I have been speaking of a huge incoming green and blue tsunami wave of POWER in the form of presence, glory, provision, and revelation coming in this historic Pentecost. I believe we are to receive the greatest worldwide wave of the Holy Spirit ever. Circumstances have created a dynamic where the whole world is connected as never before. The enemy has had a goal to mask every mouth and the Holy Spirit is coming in with “tongues of fire” to burn off those masks. It is only fitting that the power to be verbal and vocal “witnesses" is what is about to be released and that the whole world seems masked—including much of the church. We have never more needed the power that is released by the Holy Spirit.

DIDN’T WE ALREADY RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT WHEN WE GOT SAVED?

Yesterday, I told you I would address this question. Part of the answer comes from the closing verse I had in yesterday’s post. Luke 11:13: “…how much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ASK Him?” Here, we see the Holy Spirit being something you ASK FOR and not an automatic accompaniment to getting saved. He will give the Holy Spirit IF you ask Him for it—especially if you keep asking. Verses 9 and 10 of Luke 11 clearly reveal that to us.

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks finds. And to everyone who knocks the door will be open.”

We like to apply this to anything we might want—as we often say, “You have not because you ask not,” but the direct context is that we ask for the Holy Spirit—in an insistent way. He does not say, "if you are open to the Holy Spirit," He will give it to you. He wants you to know this is valuable and worth being hungry for and insisting for. “Keep on asking”, “keep on knocking”, “keep on seeking.” There is nothing automatic about an infilling of the Holy Spirit—by Jesus' own words. The Father will reward “keeping on,” not, “Well, I assumed that I received the Holy Spirit when I said the sinners' prayer.” Theologically, at best you received Him as a Christmas present under the tree, but He has not been opened up to you. When He is “opened up to you” you get baptized or immersed into who He is. There is quite a difference.

A second passage to establish a baptism of the Holy Spirit as a secondary experience to “getting saved” is in Acts 19:1-3.

“While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus on the coast, where he found several believers. DID YOU RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT WHEN YOU BELIEVED? he asked them. NO, they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

This interchange seems almost comical. People are getting saved and they haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit! The fact that Paul asks them “Did you receive the Holy Spirit WHEN you believed?” means that it is possible for it all to happen at one time. Paul seemed to quickly discern they had become eternally secure with the baptism of repentance, but that they had not been empowered for real kingdom impact on the earth through a baptism in the Holy Spirit. So verse 6 says:

“Then when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with other tongues and prophesied.”

The signs that they had received the Holy Spirit were that they spoke in tongues and that they had prophesied. Either one serves as evidence of being empowered by the Holy Spirit. This type of prophecy would be a spontaneous ecstatic form of prophecy. They experienced their own version of “tongues of fire.” This leads directly to our second question from yesterday's countdown post.

WHAT ARE ALL THE SIGNS THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS FILLING YOU AND HAS FILLED YOU?

First, it is important to know that like all spiritual transactions, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is received by faith. You could have a sign that I don't mention but your inner "knower" knows you have just experienced an immersion into the Holy Spirit that has changed your life. The gift of tongues is not THE definitive sign you have received, but only the sign that requires the LEAST amount of faith. Whatever sign you get or whatever assurance you initially have that you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit—you can be assured that the devil is going to later challenge you on it. Just know that is basic to everyone. If you speak in tongues, he will say, “you made it up.” If you fall out under the Spirit he will say, “you didn’t speak in tongues.” Whatever manifestation happened to you he will step in as the deceiver and de-legitimize it if possible. You can stand your ground with your faith “knower” or with the gift evidence. The gift of tongues is one of the hardest for him to de-legitimize, as you can keep going back to it and be aware it is un-orchestrated by you. You only open your mouth and loose your tongue, but the syllables surprise even you. I hope that helps some of you hold your ground.

Signs of being filled with the Holy Spirit include speaking in unknown tongues such as I just described. Also "speaking in other tongues" can be speaking in someone else's language, such as the Acts 2 crowd experienced. It can be feeling inebriated, excess joy, and really anything that makes someone think “are they drunk?” Peter already explained to us that is what happened in Acts 2 as well. Other signs are shaking, being “slain in the spirit,” ecstatic prophesy, crying, getting very hot, sweating—really anything that shows your emotions being flooded. In Luke 11:13 He already laid out an important parameter. If you ask Him for the Holy Spirit, the supernatural evidence that follows will be associated with Him. Additionally, the sign that you have been baptized in His power could be any one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Cor. 12: 8-10.

“For to one is given by the Spirit the WORD OF WISDOM; to another the WORD OF KNOWLEDGE by the same Spirit. To another FAITH by the same Spirit; to another the GIFTS OF HEALING by the same Spirit; to another WORKING OF MIRACLES; to another PROPHECY; to another DISCERNING OF SPIRITS; to another DIVERS KINDS OF TONGUES; to another INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES.”

As you can see with all these it can take a while for you to be convinced by the gift itself—which is why speaking in tongues is a valuable, initial evidence. It does other people the least amount of good in comparison to the other gifts, but it can assist your own faith in hanging on to your baptism in the Holy Spirit. In my first baptism I essentially received tongues. In my second baptism, the greatest gift I came away with was the gift of faith. It honestly is my primary gift and the facilitator of all other gifts I carry. On our Facebook LIVE broadcast I am going to announce 7 other signs that you might experience and those will be particularly powerful towards your 7 Mountain assignment. It will be a special Pentecost release.

With that I will finish this post and pick up again tomorrow. I trust your “seeking" has been further stirred, as well as your faith to receive something fresh and new this Pentecost. Any one of you could get a preliminary or “first fruit” breakthrough, even before the actual day of Pentecost. David was already interacting with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament far ahead of when he was supposedly allowed to. We know that because in Psalms 51:11 he shows concern for losing that special relationship when he says, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me.” He theoretically wasn’t even available to David yet, because the Father didn’t send Him until Jesus' resurrection. Yet David was an "ahead of time" guy. I love "ahead of time" miracles and "ahead of time" Holy Spirit power. "Knocking faith" can get you there.