Ps Chris Field November 2023
Note: my study and personal experience, having experienced the Charismatic Revival of the 1970’s has provided clarity to some of the thorny issues around the work of the Holy Spirit.
This document is humbly submitted for those who wish to gain clarity through the Bible record.
You are invited to work through these notes and consider the Bible texts provided, to see if the simple observations stand up to scrutiny and help you come to your own conclusions about these matters. May God bless you as you graze through this material.
You are welcome to send me your questions and I’ll do what I can to provide a Biblical answer.
The Promise of a Taste of Heaven
a. God’s plan for salvation and grace is to save people from their sins and bless them with a Taste of Heaven – where the supernatural impacts their natural life – in anticipation of heavenly glories to be enjoyed in eternity, after this natural life.
b. God promised to bless all the families of the earth through a descendant of Abraham. That descendant is Jesus Christ.
Genesis 12:3 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.
This blessing of all the families of the earth includes salvation, forgiveness, defeating sin and death, making people God’s child with entry to heaven after this life. Everything Christ secured for us is included in the blessing of Abraham. The ultimate blessing is eternity in heaven, and that is preceded by supernatural blessings and transformation in this natural life.
c. Through Biblical history we see occasional supernatural endowments on selected men and women, such as prophets. Something of the supernatural realm opened to them. This is variously described as the Holy Spirit coming on them, angel visits, prophecies, dreams, God speaking, or the like.
Judges 6:34 the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.
Jeremiah 24:3 What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs.
Exodus 15:25 the lord showed him a log.
2Peter 1:21 holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
d. God amplified the original promise given to Abraham, through the prophet Joel, identifying the Holy Spirit as a significant part of the ‘blessing’, as a Taste of Heaven to come on all people.
The privileged spiritual endowments enjoyed by a few would become universal experience for all God’s servants. This fulfils what Moses expressed when he said he wished all of God’s people were prophets.
Numbers 11:29 Then Moses said to him, Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
Joel 2:28,29 your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
e. The promise of people blessed by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit was further refined by the last Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist, who identified Jesus both as saviour, taking away our sin,
John 1:29 Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
and also as baptising people in the Holy Spirit,
Matthew 3:11 He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Summary: God’s promised grace and blessing on all the families of the earth, through Abraham, is a complete package of salvation, dealing with sin, but also opening heavenly glories into the natural life of believers, as a foretaste of what is yet to be enjoyed in heaven.
Steps in Salvation
1. God provides Salvation through faith in Christ, causing the believer to be: born again by the Holy Spirit; forgiven of their sins; adopted as a child of God; and destined for eternity in Heaven.
2. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit.
John 3:6 that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
3. Believers receive the Holy Spirit within them at conversion (when they believe).
Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
1Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
The Holy Spirit creates a new capacity within the believer including assurance of salvation and adoption to God’s family, and receptivity to God’s truth and spiritual reality. God can now relate with the believer, guiding, comforting, revealing and so on.
Galatians 4:6 because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father!
1Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
4. Experiencing the influence of the Holy Spirit drawing them to faith, and then receiving the Holy Spirit at salvation provides the very first taste of eternity for the believer. Heaven is non-physical, much more than a mere elevation of the human experience. It is a wonderfully amazing quality of life far richer than any parallel on earth can represent. Being born in spirit, by God’s Holy Spirit, begin’s the believer’s eternal life – the quality of life that transcends human experience.
5. Being born again, alive to God, with the Holy Spirit within opens the believer to a suite of new experiences, where they are sensitive to spiritual realities, understand spiritual things that were previously incomprehensible to them, are able to hear God speaking to them or prompting them, and are able to be led by the Holy Spirit.
This is a wonderful blessing, where supernatural things become part of the believer’s ordinary, natural life.
Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father!
Romans 8:14,15 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.
1Corinthians 2:13,14 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
John 4:23,24 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6. Salvation causes the believer to be adopted into God’s family, and as a son of God they become heir of all of God’s promises. They are entitled to the inheritance, which culminates in heavenly glories, but also includes opening of heaven’s glories into our natural life.
Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ
Galatians 4:7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Ephesians 1:11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance
Colossians 1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
7. Promise – Inheritance – Holy Spirit
God’s promise to Abraham that all families of the earth will be blessed, was amplified by a new promise through Joel that the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh.
