Today we continue learning about the foundation of our relationship with the Holy Spirit. That there is a clear and obvious difference between the reception of the Holy Spirit within the heart of the believer at salvation and the subsequent event of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which empowers us as witnesses of Jesus and the Kingdom of God.

The scriptures we cover today are Acts 11; 15; 18 & 19.

The relationship of the believer with the Holy Spirit is vital in every way and it has many expressions but only two divisions. Our relationship is both familial and ministerial.

When we come into God’s family we do so by the Spirit of the Living God coming and taking up His perminent dwelling within us. Like when Jesus breathed on His disciples and told them to recieve the Holy Spirit -the Spirit came within them!

Subsequent to this (50 days later) the Spirit of God fell upon them to empower them as witnesses of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus.

We witnessed this same pattern in the Samaritans in Acts 8 and later in the Gentiles with Cornelious – not to mention in the life of Jesus Himself!

These two relationships are very different! The Spirit within is close, intimate, nurturing, encouraging even mothering. The Spirit upon is more functional and goal oriented in that it directs, commissions, empowers, commands.

Both are intimate, but in very different ways. We will explore more of this as we move forward in this series, but for today we are simply establishing the very existence of the two and separate relationships from scripture to provide a firm foundation to build upon in future teachings.