The Spirit – How?
The next question is the how question. How do you receive the Spirit and become a completely filled person?
First, you need to be a believer. If you haven't believed in Christ as your Saviour - and received the first blessing of His saving grace - then you're not ready for the baptism of the Spirit yet.
The disciples had walked with Jesus for some time before the Spirit filled them at Pentecost. The disciples in Ephesus in Acts 19 had already believed in Jesus and been baptised, but didn't yet have the Spirit's baptism.
Starting at the Beginning
Perhaps the Spirit is leading you there today. Never mind being dyed and taking on a new colour as a Spirit-baptised person - you simply need to repent of your life without God and ask Him to forgive you and be your Saviour.
Maybe you've drifted from God, backslidden into a life of sin. Is it time for you to fall at Jesus' feet and ask for Him to save you?
The Spirit is speaking to you and compelling you to make that decision. Don't resist the Spirit! Come. Jesus loves you and died for you as your substitute on the cross. Turn from your old ways. Throw your lot in with Jesus for good, and the Spirit will enter you as you believe, and begin your process of becoming more like Christ.
Going All Out for God
For those of us who have crossed that bridge already - is it time for you to go all out? You couldn't do that when you first came to Jesus; you just needed His forgiveness and washing. But now you want to be like that cloth - baptised in the Spirit, dyed so that you become a different shade, a Christlike person in all you do.
Maybe, like those disciples in Ephesus, you are saying yes, I believed and was baptised in water already - but I'm not filled with the Spirit. I'm just same old sinful me, forgiven and trying to be better but failing.
I believe the Spirit is prompting you too. To leave behind the mediocre, half-baked spiritual life, and to truly give your all to Him.
If that's you today, I have two thoughts for you. First: do you believe God is able to change you from the inside out? Not just to make you a bit better day by day, but truly transforming you?
If so: are you willing to come to Him today and lay it all down - mind, body, appetites, desires, emotions, habits, time, future?
Paul wrote this to early Christians: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
This can be your testimony. Saved by the Spirit's drawing you to Jesus. Sanctified by the Spirit's baptising power. If you'll believe and by faith receive it today.
Get alone with God after this. Commit your all to Him – get specific and leave nothing out. Ask Him to send His Spirit to do this work in your heart. And then believe that He has done it, and that you now can walk with Him in holiness every day and not go back to your old ways.
I believe God will baptise you in His Spirit if you do that, and that your life will be forever changed if you do.
Do it!
Receiving the baptism of the Spirit requires complete consecration of your life to God and genuine faith in His power to transform you. Lay it all before Him today and ask Him to fill you completely.