Receiving Power

I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day He was taken up, after He had given orders through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. After He had suffered, He also presented Himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

  While He was together with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “This,” He said, “is what you heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

   So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, at this time are You restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

  He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

(Acts 1:1-8 Holman Christian Standard Bible ®©)

Nobody could do anything as the ekklesia of Christ until Jesus baptized them in His Spirit. It happened more than once – Acts 2 and Acts 4 describe some of the same people being baptized in two events. You are not free to be who Yahweh calls you to be until you allow Him to overwhelm you, to immerse you (to “baptize” you) in His Spirit. It can look different on the different occasions, and on different people, so don’t be distracted by people who make a religion of it. You may not even realize what is happening when it happens.

Until it happens, though, you don’t have the strength, the revelation, the character to be and do what you are called to. When it happens, and when it happens again, you can do all things. Be filled. To be a “Christian” does not refer to new birth – it refers to being “anointed.”