What makes a church Pentecostal is that the majority if not all of its members have been baptised in the Holy Spirit. But today many churches are Pentecostal in name only. A mission in the Philippines described itself as Spirit-filled, but became so in fact only when the Lord baptised 42 of its members in the Holy Spirit when we prayed for them. The power of the Holy Spirit changed the very nature of the Mission. Its members, including staff, had not been waiting to be filled, but they certainly were ready!
Until the 1970s, “tarrying meetings” were held so that those seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit could wait until they were filled. It was widely held that believers had to attain a more spiritual state before that could happen. So new Christians tried to become holy enough to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Then it was discovered that Pentecost was a calendar event unique to the Jews, which was why Jesus told his disciples to wait for it. The truth is that in every single instance recorded in the book of Acts, believers received the experience without having to wait until they were more holy.
In Acts chapter 8, the believers received as soon as Peter and John laid hands on them. True, they had to wait until the two apostles arrived from Jerusalem, but only because the evangelist Philip thought it prudent to ask those acknowledged leaders to lay hands on the newly converted Samaritans – long a hated and shunned people group.
In Acts, chapter 9, Saul (later Paul) received the Holy Spirit when Ananias entered the room, spoke one sentence, and then laid hands on him. In the house of Cornelius, Peter managed about ten sentences before the Holy Spirit fell on the gathering. The Jewish believers accompanying Peter were astonished that God had given non-Jews the Pentecostal experience. Cornelius and his household had waited for Peter to arrive, but they certainly hadn’t expected to receive the Holy Spirit! And the fact that the believers at Ephesus (Acts 19) hadn’t even heard of the Holy Spirit didn’t prevent them from being filled as soon as Paul laid his hands on them!
But if believers don’t have to wait to be filled, why are many not filled as soon as they ask? The answer is that they have to wait only when they do not meet the conditions: when Christ is not fully accepted, when sin is not put away, where there is not total surrender, or true desire, or definite prayer, or simple faith. The absence of some of these things keeps many waiting for more than ten days, and sometimes more than ten years.
You don’t have to wait; you only have to be ready! Are you?