YOU HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. ARE YOU LIVING LIKE IT?
It’s possible to have access to something powerful and barely use it.
You can have a gym membership and never work out. You can have a library card and never read a book. You can carry a phone in your pocket with more information than your grandparents could have imagined and mostly use it to watch cats and people walking into glass doors.
Having access to something and actually using it are two different things.
The same can be true spiritually.
Every person who belongs to Jesus has received the Holy Spirit. God has made His home in us. The Bible says, “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you” (Romans 8:11).
Yet many Christians continue relying on their own strength while overlooking what the Spirit wants to do in them and through them.
If you have the Holy Spirit, the important question is: Are you living a Spirit-filled life?
When God Moved Into His People
Acts 2 records one of the most dramatic moments in the Bible. Jesus had returned to the Father, and His followers were waiting in Jerusalem exactly as He had instructed them. Then everything changed.
First, “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2). Then something that looked like tongues of fire appeared among them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in languages they had never learned.
Jerusalem was packed that day with people from around the world because of the Jewish festival of Pentecost. People from Rome, North Africa, Asia, Arabia, and places as far away as modern-day Iran were all in the city at the same time.
Suddenly, these visitors began hearing ordinary Galileans talking about God in their own languages.
This wasn’t just a miracle. It was a fulfillment.
God had been at work through His Spirit throughout the Old Testament, empowering specific people for specific purposes. Yet He had promised that one day His Spirit would be poured out on all His people. In Acts 2, Peter stood before the crowd and announced that day had arrived: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (Acts 2:17).
God had come to make His home in His people. But what does Pentecost mean for believers today? Do we receive the Holy Spirit when we trust Jesus, or is receiving the Spirit a separate experience that comes later?
One Indwelling. Many Fillings.
Some traditions understand salvation and baptism in the Holy Spirit as two distinct experiences. You become a Christian at one point, then receive the Holy Spirit in a second moment. I understand why people read Acts that way. The disciples were already following Jesus when they experienced the dramatic outpouring of Acts 2.
But I’ve come to see Pentecost as a unique turning point in the history of the Church. This was the promised moment when Jesus poured out His Spirit on His people in a new way.
From that day forward, when you trust Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit. The rest of the New Testament helps us see this pattern. Paul even says that “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9).
We receive the Spirit when we put our faith in Jesus, but that isn’t the end of our experience with Him. The same believers who were filled with the Spirit in Acts 2 were filled again in Acts 4. Paul later tells Christians, “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). It’s an ongoing process.
The picture that makes the most sense to me is this: One indwelling. Many fillings.
The Holy Spirit comes to live in us when we belong to Jesus. For the rest of our lives, we keep learning what it means to surrender to Him, depend on Him, listen to Him, and be empowered by Him.
I still pray regularly, “God, fill me with Your Holy Spirit.” I’m not asking Him to come back because He left. I’m not asking to be saved again. I’m asking because I don’t want to live a human-powered life. I want to be Spirit-led and Spirit-powered.
What Does a Spirit-Filled Life Look Like?
How do you know when you’re living a Spirit-filled life? The evidence isn’t merely what happens around you. It’s what begins changing within you.
A Spirit-filled person grows in their love for Jesus. Sin produces repentance rather than excuses. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control become increasingly visible in their character.
There’s a growing hunger for Scripture and worship, greater courage to obey even when obedience costs something, spiritual gifts used for the good of others, and increasing boldness to share Jesus with others.
The evidence of a Spirit-filled life isn’t perfection. It’s transformation. The Spirit changes what’s happening within us, but He never intends for His work to stop with us.
The Spirit Moves Us Toward People
That becomes unmistakable at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit didn’t fill the disciples just so they could have an incredible experience together in a room. He immediately moved them toward other people.
Their ability to speak in other languages had a purpose. People from across the world were standing in Jerusalem that day, separated by language, and God removed the barrier. “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” the crowd said (Acts 2:11).
I took Spanish for two years in high school and another year in college, which means I can confidently and expensively say “¿Cómo se dice?,” ask for “el baño,” and announce, “Me llamo Bradley.” However, if God wanted me to explain the gospel fluently in Spanish tomorrow, we would need Acts 2 levels of intervention! That’s what makes Pentecost so remarkable.
These Galileans weren’t demonstrating a clever communication strategy. God wanted people to hear about Jesus in the language that reached their hearts, and His Spirit made that happen.
That tells us something important: God loves the world enough to meet people exactly where they are. The gospel is for every tribe, language, culture, and nation, and the Spirit keeps carrying it across those barriers because God wants people to know His Son.
A Spirit-filled life eventually moves us toward other people. The Spirit doesn’t fill us just for our benefit. He fills us so God can work through us.
Only God Can Change a Human Heart
Speaking in other languages wasn’t the greatest miracle that day. The greater miracle was what happened in the hearts of those who heard.
By the end of Peter’s message, the crowd was asking one question: “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). Peter told them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. About three thousand people responded that day. Three thousand! That was a good day at church.
They had traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate a Jewish festival. Thousands would go home believing Jesus was the Messiah. That kind of change is a move of God.
Only God can take a heart headed one direction and turn it around.
Only God can produce repentance.
Only God can bring dead things to life.
Only God can take 120 believers waiting in a room and turn them into the Church that would carry the gospel around the world.
When the Spirit moves, people become different. I want to see people turn toward Jesus. I want to see sins confessed and forgiven. I want to see baptisms and changed lives. I want to see Christians become more courageous, more loving, more generous, and more willing to tell people about Jesus.
I don’t want to become someone who knows how to live the Christian life without depending on the Holy Spirit. I don’t want a church that simply knows how to operate.
I want a church filled with the Holy Spirit. And so does Jesus.
Take Action
Every believer has the Holy Spirit living within them. The question is whether we will keep trying to live the Christian life in our own strength or learn to live a Spirit-filled life—surrendered to Him, dependent on Him, and empowered by Him.
I don’t want to live a human-powered Christian life. I want to live a Spirit-filled life, increasingly led, changed, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Maybe that begins with a simple prayer today:
“God, fill me with Your Holy Spirit.”
Ask Him to reveal anything you need to surrender. Ask Him to change what needs to change within you. Ask Him for courage to obey whatever He asks you to do. And ask Him to work through your life so that other people can see and experience Jesus.
Wherever you are today, I invite you to pray:
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Your Holy Spirit. Forgive us for the ways we have relied on our own strength instead of depending on You. Fill us afresh with Your Spirit. Teach us to live Spirit-filled lives. Give us greater love for Jesus, greater courage to obey You, and greater boldness to make Him known. Produce Your fruit in our lives and empower us to use whatever gifts You have given us for the good of others. We surrender ourselves to You again today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
All for Jesus,
Brad D. Jenkins
P.S. — If this has been helpful, please send me a message at brad@bradjenkins.me and let me know. My writing aims to help people enjoy a vibrant relationship with Jesus, and it is an honor to be on this journey with you. To read previous newsletters or to sign up so that you don’t miss future posts, visit www.bradjenkins.me/blog.