound).
   2) It is never a waste of time to spend time in prayer.

8. Realize that yielding yourself wholly to God includes yielding your tongue. Some Christians do not receive as early as they could, because when the Spirit starts to give forth unknown words, they subconsciously resist by insisting to continue speaking their familiar native tongue. If you feel the Spirit of God strongly upon you and unfamiliar words start coming into your mind, speak them out loud. If you have just been filled and this is your prayer language welling up from within it will be very obvious to you and those around you. If it turns out to be just your own eagerness and not really the Holy Spirit there will have been no harm done.

9. Recognize that you will speak in tongues but the Holy Spirit will supply the utterance (Acts 2:4). Many have had difficulty yielding their speech to God because they have assumed that the Holy Spirit will force the tongue to change languages. The truth is that you will do the speaking, but without having to think of what to say. The Holy Spirit will fill your mouth as you exert the faith to speak. You will voluntarily use your own lungs, mouth, and vocal cords--the Holy Spirit will only supply the utterance and the anointing.

10. Don't worry about how much emotion you feel in comparison with someone else. The emotions a person feels when receiving the Holy Spirit vary widely, depending on his emotional make-up, the depth of his dedication, the earnestness of his seeking, the intensity of his desire for the gift, and other factors. The same is true with the experience of salvation--not everyone who gets saved displays the same amount of emotion.

11. Realize that this Promise of the Father is for you!³ Do not become discouraged if you do not receive right away. God knows when you are ready to receive. Remember that time spent seeking God, deepening your dedication, waiting upon Him to cleanse your heart is time well spent.

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