Read: Acts 18-19
Marked: Acts 19:2, he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
When I first received Christ as Saviour I knew very little. I had no knowledge of the nature and character of God. I believed Jesus was Saviour but knew little more.
In a similar sense these believers had heard the preaching of John the Baptist, that the Messiah had come who would take away the sins of the world, but they had not yet learned that they would receive the Holy Spirit when they believed in Christ.
John taught a baptism of repentance and baptized with water. Jesus brought the baptism of salvation and baptized with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). The Holy Spirit gives us power (Acts 1:8) to be witnesses of Jesus (John 14:26).
The Holy Spirit indwells every believer (1 Corinthians 3:16). The Holy Spirit seals the believer and is the guarantee of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30).
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