These combined promises are also identified as an inheritance for all believers. This inheritance is closely tied to the Holy Spirit.
Romans 4:13-15 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Acts 1:4,5 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which, He said, you have heard from Me; for John truly baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
Acts 2:38,39 Peter replied, Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off— to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.
Galatians 3:8,9 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Galatians 3:13,14 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
8. Infilling by the Holy Spirit is a sample of the full inheritance we will one day enjoy in Heaven.
It is the seal, or the deposit on or guarantee of what is yet to come when we get to heaven.
2Corinthians 1:21,22 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2Corinthians 5:5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
Ephesians 1:13,14 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealedfor the day of redemption.
Inheritance stands apart from sonship. Sonship provides entitlement, but whether a person takes their inheritance or not does not have effect on their standing as sons of God.
Christians who have not claimed their inheritance are just as much children of God as those who are eager for the inheritance.
9. The New Testament church taught that being saved through faith in Jesus automatically gave the believer access to the promised Holy Spirit in a supernatural experience matching that at Pentecost, called being baptised in the Holy Spirit. To the early church receiving the Holy Spirit in a supernatural encounter was the automatic expectation. The apostles actively sought to see all believers receive this baptism in the Holy Spirit. If they did not receive it sovereignly, with the Holy Spirit falling on them, someone would lay hands on the believers and pray for them and they would receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:14-17 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Acts 19:5,6 When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
In light of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit being released to people through laying on hands, consider what Paul may have given as a gift to Timothy.
2Timothy 1:6: Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
2Timothy 1:14 That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
10. Paul testified that the Promise given through Abraham, was not only for the Jews, but for Gentiles. He speaks of them in relation to being heirs and receiving the same promise.
Ephesians 3:6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel
11. Baptism in the Holy Spirit was accompanied by speaking in tongues, by all in the crowd who were prayed for. These believers received a Holy Spirit prayer language, as prayer and praise from the Holy Spirit flowing like a river from within them, as opposed to the gift of the Spirit of speaking in tongues as a message to a church, needing interpretation.
John 7:38,39 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.)
The Bible accounts show that those we received the baptism in the Holy Spirit enjoyed a release of communication to God in a prayer language (unknown to the speaker) and words of inspired praise (prophecy). This was unquestionably evident at Pentecost, in the home of Cornelius and in Ephesus, but also clearly implied in Samaria where receiving baptism in the Holy Spirit was a dramatic experience of all those prayed for, such that the former sorcerer wanted to have the power to do the same thing.
Acts 8:18,19 And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.
Because all believers receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit are given a prayer language explains why Jude could tell all the believers to pray in the Holy Spirit. Having a prayer language was apparently the normal experience for all New Testament believers, either because the Holy Spirit fell on them or they were prayed for to receive the Spirit. That’s also why Paul talked about praying with ‘all prayer’, and promoted praying both in tongues (with the Spirit) and with understanding.
Jude 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 6:18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints
1Corinthians 14:15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
12. All Christians were expected to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was not a one-off event, nor an experience reserved for the apostles. It was declared by Peter to be for all who put their faith in Christ.
Acts 2:38,39 Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.
It was replicated in the home of Cornelius and much later when Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus, and, as explained above, it can be understood to have happened with the believers in Samaria. Peter declared that what happened to Cornelius, speaking in tongues, was exactly the same thing that was experienced on the day of Pentecost.
Acts 10:45-47 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptised who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?
Acts 11:15-17 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, John indeed baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit. If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?
13. When believers failed to have the Holy Spirit fall on them this was considered out of order and the apostles took action to ensure that believers enjoyed the special Holy Spirit outpouring that they had received.
We see that by Peter and John travelling to Samaria to pray for the believers there because the Holy Spirit had not fallen on them.
Acts 8:14-17 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Apostle Paul asked believers if they had received the Holy Spirit yet. He then prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit and they were all filled and spoke in tongues.
Acts 19:1,2 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
Acts 19:5,6 When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
So, consider what we should expect of the new believers in New Testament times. Three thousand new believers on the day of Pentecost were promised that if they put their faith in Christ they would experience what the saw happening with the apostles, because the promise was to them.
Then the Lord added to the church daily and after a lame man was healed the number of believers reached five thousand.
