When And How Do We Receive the Holy Spirit?

When And How Do We Receive the Holy Spirit?

Someone recently asked me a Bible question, and I thought it would be good to share the question and my answer in this blog in hopes of instructing others as well. It is a good question that many people have. It is one that I have had in the past.

My summary of the question is, “Do we receive the Holy Spirit when we are saved or does that happen after we are saved?” The person asking the question has been taught and believes that it happens at salvation but read some verses in Acts that seemed to indicate that it happens later. Here is my answer.

1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free-and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” The phrase, “we were all,” indicates that this is true of every Christian, which could only be possible if we receive the Spirit when we get saved.

Romans 8:9 says, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” This verse tells us we are not saved if we don’t have the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Galatians 3:2 says, “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” This verse, especially in the context of Galatians 3, clearly connects receiving the Spirit to placing faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 1:13 says, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” This verse shows us that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit when we believe.

Titus 3:5 says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” This shows that the washing of the Holy Spirit is part of salvation.

1 John 4:13 says, “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit.” Part of the proof that we are saved is being indwelled by the Spirit.

So to me, these verses are very clear. However, what does that mean in regard to the verses you were asking about and other similar verses in the book of Acts? This is my understanding. It is a common evangelical understanding of the book. On the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2, they were indwelled by the Holy Spirit with the outward proof of tongues, which gave them the ability to proclaim the gospel in a variety of languages to the crowd from many nations. After this, there were several “mini-Pentecosts” (chapter 8, Gentiles being saved in chapter 10, chapter 19) where people were saved and then received the Holy Spirit afterwards in some cases, often with the outward proof of speaking in tongues. The point was to give outward evidence that these people were really getting saved. The Jews would not have accepted the salvation of the Gentiles without some outward proof. I do not think this is my theological conjecture either. In Acts 15 at the Jerusalem council, the early church leaders were discussing the salvation of the Gentiles and the true nature of the gospel. Peter said (v. 8), “So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us.” The way they knew they received the Spirit was through the outward evidence of speaking in tongues. They did not have the completed canon of Scripture. Acts is a transitional book. I think the epistles show how things work for us today.