Q – Don’t we get all of the Holy Spirit when we’re saved / born again? Aren’t we baptized in the Holy Spirit when we’re saved?
A – Yes and No. Yes, we get all of the Holy Spirit when we’re saved. But does he get all of us? Think about this:
When were the disciples born again?
Well, what is necessary for that? Romans 10:9-10 says we must believe certain things and then say those certain things – that Jesus is the son of God, he died for our (my) sins and was raised from the dead. When did the disciples do that? We’re not told.
But in John 20:22, speaking to the eleven (Judas no longer one of them) Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Were they born again by then? Obviously they were.
And yet, in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4-8 Jesus told the same eleven to wait in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, until they received the promise of the Father, i.e. baptized in the Holy Spirit.
If they had everything they needed, why did he tell them that? But they didn’t have everything they needed for the assignments ahead. And so they obeyed him.
In Acts 2:1-4, they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, were filled with the Holy Spirit and clothed with God’s power. Yet interestingly, in Acts 4:31 they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, again.
Ephesians 5:18 says to all believers, “Be filled with the Spirit,” literally translated “Be ye being filled.” It’s continuous present tense. Who was that addressed to? Christians who had already been filled / baptized with the Spirit.
Why this command? John Wesley answered that. When asked why he encouraged Christians to be repeatedly filled with the Holy Spirit, he said “Because we leak.”
Esther's Petition 