Acts 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptised; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
Acts 2:47 And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Acts 4:4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
We can be confident that all of these new believers received a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Holy Spirit. How can we know that, because of the apostles’ response to hearing the Samaritans believers did not have the Holy Spirit fall on them. Not receiving a supernatural outpouring of the Holy Spirit was seen as unusual to the apostles and an issue to be addressed by laying on hands so believers would receive the Holy Spirit.
This evidences that the Holy Spirit continued to fall on believers, fulfilling what Peter told them on the day of Pentecost, fulfilling Joel’s prophecy.
14. A Second Experience
Considering the New Testament accounts indicates that baptism in the Holy Spirit is a separate experience to being saved by faith. When people hear the gospel and respond with faith their believing saves their souls. They may also attest to their new-found faith by being baptised, as in Samaria.
We know that believers have the Holy Spirit or they do not belong to God.
Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Yet the believers were prayed for to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, after confessing faith and even being baptised. Paul asked believers if they had received the Holy Spirit since believing.
Paul’s question seems strange, since all believers receive the Holy Spirit.
The explanation is that receiving the Holy Spirit at conversion is a quiet, internal experience, that many may not know has taken place inside them. Receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a secret, internal process that can pass unobserved. New Testament accounts reveal of demonstrative experience that observers have no doubt about, and that impresses people as a remarkable spiritual experience. Repeatedly that remarkable spiritual experience is that believers suddenly began pouring out a language they did not know. This flow of a prayer language to God was clear sign that they had a release in the Holy Spirit and had received an extra filling of the Spirit such that it would flow out of them.
Summary: Salvation by faith is not an end in itself, but a spiritual transformation, causing the believer to have new spiritual life within (born again), the Holy Spirit indwelling (or he does not belong to God), and engaged now with the supernatural spirit realm, with manifold spiritual blessings available to him/her, in the lead-up to eternity in heaven.
By adoption into God’s family the believer becomes an heir, inheritor of eternity in heaven and the full manifestation of spiritual realities into their natural life, including the invasion of eternal spiritual blessings. Receiving the Holy Spirit is a significant fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham that through him all families of the earth would be blessed. Salvation is synonymous with the ‘blessing of Abraham’ and the ‘promise of the Spirit’ (see Galatians 3:14).
Christianity is about spiritual birth (being born again), spiritual transformation (where all things become new), spiritual connection (sons of God), spiritual infilling (filled with the Spirit), spiritual equipping (gifts and fruit of the Spirit) and spiritual engagement (living and walking in the Spirit).
Those who revert to intellectual Christianity, focused on theology and knowledge, are at risk of missing the true energy and purpose of salvation. They may end up with a ‘form of godliness, yet denying the power thereof’ 2Thessalonians 3:5. (Note that Jesus promised power on believers when the Holy Spirit was poured out – Acts 1:8 – being baptised in the Holy Spirit). Intellectual Christianity, exciting synapses with cranium-directed content may well miss the ‘spirit and life’ of the word as described by Jesus (John 6:63) and end up being not of the spirit but of the letter that kills (2Corinthians 3:6).
Part of the believer’s inheritance is a fuller experience of the Holy Spirit, what John the Baptist called being Baptised in the Spirit, opening them much more to the spirit realm, eternal blessings and such things as the fruit of the Spirit, gifts of the Spirit and being led by the Spirit.
This experience is an immersion into the heavenly spiritual realm, opening the believer to greater experience of God at work in their life by the Holy Spirit. This experience is only a foretaste of the heavenly glories yet to be experienced – a Taste of Heaven. It is a deposit or sample, confirming to believers the promises, hopes and wonders yet to be enjoyed.
The fullness of the Holy Spirit is more than receiving the Holy Spirit at salvation. Baptism in the Holy Spirit greatly accentuates the work of the Spirit and engagement with the spiritual realm in the believer. Early Christians expected all believers to receive a secondary experience where the Holy Spirit fell on them, or was released to them by laying on hands, such that they received a prayer language as visible evidence of a river of life flowing from within them.
Note: For those wishing to understand the distinction between Speaking in Tongues as a Prayer Language (which is to be used freely), and Speaking in Tongues as a message to the church (which has to be interpreted) and managed, see my post Tasty Tongues, which I will upload shortly.
Copyright Ps Chris Field November 2023
cfield096@gmail.com
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