“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:2 NKJV)
This verse challenges me. I am a pastor of a charismatic church, I received the extra infilling of the Holy Spirit thirty-eight years ago and speak in tongues. Now even though I speak in tongues, prophesy and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit, every time I read this verse I am challenged. I wonder to myself, if Paul would be here in my church, if Paul were to be here watching me, would he ask the same question of me? Would he look upon my life and ask, “Keith, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” From his perspective would it seem like something was missing in my life? Now I could justify myself and say I speak in tongues, I prophecy, etc. but the question is, “am I manifesting the true life of the Spirit in such obvious ways that the question of whether I have received the Holy Spirit would never be asked?” What about yourself, do you need to receive this extra dimension of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised in Luke 24:49, John 14:16 and Acts 1:8; or are you like Timothy who needed to “stir up the gift of God which was upon him”? Are you constantly walking in the fullness of the Spirit of God or just remembering what it was like years ago? Lord Jesus help our lives to shine with the fullness of your Holy Spirit.
Remembering.
But why say it like that… ” received […] SINCE you believed”?
As if to say, received for a period of time, but not continually.
Either you have and still have or you have not.
The implication by the Apostle Paul was that there was a specific event that should have happened, to which he asks did it. The question behind my post was “does or would my life reflect that I have the extra dimension of the Holy Spirit in such a way that if Paul were here he would clearly see that I have the Holy spirit?”