This is a discussion, not a teaching, so feel free to offer your own ideas in a friendly manner.
Some claim that one cannot receive the Holy Spirit multiple times, so any seeking of the Holy Spirit after salvation is wrong and dangerous. Others claim that we need a second experience or even multiple fillings with the Holy Spirit to become what God wants us to be. I suggest, that we receive the Spirit only once and we don't literally need more Spirit, but we do need the Holy Spirit to (like water) well up in our lives again and again was well as continually. This is both an instaneous and a proressuve exprience.
Twice Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as living water:
John 4
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 7
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
So after the cross, Jesus returned to Heaven and then sent to Holy Spirit to live in Christians. This Holy Spirit is like living water which flows within us and wells up into eternal life. This gift is permanent and totally sufficient.
Also, The Holy Spirit's power can overflow you
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This overflowing power of the Holy Spirit may be slow or fast. I can give examples of this in a later post.
For now, I'll conclude that we recieve the Holy Spirit once at salvation and His power is always working in our lives, but there are times when that power rises up and overwhelms us - and this is the expericen of being filled with the Spirit. There is both a long slow rising of power which transforms us into the likeness of Christ and the sudden upserge of power for special works of ministry.
One Holy Spirit, recieved once, potentially multiple overflowings of power.
Some claim that one cannot receive the Holy Spirit multiple times, so any seeking of the Holy Spirit after salvation is wrong and dangerous. Others claim that we need a second experience or even multiple fillings with the Holy Spirit to become what God wants us to be. I suggest, that we receive the Spirit only once and we don't literally need more Spirit, but we do need the Holy Spirit to (like water) well up in our lives again and again was well as continually. This is both an instaneous and a proressuve exprience.
Twice Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as living water:
John 4
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 7
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
So after the cross, Jesus returned to Heaven and then sent to Holy Spirit to live in Christians. This Holy Spirit is like living water which flows within us and wells up into eternal life. This gift is permanent and totally sufficient.
Also, The Holy Spirit's power can overflow you
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This overflowing power of the Holy Spirit may be slow or fast. I can give examples of this in a later post.
For now, I'll conclude that we recieve the Holy Spirit once at salvation and His power is always working in our lives, but there are times when that power rises up and overwhelms us - and this is the expericen of being filled with the Spirit. There is both a long slow rising of power which transforms us into the likeness of Christ and the sudden upserge of power for special works of ministry.
One Holy Spirit, recieved once, potentially multiple overflowings of power.
