David Wilkerson - Watch Sermon: The Power of the Holy Spirit
Some of you have been saved for a number of years, some perhaps a year, and some just months or a few weeks. Being saved from sin is wonderful! Old things fade away – and all things become new, I am so glad you’re saved!
But to be a good soldier in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s not enough just to be saved. There is much more for you! You need to be baptized with the Holy Ghost!
In Paul’s time, some believers didn’t even know there was a Holy Ghost. “He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him. We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost” (Acts 19:2). These people were saved, but it is clear they were not filled or baptized with the Holy Ghost.
I believe we are saved through the power and ministry of the Holy Ghost. But Scripture tells us that in addition to this, there is also a baptizing, an infilling, a possessing that the Holy Ghost does in us!
Jesus Himself did not send His disciples and followers into the world until they were baptized with the Holy Ghost. Certainly His disciples had pure hearts. They had faith to heal the sick, to cast out devils. They had the word of the Lord and already had been preaching Christ and gaining converts. They were witnesses to His resurrection. What more could there be? They were willing to die for Jesus! Wasn’t their love for Him enough to send them into the world to do His work?
Beloved, none of that was enough! Clearly, there was more: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
