When I was young Christian a man said to me,''have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?''.Now these words are taken from Acts 19v1ff,
spoken by Paul to,two disciples of John,they new nothing about the Holy Spirit,they were not Christians,but eventually Paul the apostle explained to them about Christ they believed and were baptised,and when he laid his hands on them they did receive the Holy Spirit.John Stott writes,''The laying on of hands by the apostles ,followed by tongue speaking and
prophesying were special to Ephesus,as to Samaria,demonstrated visibly that they had become become Christians;the NT does not universalise this''
Roman 8 v 9 tells us clearly that,'' if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,he does not belong to Christ''.in the same verse we have the Spirit of God,Stott says,''This is not confusing the persons of the Trinity,but to stress that while they are eternally distinct in their personal modes of being,they also share the same divine essence and will.What the Father does
he does through the Son,and what the son does he does through the Spirit.
Indeed,wherever each is,there are the others also''.
Tomorrow we will follow on with this to show that receiving Christ is not a two tier experience.
A prayer.
Dear God we thank you that when Christ became our Saviour the Holy Spirit came to dwell in our lives, Amen.
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