You Need the Holy Ghost
Some believers have been saved for many years, some perhaps a year, and some just a few months or weeks. Being saved from sin is wonderful!
In order to be a good soldier in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ, though, it’s not enough just to be saved. You need to be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
In Paul’s time, some believers didn’t even know there was a Holy Ghost. “He said to them, ‘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). These people were saved, but it is clear they were not filled or baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Jesus himself did not send his disciples and followers into the world until they were baptized with the Holy Ghost. Certainly, his disciples had pure hearts. They had faith to heal the sick, to cast out devils. They had the Word of the Lord and already had been preaching Christ and gaining converts. They were witnesses to his resurrection. What more could there be? They were willing to die for Jesus. Wasn’t their love for him enough to send them into the world to do his work?
Beloved, none of that was enough. Clearly, there was more. Christ told them, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
You must know that the Spirit is still baptizing, still falling upon believers. Peter preached to the early church, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized 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 far off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38–39).
The baptism is especially for those living in the last days. “It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…. I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (Acts 2:17–18). God wants you to live and walk in the Spirit. We are all called to be witnesses who are full of the Holy Ghost and power!
