How to Receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

In our article about Water and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, we discussed the true nature of the Holy Spirit and how

 

1. Have the right motive.

One important thing you must have before asking God for the gift of the Holy Spirit is the right motive. This one right here is where many Christians miss getting it the first time around. Some people may want this gift because some of their friends may have just received it, or they want the gift of tongues, or they want God’s power to be able to do what their will is rather than what God’s will is going to be for their lives. In other words, they want this gift for their own selfish purposes rather than for what God wants to do with their lives.

The two main reasons each Christian should want to have this gift for are the following:

• To be able to draw closer to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in your own personal relationship with each One of Them.The number one thing that God wants from each one of us more than anything else is a one-on-one, intimate, personal relationship. Once you receive this gift, you will be able to draw that much closer to the Three of Them, and They will then become much more active in your personal life.
  

• The second reason why you need this gift is so that you can have God’s supernatural power flowing through you so you can fully accomplish whatever God’s perfect will is going to be for you in this life. This is where you really enter into what is called the anointing.
  

The anointing is the power of the Holy Spirit operating through you to accomplish whatever it is God wants you to do for Him.

If God calls you to be a policeman, then He will anoint you with His power to be a great policeman. If God calls you to be a doctor, then He will anoint you with His power to be a great doctor. In order for God’s anointing to really be able to properly flow through you, you have to receive this gift.

You will have much more of God’s supernatural power flowing and operating through you if the Holy Spirit is residing up in your soul area rather than just down in your spirit.

 

Many Christians, after studying what this gift is all about, and realizing that God can release this kind of supernatural power in their lives, will seek after this gift for the wrong reasons. They will seek after this gift to get the power of God operating through them so they can use it for their own selfish purposes and agendas.

So the first step you have to take is to make sure that your motives are right and pure with the Lord. If they are not, then God will not release this gift to you. He will not allow His anointing to be tampered with or to be used for one’s own selfish purposes.

You have to really want this gift because you want to be able to enter into a much deeper, personal relationship with God – and that you will now need His power and anointing to be able to flow through you so that you can fully accomplish whatever His divine destiny is going to be for your life.

God will be able to read right through your thoughts and motives on all of this. If you are not sincere with Him as to why you are really wanting this gift, or you are seeking after this gift for all of the wrong reasons, God will then see right through your impure motives and withhold this gift from you until you can come to Him for the right reasons and the right motive.
The Full Surrender

Once you realize what this gift entails and that you will have to be willing to fully surrender to whatever God’s perfect plan and destiny is going to be for your life then the next thing is to take that big leap of faith and fully surrender everything over to God the Father. What God wants from you are four specific things:

1. Your body
2. Your soul
3. Your spirit
4. Your entire life
   

He wants all three parts to your being, body, soul, and spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, God wants to sanctify you completely in all three parts of your being, spirit, soul, and body.

God want your entire life and this will literally include everything. It will include who you will marry in this life if marriage will be in God’s perfect will for your life, what your call or calls are going to be, and what jobs you will be taking in this life.

If you are not willing to make a full and complete surrender of your body, soul, spirit, and your entire life over to the Lord – then He will probably not allow this gift to be released to you.

If you can now say that you really do want to receive this gift for all of the right reasons, that you have no fear in receiving it, and that you will now be willing to fully surrender every aspect of your life over to God the Father, then you are now ready for step four.

The Full Cleansing

Before asking God to allow this gift to be released in you, I feel every Christian should be willing to go through what I call a full cleansing. What this entails is that you simply confess any known sins that you may have on you that have not already been confessed and forgiven under the Blood of Jesus. For those of you with a Catholic background, it would be like going to confession before receiving communion.

Imagine if you got a message from God the Father and He told you that He was going to send Jesus down to visit you at your house on a specific date.

What would be the first thing that you would want to do? You would want to clean your house from top to bottom.

Why? Because you would want Jesus coming into a “clean house” to visit you.

The same analogy can now be used with the Holy Spirit. Since this gift is receiving the presence of the Holy Spirit up into your soul area, the first thing you are going to want to do is to make sure that you have a “clean house” for Him to come up into. Your soul is your house. So how do you clean your soul up in order to properly receive His presence up into your soul? By fully confessing every known sin that you have not already confessed yet. You want a “clean slate” in order to really be able to receive Him up into your soul.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

2. Pray to Receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

With your heart set right, you can simply go to God the Father in prayer and ask Him to allow the Holy Spirit to release up into your soul. It really is that simple. You do not have to go into any type of major travailing or prevailing trying to get God to release this gift to you. Any travailing or prevailing would have been done before now where you had to make a personal decision with yourself as to who is going to run your life, you or God. You may have also wrestled with the Lord on going through the cleansing process in reference to some past or hidden sins that He wanted you to confess as sins in order for your house to be clean enough to allow the Holy Spirit to enter into your soul.

If you have successfully passed those steps on the full surrender, having the right motives, and allowing God to clean you up on the inside with any sins that He wanted confessed, forgiven, and washed completely clean under the Blood of His Son, then the hard part is now over. This gift will then be released to you by way of just a simple prayer and request to God the Father. Simply ask God the Father in a simple prayer request and you will then receive this mighty gift from Him. This gift is then accepted by simple faith and belief.

What completes this prayer request is your faith and belief that God has now granted it. If you have completely given your all to God, then there is no reason for God to withhold this gift from you and you can now start walking believing that the Holy Spirit has now entered into your soul. What you will need to do now is to start to establish a direct, personal, one-on-one relationship with the Holy Spirit Himself just like you have with God and Jesus.
 

Finally, always seek to establish a Father-child relationship with God the Father, and a best friend relationship with both Jesus and the Holy Spirit. That’s why apostle Paul says.. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14)