It is during the forty days that followed His resurrection that Jesus told His disciples not to depart from Jerusalem until they were filled with the Holy Spirit. After they saw Him disappear in a cloud they returned to Jerusalem and in the upper room they faithfullywaited, just as Jesus told them to! The upper room, where they lived together since the Passover feast with Jesus, became a sacred place? I do not know if it was big enough to house a hundred and twenty souls, but on the day of Pentecost they were together! and suddenly after ten days of waiting, they were all baptised with the Holy Spirit! Till then Pentecost was an important feast of the Jews, but to the disciples of the Lord this day changed completely their future. This baptism changed their whole attitude, their fear of the authorities disappeared so much so, that their boldness was exemplary, it was not human, it was a holy boldness which carried them through to the end of their lives. This baptism with the Holy Spirit always creates a deep change and it is followed by manifestations of the power of God! 

This blessing, promised by God and fulfilled by the risen LordJesus, restored it to His Church! In the beginning of the twentieth centuries! a small group of Christians, in California (USA) hungry for more of God, were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in unknown tongues as did the Christians in Jerusalem on that day of the feast of Pentecost! From this outpouring, was born the Pentecostal movement, which grew rapidly and changed Christians in many parts of the world! Millions of Christians were baptised with the Holy Spirit, and Christians are baptised with the HolySpirit to this very day! The established churches, the establishment! as it is called, as per usual, through human prejudice and carnality, refused to acknowledge that it was the real thing, sent by Jesus to empower believers to face hard times that laid ahead, for the world has lived through two world wars, one can see the result of this refusal! For what do we have, a dead church without a message, without the Holy Spirit, without power! Being swallowed up by the world! there is plenty of psychology poisoned by humanism and a lot of confusion! Yet, in spite of it, thepreaching of the Gospel with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, haslead millions of souls to Christ! If you are a Christian, born of the Holy Spirit, ask Jesus to baptise you with the Holy Spirit and do not give up until He does! For the apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost concerning this infilling: ‘For the promise is for you and your children and for all that are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.’ (Acts 2: 39) God has called you and He is still calling men today! 

John the Baptist said plainly that it happened to Jesus: ‘Then John gave this testimony: I saw the holy Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. (Jesus) I would not have known Him, except that the One who sent me to baptise with water told me: The man on whom you see the (Holy) Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptise with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God’! Jesus is not really and fully Lord to the Christian until he is filled with the Holy Spirit! I have quoted these verses previously, but in a different context. In passing, I would encourage every Pentecostal Evangelical believer and preachers, to seek to be filled and renewed with this holy anointing, do not follow the trend that has set in, Christ cannot fulfil His Lordship in your life, if you are not baptised with the Holy Spirit! For without the unction there is no function! Thebaptism with the Holy Spirit is for every believer, as confirmed totwo thousand new believers who heard the apostle Peter preach on that eventful day of Pentecost. The holy Spirit touched them deeply and convicted of sin they asked the disciples. ‘Brothers! What can we do? ‘Peter replied: (to their question) Repent and be baptised every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.’ (Acts 2: 38-39) Since all are called to serve all need the anointing!

This baptism was not promised only to the ministers of the Gospel, but Jesus promised Him to every believer, for, being a holy priesthood, all have to function in the work of God in one way or another, according to the will of the Lord, for all are sons of God and to that end the apostle Paul says: ‘But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those that are under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the (Holy) Spirit who calls out ‘Abba’(Aramaic for Father – Daddy!) So, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has also made you an Heir! (Galatians 4: 4-7) There is an awful lot to meditate on such statements, I cannot go into it in detail, but it is worth to go through it with objectivity and with sincerity! God does not reveal such truths to just pass over and forget what He says to his children!