(This is an exerpt from the iChange study on evengelism)

Althugh I believe that many denominations believe the same concept just with different names and labels, this is my personal interpretation based on what I read in the Scriptures as to how He interacts in our lives as teh third person of the trinity. The bottom line is that as believers we all need to be full of His presence and in full communion with God to do God's work.

Acts 1:4-8
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 … 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me[a] in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

- Power. Jesus knew that the disciples –us included, couldn’t be effective witnesses for Him on our own. We need to have the power of The Holy Spirit in us, upon us. There is much controversy about this topic and some people call one thing one way and others call it a different way. The bottom line is that we find enough Biblical support to understand that there are three distinct ‘positions’ of forms of relationship that we can have with the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t matter how we name them, the point is that the Bible describes them :

- The Holy Spirit WITH us. This happens when a person begins to be led by God –more specifically by The Holy Spirit towards Christ and salvation. God is everywhere, He is omnipresent and as such, He comes along your side and guides you to Christ. John 16:8: And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. We can see the difference between the Holy Spirit walking with you vs. dwelling in you in John 14: 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

- The Holy Spirit dwelling IN us. This happens at the moment of conversion, (Every believer) When He comes to live in us and we are sealed with His Spirit:

Eph 4:30 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

John 20. I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Rom 8:9 9 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.

1 Cor 6: 19 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?

1Cor 3:16 16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

2 Tim 1:14 14 That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.


Now, there is the filling or overflowing or baptism of The Holy Spirit, which is an additional empowerment from God to do His work on earth. We have examples in the Bible that show us that this can and should happen not only once but as often as needed (Everyday?). This is an experience that can happen at the time of conversion for some and at a latter time for others. Please bare in mind that we are not talking about weird signs or unbiblical crazy stuff. As someone put it. it is a supernatural power to work in very natural ways; to and always in the context of proclaiming the Gospel, serving Him.

- The Holy Spirit UPON us
Acts 1:8 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me[a] in Jerusalem

Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

[Notice that these disciples had already received the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed on them. They had Him “in”, but now needed Him “upon”, they needed to be filled.]

Acts 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people!

And again..

Acts 4:31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

[Notice that Peter had already been filled , yet he is filled again. The original grammar indicates that it was a brand new event that happen right there and then. He was filled anew, he was filled again...and again..]

After Paul’s conversion on the road t Damascus, he also was filled… Acts 9:17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

And he was filled again…Acts 13:9
Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said,

Acts 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. [Again..]

There are several more verses that illustrate this. Also, there are some instances in which a person is filled right at conversion and some others a while after.

Acts 8 14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

Acts 19.. 1 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples 2 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.” 3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

The bottom line is that we need to be filled and empowered to be His witnesses. If you haven’t yet, ask The Lord. He promises that, if we being evil give good gifts, how much more would He give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.