I believe that the Holy Ghost comes in and stays in when we receive Christ into our lives. However, I see an enormous difference between the indwelling and being filled with the Holy Spirit. If you take a look, you’ll find that the Word specifies, just before one of the apostles does something, that person being filled with the Holy Ghost. People were being filled with the Spirit of the Living God well before Christ. But a New Testament account would be found in Luke.
Filled with the Holy Ghost
Here are a handful of verses that will serve as a guide or backdrop to this section of this page.
Luke 1:
Acts 2:
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 4:
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
Acts 4:
31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Acts 13:
The way I see it, when we come across a phrase that specifically point us to the filling of the Holy Ghost, could also be thought of as an anointing that comes and goes as the Spirit wills, or as the occasion requires, such as it happens in the scriptures above with the exception of John the Baptist. Evidently he was filled from the womb till his beheading. That may be the reason why Jesus says confidently that among men there was none greater.
But when we receive Jesus, we are at the same time given the Holy Ghost as a seal or earnest of the glory to come. By the Holy Ghost are we always connected to the Father through Christ. I did up a page about that called Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and YOU, and on that page, I really get into the workings of the three as one. But we can see in the following verses, the different context the Holy Ghost is given when speaking about being sealed by the Spirit after (or as soon as) salvation happens.
Sealed by the Holy Ghost
Ephesians 1:
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
So there are two verses that the Holy Ghost has placed into the Word of God, giving us a book end kind of description, or a layout of his connection with us, placing his seal. The first specifies that we receive him and are sealed after we believe (or have been born again through Christ). And the other verse gives us an endpoint, or an explanation as to why we are sealed. And that endpoint would be the day of redemption.
That’s not to say that after the day of redemption we’ve no longer got the Spirit of God, but rather means that the reasoning behind being sealed in the first place would have come and gone.
2 Corinthians 1:
22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
2 Corinthians 5:
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
Earnest Defined
from Dictionary.com
noun
1. a portion of something, given or done in advance as a pledge of the remainder.
2. Law. earnest money.
3. anything that gives pledge, promise, or indication of what is to follow.
Once There, Always There
So to make a short statement of it, we are given the Holy Ghost upon Salvation and receiving Christ. The gifts of the Spirit come as we are filled with the Holy Ghost, which can come and go as the Lord requires, but the Holy Ghost himself never leaves.
So we receive the Holy Ghost first, giving us that connection to the Father through Christ. And if we closely observe the circumstances that surround the Apostles, where it says that they were “filled” with the Holy Ghost, we’ll see a common theme. That theme is, they were actively serving the Lord and doing his will.
They were lead by the Holy Spirit that resided inside of them. And take notice, that they became “filled” by the Spirit when an occasion arose for God to take the helm, and cause for them to do, (or quite often say), something that the Apostles could not have done or said without his intervention.
At least as far as what the Lord is showing me, there is a clear distinction between the Holy Ghost being there, and the Holy Ghost filling someone enough into overflowing, making the spiritual gifts activate. With this understanding, we can see that once the Holy Spirit comes in to dwell inside of us, he is there to stay.
1 Corinthians 12:
Romans 11:
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Just for the record, here is a list of these gifts that come about by the filling of the Holy Ghost. I’ll keep them in the order that we can find them listed in the scripture above.
- Word of Wisdom
- Word of Knowledge
- Faith
- Gifts of Healing
- Working of Miracles
- Prophecy
- Discerning of Spirits
- Diverse kinds of Tongues
- Interpretation of Tongues
Speaking in Tongues
Is it true that if you don’t speak in tongues, then you don’t have the Holy Ghost?
As far as tongues go, I don’t find any scripture that specifies that tongues is an absolute sign, or in other words, if you don’t speak in tongues you don’t have the Holy Ghost. In fact, if it were so, The Holy Ghost through Paul would have worded this differently…
What I’m saying is, if someone could discern between spirits, but didn’t happen to have ever spoken in tongues, doesn’t that person not have the Holy Ghost because they’ve used one gift instead of another? I understand that many believe that speaking in tongues is a prerequisite.
Actually, I think that is an extremely dangerous teaching that causes some to be forced into speaking false tongues by a Kundalini spirit, instead of realizing that the Holy Ghost may have had a different gift waiting in the wings. If it were a prerequisite or a must to speak in tongues in order to prove that they have the Holy Ghost, Paul wouldn’t have worded it as “some” when going through all of the gifts.
Some are given this gift, some are given that gift… Just look at the scripture above. If it were a must for all to have one particular gift, it wouldn’t be any mystery, but would have been clearly specified.
And just for the record, I’ve been speaking in tongues for many years, and hold nothing against anyone who does. But I do see the error in believing that if someone doesn’t speak in tongues, that they’ve missed the boat, and don’t have the Holy Spirit. That is neither a sound or Biblical teaching in any way.
Why this Page
When I first started the site over a year ago, my focus was to re-introduce the supernatural truth in Christ period. Not necessarily the gifts of the Spirit, which are truly supernatural, but instead to answer questions that were being asked by both believers and unbelievers alike about the whole genre of supernatural activity, that has been (shamefully) ignored by the church at large. Because of that, we’ve got people finding answers to these questions about demons, aliens, ghosts, why this, why that, from resources that the world itself provides.
Think on that for a moment… As a Church that hinges on and boasts a monopoly on all that pertains to things of a supernatural nature, having been given answers by God Almighty through his written Word, it is to our shame that things of a supernatural nature are tossed overboard along with those who have such questions. Ahhh…. But I digress…
To clarify a little bit, much of the intended readership would be asking questions about hauntings, or why did the ashtray fly across the room by itself, and was it Grandma? Not so much about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the things that we need to have full knowledge of in the Body of Christ.
But like I said, it’s been over a year, and the page itself along with it’s content has evolved and been shaped as the Lord has lead. It was brought to my attention that the topics that this page covers concerning the Holy Ghost, is an area of contention that could benefit by a Biblical explanation. An explanation at the same time, was nowhere to be found here at the Supernatural Truth in Christ website.
So here it is.
Conclusion
I hope that this page has been a blessing to you! If it has in any way, please invite someone over to this page to give it a read! Share with your peers using the share button below to share via the social media of your choice, or click the plus sign to the right hand side of your screen.
Also, you can bookmark this site or subscribe to the RSS feed to get the next page directly to your inbox so you don’t miss up and coming topics that will be covered on this site. May the Lord bless all of you in the name above all names, the name of Jesus, and thank you again for reading The Holy Ghost!
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