Is doing something special required for receiving the Holy Spirit?
1. Is the Holy Spirit received on asking the Lord for it? – (Luke 11:13)
(The Related Third Thing)
(3) Third
Thing, understand this giving and receiving by an example; when a patient goes to a doctor and asks for healing, then is the ‘healing’ some object on the table of the doctor
or a toffee in his pocket that he can pick up and hand over to the patient and
say, “here, take; given you the healing you asked?” Surely the doctor wants to give healing to the patient who
has come to him for help,he is willing to do it, but there is a method, a process by which the patient receives
the healing form the doctor, and without following it, it is not possible for the doctor to give or for the patient
to receive the healing – in this process the doctor asks
the patients to undergo some tests, prescribes appropriate
medicines, tells of certain things to abstain from, the patient has to take the medicines and abstain from some
things for a prescribed period of time – i.e. he has to
diligently follow the instructions given for the process only then does he
receive the healing. Similarly, the
Lord too wants to give and certainly gives the Holy Spirit to His disciples for
their help, because that is the ministry for mankind
ordained by the Lord for the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17, 26; 16:7-15). Now take note again, as
in Luke 11 में, similarly here in John 14 and 16 as well this is said only for the disciples.
In other words, receiving the Holy Spirit is only
possible for those who really are the disciples of the Lord, not through or
because of their having been being born in a particular family or having fulfilled
and followed certain rituals and practices ordained by man in the name of God,
but through an honest heartfelt repentance from their sins, having asked the
Lord’s forgiveness for their sins, having completely submitted their lives to the
Lord, and made the commitment to live in obedience to His Word, have made their
decision to follow Him, to be His disciples.
This is also a fact that everyone who claims to be a
disciple is not actually a disciple. Many associate with the Lord for their
physical needs (John 6:26-27); and
many have made the Christian Ministry a means of temporal earnings, to gather
worldly wealth in the name of the Lord (Romans 16:18; 1 Timothy 6:5; 2 Timothy
3:4; Titus 1:11; 2 Peter 2:3, 13; Jude 1:12, 16). Many
join themselves to the Lord but do not actually believe in the Lord (John 6:36, 64; 8:30-31); and many are not
willing to accept and obey every teaching of the Lord (John 6:66). Many stay in the gatherings of Christian Believers as
people of the Lord, but actually are Satan’s people (2 Corinthians 11:13-15), and are the cause
of divisions, strife and troubles in the Assemblies (Acts 20:29-31; 1 John 2:18-19; 2 Timothy 3:5, 8; 4:14; 3 John 1:9-11). The Lord has
very clearly said who actually is His disciple (John 8:31-32; 14:21, 23), and from these verses it is clear that the
true disciple or Believer is one who lives in obedience to the Word of God, does according to the will of the Lord, and
is committed to live a life fully surrendered to the Lord; and
not one who although takes the name of the Lord but lives and does according to
his own desires.
The Lord knows the actual state of every person (John 2:25; 2 Timothy 2:19).
Now naturally the question arises that will the Lord give the Holy Spirit to
anyone like the above mentioned people, who put up a
pretense of being the people of God but actually are not, will
He give the Holy Spirit so casually? Those who have no
place for the Word of God or of His obedience in their lives, how can they
receive the Holy Spirit? Will these people also not have
to become an actually Born Again, saved, obedient, and committed disciple of
the Lord to receive the Holy Spirit? And the process for
this to happen is only one, that which has been given
above to be saved or be Born Again. What it means is that the Lord surely does
give the Holy Spirit to His Believers, but only to those who have actually been
saved, who have really been Born Again, those who in realty are the true
disciples of the Lord – only as per His assessment; not otherwise.
- To Be Continued
Next: The Related Fourth Thing and Conclusion
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