God accomplishes His purposes in and through us by His Spirit. Its
important for us to understand a few things concerning the Holy Spirit.
1)
A believer is saved if he is born of the Spirit. This is what it means
to be born again. This makes -all- the difference in a person or a
church. Unless a person has the Holy Spirit inside him, he is not born
again and not saved. This is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
2)
A person does not receive the Holy Spirit except by the will of God.
There is no singular determining factor except the will of God. There
is no clear time at which the Holy Spirit indwells a person, except for a
few times recorded in the book of Acts. The coming and going of the
Holy Spirit is like the wind; its hard to know when and where.
3)
Baptism is not required to receive the Holy Spirit. There is at least
one example in the Bible of a person we -know- received the Holy Spirit
before being baptized (that being Cornelius and his household, Acts 10).
4)
Speaking in tongues is not required to prove the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. In the book of Acts the Holy Spirit manifested different
tongues/languages in some people for His own purposes. God has a plan
for all of human history, and the examples of tongues in Acts are one
piece of that plan. To show His power and to announce His presence, the
Holy Spirit manifested tongues. But nowhere in the Bible, which the
Holy Spirit authored, did He tell us that this would happen every time.
5)
The one clear indication that a person has the Holy Spirit inside him
is the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus taught us that a good tree produces
good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A tree is recognized by
its fruit. So we can recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit by
seeing the fruit of the Spirit.
6) The Holy Spirit is
essential. While there may be a lot that we don't understand about the
Holy Spirit, as they say, "God works in mysterious ways," there are some
things that He has revealed to us. What we do know about the Spirit,
its important for us to talk about and understand. It is also very
important for us to understand the false doctrines about the Holy
Spirit, so that we can counter them. False doctrines about the Holy
Spirit are very pernicious and destructive; we must teach/preach the
truth concerning the Holy Spirit, from the Bible, as much as He has
revealed Himself to us.
