Having & Being Had

Most of the modern church happily exists in the same situation, condition & strength displayed by believers in Acts chapter 1, unaware of the differences they could experience in each of those categories if they were to live through the experiences in Acts chapter 2.

We cannot believe and be saved from our sin if the Holy Spirit is not at work in us to believe and be born again. As Paul wrote, if we do not have the Holy Spirit, we are not His. Being baptized with the Spirit by Jesus goes beyond having the Spirit to being had by the Spirit. The strength to live out my identity comes from swimming in the flood, not from taking an occasional drink.

Drinking is the start. Flooding is the fullness. The point at which I have learned to keep being filled from within by the Spirit is the shift from consumption to bearing fruit.

Now in the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. The one believing in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.’” Now He said this concerning the Spirit, whom those having believed in Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
(John 7:37-39 THE HOLY BIBLE, BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE (BLB) ©)